It`s the Final Countdown

Ten days and counting, folks. ¡Diez días!

It`s really weird for me to think that next Sunday, NEXT Sunday I`ll be getting off the plane in Philadelphia and my parents will be there waiting for me. If they remember that I`m arriving on Sunday, and not Saturday, that is. But I have faith they`ll figure it out. I come from smart stock.

Every time I walk home from school, or go to my favorite cafe down the block from my apartment (that`s Cafe Arenales on the corner of Larrea and Arenales, for any folks visiting Buenos Aires in the near future), I just think "well that`s one less time that I`m going to do that again." And here`s the thing. I may hate school, but I love the walk more than anything. Unlike Ithaca, I do not need to manuver through freezing rain and snow.

And I love being able to go to Cafe Arenales, where they know me, and I can sit for hours with my tea and my computer and just relax. I`m ready to go home, but I`m not ready to give up a lot of the things Buenos Aires has offered to me.

Especially cafes. The only real cafe near me in NJ (and by "real" I mean not Starbucks) is CoffeeWorks in Voorhees. A lot of the relaxing experience is taken away when you have to drive 20 minutes to get there, and you never know if there is going to be live music. Don`t get me wrong, the live music at CoffeeWorks totally makes the scene for me. But there are days that I just want to go to a cafe with a book or paperwork, and live music days kind of kill that.

Does anyone know if any new cafe has opened up in the area? Not a Starshmucks?

I`m definitely going to be in for some culture shock. And as much as I mentally prepare myself for it, for the lack of cafes and the need for a car and the dinners at 5pm instead of 9pm, there`s really nothing I can do.

Oh, and the English. The fact that I can speak English all the time. Although that could be a very very pleasant type of culture shock, that I can sound like an articulate human being again.