I must thank whatever God or Gods made my arrival to Bogota and my survival of that hateful week possible. Why...? Here's why. There's two possible scenarios during finals week. Scenario 1: my finals are scheduled with appropiate timing so that I spent a healthy amount of time studying for them. Let's say I have one final a day... so I can spend the whole day before reviewing the material and taking my finals with enough sleep and relative confidence. Scenario 2: my finals are all clustered together... leaving me prone to all-nighters, endless cramming, puffy eyes and constant energy drink consumption. I decided to buy my plane ticket to go home a day before finals ended, confident that (worst case scenario) I would have to move one final early. Everything was set for Scenario 1 (a calm relaxed finals week) until I found out that I had to move my Wednesday and Thursday final to Monday (I flew on Wednesday). I had another final and a take-home test due on Tuesday. That means... two days per final with five completely free days before my first final to prepare for the final cluster of doom ahead. If I were an organized, diligent student, I would've balanced my leisure and studying time during those 5 days so that I wouldn't have to cram or deprive myself from sleep....

Well... I ended up in scenario 2. After going salsa dancing Wednesday night, to a friend's birthday Thursday night, Christmas shopping on Saturday and procrastinating on facebook and youtube all Saturday.... I started cramming on Sunday. By Wednesday morning, I had totaled 5 hours of sleep in a 72 hour span. I was obviously exhausted, but I thought I could sleep enough on the plane ride back home so I could regain some energy.

I landed on Chicago after a good two hours of sleep on the plane to San Antonio. I headed to the gate for my next flight which was delayed 15 minutes due to icy weather in Boston, from where the aircraft was coming. I had a two hour layover at Miami so I had no worries. 15 minutes became 30... 45... a full hour delay. Timing was tight , but I thought I could still make to my flight to Bogota. Right before we take off, the ground crew discovered thay had forgotten to load our luggage onto the plane. It took them another full hour to load everything. I obviously couldn't sleep the whole flight... knowing that I had 15 minutes from the moment I touched the ground to catch the next plane. Once on the ground, the aircraft had to taxi for about 10 minutes until the gate assigned to it was cleared, and another 5 to open the door because "it froze". The flight status was delayed 15 minutes... so that compensated for the time lost on the ground... and I ran... ran like there was no tomorrow. I got to the gate but my flight had left already. A bunch of other passengers headed for Bogota argued with the airline agents for awhile, until my Christmas miracle happened, the plane was coming back from the runway to pick us up. It was the most relieveing news ever! I could hardly sleep on the plane due to adrenaline still running through my veins. My suitcases didn't arrive with me to Bogota, of course, but I was grateful beyond any boundaries of being able to make it.

My parents picked me up at the airport and a bunch of friends were home reeady to welcome me back. We celebrated till 3 am. At 6:30 am sharp I stood up to get ready to go the US Embassy. I had to renew my visa during the break since it was close to expire. The visa process is another oddissey itself, but to make things short, I had to sit around 8 hours waiting for my damned visa to be approved. By 1 pm that day I was delirious with exhaustion, laughing to the most ridiculous things and losing my marbles one by one. Thank god I was able to sleep 16 hours that night.

It's recommendable to cram and survive a terrible finals week, if the cost of feeling you will collapse any second doesn't exceed the benefits of the spare time you earned. I think I don't completely regret doing what I did... I enjoyed my free time... and I definitely think it's almost a miracle I'm back in Bogota. I will go to Cali during the Feria they celebrate every year, and later on to Quito to visit my Ecuadorian friends from Trinity. Later on, back in Bogota, I will meet some of the alumni from Trinity in Bogota. Apparently there are 3 American alumni there... so it will be an eventful break. More of that on my next entry. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!