Today is the last day, and we are all sad and happy and tired in a good way. Some of us woke up early to finish packing, while others got to sleep in due to the delayed start time. We arrived at school at around 8:45 and were corralled into a classroom, where we took a general knowledge quiz. We expected a quiz on knowledge about Argentina but it covered much more than that. The quiz was on things from what the second president of the United States was to what the capital of Poland is. The room became chaotic as we shouted questions and answers at each other for 10 minutes, even though it was supposed to be an individual quiz. After that, we headed to the plaza de seca to paint our hands and make handprints on the tree of friendship. Every year the exchange students and their buddies put their handprint on the tree with their names under it. We each went up with our buddy and we got to pick which color we wanted to use. The seniors painted whichever color we wanted onto our hand and we went up to the tree to paint our handprint on. This activity made a little bit of a mess because people took paint and put it on each other’s faces! After we cleaned up each person got a piece of paper to write a wish they had for the future. A lot of people wrote that they wish they can see everybody again! After everyone was done we went outside and stood in a circle. We tied the pieces of paper to balloons and on the count of three we let them go. Hopefully all of our wishes will come true! Then the principal of the school returned our quizzes with the results! The victor was Evan, getting almost every question correct, so he got a prize. Ritvik got second place so he also got a prize. Then at 12:10, everybody left the school for lunch. Some people went out for lunch while other went home to spend a little bit more time with their host families. Most people had traditional food like asado or milanesa. We all returned to the school at around 2 and went into a classroom with the students from Cary Academy, the students from Quilmes High School, and their parents to watch a video about our trip. It had sweet pictures and videos of all of the activities we did while we were there. There was definitely a mixture of laughing and crying. Once the video was done we had about an hour and half to start saying our goodbyes. This is when the beginnings of the tears began. The video made most of us emotional but once everyone stood up to see each other and give hugs is when the tears made their first of many appearances to come in the next hour. Long hugs and tears of sadness and joy flooded the room. All the students and their families then headed back to the Plaza de seca and continued their goodbyes with lots of pictures. Siblings joined us as well. The next hour we spent talking about how much we wanted to stay, and how sad we were to leave, and how most vowed to come back and visit. In about an hour or so, at 3:30, we all went downstairs to retrieve our luggage and load up the bus. Once everything was on, it was time for final goodbyes. More hugs and tears, mostly from the girls, but some guys joined as well. This was a bittersweet moment. Saying our final goodbyes was harder than last time because we did not have a definite plan to see each other in two months like we did when they visited us. After about fifteen minutes of procrastination, we loaded the busses. All the girls and some boys crying as we looked out the window as the bus was driving away from QHS, and saw all our students and families waving goodbye. When we say crying we mean ugly crying, like not just a couple of tears. The bus ride back to the airport was a time for lots of us to reflect on our amazing and humbling experience here. Luckily, going through security and passport check went smoothly with no one loosing anything! We had about an hour to kill before our flight boarded. In this time, most got food but Nikki, Jordan, and Lily rushed around the airport to try to spend the last of their pesos.
