Duly noted.

Today in International Relations, we had to hand in a group project. We'd put ourselves into cohorts of four or five — our group was comprised entirely of CASBers — and written 10-page research papers. Ours came together over the last 48 hours and wound up, in our opinions, looking beautiful. We went to hand in our glossy document — and noticed we were the only ones not to have bound our reports into spectacular little books.

Not surprising — Spanish kids are shockingly and unbelievably meticulous about their note taking. Using unlined paper, at least three different color pens, and a highlighter or two, they write down everything and the end product is a borderline work of art. The notes are then stored in these intricate binder/folders until the next day.

All semester, I've been eying the kids' notes, plotting how I could ask to copy them. Every day I said to myself, "Ok Emmy. Today you ask. Today you ask." I had narrowed it down to a couple kids in my Contemporary Political Institutions class, and watched them all take their notes daily, but never managed to get up the nerve.

But today, today! I did it. Today I brought my flash drive over to the girl who takes notes on her computer (a rarity here), and said, "Hola — I'm the American student, and sometimes I don't understand everything the professor says. Do you think I could see your notes?" And without even hesitating, she took my bright green USB, plugged it into her computer, and handed it right back. All semester I had been getting freaked out about THIS?

Computer back in my possession? Check. Legitimate Spanish notes? Check. Great weekend plans? (ChazinSweden is visiting!) Check!