despedidas y renacimiento

Hello all!
What a whirlwind month November has been! Many things to tell, little time. Last week was the end of classes at UN Cuyo. The weekend before I did my first fruit fast to help me concentrate on the 300 page book I had to read about political violence and ethnicity in andean countries. I just drank orange juice the whole day. It had mixed results concentration-wise, but it was definitely cleansing. So then I turned in my huge final report and now I just have an oral exam next week for my prehispanic culture class and my final for folclore dance. We´ve really stepped it up in the latter class, and we´re working toward completing a Malambo, which is basically a long improvised series of zapateo (see these links for examples that will raise your expectations entirely too much: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl5VQb3FOG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvlVO9Tmy30&feature=related)
But, yeah, things are really winding down here. I have a little over a week left in Mendoza; next Saturday morning I leave early for Patagonia, land of mountains, lakes, and forests, and the farm I´ll be on until a little before Christmas. It´s getting time for many goodbyes. Monday and Tuesday I spent on the farm in Tunuyan for the last time. The last day we got up really early in the morning to go out into the desert and collect medicinal herbs. It´s amazing how many types of little trees and flowering shrubs are out in a landscape that seems barren from the highway. Later in the day we reinforced a tower we built and figured out how to lift three giant drums of water up onto it for a gravity-powered drip irrigation system. That night Azucena made mulberry pie, which was amazing, and then I said goodbye to everyone and rushed to barely catch the last bus back to town and rode back in a daze.
Last weekend our program went on a trip to San Rafael, a region a few hours south of here with canyons and rivers, along which the only vegetation grows. We went to a huge man-made lake with super green water and swam and slid down huge sandy cliffs on our butts. Our argentine guide taught us to play truco, an argentine card game similar to pocker, but much more complicated deceitful and fun. A few of us got pretty addicted. The last day we found a cave near our cabin and played truco in there and felt very guachesco.
Goodness gracious, now I rushing to spend time with friends in the little time that´s left. Tomorrow I´m off to Cordoba because MANU CHAO is playing in estadio juniors, which will be a completely insane show (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Vqd4rGcjg&feature=related). Trying to check things off my lists of things to do before I leave Mendoza, but a lot of things just necessarily fall by the wayside. It´s frustrating because there´s a lot of great things going on that I´ve just discovered in the last few weeks. Like, I ran across a community center in my neighborhood of african music where they have drum circles and dance lessons and the people are really great and chill. Still, I must say I´ll be very ready to leave Mendoza when the time comes. I need to get the hell out into the countryside, work, hike, get more sleep, and listen to more silence.
So this may well be my last post from Mendoza, if not from Argentina. Hope it finds everyone well, and before you know it I´ll be headed back to the northern hemisphere.