Groups projects are no fun

So yesterday, we had class in the morning to talk about our independent study projects.  WHICH START A WEEK FROM THURSDAY!! AHHH.  After that, our group went to lunch at a cafe instead of with our families (a rarity) and worked on our project/presentation about Colegio Bolívar.  For. Six. Hours.  Yes, that did include eating an omelette, a salad, and a dulce de leche (caramel-y sugar-y goodness) crepe, but STILL I was so fried by the time we left at 7.  Then we emailed back and forth until 2am that morning, editing the paper.  Then the next morning I got up at 6 to run to let out some of the stress.  (That was literally ALL I wanted to do that afternoon/night, but we still had work to do and then it was dark).  Our presentation was today, and it went well!  We talked about our interviews with the principal of Colegio Bolívar, the Jurídica para la Mujer, la Defensoria de la Niñez, and the principal of the high school next door to Bolívar.  The 4 main reasons these people (and the articles we read) gave for the resistence to letting in girls were:
1. Tradition of being all boys/ that the school is 99 years old and wants to turn 100 as a boys' school
2. That the girls will distract the boys and/or not be able to keep up with the rigorous academics, thus lowering the school's prestige
3. The law mandating that all public schools be mixed gender was poorly implemented, and the Bolívar community and the literal building were not ready for the entrance of girls
4. The girls cut the line to enroll in Bolívar, and weren't respecting the process of enrolling.  (In actuality, the girls were skipped in the line when the enrollment list was made, so the girls protested to the authorities.  Then Bolívar was forced to allow the girls to enter, cutting out people who were further back in the line and only enrolled because the girls were not included.)

We ultimately said that these four reasons don't hold up, and that they are all symptoms of a wider machisto system (male-ruled/male-centered/anti-female).  We also talked about how these four reasons are not good strategy, because they could have cited some sort of academic reason that girls and boys learn better separately, and at least have had more support from the Bolivian public.  (I believe most people took the side of the girls.)

So WOOOO for being done with that!  Now I just have to plan my independent study project....