I'm in love with Uruguay part 2...

After the hike we headed to Rocha. If you look through the earlier entries on my blog you’ll find a slide show of photos from the last time I visited the beaches of Rocha and see why I just had to go there again. There are so many small coastal villages to visit and each has its own enchantment. We drove through many but stayed the second night of our trip in La Paloma. That day it was a bit colder so our beach time was limited to hunting for sea shells and rocks off the shore and we ended the day in a great mom and pop hotel called La Viola.

The next morning we headed out to Punta del Diablo, spent some time on the beaches there, found a hostel for the night to stay in and took advantage of the daylight that was left by driving to the nearby National Park reserve of Santa Teresa. There we visited a fort built in 1762, drove through the winding roads of the massive park, stopped to see the botanical garden and parked at an excellent viewpoint of the beach of Santa Teresa. All in all it was quite a busy third day!

The last day of our trip we woke up early and headed to see a few more sites and since it was pretty warm outside we decided to spend a little more time on the beaches of La Paloma before heading back to Montevideo. Adrian let me drive the manual car since I ‘ve had several lessons. It was a smooth ride all the way until we arrived at the beach and I got the car stuck in sand. Adrian specifically said not to go in that direction and for some reason I continued…the result? The car was stuck in the sand for a good 45 mins. Several people offered to help, one person tried to pull the car out with his truck but the rope broke. So we got down on our hands and knees and dug the car out of the sand to try and remove it ourselves. We were not successful and another group of people passing by noticed us struggling and jumped in to help us. Using their truck they successfully pulled the car out of the sand. Here’s to helpful Uruguayans!

I'm in love with Uruguay part 2

I'm in love with Uruguay part 1...

This last weekend Adrian and I headed northeast to the beaches of Rocha. He took two days off from work and since the school year has ended for me I was free as well so we headed out on vacation!

We practically wore the same thing every day but for some reason we both felt it necessary to pack our huge trekking bags filled with junk we didn't use.

We started the trip about 5 in the afternoon and before we reached our first destination point, Piriapolis, we drove to a couple touristy places I hadn't been to such as Casa Pueblo, the house of a famous Uruguayan artist that overlooks the Atlantic ocean and a wavy bridge that Adrian and I drove over twice at a super fast pace to feel our stomachs in our throats.

After that thrill we were on our way to Piriapolis. We arrived at about 8:30 and there was still light out, it was early by Uruguayan standards. Adrian wanted to splurge for the night so we stayed at the 4 star Hotel Argentino with tennis courst, thermal spas and much more. It all sounded great but because it was not the high season they closed all their amenities early. It was quite frustrating. S0 we woke up early the next morning to take advantage of the spas and tennis courts. We spent an hour at the spas and then were going to play a few rounds of tennis but unfortunately found out that they were still closed. We decided Hotel Argentino did not deserve its 4 stars, what's more the service was not at all superb, they were quite cold and routine.

After we left the hotel we explored the town a bit and finished the Piriapolis tour with a hike up the highest "hill" in the town. It was a pretty good hike, and throughout the trail water was cascading down the rocks we needed to step on. Although I fell about 4 times I had a lot of fun. What's even cooler about the hike is that just before you begin the climb you can walk through labyrinths of the nature reserve park and see all kinds of animals native to Uruguay.

Stay tuned to my blog for details on days 3 and 4 :)

I'm in love with Uruguay part 1

The big party after the Elections!

After the results were announced the celebrations began and although it poured rain the Mujica supporters wouldn’t let that get in the way of this long anticipated celebration.

60% of Montevideo voted for Mujica so there was quite a crowd that blocked the busiest street in town and that crowded the rambla (boardwalk along the beach) in the Old City. Adrian, his brother, his mother, a family friend and I headed out to join the crowds. We drove first along the rambla and moved at a snail’s pace behind all the traffic that was honking and cheering at the news of their new President. We joined in the fun and I got to film during the moments in which it wasn’t raining so take a look at what I captured! It was a night I’ll never forget, old and young dancing in the streets, waving flags and singing in the rain.

And the new President is....

Hopefully I am not pronouncing victory prematurely but it's pretty certain that the new President of Uruguay will be Pepe Mujica, candidate of the Frente Amplio, a coalition of leftist parties.

Amongst the coalition are former "Tupamaros", gorilla fighters that existed before and during the dictatorship of Uruguay in the 70s, I mention this as Pepe Mujica himself was one of these Tupamaros and despite his more extreme leftist politics, still managed to be elected in one of the more conservative Latin American countries.

In 2004, the people of Uruguay already proved that they were fed up with more conservative politics by electing a Frente Amplio candidate, Tabaré Vazquez. However, Tabaré is much more conservative than his fellow Amplista candidate Mujica and it was quite an event to see him and his party win once more.

As I sit here writing this article I can hear shouts and cheering, horns and absolute chaos. It's all pretty memorable watching it unfold!

Earlier today I also got to watch as Adrián casted his vote. Voting is on a Sunday and it's obligatory for the whole country. Machines are not used and there are no booths. You walk up to a table and show your credentials, they find your picture and fingerprint within the book of names that they have for your voting district and check you off the list. Then you are instructed to walk into a room, close the door and take out the folded piece of paper that has the picture of the president you want to elect. That's all! However, If there are any markings on the paper or anything else they do not count your vote and you must place it within the envelope without anyone seeing who you have voted for or it will also be disqualified.

McDia Feliz!!

Yesterday I officially ended my strike of McDonald's hamburgers and participated in McDia Feliz here in Montevideo, Uruguay. Not only did I eat a McDonald's hamburger for the first time in about 15 years, I ate a Big Mac! I also waited in a line that stretched out along an entire city block! After 45 minutes of waiting in the sun with some of the 2 best Uruguayan gals I know-- one was 9 months pregnant---we finally received our hamburgers, and I have to say, I was pretty satisfied. The wait wasn't so bad either as we passed the time in good conversation and my friends had fun laughing at the fact that the American doesn't like to eat McDonald's hamburgers, french fries or hot dogs.

I bet you're dieing to know, why all the hype, I mean, it's only McDonald's, right? Well, McDonald's is pretty popular here but that's not why people waited for almost 45 minutes just for a Big Mac, they waited because 100% of the cost of the Big Mac was donated to the fight against cancer in children.

It's quite a day, local celebrities donate their time and help out and work as McDonald's employees for free to help keep the lines moving. Businesses buy Big Macs for employees and at every McDonald's there are lines, endless lines of people waiting to donate their money.

Me robaron el I-POD!!

I try not to get too attached to material things...one of the reasons I love living in Uruguay is because I feel like I'm escaping the rampant consumerism of the United States. Don't get me wrong, I love to buy new things and consumerism exists in Uruguay but it's not all-consuming.

Well, I got attached to this i-pod that my friend had given to me and yesterday, as I was walking in broad day light, a young man came up behind me and yanked twice on my purse, broke it and took off running with my i-pod, money, keys to my apartment and phone inside. At first I thought, "that´s life", and then I realized my i-pod was inside that bloddy bag and I stopped singing "que será" and starting cursing the bloke.

A few of my little rugrats and my recent kitchen experience

I thought I'd share with you a few photos of some of the rugrats I teach. I have 3 groups of kids, 1 group of teenagers, 2 classes of adults and 2 one on one conversation classes. The kids are quite a challenge. I need to constantly be on my toes, have something for them to do and incorporate new games or activities into the lesson so they don't get bored. Just when I think I'm running out of ideas I am saved by an idea I find in a book or something I just come up with on the spot.

The other photo is of my most recent cooking experiment...I have the slightest feeling Adrian is training me...however, he did help me cook the "tarta". I made the dough all by myself and he made the ingredients to put inside whereas the last time we made a "tarta" I tackled cooking the ingredients and he made the dough. "Tartas" are a popular meal to eat here in Uruguay, it's only a matter of making the crust then mixing a bunch of ingredients together, pour them on top of the crust, bake it all for a bit and presto! a delicious meal is served. What's more, you have scrumptious leftovers for the week! The crust I made this time was a whole wheat, cheese flavored crust, I was quite impressed with myself when it turned out well. :)

If you visit me in Uruguay don't come in June or July!

It is freezing cold today! Right now I sit, clad in three different long sleeve shirts, long john's underneath the pants and several pairs of socks. It is about 30 degrees Farenheit outside with rain and icy wind that struck my bare face and hands as I braved the walk home form work tonight. I can hear the wind whistling and the rain pelting the windows. It's not pretty here right now so if you'd like to visit I suggest you pick another month! It's quite gorgeous in the spring, summer and fall. ;)

My Favorite View

If you take the elevator to the top floor then climb two flights of stairs you reach the top patio of Adrian’s apartment complex. From there, you can climb a tiny medal latter up another flight, hop a wall and open your eyes to a breathtaking view of the city I call home, Montevideo, Uruguay.

This place, this view is where an average Jane like me turns into a philosopher as I begin to ask myself age old questions about life and ponder about how far I’ve come and what it is I want next.

It’s never easy to figure out what the next step is in life. I’m starting to think that after you graduate from college it’s just an endless battle of worrying about what’s next, where you “should be” in life or what you “should have accomplished”. Sometimes I feel as if I am futilely shouting at the top of my lungs “it’s what makes you happy is what is most important in life!” and the flood of noise that drowns out my voice is the sound of those “shoulds” and “should nots”…

It’s hard to believe how happy I am right now. Maybe I “should” be continuing my studies or working in a job that pays a decent wage but there is always time, and if I waste energy thinking about what I should or shouldn’t do I’m going to miss out on all of the fun right now. This all may sound cliché but I honestly don’t care if it means I’m happy. This doesn’t mean I want to avoid all responsibilities and throw all cares to the wind. Actually, I feel like what I am throwing to the wind is an imaginary checklist constructed by society that says I have to have this and that by such an age. Living in Uruguay for a few years was never on the checklist but I know it’s the right thing to do for now.

Birthdays, Bears and Brrrrrr it's cold!

There are so many things to write about but I decided it was best if I combine a few entries into one! I know I promised to write on my blog more often and I will keep trying to improve on that promise. Writing is not the hard part, it's uploading the photos that I don't have the patience for.

As I write up my little anectdote for you all I sit bundled up in three pairs of socks, sweat pants, two shirts a sweat shirt on top, a scarf and a beanie. It's officially winter here, leaves are strewn about the sidewalks and you can see little clouds of smoke form when you talk outside. My apartment doesn't have heating so I suffer. However, when it turns cold it also means it's time to celebrate as Adrian, his brother and his mother all have birthdays within a week of eachother. First we celebrated the 24th birthday of the older brother Andres, a week later was Adrian's 22nd and this last week was Perla's. By the time Perla's birthday came round she was quite tired of celebrating during the week until 2am in the morning and then having to get up and go to work the next day, so she did not want to plan anything for her special day. However, two other American girls and I --who all three of us lived with Perla at one time---decided to throw her a surprise family get together. I baked a cake (my first ever and it turned out great!) and we all pitched in and bought pizza, faina and figazza. Delicious!

Another exciting event was the visit of a former classmate and friend from ASU. We took a couple Spanish classes together as we both did the major at ASU. She happened to be in Buenos Aires for five weeks and decided to come visit me in Uruguay. She stayed for about five days and I took her to the touristy spots and had a blast getting to know Montevideo once more. Unfortunately she came at a time when we had some pretty bad weather here so it was not too fun going outside in the cold and rain. However, on a couple of the more beautiful days we did get to spend time walking along the rambla of Montevideo's beaches and exploring things in the old city such as the display of bears in the plaza Independencia that represent countries from around the world.

Finally, my vacation photos from Rocha!

This weekend I celebrated mother's day with Adrian and his family and while the older brother was at the house with his computer I took the opportunity to download the photos he had taken from our vacation in Rocha back in February. So, they are about three months late but I can now finally share with all of you images of my vacation in Rocha!

It was such an amazing vacation! I had told Adrian that I wanted to visit the beaches of Rocha before summer ended and that I was planning to go during the festivities of carnaval since the school would be closed for that week. On the Thursday before vacation he called me out of the blue to tell me that he and his brother had rented a house to stay in the coastal town of Aguas Dulces (sweet waters) in Rocha and that Friday morning we would hit the road.

We spent 5 days exploring the beaches, there was rainy weather, sunny weather and perhaps the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen in my life. The beaches and waves in every coastal town we went to were fantastic! The house was in Aguas Dulces but one of the days we took the car out to another town called Las Valizas, saw the beaches there and then the brothers and I headed on foot to Cabo Polonia, another beach town who's attraction is it's simplicity as there is no electricity in Cabo Polonia nor any real development such as restuarants, cars or streets. The way to get to the beach is by walking about 2-3hours along the coast or the sand dunes (as we did) from Las Valizas or you can leave your car in a parking lot about 5km outside of the beach and pay to ride in one of the famous big trucks that cart about 20 some people to and from the lot.

I hope you enjoy the photos!

Learning to cook Tortillas, Uruguayan style!

If you're from Arizona and you hear the word tortilla you might immediately think of the flat, flour or corn based pancake, but the Uruguayan tortilla is actually more like the Spanish kind that's made with eggs and is pretty thick! They're delicious, easy and even nutritious! You can just throw any ingredients into the mix---and for less cholesterol use egg whites! Last night, Adrián taught me how to make one using only egg whites and we threw peas, corn, bell peppers, olives, shredded cheese, and sautéed garlic and onions into the mix. It turned out great!

Vacation in Colonia and Carmelo

So I don't have the photos from my first vacation in Rocha yet but I at least have them from the vacation I went on recently with Adrian, his brother and Graciela. They rented a car so that their mom could take her own vacation traveling around the interior of the country in the boys' car.

On a Thursday morning the brothers, Graciela and I, set off for Colonia de Sacremento, a touristy colonial town established by the Portuguese in the 1600s---to this day the cobbled streets and ancient architecture have been preserved very well. In the photos you'll see various snapshotos of all of us in Colonia, and there's one of a random man drinking mate and I snapped the photo because to me, the moment was perfectly Uruguayan. After Colonia we set off for Carmelo and stayed there for three nights and four days. You'll see photos of the car we rented, the moto we drove around that belonged to the family we stayed with and various yachts, since many Argentinians also spend their vacation during Holy Week in Carmelo because it is so easy to get to from Buenos Aires.

There's no water!

On Tuesday morning I turned on the news to find out that 40 % of the neighborhoods of Montevideo had been affected by a main water pipe rupturing and were without water.

However, I was able to take a shower that morning so I thought that my building had not been affected but by the time I got home I was also one of the hundreds of thousands without water. Can you imagine it? I mean, not only did I have to walk around without taking a shower for about two days and could not flush my toilet but businesses had to close and emergency water had to be pumped into the tank supplies of hospitals!

A few things I learned:

Unplug the water heater--it could explode because it lacks water to heat up.

Washing your hair with cold, bottled water---not worth it, if you want to do it then heat the water up first

Wash your dishes every night---I could have had a lot less dirty dishes lieing around the house if I had done them before the water disappeared.

The New Zealand Group

I love my job, it's a lot of work but I love it. Right now I am working over 55 hours a week, 8am-10:00 pm, Monday-Thursday and on Fridays I come into plan lessons. But I don't mind all the work because I have so much fun and I learn as well. Of course, by the end of the week I am physically exhausted from creating activities, being energetic for each class as well as consistently translating for students. Sometimes I literally feel like a human Spanish/English dictionary as all day I hear, "how do you say avestruz in english?" "how do you say estoy agotada" or I hear the students talk in Spanish to eachother and I translate what they are saying and get them to use the English that I have just translated rather than the Spanish. For example, they will say "Me toca a mi!!" and I will say, "You mean you want to say, it's my turn" and try to get them to say that phrase, "it's my turn" rather than the what they have just said in Spanish.

I am teaching so much this month because there is a group of Uruguayan students who will be traveling to New Zealand in April and need a month of intensive English training before leaving. They are such a fun group! The boys hardly speak a lick of English and the two girls in the group are at an intermediate level. I have the boys for 2 hours of conversation class but how do you talk with someone who hardls speaks the language? So we end up playing games or I find creative ways to get them talking using the little that they know, and somehow, every class period we end up laughing so hard. The other day I was laughing so hard that tears began to fall down my face! Yesterday was wonderful as well because the weather is so nice right now that we decided to have class outside! The picture I've put up was taken in one of the bigger classrooms at the institute and is where I usually teach. I'm in the front surrounded by 7 of the 8 New Zealand kids and the other teacher who is also working with them is also in the picture, he's the tall, thin guy in the back, he's Irish and it's a blast listening to his accent!

Proof I cooked!

Learning to cook Uruguayan style!

I haven't posted in a while because I was hoping to put up some photos of the vacation I took with Adrián and his family to the beautiful beaches of Rocha. However, his older brother hasn't sent me the photos I want yet so that post will have to come later. So, rather than put off blogging any longer I thought I'd share about my weekend cooking Uruguayan foods with Adrián. We were up until 4am last weekend cooking 3 types of delicious empanadas and a vegetable tarta (a type of casserole--you mix a bunch of ingredients together and usually pour it over a thin or thick crust).

The three different types of fillings we chose for the empanadas were: ham with oregano and cheese; tomato with basil and cheese; and sautéed onions with green olives and cheese. The vegetable tarta was made with a homemade wheat crust, then sautéed onions were thrown in, cheese, spinach, corn, tomatoes, and a few other ingredients to help it cook well and stick together.

Since there was leftover whole wheat crust makings, Adrián decided to put all the extra empanada fillings together to make a second tarta! It actually turned out even more delicious then the first! And at 4:00 am in the morning we enjoyed our homemade, nutritious dinner! Of course we did feed our hungry bellies before that because we ate a massive box of sweet popcorn (my favorite!) at the movie we went to earlier that night.

It's finished!

Last year reconstruction began on the citadel gate, a monument that represents what use to be a large defense system that protected the city of Montevideo. I was able to catch a glimpse of it just before they covered it up with a cloth and doomed it to Montevideo's infamously slow reconstruction process.

However, yesterday I went to lunch with one of my very good Uruguayan friends in the old city and to my surprise, after more than a year of reconstruction, you can finally see this precious monument!

Candombe!

Carnival has begun in Uruguay! It was officially kicked off last Sunday with a grandiose parade of women in tiny, revealing outfits and men decked from head to toe in creative hats and suits of many colors. It was 5 1/2 hours of singing, dancing and of course familiar rhythms from the drums.

People practice year-round for the festivities and competitions of Carnival that occur before Ash Wednesday and carry through the Catholic Lent season. After the kick-off parade on Sunday, February 1st, stages were erected around the city in various neighborhoods and now each night you can buy tickets to go see one of the many competing Murgas, Parodistas, Revistas or Humoristas. In the next blog entry I do I´ll try to explain a little about each of those traditional groups but for now I'd like to dedicate the rest of the blog to another important tradition of Carnival here in Uruguay that also happens to be my favorite, "las llamadas" (translated, "the calls").

"Las llamadas" is a massive parade during Carnival in which different "Comparsas" compete through dance and drums to win. The comparsas are made up of individuals from different neighborhoods and states within the country. The rhythm they play is called "Candombe" and is a musical tradition that evolved among the African slaves brought to Uruguay. The rhythm played on the tambores ( drums) was their way of communicating with each other and defying the colonialists.

Although it is an Afro-Uruguayan tradition whith costumes and characters that reflect origins of the slave trade, many of the participants are not of Afro descent. In my photos you'll see some of these costumes and different characters, there is the the Mama Vieja (Grandmother), Gramillero (Old Doctor), and Escobero (Wizard). You will also see the dancers who dance in their infamously small costumes...
For more history check out this website:

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1145/48/

Learning how to budget

I thought that I was pretty good at keeping a budget, but after six years of living on my own I still have much to learn. Last year I wasn't too worried about my income, I thankfully had a scholarship that provided enough money to live without having to penny pinch.

This year however, life in Uruguay is a bit different. I am acutely aware of every peso I spend and I think it will help me kick some gum chewing, chocolate eating habits of mine. For example, a liter of milk costs 17 pesos while a small, innocent chocolate bar costs me a whopping 16 pesos! What's more, the gum I absolutely love costs 25 pesos--I can buy a liter of milk and enough bread for the week with 25 pesos! I am almost sure no one has said that lessons in life are easy...

This is summer?

Last year I arrived to Uruguay in February, about the same time I arrived this year and like the year before I arrived with expectations of warm weather and sunny skies.  However, last year, from the first day I arrived and for nine days after that, it was rainy and not at all warm.  So far this year it has rained for three days straight since my arrival.  I’m starting to think that I bring the rain!   Everyone says that it’s a blessing I come with rain as the country is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in its history.  

Airports

As a consequence of my adventures, I spend A LOT of time in airports around Latin America and the States.  It’s incredible the things you see and the patience you learn.  Patience because of all the security checks, flight delays, visa problems, etc.  If you are going to travel, just be prepare yourself to be patient and you will be a much happier camper!  I know it sounds like obvious advice, but in the stress of an airport it can be easy to lose your patience--my advice, relax, watch the person next to you lose their cool and it will remind you how ridiculous you almost appeared.

I could write a pretty long entry on the things I observe as well while in airports but I think for now I’ll just choose one that currently fascinates me: how I identify a traveler from the U.S..  I am definitely generalizing with my theory but more often than not it seems like people from the United States who are traveling tend to dress down, they wear comfortable clothing such as jeans and a tee shirt, or even sweat pants.  I myself have finally graduated to wearing jeans but there was a time when I would wear those oh so comfortable running clothes.  I’ve noticed as well that while people from the U.S. tend to dress down, those from other countries may dress to the nines!  I am amazed at these women who can sit on an airplane in their fashionable clothing and high heels.  It’s impressive!  I actually envy them, I always feel quite frumpy and much younger when I walk about the airport in my typical ASU t-shirt.  I must also appear that way as I often get treated as a teenager traveling alone, I hear phrases like “oh sweetie,” “pumpkin” etc.

Back to Uruguay-my second home

I’m on my way back to Montevideo, Uruguay and I have started this blog to separate it from the one I made to share my year’s experience in Uruguay with Rotary.  This time, I hope to blog a bit more often and keep everyone updated on my adventures and observations of life down South.   I am headed back to Uruguay not on scholarship but to work, teach English and volunteer. 

If you had asked me months before I left to Uruguay whether I would consider staying more than one year I would have said no.  The reason I did not apply for the Peace Corps is because I could not imagine staying away from my family and loved ones for so long.  But I don’t feel like I’m going back to Uruguay, it’s more like a second home than anything.  It will always be second though, my first, whether my family believes it or not, will always be Arizona.  

I’m not sure what this year has in store for me but stay tuned and we’ll discover together!