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!