montevideo

i do apologize for the over-all lack of posting.

i spent a wonderful two weeks in montevideo taking spanish classes and wandering around the city. it's a beautiful city – small(ish), tons of museums, beautiful plazas, interesting people, great cafes. overall a wonderful place; i really fell in love with it.



[plaza matriz – just near the academia]


four hours a day were devoted to spanish classes. my teacher didn't speak a word of english (ok, maybe "hello"), which made it ... quite challenging. very difficult to be able to ask questions – most of the time i wouldn't have the words in english, and so often ended up waving my arms around wildly to try to explain what i meant. always made for laughs!

the best may have been while i was reading a little dialogue and it starts with:

juanita: hola!

and i have really been trying to not just read the words, but to understand them as i read and so instead of saying "hola" i said some weird combination of "hello" and "hola" that came out like "heolla" making us all laugh. my teacher said, "y este es interference". oh goodness.

after two weeks i feel like i've learned a ton and yet am still remarkably incompetent. i still go out into the streets and can't follow what people are saying, still have to think about it everytime anyone asks me something.

sigh, it's hard.

what i really love about montevideo is that it has beautiful architecture and it feels a bit european but then is so decidedly uruguayon / south american that there is never really any question of where you are.



[plaza independencia]


[palacio salvo]


[sarandi, the peadronal]


[the rambla]


what i love the most though is the mate. every single uruguayon is walking around with a thermos and a gourd of mate. every. single. one. we even had a mini "how-to-prepare-mate" lesson in spanish class. it's wonderful. and they bring it everywhere. mate at work, mate while grocery shopping, mate at the beach, at lunch, at breakfast, at night. it's a social event – people are always sharing their mate gourds and i just love it. mate itself is alright – i think it tastes a bit like grass and would really only drink it here if it's offered, but the cultural aspect is just hilarious.



[mate gourds]


and there are the horse-drawn carriages that pick up the trash. i really liked those too. such a wonderful idea. great way to create jobs, keep the city clean, cut back on emissions, and keep a hold of a traditional lifestyle in uruguay (horses = guachos). the carriages are tiny and just absolutely piled with trash bags.





and i just like this picture:





i think that coming here after the philippines was one of the best decisions i could have made. it is a wonderful transition back into a developed country sort of life. it's still different and new so i'm not so instantly overwhelmed by the US. i blend in (people here are a lot more white than i expected), there are interesting things to see, and it's a good ... change from the philippines.

i keep waiting for the moment that i will be laughing about the ridiculousness of the philippines and feeling good about my experiences there. it hasn't happened yet ... i don't miss it. and that makes me sad. shouldn't i at least sort-of miss it?

but i love it here, and have now met up with brad and we're travelling around a bit. i leave here and return to the states in four days. i ... can't believe it. i'm excited to go home, although sad at the prospect of leaving brad again and scared about the overall lack of ... any plan or clue about what's coming next. but i'm sick of wearing the exact same clothes (i realized my chacos are the only pair of shoes i've owned and worn in seven MONTHS. let me be a girl and say that i miss my shoes back home. and my clothes) and living out of a suitcase. home will be nice. i miss my family and friends. i need to figure out how to afford to get out to boston.