Bienvenidos a Uruguay

12th/13th week--

As of today, I have been in South America for three months. Can you believe it?! Me neither.

We have so much to catch up on. I'll go ahead and apologize if this post gets a little lengthy and if I overload it with pictures. But it was a great past two weeks, and I love sharing with you all. Plus I just enjoy pictures... I'll begin with the obvious: my trip to Buenos Aires!

My three friends--Alyssa, Leighton, and Molly--and I left Thursday afternoon for our three night, four and a half day trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was soo antsy all day at school. I could hardly contain my excitement! It didn't help that we had an "international feria" that day, where all of us exchange students divided into our respective countries and provided food, country information, and pictures for the Uruguayan students. We served biscuits, choco. chip cookies, fried and non-fried Oreos, m&m's, brownies, and of course coca-cola. I felt like it was one of those days I had in high school, right before Christmas break, when I was so close to freedom but still had to be in school even though it was usually all fun and games... but in this situation I actually still had serious class with serious notes. But my antsy-ness overcame the serious, along with all that sugar from the feria!

The time finally arrived for us to depart for Buenos Aires. After buying some empanadas for dinner on the road in the cafeteria, we hopped on a bus outside of the University to book it to the center of the city in order to pick up Leighton/Alyssa's suitcases before heading to the port. Keep in mind as you read that we were running on very limited time at this point and I had my suitcase with me. Anyways, the bus began to take some back streets (at a snail's pace, might I add) due to an insane amount of traffic ahead. It was going so slow, in fact, that we decided to get off and walk (with my rolling suitcase) to Leighton's apartment in el centro. As we began to walk towards the main street, we began to discover the cause of all of the traffic and commotion: a large protest. As my friend Alyssa joked, "Why couldn't they have chosen another day to be politically active?!" Thus, we proceeded to weave in and out (with my rolling suitcase) of the masses of people around us which included protesters, onlookers, and those trying to get the heck away from the protest themselves. We grabbed the suitcases, put on our handy-dandy money belts--which we think are hilarious--and made our way back into the thick of the protest in order to hail a taxi... Nearly impossible. After chasing down a taxi and (literally) piling in with our suitcases, we finally made it to the port to catch our ferry. Despite a little 'check-in/ticket confirmation mishap,' we easily boarded the ferry, found our seats, and breathed a sigh of relief. We were on our way to Buenos Aires.

The gift of a friend is one of God's most wonderful gifts. Thanks to a friend, and her brother's wife's sister, we were blessed with an apartment in the hermoso neighborhood of Recoleta. My friend's brother picked us up from the port in Buenos Aires when we arrived around midnight and took us to the apartment--I felt like we were receiving the star treatment! The apartment was perfect for us. Two bedrooms with two single beds and one double, a family room with a large table for 'family-meals,' a kitchen with everything we needed to cook, and...wait for it... TWO bathrooms. I know, right?! We were welcomed by an adorable drawing from my friend's brother's wife's sister's child and four little chocolates. Already, I was falling in love with the city, and I hadn't even been outside of the apartment yet!

The next morning we awoke, enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast provided by the owner of the apartment (again, star-treatment), and then took a stroll to the grocery store to buy our meals for the weekend. It is actually mind-boggling how much money you can save when you cook your own meals rather than going out for every meal. After grocery shopping, and a little 'I can't call anyone on my cell phone and need to get in touch with someone because I don't know where she is meeting us nor what she looks like cuz I haven't seen her in four years-mishap,' we managed to meet up with Alyssa's friend, Hannah, who is studying in Buenos Aires for the semester. Hannah was such a blessing. She toured us around the city and let us use her bus card. We filled the day visiting many parts of the city: the cemetery of Recoleta (which is massive, and eerily beautiful), el obelisco (Washington Monument-esque, Plaza de Mayo and Casa Rosada (where Eva Perón delivered her famous speech), the Cathedral (breathtaking), and a park in the neighborhood of Palermo (home of a very nice climbing tree). That night we went to a bar on top of a roof in Palermo Soho, called quite cleverly, 'the roof,' where we spent the night meeting other exchange students and conversing IN SPANISH with people from Buenos Aires. When we left 'the roof', we all felt so accomplished, for we really recognized how much our Spanish had grown since our arrival in South America.

 

Day 1 in Buenos Aires: el cementerio Recoleta, el obelisco, la Plaza del Mayo, Casa Rosada, la Catedral, parque en Palermo.

 

On day two, we met up with Hannah and hopped on a bus to the barrio of La Boca. La Boca is alive with evidence of the immigrants who made their way into Buenos Aires from Italy, Spain, and other parts of Europe. The aged houses burst with the brightest of colors. Hannah told us that the immigrants used to make these houses out of the old metal from the ships, which is why the houses are a hodge-podge of different colors. The tango is quite prominent in this neighborhood, as La Boca was, and still remains, a lower, working-class neighborhood. Although La Boca is now filled with touristy tourists (like ourselves) during the day, the people still maintain their love of tango and the influence of the immigrants remains clear. La Boca has so much character. We wandered around and looked at the artesian crafts for a while, and then settled down into a tiny, outdoor restaurant for some comida muy rica (as in delicious) and some FREE tango. When we arrived back in Recoleta, we decided to walk to el Museo de Bellas Artes. The museum was incredible, with all different types of art, including works from Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. We then moseyed on over to this metal, statue?-ish, huge flower for the sake of some photos (worth it). Then, after stopping in a Hard Rock Café to pick up a t-shirt (can you say 'classic!'), we returned to the apartment to enjoy a home-cooked meal and nice conversation.

Day 2: La Boca, el Museo de Bellas Artes, el flor de metal.

 

I think day three was my favorite day of them all. We woke up slowly, after missing the alarm, ate a hearty breakfast, packed up some sandwiches for lunch (economical), and took a taxi to la feria in San Telmo. This feria, let me tell you, stretches for blocks, and blocks, and blocks... We were there for hours and didn't even reach the end. It has just about everything, not 100% literally but pretty much. Antique jewelry, books, and toys (I found a ' I'm the baby gotta love me!' doll from the old show, Dinosaurs) as well as artesian scarves, knick-knacks, and crafts, and so much more. In true, Rioplatense spirit, free tango exhibitions were set up amongst the booths. I had so much fun looking through all of the treasures and experiencing the culture through the tango shows and conversations with the booth owners. Mid-way through we stopped on the steps outside of a church to eat our sandwiches and apples. If you know me at all, you will not be surprised to find that I befriended a little girl named Paula who was a child of one of the booth-owners. As most little girls do, she was delighted to try on my sunglasses and snap some photos. She ended up stealing Alyssa's apple, but she was too adorable for us to make a fuss. Her parents were thrilled because they said she usually never wants to eat anything! We eventually said 'adios' to Paulita and her padres and pushed through the crowds until Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero is lined with beautiful apartments, plenty of restaurants, and a view of the city's larger buildings. It has a sailboat museum of Domingo F. Sarmiento, whose life I happen to be presenting in class tomorrow, and a modern pedestrian bridge. We were thrilled to have such a lovely place to rest our legs.

Back in Recoleta, we found a corner café and enjoyed some of the most delicious pastries I have ever eaten in my life, no exaggeration. The cheesecake was even better than Jason's Deli's cheesecake (I knowww, crazy!). Afterwards, Alyssa and I made our way back towards the cemetery to a little church for Mass. We ended up arriving accidentally an hour early, woops, but we sat and talked in the plaza outside of the church until Mass actually started. The readings at Mass spoke of Jesus instructing us to sell our belongings and follow Him. That's always a hard reading to hear, especially when you have spent the whole day shopping! Of course it is okay to shop for myself every now and then, but it was a good reminder that I also need to give of myself--with my time, treasure, and talent--and not get caught up in materialism. Both Mass and the walk back to the apartment were peaceful times of reflection and resolution. I relish moments like that.
 

We ended the day at my friend's brother's apartment with him, his wife, and their precious daughter. They bought us the most tasty empanadas in the universe (also not an exaggeration), along with different bowls of appetizers. We spoke with them for hours about politics, education, and the culture of Buenos Aires and Argentina as a whole. It was another moment of, "Wow, I just had that whole conversation in Spanish..." This family, and all of their relatives, showed us unbelievable amounts of kindness, and we could not be more grateful for their generosity.

 

Day 3: la feria del San Telmo, Puerto de Madero

 

Day four, our last day. We woke up early to finish cleaning the apartment, found an 'American breakfast' of eggs and toast at a little coffeehouse, then headed out to Palermo Soho--the 'artsy' district of Buenos Aires. On our way there we met the most fantastic taxi driver. (Is it weird that one of my favorite parts of Buenos Aires was our collection of wonderful taxi drivers?) This particular taxi driver was an engineer with a Master's degree from Notre Dame. He told us that a few years back he had had a heart attack, and from that point forward he decided to change his life. He quit his job, bought a house in the country, bought five taxis, drives one of them, and manages the four others. He said his life has never been more peaceful, and he now gets to spend four times a year with his wife at his vacation house. I loved hearing his story, and how he chose to live a life of simplicity oriented around that which he loved most: his family. How fortunate is he that he was in the comfortable financial position to make such a change in his life! I was impressed that he ditched the money and work in exchange for a more peaceful life. His joy was contagious--I think we all got out of the taxi smiling.

Polermo Soho is adorable and reminded me so much of Amelie's bakery in Charlotte wrapped up into one area. I was like, “NODA, whatever, no big deal...” (say in mellow, hippie voice). Many of the trees and telephone poles were wrapped in croqueted material, as if they were all wearing leg warmers. The coffee shops and restaurants were decorated as if everything had been taken from Pintrest. The colors, flowers, and little treasures on every corner of the neighborhood served as special treats as we began to wrap up our time in Buenos Aires.

We said goodbye to our apartment and our neighborhood, and then my friend's brother's wife took us back to the ferry. Bye, bye Buenos Aires!

 



Day 4: Palermo Soho

 

Once we returned to Montevideo, we were back to reality--school. I feel like I am starting to catch 'senior-itis.' BUT we only have four weeks left of class and a week of finals, and then I have three months of summer vacation... so I really just need to get over it and finish these last few weeks strong. It is quite difficult, however, to jump back into classes after such a fun and relaxing long weekend in another city/country.

 

This past week I received a care package from my Aunt Mary filled with peanut butter (FINALLY!) and Flat Stanley. I took Flat Stanley around the city of Montevideo and on a bike ride along the rambla to the beach, taking pictures along the way to send back to my cousin's classroom. Note: Flat Stanley and I match. He had a really great time, and made for pleasant company.



Back in Montevideo with my matching Flat Stanely: Plaza de Independencia, el Palacio Legislativo, la playa en Carrasco.

A few last thoughts: my time in Buenos Aires was unforgettable. It is a great city, and a wonderful place to visit. However, my trip  helped confirm that I made the right choice to study here, in Montevideo. Montevideo, a smaller, more tranquilo version of Buenos Aires, is more 'home-y' and less 'touristy.' Because Buenos Aires is a major site for tourists, many of the shop's signs have English writing and many of the people around me spoke English. Yes, my friends and I put ourselves in many touristy situations, so of course we were surrounded by English-speakers, but I like that it is almost not even an option in Montevideo. I like that here, I can escape to beach and run or relax along the rambla. It's hard to explain--I fell in love with Buenos Aires, but it was comforting to come back to life in Montevideo.

Quick lil’ note I just remembered: I found out not too long ago that I have received a five week internship in Quito, Ecuador. I will leave in January and return to Montevideo mid-February. I will be working eight hours a day at two different radio stations while I’m there, focusing on social media, podcasts, and translation into English. I am, beyond words, excited. More to come as learn about where exactly I will be living and the characteristics of the radio stations.

Last thing: I would appreciate your thoughts and/or prayers as I begin to wrap up this semester and make my way towards finals. I also have been missing everyone back at home especially this week, so prayers for peace of heart are welcomed too. Please be confident that I am praying for all of you as well. Muchísimas gracias.

OK. Now, I'm done.

Un abrazo fuerte,

Courtney