So...We're Back; It's Back...

Well, after a hard but well ending finals week, we left for the wide and desolate plains of the Estados Unidos or USA.

All went well for the first flight to Buenos Aires, but I am sorry to report that I got quite ill on the 8-hour flight from Buenos Aires to Miami. About two hours into the flight, I had horrifying stomach issues that lasted the duration of the flight, through customs in Miami and then through the ride from Miami to DFW. After a total of just over 10 hours of being sick, I was in the arms of my mom and dad. Sadly though, the adventure was not over. One of my bags was not flown from Miami to Dallas and I had to pick it up at the Abilene airport a couple of days later.

After just 24 hours of travelling and being sick for most of that, I was in Abilene again and pulled into Arby's so my family could grab a quick bite to eat before heading out to our house. I wasn't feeling good still, so I mostly napped that afternoon trying to forget that I had left the land of the big grey buildings and celeste sky.

That night Dara, Linley, and I had a welcome home gathering for our friends from ACU that are about to leave for Christmas at their homes to come up to school and see us. It was completely surreal to see everyone and be around them for a while. I didn't feel good, but we had a good turn out and I was really encouraged by the fact that I was missed.

I have had a great couple of days with my mom and friends catching up and such. So much of me just can't believe that I can possibly be back. That that chapter of my life is coming to a close and in many ways I don't know how to deal with that. I know we are all starting to miss Casa quite a lot. We are starting to feel like something did definitely change within us that doesn't allow us to go back to the way things are. I knew this was coming, but I didn't look forward to it. I think that the worst part of being in this world is only getting to be in one part of it. I would be happier if at the same time, I could be chillin' here in Abilene, in Samoa soaking up the rays, and in Uruguay speaking Spanish and drinking mate. I would be happier if I could be with my family, my Samoan friends, and my Uruguayan amigos. That's how life goes though. Man, sometimes I wish it didn't go that way.

Please be praying for strength and patience for this transition.

Thanks,

Kate

It's Beginning to Feel a lot like Finals...

Wow! I have a week and a few hours left here in Montevideo and that is absolutely astounding to think about. When I cast my mind back to the first part of this semester, I come up with anything but and empty hook. It seems like going to BA and my birthday and Brazil were ages ago, like I have known these people my whole life, but I haven't! At the same time though, it feels like I just got here! I know that is not true. I see the progress that I have made as a Spanish speaker, as a student, as a friend, as a roommate, and mostly as a child of God and know that some time has past.

This week is a little bit crazy, but I am taking it minute by minute, class by class, and trying to make it last as long as I can. Our rhythm has been interupted by finals and lots of studying.

Yesterday, my spanish class, 4 of us in total, left at 11Am to go to the tallest building in Montevideo for our field trip. I just put up pictures on facebook. The 26 floor of the building is a public viewing floor that give a 360 degree view of Montevideo from on high. I didn't really understand too much from the tour guide, but most of it was measurements and architect stuff. It was really awesome to see just how HUGE this city is! We got a great video of the monte, or cerro as they call it. You should check out the pictures though, it is just too hard to describe.

Well, sadly, I have to get back to studying now. I hope and pray that everything is going well for you! Thanks for the prayers and encouragement! :) See (almost) all of you soon!

Rocking around the Rocha Tree

Hey there Friends and Family!

I suppose that with a week and a half left, I will try to revive my vigor for this writing project and bring you all up to speed on what is going on around here.

In case you didn't notice, Thanksgiving was last week. Just a PS, I hardly noticed. It is true that we had a lovely dinner with turkey and mashed potatoes and pies and more, but I also got a healthy dose of subjunctive tense Spanish and quantum mechanics in Physical Chemistry! Thursday was great though. After all that was over, we played Farkle and sang Christmas carols in a effort to convince ourselves that it was officially the holiday season! It's hard to remember when your bus leaves at eight the next morning for a weekend at the beach!

But, we did leave the next morning on a 4 hour bus ride to Rocha up on the Atlantic Coast. We had a picnic lunch, settled into our hotel room (which included towels this time!!) and hit the beach almost immediately.

Autumn, Dara, Ben and I walked up and down the beach for a while getting ourselves more wet than we pleased and then finally Ben and I surrendered and went and got our swimsuits on. We didn't want to get all the way in because we knew that we were going horseback riding, but that was a lost cause for sure. We had a great time getting dominated by the waves. I was so proud of Ben because after three weekends of trying to teach him to body surf, he caught a couple of really good waves and rode them all the way in.

After a couple of hours, we went and cleaned up a bit for the horseback ride. We took a bus to a field where there were some random gauchos or cowboys and some horses tied up. There was a silver dapple that was pacing and pawing the ground and I claimed him as mine. As I mounted him (after fighting Ben for the horse) the gaucho made sure that I understood I would have to "drive him with much force" because he had a lot of "speed and will of his own." Sweet!! He was an amazing horse. He always wanted to be at the front of the pack and got really frustrated when I held him back. Once we got onto the beach, we got a nod from the gaucho and took off. Dara, Ben, Wimon's, and my horse exploded with speed and we got to gallop along the waves through the sand for a while! It was amazing! I have never experienced anything quite like it. There was one point where I was galloping and in the very front of the pack and there was nothing but coast ahead of my horse and I. It was an amazing moment that felt hand-tailored for me by God. Like a little reminder, a whisper, "I love you. This moment is for you."

That afternoon it was raining so Abel, Ben and I swam in the indoor pool at our hotel and then fell asleep watching a movie before dinner. We found a little hamburger stand for dinner and then chilled outside and went to the supermarket before heading back.

The next day we went to an Ombu forest project thing. The man that started it started it to preserve the Ombu trees that are apparently rare and fragile. It looked like a fairy tale forest to me. There were some trees that were big enough for our whole group to crawl inside which was exciting. We got there by boat and there was a little dachshund that rode with us and his name was "Poncho" literally "Hot dog" in Spanish. We saw lots of birds and lizards and talked about balance and biodiversity in Spanish!

Then we went to Cabo Polonio (sp?) which is a tiny little beach town that can only be accessed through a 30 minute ride in a 4x4 vehicle through sand dunes! It was really beautiful. We had a great lunch and spent all afternoon on the beach there. The water was so cold it was almost miserable and we worried a bit about hypothermia...we all made it through though!

After another dinner at the hamburger stand, we were all so tired that we hardly made it through a game of Farkle before passing out in our respective rooms. This morning, we all slept in, walked on the beach, played on a playground, and got back on the bus. We got home before six and have been tying up loose ends and preparing for an epic week of school, with finals starting on Wednesday!!!

More Punta del Este and School

Well, the semester here in Montevideo drones on. Teased by brief glimpses of what it was like in the beginning of the semester, we have settled into being full time college students again. I can't believe it but our time here is slowly but surly growing to a close. Although the countdown is substantial, it is much more about the amount of work that we have to do now at the end of the semester. I usually set myself up such that in the end of the semester, I can coast along at a comfortable pace as to not stress myself out. However, this semester, punctuated by trips and other fun things, has come to a climax both time-wise and grade-wise. It is going to take quite an academic push here at the end, but it has definitely been worth every bit of the work.

Last weekend though, Dara, Alli, Karaline, Ben and myself set off for Punta del Este for a weekend on the beach and a time to get away. Our little adventure started Friday morning with a short bus trip and ended on Sunday afternoon. Friday, we walked several miles to the beach. Ben and I were up at the front of the group and had some really good conversation on the way. We hung out on the beach that night and had some trouble finding a bus to get back to our hostel, but that was alright. That night we made breakfast for dinner and had a bit of a pancake cook-off between Ben and I, but my famous no spatula flip and chocolate chip Mickey Mouse definitely won no problem.

Saturday it was a little too chilly to go out to the beach, so we went down to the little town and walked around the mall and the artisan markets there. It was a great adventure and a great way to relax and stretch our legs. We had some McDonald's which was delicious and there was even ice in our glasses! That afternoon, we continued walking and went down to the lighthouse and the port where we found and photographed a sea lion of some sort that was eating the leftovers that the fishermen were throwing in the port. We found a little gazebo and sat and talked for a while. That night, we went out for Alli's birthday and had a great time. The best part of the trip by far was just the people on it and the way that we interacted with eachother throughout the weekend. It was super low stress and we got to cook a lot and talk and relax before this week sat in.

This weekend, we are going to Rocha which will be a mix of beach and homework and finals study for me. I am going to try to enjoy myself, but I also realize that I can't give up academically just yet!

Thanks for the prayers and support!!

Kate

Punta del Este and Costa Rica Game

Hey there family and friends.

This has been yet another exciting weeks. I am finding it more and more difficult to balance correspondence, homework, Uruguay, and being here with my friends as this

semester draws to a close.

It seems that someone has told our group about going home and whispered into each little ear that it might be good to get back to the USA. We haven't been a very homesick group and are still more than elated to participate in elements of the Uruguayan culture, but with classes ramping up to full speed and only three weeks left, I am finding it hard to stay in the moment here. This semester has been dream of a lifetime: making new friends, traveling, exploring new cultures, and forming memories and bonds that will last my whole life. I feel sure that I can't even imagine the deeply set changes on my worldview this semester.

Anyway, last weekend we had the opportunity to go to the beach resort town of Punta del Este at the intersection of the Rio de la Plata and the Atlantic Ocean. Two weeks ago I was at the Pacific, this week, the Atlantic! How cool is that?

The notable sites of Punta del Este are La Mano, or the giant hand in the sand, and the numerous beaches and resorts. We just took a day trip in order to see the sites. We got there about 10 in the morning. It is about two hours away from Casa in Montevideo, so we left at eight. We went to the Casa Pueblo, which is the house of a well-known Uruguayo artist who lived part of his life there and part of it in Argentina. It was really pretty. The interesting thing about it is that there are like no straight lines on the whole place. It really looks kinda like something from Dr. Suess. Someday I'll have to write a story about why that is.

The rest of the day, we drove around Punta del Este and took a boat to a little island and spent on the beach. It was a lot of fun. I really really really like the ocean and waves and so naturally, I was literally the first one in and the last one out. It was amazing!

We came back that night and had a lot of fun just on the bus making things up and speaking bad Spanish. Matt and I have decided that we are basically personality twins and so now we call each other "Twin" in Spanish. Little brother Ben sat in front of us and was annoyed by our loud voices and singing all the way back to Casa.

The next part of the week was completely dominated by classes and preparation for a biochemistry test that I wanted to do well on. I poured almost all of my time and effort into that the first part of the week.

After the test on Wednesday, we had some time to relax and then went to the soccer game between Costa Rica and Uruguay. Because we didn't beat Argentina like we needed to, we became a wildcard of sorts. We had to play Costa Rica to determine if we got to go to the world cup in 2010 in South Africa. Because of the scoring of the first playoff held in Costa Rica (Uruguay 1-0), we only had to not get beat by the Costa Ricans to be able to advance. We painted our faces and got really excited about going to this game.

We were elated when Uruguay made their first goal, but that was shortly followed up by a Costa Rican goal as well. We held them off though and tied 1-1, letting us advance to the World Cup. I can't wait to have parties for those games in our apartment next spring!!

So tomorrow, Ben, Dara, Karaline, Alli and I are going back to Punta del Este for our free travel weekend. We are going to spend time on the beach and just chilling out. I can't wait for some down time after this insane week!

Thanks for the support and the prayers! Three weeks from this moment I will be arriving in the DFW airport to be greeted by my family and taken back to Abilene. It is SO hard to believe!!

(Pictures: Top- (left to right) Me and my roommates Linley and Dara at La Mano. 2nd- Ben and I at Casa Pueblo. 3rd- Matt and I asleep on the bus back from Punta del Este. 4th- Ben and I at the game, a sampling of our face-painted art. Last- The team waving to fans from the field after the game with Uruguayan flag in the foreground.)

If I have any followers left...

Hey there. I am such a bad blogger. I am so sorry. I have been so incredibly busy, not to mention out of the country, so I haven't written. All excuses barred, I would like to tell you about our trip to Chile last week, if you will have me.

We have a week of free travel where we can choose to go basically anywhere we want to on the continent. So, having a lifelong dream of going to Chile, naturally, that is what I chose. After weeks of planning and arranging and getting buses and hostels booked, we set off last Thursday for Buenos Aires to catch our bus to Mendoza, Argentina, slightly on the Argentine side of the Andes, planning to cross to the coast, go up into the mountians and land back in Santiago for a couple of days before getting on our 27 hour bus back to Montevideo. We had 10 days to do it all, and we did, thanks only to the help of God.

Let's start out with a couple of details. Our group was 8 people, 3 guys and 5 girls. We had two intermediate level Spanish speakers and six beginners that did amazing. We had five locations to get to, four boarder crossings to complete one continent and three countries of the Southern Cone of South America. We had four bus tickets booked per person, and five hostels. Two different dialects of Spanish and finally, one stolen passport. That's right, it was going to be quite a ride.

We started out in BA, Argentina where we spent the night in an interesting hostel that was small but comfortable. We walked down calle florida the next day for a while and then went to Burger King. At that point, Ben´s backpack was stolen. We don´t know how because we were all sitting right there. It is obvious that we had been being watched and were specifically targeted. Then the race against the clock came. I am the best speaker and understander of spanish on this trip, so it fell to me to do all of the investigation. No one at burger king spoke any english, so that was really hard. Then we went back to our hostel and called the embassy. Our bus was at three in the afternoon and it was already one by the time we got back to the hostel. They said that we had to come between 2:30 and 3 to be able to get the new passport and that we needed 100 us dollars and two passport photos with exact measurements. SO, we sent 4 of our group onto the bus station to try to arrange the tickets for later or see what the deal was going to be there. We went to the Citi bank to see if they could help us cancel his card, but they didn´t...So we went to the photo place that the guy at our hostel told us about but it was closed. Then we miraculously found another photo place and miraculously, the guy knew the exact measurements we needed. We hopped in a cab and got to the embassy about 2:45 or so. They took our only cell phone from us at that point to go into the embassy, so we were out of connection with the group that was supposed to call us about the bus. about an hour later, we had the passport and were sent to the police station because he needed a stamp from them on a report to let him out of argentina. We walked to not one, not two but three police stations that were scattered all around the city. Everywhere from the Zoo to the Plaza de Mayo, to the Obelisk to Florida street (long ways). Then they told us we had like 5 poeple in front of us and it could easily be an hour. At that point, we recieved a text telling us that our new bus was at 8PM that night. So we went to the hostel to pick up our luggage and ben called the credit card company. Then we went back to the police station and at about 6:25 we sat down with an officer that spoke no english whatsoever and didn´t really feel like focusing. Finally, about 6:45 we got out of there with the stamp and headed to find a taxi. Because of our luggage, no taxi would pick us up. Finally we walked another mile with our bags and found a guy that charged us a crazy amount but got us there about 7:10. We had been told to get there no later than 7 to switch the tickets. We went to one desk and she told us that we since we missed our bus that was just bad luck for us and we had to figure something else out. Then she called the other desk and said they had 3 tickets waiting on us. We needed 4. So we ran down to the other desk and picked up our miraculously exchanged tickets. Finally at 7:55, we boarded our bus.

The next morning at 10:00AM when we disembarked, we found out that the person who took our tickets had taken the paper that we wrote the address of our next hostel on. So we guessed at the street and walked a couple of miles across another unfamiliar city. Finally we found our hostel and the other part of our group. That day, we were in Mendoza and took it easy. We bought ben some shoes and shorts and really relaxed. Note for the reader: I was still not sleeping at this point.

The next day we went white water rafting and did this like zip line canopy tour up in the mountains! I can't put it into words; it was amazing!

The next day we took a bus into Chile. When we got to the border, it was snowing! None of us had jackets on us! Hurray! Fun pictures to come. That bus took about 3 hours too long to get to Vina del Mar in Chile but we finally made it. We had some good food and went down to the beach. It was sooo good to see my South Pacific again!

The next day we shopped and chilled and went to the beach. It was finally warm!! But our bus was about 35 minutes behind my schedule in my head, but miraculously, we were taken to the wrong bus terminal which happened to connect with the exact metro line we needed. We met this sketchy guy in this sketchy green van and he took us way up into the mountains. It was cold again!

The andes are amazing! It was like a dream. We were in the fort davis of the Andes at this like wooden cabin with no electricity execpt from a generator at night! It was super exciting. We tried to hike 11 km like 7 miles uphill to these hot springs, but I didn´t have enough energy at that point. I walked back down with two of my friends and we spent the day hiking around there, singing, and I got some much needed alone time. I can´t wait to show you pictures of this place. I got a picture with Flat Lucy too!

Thursday, we got to Santiago and spent the rest of the day shopping and exploring. Friday, we got up and went to the big metropolitan park, but didn't go in yet because there were about a million little Chilean kids. So we walked about a mile to a little park and took some great pictures. We had lunch at KFC (super exciting) and then went to the Park. We rode these elevator things up to the top of the hill and took more great pictures. It was a great way to conclude our trip. We returned to our hostel and watched X-men 2 in Spanish and it was interesting. Sadly enough, that afternoon I was attacked by a migraine and was unable to go to dinner. I took my Replax and went to sleep for about an hour. After I woke up and took a long shower, the headache subsided enough to be able to eat something. I went downstairs and found Ben. We went to a little pizza place that was sketchy. There were a lot of drunk Chileans and they tried to talk to us. I didn't really feel like eating, but we got some pizza with pepperoni and black olives...and then I asked Ben what he wanted on it and he said pineapple so we went with it. It was disgusting. We poured our fries on top of it, picked things off and choked it down. Super memorable experience though.

The next morning we set out for the bus at about 7:15. Santiago has about 3 million bus stations so there was a lot of confusion and a near break down, but we got on the bus and it was all good. We stayed on the bus from 8:30 Saturday to about 1:00PM Sunday. We were glad to get off and get back to Casa.

What a great adventure it was. I wouldn't take back anything except obviously that Ben's backpack was stolen. That was horrible. But God got us through. We had a blast and all got super close. We saw new sides of everyone and most of them were good. For sure it was the trip of my LIFETIME!

Brazil Days 5-7

Hey there! So so sorry that I haven't written this week. My life has been really quite crazy. We are getting ready to leave on our trip to Chile in about a week (soooooo exciting) and because of that, we have been booking and rebooking and scheduling and rescheduling. I actually stole my own identity the other night and that was a doozie to work out with the credit card company. Apparently putting one wrong digit in a passport number while booking things online turns out to be a hasel in the long run. More on that trip later though.

So Brazil. The next day we got up and went to the Guaraní village in Argentina. Yeah, the passport is looking quite awesome at this point with about a thousand stamps on it! :) And that was really interesting. The Guaraní indigenous population has had long and hard struggles with the people who came from Europe basically since the 1500s. There was a bout with the Jesuits (see the movie, "The Mission") and the trouble never really stopped. But now where they stand is a nation within the nations of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay for the most part. They have their own settlements where they raise crops and live somewhat like they used to. They have their own schools and such there as well. This is the kind of village that we visited. It was not a tourist attraction it was a "pueblito" a tiny little village, where about 60 families live I think. It was great. They showed us their traditional houses and traps for animals and weapons and such. Really ingenious things!

I absolutely LOVE learning about indigenous and cultures that are untouched by western hands. Don't get me wrong, I am American through and through and will not be able to change that. I appreciate modern cultures as well, but not quite like cultures that fight to preserve the ways of their ancestors. Cultures that use their hands and the land to produce what they need. That, to me, is just such an organic and raw way of living. In someways, I feel closer to God when I can be closer to nature like that. Anyway!!

The next day basically all we did was get on the bus and come home. We had a lot of fun on the bus again, playing card games and joking around with each other. Thanks to a bit of Advil PM I woke up the next morning happy as a clam to be back in Montevideo!

This week we have been catching up on school work and working hard to get ready for Chile. I am the "team captain" so that's always fun! I can't wait, but I want it all to go smoothly and I have VERY little relative control over that.

Yesterday we went to a museum of a man called Joquín Torres-Garcia. He is a famous South American painter and thinker. It was really interesting. We even got to do an art project with it! Paste and crayons and all. It was great to be back in kindergarden again!

Today is more class, booking, and another visit to the Alianza where Dara and I get to help people with their English. I am looking forward to a Biochem and a P. Chem test before the trip to Chile as well! I can't believe it is already over half-way over! Craziness!!! Keep reading!

Brazil Days 3-4

Monday:

On Monday, we rose with the light of the day, well not quite but close enough, and got some breakfast from the lobby. Special Brazilian breakfasts consisting of ham and cheese, weird looking eggs that I didn't try, pastries, and super strong coffee. Always delicious and with scoop or two of fruit on the side nutritious as well. After that we got on a bus and drove to Paraguay. We are staying at the like the three corners of the countries, so it was not as long of a drive as it sounds. We took a dam tour of the Itapu dam. The cooperation between the countries of Brazil and Paraguay for this dam are just incredible. This hydroelectric station gives all of the energy Paraguay needs and about 25% of what Brazil uses (they split it half and half and Paraguay sells like 90% of its half back to Brazil). Brazil is a giant country so that is quite astounding. It's like the Hoover Dam but a lot bigger. We made a lot of dam jokes for my dam video and it was a dam good time. Okay. I am done. It was great.

Then we spent the rest of the day in Paraguay buying cheap things and eating sketchy hamburgers with pink meat inside of them. It was a little scary but fun. The shopping was the sketchiest thing I have done in a long time. Imagine the street markets found in like NYC plus an exploded Walmart plus no regulation of illegal goods. This combination lends itself to a once in a lifetime experience that I didn't realize was as scary as it was until I got on the bus at the end of it. That is such a college thing to say. I wish I could say that we were actually very safe, but I just don't believe it. We stuck to where our tour guide told us to though.

That night we played some volleyball in the pool at the hotel and then went to a Brazilian Culture show that was really unique. They did things from all over Latin America including a Mexican mariachi band. I felt like I was back at El Chico or something. It was great. Did I mention all of the great beef that I had in Brazil? Well, now I did. I had too much red meat on that trip for sure.

Tuesday:

I just want to write too much about everyday, but I am trying not to. Just wanted to put that on the record. Okay. Tuesday.

Tuesday we got up and had breakfast again and then we drove to Argentina. Seeing the amazing breath-taking falls from one side was not enough. We were hungry for more of them. So we got the park and there was like no line, unlike in Brazil. We started off hiking the upper trail which was gorgeous. We took lots of pictures but didn't really get wet. The day that we went there was 4 times the normal amount of water going over the falls. That means though that there were more just big falls and less little ones scattered about because they all blended together so much. We hiked through the jungle on this path and were shown a lot of medicinal plants by our tour guide. He even told us about some hallucinogens and such. That was a little sketchy but he was really nice and funny.

We ate lunch at another buffet with a ton of beef and such. Same song and dance for the most part. Then we went on the lower trail to get up close and personal with the falls. We got quite wet but saw lots of rainbows and more interesting plant and animal life. We were supposed to go to the Devil's Throat, the most intense part, but because there was so much water, we didn't get to. Apparently the water was sweeping over that path that was supposed to be 10-12 feet over the water. Just a smidge dangerous!

That night we ate out and went to a tourist shop. We came back and played more volleyball. I can't even find the space in the world to write about everything that we did. Basically, trust in this, we have a great time everyday no matter what are doing. We all get along so well, praise the Lord, and have so much fun even when we are stuck on buses for 20 hours or at a boarder with nothing to do. Thank be to God for this group!

Brazil Days 1-2

Well, let's start from the beginning, a very good place to start...

Saturday:

It occurs to me that I last wrote you all from the lobby of the Hotel Panarama shortly after the long bus ride to Brazil. The trip took about 20 hours of road time in the bus, plus the short stops along the way.

One of these stops was in Missiones, Argentina to see the San Ignacio mission. This mission, built by the Jesuits for the Gauraní people is now in ruins. In it's peak time, it housed over 4,000 indigenous people. The Guaraní people were relatively accepting the Jesuit invitation, partially because the Jesuits would keep them from being taken by slave hunters. This same mission is the one that the movie "The Mission" is based on. Although sad, I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in ministry, or really, Christianity at large.

In the same town, we went to the writer Horacio Quiroga's house. This man was from Buenos Aires, but loved the jungle dearly. He was a twisted author, reminiscent of Edgar Allen Poe. He wrote deep and dark stories that paralleled his life and the life of those who once lived in the jungle. It was a disturbing place, but very interesting to see.

After our tour of the house and grounds we again loaded up on to the bus (our new home) and had another 2 and a half hours to go. It's amazing just how short 2 and a half hours is to me now.

Once we arrived in Brazil, we settled in and had some time to relax. Matt and I entertained everyone with our dramatic reading skills. No surprise there. We watched some soccer and fell asleep mostly just happy to be horizontal.

Sunday:

What a full and amazing day. We toured the bird park here on the Brazilian side and it was fascinating. There were beautiful birds of all types. Giant man-eating ones and tiny little parakeets. They were adorable. My favorites were the toucans and macaws. The birds are all kept in these giant walk through cages. Some of them are the size of a large room and some the size of gymnasiums. One of the first ones that you walk into is a big one and toucans are just flying all around you. It was very lucky that some of them came over to say hello and pose with us for a bit. They really liked Flip, my video camera.

We saw snakes, an anaconda under the water (spooky) and the man-eating bird. Then we went into the macaw cage! They told us to go in at our own risk and hide anything shiny, like rings, cameras, cell phones, sunglasses, because the macaws might decide to snatch it. We shortly found out why. They were swooping over our heads and going back and forth. They were big and beautiful but a little bit scary at the same time.

After the bird park, we stood in line for a long time to get in to see the Brazilian side of the falls. I was very excited though, because we had lunch while we were waiting and they had turkey sandwiches! I hadn't had turkey since the Miami airport, so it was quite a big deal.

Once we got in, we went straight to our boat ride up to the falls. We took a little safari van thing to a walking trail and then hiked to a waterfall and went down to the river. We got in a motor boat thing and went upstream to the falls. It was absolutely amazing to have our first view of the falls be from below. We went into the falls a little bit and got soaked (fun!!).

We hiked after that the Brazilian side of the trail. The falls are almost at the intersection of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay and the big part is directly between Brazil and Argentina. I can't even use words to paint the picture of the falls. It is extravagant, awesome, breathtaking and mostly just indescribable. There is so much force and power and water; it is absolutely overwhelming.

That night we talked about the falls and what that reminded us of in the Bible and reflected on how spiritual the experience was. I couldn't help but be marveled by the power and might and size of the falls. I thought of the Casting Crowns song "Your Love is Extravagant" and couldn't stop singing it.

That sums it up for days one and two. Stay turned in for the rest of the trip! :)

Oi tadu bem!

Hello and how are you? I'm coming to you tonight straight from the Foz do Igauçu do Brasil. Which is the small town near the Iguazu Falls. We just got off of our 20 hour bus ride and are settling into our hotel now.

I learned several things about bus trips in the last 24 hours. Here are the ones that I will share with you.

1) Spanish-speaking DVD players will automatically set your language to Spanish if given the chance (subtitles are not immune either).

2) The most comfortable way to sleep in a bus is the way they intended; you might be creative, but your neck won't appreciate it.

3) When watching a movie with an 11-year old, you notice EVERY curse word, even if it's rated PG and only has one.

4) Advil PM works; embrace the drugs.

5) Eat when offered food. The only exception is alfajores (cookies with carmel) after 11 PM.

6) Pack toilet paper. If you don't, you will be paying for it, argentine pesos only.

This list is not exhaustive, but I definitely am exhausted. I apologize for the overall incoherence of this post. I will have more and more exciting news tomorrow!

Presidential Elections

Hey there! I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying reading along with my adventures. I haven't posted in the last couple of days because nothing to exciting has happened. Yesterday, we had church at Igelsia and then had a "PChem Picnic in the Park." By that I mean that we took our blankets and pillows out into the courtyard and worked on studying for our tests together. No surprise, that made me quite sleepy and I ended up sleeping for the rest of the afternoon. In my defense, I did get some good studying in. Our teacher thought it was really funny that we did that so she took pictures of us. Those to come I am sure.

Today my roommate's alarm didn't go off so we were kind of late to chapel. No big deal though, there was still breakfast on the table when we got down there after chapel. We got our schedules for our next trip and the hotel information and such. I am so excited! I looked on the website today and the place looks really nice. We are going to go to a Jesuit mission, see the falls from both countries (Argentina and Brazil), and spend a day wandering around Paraguay. I am pretty excited about the shopping opportunities there. I hear that you can get really cool, very cheap stuff there.

So that was chapel and breakfast. Then I worked on a couple more videos that will hopefully be posted before Brazil. I have a lot of homework and stuff to do, but I need to get ahead of the game on the videos before Brazil as well. Then we had nioquis for lunch which are like little potato/pasta/dumpling things with like spaghetti meat sauce and as all things that Raquel makes, were delicious! I have tried a lot more foods here mostly because Raquel makes them and I have no choice but to eat them. But it's fairly easy because Raquel is an AMAZING cook. She's creative and frugal but like gourmet, y'all, not kidding!

Then we had biochem! Hip hip hurray... and then we got two hours before our next class because we had a special guest. His name was Bruno, I think, and he told us the early history of Uruguay. For our Latin American Culture course, we have read a lot about the larger countries like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru, so it was good to hear about Uruguay.

After an hour of that, we got ready and went to hear a presidential candidate speak. We got there early and I got to sit by a nice lady from church named Pricilla. She talked to me a lot about their politics and this candidate and different things. Then she asked me to explain our bi-partisan system and the tenants of Democrats and Republicans and I was really intimidated. I did my best and then tapped my poli-sci friend on the back and had her turn around and help me.

Lacalle is the presidential candidate for the Blanco (white) or Nacional party. He was accepting some documents from a group of union workers that had come up with some ideas for him. Because it was all in like formal and fast Spanish, I didn't understand everything but that wasn't the main point. The funniest thing I have seen during my stay here in Uruguay, is how the presidential candidate looked horrifically bored while the people were talking to him. He was bouncing his pen, tapping his nose with it, folding up his nametag and playing with it, doodling and other funny things. He was totally zoned out! If Obama or McCain had done that at a public hearing the month of the election, they would have been taken off the campaign trail. It was funny though.

Afterwards we got to meet both Lacalle and his vice-presidential candidate and that was really interesting. Lacalle has already been president of Uruguay once, and is running for his second term. Apparently, here in Uruguay, presidents are elected for one five year term and there is no consecutive re-election. However, like Lacalle, you can run again in five or ten years depending on if you take one, two or more terms off. Also, they must be elected by more than a 51% majority of popular votes. The polls right now are saying that there will have to be a run-off between the two most popular candidates, Mujica and Lacalle, because they have no chance of getting 51% with independents not voting. Anyway, more on that later this month when the elections take place!

A P-chem test tomorrow and Brazil on Friday! Thanks for reading!

Recovery from BA

This week has been overshadowed with tiredness from our trip to BA. We got back late Tuesday night and grabbed some pizza and went to bed. Castrobo's, our favorite pizzeria, is almost always open, which is convenient for late night snackages. Wednesday, we had class for most of the day. But in the afternoon the few of us here who are pre-health majors got to go help out at a local clinic which was amazing. We got to help med students take notes and weigh people and such for a heart-healthy prevention event just down the street. I got to learn some new Spanish vocab like hipertensión and glicemia (which mean what you think they do, hypertension and glucose level). It was a great opportunity to see cross-cultural medicine and how globalized medical practices and standards are.

Then Thursday, we had class and then Spanish in the afternoon. Our teacher gave us a TON of homework to do in Spanish and we started learning a new tense. My Spanish has been kind of off for a couple of days. I think it is most fatigue. I am also in the phase of cultural adjustment that the newness of the language has worn off so I am finding that I am getting a bit lazy about using it. I need to concentrate more on taking advantage of this opportunity to learn.

Thursday night, Linley and I led another conversation club at the Alianza and it was fun again. We talked about Uruguay, Argentina, and the States. I love talking with them and seeing them try so hard to learn and understand English. They really work hard!

Today I mostly wasted the day uploading pictures and catching up on some homework. We have started a tradition of cooking all together on Friday nights. Allie cooked this week and we had orange chicken and fried rice that was really good! I made some "dirt" and banana pudding for everyone. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I had it tonight. It reminded me a lot of home.

Anyways, no big plans this weekend besides planning our trip to Chile and getting ready to go to Brazil! Thanks for keeping up!

Buenos Aires: Part II

Alright, so we left off with Saturday night at the tango show. Sunday morning we woke up, packed our backpacks and took the subway to another part of BA. The city is huge. We took the subway called the "Subte" and I felt like I was in NYC or Boston again. We went to church and met three girls that go to Pepperdine that are studying abroad in BA. They were nice. The church that we went to was bigger than ours. We enjoyed fellowship for a while and then had service. The song leader was good and reminded me somewhat of my brother. After that we went to the English class to help them out by having another few English speakers. It was so odd to hear people that weren't in our group speaking English. It's like the only place that we expect to hear English is with each other and when someone else speaks it, it is very exciting. Then we hung out and played ping-pong and fusbol with the youth of the church for a while. After that we walked to a bus station and all took the bus to the mall. That was the last activity that we all did together until getting on the bus on Tuesday afternoon!

That night, Amber, Josh, Amanda, Jaimie, Dara, Rachel, Matt and I went to a live jazz concert at a restaurant/coffee shop/book store that was really cute. The performer sang half her concert in English and half in Spanish. She sounded perfect when she was singing but when we met her afterwards she said she only spoke a tiny bit of English. I suppose its like learning to sing in Latin, Italian, or German for us, we are taught to pronounce it right to sing but don't really know what we are saying. The contrabase player was rather fond of eyeing Amber and I at our table, but never did anything about it. Thank goodness!

Monday morning it was my birthday and we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast. Everyone here was super nice and remembered and everything. They have like sweet cresant things here called "media lunas" which are absolutely to die for. I had two on my birthday because I like to get what I want on my birthday. Then Autumn and Joyce and I took a stroll down Florida street which is a major pedestrian street with lots of shops and such. Then everyone met at La Boca for my birthday lunch. Matt, Linley, and Dara and I went off to look for a restaurant that would give us a good deal and seat all 19 of us. We were greeted on the street and talked to a guy for a while. He told us that he would give us drinks, starters, and an entree for 40 pesos, which is like US$8 which is great! So we did that. They also had a live tango show and dancing gauchos (like cowboys). I got to sit right by the stage and then they played "Happy Birthday" and sang in Spanish and I got to get pictures with all of them. So much fun! La Boca has so many bright and wonderful colors and the neighborhood just screams, "Kate!" After that we walked around and shopped. Taylor, Rachel, Autumn, Joyce, and Matt stayed with me most of the day.

We then went to the Recoletta Cemetery. I know it's a bit odd on my birthday, but the place is interesting and beautiful. There were so many statues and amazing things to see. The mausoleums are all super individuals. They have religious and blatantly anti-religious, like Masons and such buried there. Some of them we looked in went down like 2 stories at least and would have HUGE families buried in them.

After that we walked to the huge flower and hung out there for a while. Then we walked to the English tower (a clock tower that was a gift to Argentina, pre-Falklands War). It was about a two mile walk, but in the direction of our hotel, so we just enjoyed the cool but pretty weather that way. After that, we walked back the hotel and I got to take a 2 hour nap. I know you are thinking that this was a waste of time on my birthday, but we had been going so hard the whole time that I really needed it.

Taylor, Rachel, and Allie came and woke Linley and I up after that and we met Matt and Amber for dinner. After that we went and got ready (a little bit cuter) and went to a concert thing. The band only like warmed up at the time that they were supposed to start, and started at 12:30AM (two hours late). We played some games to pass the time and I got to bond better with the group. It was great! That was it for my birthday, but it was seriously one of the most amazing days of my life to date. Stack that on top of emails and facebooks from friends and family and you just can't get any better (besides actually being with my family).

Tuesday, we got up about the same time and took the subway to the Japanese gardens (shout out Bethany Newman). The gardens were beautiful. There were amazing water features and flowers and trees. It was very relaxing. Autumn, Matt, Joyce, and Abel and I ended up being in a group and it was really fun.

After lunch at a restaurant called Kentucky Pizza and decorated with horse racing things, we went to the zoo. First of all, for like US$5 we got to see all of the exhibits including the special ones. Right when we walked in, we decided that we needed a bucket of food for the animals and we were so glad we had it. First of all, there were these like giant water rats/beaver/otter/webbed-toed things that were cute until you got up close. They would come right up to you and try to eat out of your hand or bucket. Then there were these like rabbit/deer/dog things that also came right up to you. Then there were two peacocks (shout out Norris family) and then we got to the animals in cages!

There were so many things. GIANT snakes and turtles (one turtle smiled for my picture) and alligators. Penguins, sea lions, fish, sharks, and a lion fish. Followed by wolves (long-legged fox according to Matt), tapirs, deer, goats, cows, monkeys (a baby monkey!), white and yellow tigers, lions (one looked like Scar with a black mane), antelopes, prong-horns, guineas, chickens, donkeys, hyenas, hippos (we sang the song), birds, spiders, butterflies, llamas (comó se llama, llama? lol.) capybaras, ant-eaters, giraffes, camels (one had two humps), and more! I had never seen most of the animals. We spent all afternoon there and I would have loved to have had more time there. We got to feed basically everything even the sea lions!!!! It was the best zoo ever!!!!!!

So then we got on the bus to the boat to the other bus. The boat ride was really rough on the way back. I was trying to read, but I started to get a little nauseated which is odd because I don't get motion sick ever. Then we got on the two-hour bus ride back to Montevideo. This was amazing because we could see the stars because we were driving through the country. I thought about the stars in Samoa and got to see the Southern cross again, the first time since I have been here!

I got a little sleep on the bus, but I was ready to get back to my home away from home (Casa ACU). Overall, we decided that BA is great for visiting, but Montevideo is better for living because it is smaller, slower paced, less tourist oriented, and well, home...for now!

Buenos Aires: BRILLIANT and AMAZING!

So! I have quite a lot to dish on this week. We left for Buenos Aires on Friday morning. We stopped in a place a long the way that is where a world famous collector has several of his collections. They also make jam out of everything there! Then we went on to Colonia de Sacremento, Uruguay. It is a little cute town with lots of shopping and a lot slower pace than the city. We walked around and climbed around on the old walls and such for a while.

Then we went the rest of the way to BA on the ferry. The bridge between BA and Uruguay has been closed and is still closed so we took the BuqueBus which is a ferry and a bus all in one. Ben and Autumn and I had a lot of fun on the bus. We got to BA and went to our hotel. After a while, we went to a restaurant and got some Argentine pesos out of the ATM thing. The charge said that it was $11.55 to get money out but then we discovered that it was in pesos which means it was like US$3 which is pretty normal.

The next day we went on a tour of the city with our personal tour guide named Angeles. She was great. We took lots of pictures. We went to the Plaza de Mayo which has the famous "pink house" and quite a few monuments. Then we went to the cathedral where San Martín, the liberator of Peru, Chile, and Argentina, is buried. Then we went to La Boca. This was a place that was build to be basically slums, but then a man came a long and decided that just because they were poor didn't mean their houses had to be sad. So they got lots of different colors of really bright paints of all colors and made it look more cheerful. Then the tourists liked the colors, so it has turned into quite the tourist destination with lots of restaurants and shops and all that kind of stuff. I think my mom would really like it too. It was my favorite place in BA.

After that, we went across town to Recoletta, which is home to the giant cemetery with Evita's grave. Eva Perón is the famous wife of a president of Argentina and the title star of the musical Evita. There were so many beautiful graves and statues and all that. The graves are all like mini-building mausoleums with like layers and layers of caskets stories down. Then there was a market that we walked through and I bought a cute artsy painting thing. Then we went to the fine arts museum that had like Picasso, Monet, Rembrant, and Van Gogh. Upstairs was all South American art. Autumn and I had a lot of fun narrating each piece and it took us about two and a half hours to get through most of it.

Then my group of Taylor, Linley, and Abel walked around the market again and I got a ring (something I had been wanting since I got here) and its super cute. That night we got dressed up and went to a tango show. The food was great and the dancers were fun too. It was a great but long day.

I am going to cut myself off there and tell about Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the next post mostly because I need to go to bed. I can't wait to get yall updated on the rest. Check back soon!

Teatro Solís

Hello Readers?... Come in?... I can (schhhhh) hear you... In a (schhhh) tunnel... come in?...

That is my subtle way of reminding you that I cannot indeed read your thoughts as you read my blog, so I would love to have some comments and/or votes on the poll to let me know that there are people out there still. :)

Anyway, yesterday was a great day for us here in Montevideo. We started off the day with another wonderful breakfast of eggs, bacon, fried banana bread things, and coffee, etc. and were ready for the day. Then we had chapel and our family meeting where we talked about our upcoming trip to Buenos Aires. We are going to be there from this Friday through Tuesday of next week. Although it is not very far away physically, it is a whole other country so things like customs and passports and such do come into play. We are going to see most of the big sights and have some good times with the whole group, and then have some free time on Monday (my birthday) and Tuesday morning until we load up to come home. I am sadly going to be out of touch during that time because I am not going to bring my MacBook along for the ride.

After chapel, I went on a little adventure to get some accessories and such for the our night at the theater. I got some tights to wear with my dress, a flower for my hair, and some earrings that were pretty exciting. All for about US$11. Better than Walmart, definitely a further walk though. When I got back, I had some down time/study time for our Biochemistry test tomorrow and then ate lunch. After Biochem, we had our culture class and had a guest speaker. This man is a sociologist here in Montevideo, but got his doctorate at the University of Texas in Austin and lived there for 3 years. He related some of the cross-cultural differences that he felt while he was there. That was a really cool reflection of some of the things that we are experiencing and some of the opposite. One thing that he talked about was how all of the girls in Texas smile at you and are helpful to you even if they are not interested in you romantically. We laughed at this because our reaction is, "Why not smile and help and laugh?" which was the question in the first place, just in reverse. He was really nice and interesting and provided great insights into our culture and his own.

After that we had about an hour to get dressed up to go see the philharmonic here in Montevideo at the famous Teatro Solís. It is downtown off the big Independence Square Plaza. After a few pictures, we got into groups. No one volunteered when Wimon said he needed a group of three, so I just got the tickets and Matt and Jaimie followed. When we got to the doors, they directed us upstairs and then to this lady who would seat us. We walked down this hall, not knowing where we were until we got to these sweet little double doors. We had our own little balcony with three seats! It was so beautiful inside that Jaimie was almost in tears. We sat down and then a few minutes later, we realized that another part of our group was directly across from us in the balcony opposite ours! Naturally, we goofed off with pseudo-sign language until it started.

The lights went all the way down and it was amazing. The orchestra was quite good and nothing sounded overly-Latin until the pieces after the intermission. They were talented artists though. The building and the music were beautiful and I was thinking how impressed I would be if a guy tried to pull this off as a date. In that moment, it was brought to my attention why that would not happen. Matt leaned over and said, "Let's play a game. It's called Find-All-of-the-old-guys-that-are-asleep. I already got five!" Oh boys! So ridiculous! Anyway, we played the game and I think I got up to 11 before a major crescendo woke most of them up.

During intermission, I walked around the theater to stretch my legs and talk to Taylor, but when I opened the doors to our little compartment to get out, the little old lady sitting in the next balcony over, exclaimed all in Spanish something about how beautiful and angelic I looked. I kind of nodded and walked on. But after the performance, I learned that she was not quite done. She leaned over to talk to Matt (picture to right: Matt in a body guard seat) about how pretty and precious and what my name was and if I was Uruguayan and all this stuff. She relived the moment that I walked out of the doors and kept going on and on and on. She even reached over to touch my cheek at one point. We just nodded and such and then she finally finished and walked off. Then the lady behind her quietly said, "I don't know her." It was really funny. Especially when the second lady was like, "I don't know her." Anyways!

We walked home and about halfway back, we got ice cream at La Cigale, my new obsession. It is amazing. Overall, though, the night was just amazing. I needed something really fun and upbeat and it was definitely that!

Thanks for reading and hope to hear from you soon.

¿Qué pasa?

As you can see from my crafty title, I have spent the last four days trying to learn keyboard tricks to make my learning experience more fun and to become an international MAC citizen by learning cool things. ¿No?

Anyways, this week has been uneventful and very eventful all at the same time. It has been up and down and up again which is good. Always good to end the weekend on a good note.

Friday was a pretty basic day with P.Chem having been moved to the morning. That afternoon we ventured to the Montevideo Shopping Mall to go to a store called "Tienda Igelsa" to see what the "American store" was really like. "¿What was it like? ¿You ask?" (Obnoxious yet?) Well, fine readers it was like a small disorganized and downsized Walmart. Full of the basic scurrying Walmart shoppers going around and disorganizing it further.

Lauren cooked a fine dinner for us of this Mexican casserole stuff that was delicious. We milled around and played games and watched a movie that night after a trip to the gym. We went to Este's fighting class. Oh wait, that was really funny. All the guys decided that they needed to come see what the fun stuff was about, so they all came to fight class. It really was a good time. They were so hilarious to watch. Ben (the tall one) was right behind me and decided it would be fun to try to punch around my head (really long arms). So he did and it worked for a little while. Eventually though, he did clip my head a bit and backed off. We joked about it for the rest of the night. It was fun to have them there and smirk as they grimaced because the work-out was hard! Yes!

Anyways, Saturday was awesome for the most part! We went ice-skating after sleeping in. Herman, a Uruguayan guy that wanted to practice his English, took us. There was a little rink on the almost top floor of a parking garage. The skates that I got really hurt my feet. They were like the old leather kind and everyone else had like rollerblade looking ones. I was the cutest for sure, but they didn't have like any ankle support so I was quite cautious, having weak ankles to begin with. It was still fun though.

Today was a day of church, homework, rest, relaxation, more homework, and more church. We went to a new place for lunch and I had some pasta that was pretty good, but better tonight when I ate the other half with some cheese on top. :) We have a Biochem test coming up so most energies are focused on that. We leave for BA on Friday morning and we are celebrating my birthday on Thursday with a lunch and a cake! Hurray for being 20!

I can't wait to have more to talk about! Thanks for the support and comments and voting on the poll!

Super Sketchy Shot Shack

This article is dedicated to my darling and dainty Deb Strickland and punctual but perfect Phyllis (should I have used functional and fabulous Phyllis?):

Why hello fine and fabulous readers! In order to entertain myself this cool and comfortable evening. I am going to try to use as many alluring alliterations as available in my refined and reputable vocabulary. First I should share with you our super sketchy shot shindig this morning at the dull, dark, and daunting docks of Montevideo. We hopped abroad a big, bulky, brassy bus and headed down to the Port of Montevideo where there was waiting a ominous and open door into a shady and shallow room on which the next door said something like "Department of Epidemiology." Upon our abrupt arrival at said painted port of entry, we whistled and wandered as we waited for the door to be open. A wise and willful woman of short stature appeared to warn us of the clear and clever contraindications and we were urgently ushered into the next room. After the miniscule and musical man sang aloud our private passport numbers in super-speedy Spanish, I walked to the wise and willful doctor woman to have my arm poked, pinched, and purified before the short and stinging shot. Thankfully the stinging was indeed short although I found it funny to feign illness as I stood up. Boy did I give my dear and darling director quite a furious but fleeting fright. We bumbled and boarded the running and roaring bus and headed to the Brazilian consulate where we were brave but bored to again reluctantly release our private passport numbers and simply super and suave signatures. When the legal letter regarding our extravagant exit from said country was daringly denied, we bumbled aboard the bus again and came clucking to our comfy and cosy casa. (Is it cheating if I use some sparing Spanish?)

Leading up to our lovely and luscious lunch of cheeky and chunky cheery chicken, I slaved and slumped over my hounding hemorrhage of homework. After said delicious and delightful delicacies, I woefully walked to my terrifying and tormenting teacher of Spanish. However, the mad and mastering maestra (teacher in spanish) was sadly sick and henceforth absent from said class. But we were willingly taken in by such a bearded and bounding teacher that you can't even imagine. Señor Mumbly-Mustache was vast and reminded me of a cheery and chipper chap known as St. Nicholas.

After three taunting and tantalizing hours of torture, we retreated to our healthy and hallowed haven. But it was not long after that that I was surprisingly summoned to the attractive and alluring Aliansza to lead a enchanting English conversation club for Uruguayos to learn English. We had tons of terrific laughs and long language conversations about what it is like to love and lose yourself whilst language learning. Oh the striking similarities and daunting disillusionments we came clambering to throughout the tough but tender conversation. Likewise on the boisterous bus to our humble haven once more, we met another mustached man who spoke our elegant and endearing English we miss so much. Finally at the end of the long and lumbering day, I am slyly sitting here, in my chair (rhyme, eh?) chatting and chalking out what will the be the chipper conclusion of this long-winded and lovely lecture. So I suppose the taunting terminus of this timid talk is teaming with curiosity of what the next post will hold. But surprises would be merely prizes without the sur of the sulky south making them much more. So thus I end, be gallant in your greenhouses and brave in your barns, be swift as the slumbering sea, and clever as the cow's calf. And remember thus: An essay drenched in daring yet alluring alliterations is worth every slipping single second it takes to compose and conclude.

Expo Prado

That's right boys and girls! Gather around to hear about the annual round up of cowboys and indians, minus the indians and change the name of the cowboys to Gauchos. Yesterday, we took a stroll in the park in a part of town called Prado to check out what all the fuss was about.

After a long bus ride through the city, we arrived at the bus stop right in front of the Presidential Palace. No one was home though, for two reasons. First of all, President Vasquez does not live there. He refused to move in there when he was elected. He remains in his private residence. Secondly, Vasquez was in Washington, D.C., this week to meet with Secretary Clinton. They had a brief press conference that you can find online easily (link below). I am glad that they decided to keep being friends (not that there was any doubt).

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/09/129227.htm

We walked a short way through a mainly residential area and entered the Expo for about US$5. Then we got to walk around and see different animals and gauchos all around. They had things to buy and snacks and all. They even had little exhibits from other countries such as China, Mexico, Argentina, and more. It was really interesting. In the middle there was a show ring where when we walked through they were showing wooly sheep and GIANT bulls. We saw them prepping the bulls and it was really funny. They hairspray them and fluff up their tails and wash and comb them up until the minute they walk into the room. I got some pictures of them just because they were so giant.

We also found a section with goats and some adorable baby goats, two barns of sheep, a barn of milk cows, and a barn of horses. Most of the horses were already gone, but I got to make friends with a couple of them. They were gorgeous!

We got there about 2PM and a bit after 5 we realized how late it was beginning to get and that we should get home to do some homework. We did and after a quick bite of left-overs I spent several hours studying. At one point there were like 7-8 of us up in the loft studying which is basically our whole class. The studying didn't stand a chance for that long so I retreated to my room.

I will admit that I got a bit caught up in talking to people in Abilene and such last night and didn't get very much sleep. Possibly because of that and new allergens that bloomed this week (after all, it is spring here) I am not feeling so well today. I got up and had some breakfast and then slept all morning. Then I went to lunch and class and then back to sleep. I woke up around 5 and had dinner and watched a movie, but I am tired again. Please pray that I am not really getting sick (a couple of bugs have been going around here in the house). I hope to be feeling better and rested tomorrow.

Tomorrow, speaking of, we are going to get our shots for yellow fever and visas for Brazil! One good thing is balanced by a bad thing. That's okay though. Just an update for all of you faithful readers, I did go and get my laundry today and it was safe. I love the smell of the laundry here and the fact that I don't have to do it! :)

Blessings on your weeks!

Are you or have you ever been associated with the Nazi gobernment of Germany?

Turns out that the back of the visa application for the country of Brazil is thoroughly entertaining! We filled the application out yesterday in international studies to be able to turn them in when we go on Thursday and it was quite exciting. As for the whole, am I a Nazi question, I am not, but significant doubt might be cast on that statement because of questions 13, 14 and 15 which were hair, eye, and skin color. The answers "blonde, blue, and fair" might earn me another glance when it gets to question 35 but who knows. We'll cross our fingers and hope that I am not the first Aryan person to apply for a travel visa. After all, I did say I would be there for only 7 days, so hopefully they would acknowledge the minimal possibility of forming the Fourth Reich in Brazil in that time period. Anyway!!

I am still here in Montevideo, for all of you who are curious. Yesterday was thoroughly uneventful. I didn't even follow through with plans to go take my laundry in. Thankfully, I corrected that error this morning and now have a pink slip of paper with a big 58 on it to remind me to pick up laundry tomorrow. Somehow, the lack of clothes in my closet leads me to believe I would forget. However, she did think that my name is Catalina, so I'm hoping no giant salad dressing bottles go in and steal my laundry based on the fact that my name is written on said bottle. However, the likelihood of me giving my pink number 58 to the aforementioned bottle leads me to believe that my t-shirts and other clothes are indeed safe. Anyway!!

Autumn and I went to the gym for Step Class last night and my favorite teacher, Bruno taught. Besides being tragically handsome and built, he has a tattoo on his right arm that looks Samoan. For this reason, we called him "Sam" until we found out that his name is Bruno. We do get an undue amount of attention from him because we are so bad, but we smile anyway. I can't decide if he likes us or hates us. I seem to get called out by his eyes all the time for being off step, but I don't mind. ;) Autumn and I got chased after on the street last night by this guy that had whistled as we walked by. We were scared until we realized that it was Wimon who had been in line for the ATM. We scolded him for scaring us. Anyway!!

That's about all I got for today. Watch my videos that I made about the Estancia this weekend and the one about the Legislative Palace if you haven't already! Thanks for the support and comments!

Adventures in Uruguay: Estancia

Estancia and Weekend Number 2

Wow! So much has happened, yet again. You guys just can't imagine how many hillarious and fun things happen in a day to wear me out so much as to not be able to blog about it. This group of students is so much fun and already so special to me. You can't imagine the bonds and friendships that we are making on a daily basis. Well, Friday was fairly un-eventful as days go. I did homework and watched a couple of movies, our new favorite past time. That night we went to fight class after a home-made dinner of Thai curry from Allie, one of the students here with me. Fight class and curry were an interesting combination, but it was really delicious and fight class was really fun. I learned how to do one of those like jumping, mid-air kicks. I'm not very good, but getting better. That night we watched Eagle Eye with Shia LaBouf. Excellent movie even if the acting is not up to par for every minute.Saturday was a very exciting day. We went to an estancia, which is like a ranch. After about an hour long bus ride, we got there and had some free time to walk around and take pictures. I am hoping to have a slideshow up soon for all of you non-facebook-ers. PS I respect you, non-facebook-ers.

For lunch we had a grilled meal called an asado. There was like beef and chorizo (sausage) and blood sausage (gross) and peppers and more. It was great. The bread was really good. Of course, as all good meals in Uruguay go, there was ham and cheese included in the deal. There were also delicious tomatoes. For desert it was like a sweet crepe filled with dulce de leche and topped with ice cream. Amazing!

After lunch, we went to the pens with the different animals and got to feed them. It was like being at May Farm all over again learning the names of the animals hands on. There were geese and turkeys and ducks and a dog named Pedro and sheep and cows and horses! I don't remember all of their Spanish names, but it was fun getting to pretend that we are four or five-years-old again. Jaimie and I even got to feed a baby cow a bottle of a liter of milk. It was only two days old and precious!

(See picture) After the feeding of the animals, we went on a ride on a trailor thing behind a tractor. It was like a hay ride but without the hay, for which I am grateful. We saw a little baby lamb too (I realize the phrase is redundant)!

After our ride we went into a like 19th century train car that would have been like a first class car with sleeping quarters and a bathroom. Built inside of the car was a giant model train station complete with working train and lights. It was a replica of the train station in Montevideo at that point in time. The lady from the Estancia played a track thing that explained more about the replica, but it was in Spanish and my Spanish was already used up for the day. There was still one car that was intact and that was cool to see what travel in a train would be like for days on end. Crazy stuff!

Right after that we went to the horse pen and split up into three riding groups. My group was first and so we mounted the half-dead creatures and took off at an alarmingly slow speed. The horses were basic trail horses that went on the same trail 14,000

times a day and were not in great shape to begin with. I think they have been trained not to respond to stimulation at all so that new riders won't confuse them. Too bad for me though. Mine's name was Sweet Potato and Matt named his, "Wow I'm Stupid." His horse didn't like him very much.

After that we had tea time on the ranch which consisted of coffee with milk, a cookie, and three little baby croissants. It was great, but after the big lunch I wasn't very hungry. Right as we were finishing our lunch, the lady told us that she was going to go milk a cow, but when we got out there to see, it was like an automated pump thing, not really her milking a cow. Sad day.

We got back on the bus to go home, full of lunch, coffee, cookies, and experiences. I was a real American and listened to my iPod for a while and most of us fell asleep. Listening to Spanish and being up and around all day are exhausting for college kids, anyone I would imagine.

As we were riding along happily, getting close to home, one of our tires like had a blow out so we got delayed. Everyone was safe; it was just a loud noise and about a thirty minute wait. When we got home, Matt, Jaimie, Amanda and I got out to look for some food. They found some (I was still full) and then we watched Aladdin. I made the mistake of drinking mate (the communal pass around drink stuff) with Matt throughout the whole movie, so naturally when I was ready to go to bed I was like on crack. I didn't sleep too well last night because of that.

Today we just went to church and then went book shopping at the street market thing. I found some really cool old-looking books, but didn't want to put any of them in my suitcase, so I didn't buy anything. I am looking forward to our 9 O'Clock service tonight with our group. Matt, Abel, Wimon, and I are the planning committee for the Sunday night services. I find that being on that committee reminds me of my chaplain duties last year at school and I really like that.

Anyways, looking forward to a non-eventful and mate-free night! :P

New Video! LP in Montevideo!

Here's the brief history of the Legislative Palace in Uruguay!

Aerobica!!

Hey y'all. It just felt so good to say that. Sometimes I miss English. I mean I speak in English most of the time at the house when I am talking to other students, but we are using more and more Span-glish as the time goes on.

Today was a lovely day here in Montevideo. It was a little cold but not unbearable. We got up this morning and had PChem and then I had some free time to do homework and clean up and such. I sat in my room drawing molecules for Biochem for like an hour. What a glorious life I lead. :)

This afternoon we found out that we didn't have Spanish class today because our teacher was sick. In the hospital to be precise, but we don't know what is going on with her. Please pray that she is okay and that it is not a serious condition. Without Spanish this afternoon or our special class tomorrow, I don't have class until Monday afternoon! It's crazy to have this much free time and I am not used to it.

I don't go out alone into Montevideo because we were cautioned against it, so when just about everyone else is in class, I use the time to study so that I can go out when everyone else wants to.

This afternoon, Josh and I went out to a Pentecostal church to do some research for our religion project. We walked in and it was very strange. The pastor was just praying out loud at the front (in Spanish of course) and various people walked in. One lady came and talk to us, but I didn't understand very much of what she was saying. I told her that we are from the States and were here to study in Montevideo and she welcomed us, but then took her seat again. It was an interesting experience for sure.

Then tonight, Dara, Linley and I went to the gym for our aerobics class and it was exciting again. The music is like pumping and they are so enthused that you want to do your best for them because they are so excited. Val, the instructor remembered me from last week and came up and tried her English on me. It was great. She's super nice and really likes us. I told her that there were only the three of us tonight and she looked sad. She asked like, "Where are some the others?" and I tried hard to slow my English down for her, but we have some give and take with language. It's fun to have someone try hard to speak English as you are trying hard to speak Spanish to them.

After workout, we grabbed some pizza at Castrobo's near Casa and came home to eat it. A little while later, Taylor, Abel, Matt, Josh, Allie, Joyce, Karoline, Rachel and I watched The Fern Gully and laughed a lot.

Tomorrow, again, I have no class! But I do have to get up at 8 to help with breakfast, but then I can sleep and do homework all day! Sounds delightful doesn't it.

It's a funny thing studying abroad. Mostly because the studying makes it hard to be abroad and the being abroad makes it hard to study. There is this tension and this line of engagement in studies and engagement in class that is hard to walk. I think I am walking it well so far, I just hope that the pressure in my classes is not too inversely proportional to the amount of cultural engagement I dive into. I beg your indulgences, I can only do so much PChem in one day without it getting to other areas of my brain.

PS I have a good video that I want to put up, so look for that coming soon!

So much to write about...so little time!

It's been such an amazing couple of days since I last wrote. Knock on wood, I am really hitting my stride here and having a great time doing it.

Yesterday, we had class (pchem) and then I did some homework. After an amazing lunch, once again, I had class at the Catholic University and had a fairly good day for my Spanish. I have found once again that my language ability to comprehend and respond in one fluid motion, so to speak, comes and goes. One day I will be blabbing along and the next day it's like someone has come in with a lasso and tied my tongue to the top of my mouth, nothing makes sense and even less comes out. I hope that tomorrow is a good day because we have to go back to the University.

Then last night we had to do some research for our religion project and it was interesting. We are finding churches in the area and having a hard time doing that. But we will get it done, well, we have to by Friday!

Then today before class we went to the Alianza which is like an learning place for Uruguayos to learn about American language and culture. We have a chance to volunteer to lead groups and help out there this semester. I was really impressed with the place and think I will go back this semester to check it out a little more.

Then on the way back from the Alianza, we passed a street vendor that was selling jerseys for the Uruguayan team that we were going to see today. So Abel, Allie, and I got a jersey each and we were so excited to wear them to the game.

But before the game we went to the legislative palace where the Senate and the House meet. There was a wonderful library and it was absolutely beautiful. It is all basically made out of marble and granite. It was designed by an Italian architect and finished in 1825. It was not just build, but I want to say sculpted because it was so beautiful inside. The intricacy of the building and the fixtures was unsurpassed by most of the things that I have seen in the world. Pictures will be better on facebook because I had to turn my flash off and didn't get very good pictures at all.

After our tour we got in a taxi, 4 at a time and went down to the stadium! We got there quite early, but we took pictures and it was good to have a bit of down time. The game started and it was fairly quiet, but as the match went on it got a bit crazier. I loved the songs and chants (most of them) and got some video recording that might or might not make it up on the internet, depending on my free time and homework in the next couple of weeks. When the sun went down it got pretty cold. The tights, jeans, long sleeve t-shirt, jersey, sweatshirt, wind-breaker, gloves, scarf, and hat were all essential and didn't feel like enough some times. It was so much fun though. I hope to make it to some other game this semester, but we will see. Really, I wasn't expecting to enjoy actually watching the game but it was fun. The fans made the whole experience though!

Today was such a full day and I am excited to be able to share it with you. We get to have a bit more sleep tomorrow because our chapel/family meeting was cancelled! Hurray! I have a lot of Spanish homework to do (hurray for two two-hundred word essays) and some P.Chem to check for tomorrows class. I hope this finds you all well and happy. Thanks for the support and comments!

Tango Tango Tango

Today was quite interesting. I had to get up for the chapel and family meeting this morning and then I went back to bed because we didn't get into bed until quite late last night. Well, honestly, we were in bed, but we didn't go to sleep until well, late.

So after I woke up for the second time, I got ready and did homework because I don't have class on Monday morning. I knew at that point that the house smelt really good, but I didn't realize the whole scope of what was taking place in the kitchen. Raquel, our cook that just got back from a vacation in Texas, was cooking fajitas! It was amazing! We had guacamole and salsa and everything! You might be asking, aren't those everywhere? But no. I am not in Mexico, spicy food is unheard of here. It's good, but not spicy. So it was good to have a little burn in my mouth.

Then I went to biochem and international studies where we talked about the conquest of the Americas and all that jazz. It is a really sad story the way that the author in our textbook paints it. Sure it was a great thing for Europe but for the people's here, not so much.

We had a little break and then the real party began. We had our tango lesson! First we sat down and heard the history of it and that was interesting. The place of birth of the famous Charles Gardel, the first man who recorded a tango, is disputed between France, Argentina, and Uruguay, so we obviously learned the Uruguayan version of the story. Then we learned the walk of the tango, then the steps, then the embrace or the position and then we put it all together. What was ACU thinking? You might ask, well, this is a big part of their culture and honestly, the way that the arms are connected, you have room for another invisible person in the position. Wimon told us to "leave room for Jesus." We all danced together and there were a couple more Uruguayan guys to help out originally 2-1 Girls to guys ratio.

We went out for empanadas afterword, took a couple of videos, and Matt and I drank some mate. That stuff has like caffeine or something in it because it keeps me up. Taylor isn't going to let me have any after nine o-clock in the future so that I can get more sleep. The thing is that is a social sharing thing. You just pass it back and forth and enjoy it cup by cup. That's not good because you never know just how much you are having!

Oh well, I may be up for a while, but it was a good night!

El Fin de Semana

(P.S. For all your North Americans reading this, the title means "The Weekend.") Entonces...

I didn't realize that it had been so long since I had written. So we will start with Friday. Friday, I didn't have class, so I got up about 11:00AM. Which was lovely. I did some Physical Chemistry homework and chilled up in the TV loft until people got out of class. Then we had lunch at Casa. Since it was most inconveniently raining, we watched Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. I had never seen an Indiana Jones movie before (I know...American scandal) and I liked it. After that we took a walk around town to look for some yarn and a couple of other things. For those of you who don't know, knitting is a really good way for me to relax and get my mind off of stressful things, so I brought my needles down here, but needed some yarn. I got some beautiful, soft, fat, blue yarn for about U$S 6 and didn't realize just how much I had gotten. My Spanish ability comes and goes in waves and I had no idea how much I was getting for my money. ANYWAYS...

We then took a walk over to the Catholic University where some of us take Spanish. When we got there we saw some signs for an audition, we figured we would check it out. The sign said they needed actors, so we stopped by. We talked to them for a while and found out that they were casting for three short films and that they would let us be extras. How fun is that!

After that, we walked home and chilled and watched Anastasia that night. So fun. Then we played a bit of Taboo and it was really funny. We kept trying to use the spanish words, but of course, that is illegal.

Saturday, we all slept late (lucky for me I got two days) and when we finally got up, we grabbed some lunch and started a project for our international studies course. I am assigned to a group that has to walk about the area we live in looking for churches and write essays on them. It's interesting, but our area is a little bit big, but there aren't hardly any churches to be found. We'll work more on that later. In the afternoon, some of the students, Dr. Sutherlin, and the Walkers went down to a local like art-craft-fair thing. I decided that I needed some quiet time and I was so glad that I took it. So very glad. I got to talk to my family for like over an hour and that is time that I needed too.

Then last night, we went out into the courtyard of our building and drank mate (a local coffee-like drink) and sang church songs for a long while. We had a great time harmonizing and it was just flowing. It was so cool. It's fairly cold here, so the singing, hot drink, sweatshirt, and cold air made for like the perfect night.

Today, Dara, Linley, Taylor, Lauren and I went to a Catholic Mass for church and it was really interesting. Then Linley, Taylor and I went to lunch at the pizza place that I already told you about (so delicious and cheap). Then Matt, Abel, Lauren, Ben, Taylor and Rachel and I went to the Ferreia, like a street/flea market, but it was closing down by the time we got there. Matt and I got kind of separated from the whole group and walked around and looked at books for a while. Then we took a detour on the way home to do more walking of our neighborhood for the aforementioned religion project. Matt and I get along well, so the time passed quickly.

Tonight, we had singing with the youth of the church at five, and then Josh, Dara, Linley, Lauren, Amanda, Matt, and I went out with the youth to a mall and hung out for a while. We made it back in time for our 9 o'clock worship with the whole study abroad group. We talked about hospitality and I got to think about Samoa again...ahhh...

Then some of us went out for ice cream and we have called it a night. I know there is a lot of fact and it sounds like a schedule, but most of the inside jokes we have created, my sweet readers, you would not understand. I am having the time of my life. I can't wait to come back and tell these stories, and more, in person!