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!
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