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!