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!

Tan Bueno

Hola mis amigos y hermanos!

!Tuve un buen tiempo este semana porque hizo tan muchos cosas con mis amigos Americano y Uruguayos! (I have had a good week this week because I have done so many things with my American and Uruguayan friends.)

I am sorry that it has been a couple of days since I wrote. I have had so much to do and think about this week. First of all, we will start with the tour of Montevideo on Wednesday afternoon.

It was really fun, but very long. We all pilled into a bus and situated ourselves for the three hour long bus ride. I thought it was going to shorter, but it takes a lot of time to get all around the city to the different points of interest. We visited the oldest cemetery in the area, the port of Montevideo, the cerro or hill that gives Montevideo its name (monte=mountain or hill), and various monuments and famous places in the city. We got out at a couple of places, but for the most part we were on the bus. It was cold and wet outside the bus and nice and dry and warm inside the bus, so naturally, a bunch of worn out 20-somethings (or almosts) found it very difficult to stay awake for the duration of the program.

After that we booked it (got there fast) to the gym where we did step class. This was VERY difficult, not because it was in Spanish and not because I am out of shape, but just because I am not coordinated enough to do all of that. I think I liked aerobics better, but they were both challenging.

Today we got up and had chapel and talked about some more housekeeping types of things. Then our director surprised us and Rosalinda had made zucchini bread for us! So good! After physical chemistry, I did some more homework for Spanish that afternoon. After lunch, we left for the University, about a 20-25 minute walk if you are going directly. We had oral presentations today, all in Spanish. Mine was about Tom Hanks and it went really well. My teacher and I agreed that the movie, "You've Got Mail" or "Tienes Correo" was a very nice/pretty/cute movie. The word used was "lindo" that means something like a mixture of those three words. After being force fed Spanish for three hours, we went to the big nice grocery store. It has the "Imported/Foreign Food" Section so that was fun.

Tonight we had an English conversation lab thing for people at the church and it was a lot of fun. We had three Uruguayos at our table and one didn't like to speak English at all. I think in the hour we were there he said like 10 words in Spanish. They are so graceful about helping me with my Spanish. I love talking to them. After that we went out and got pizza. The whole bill, for ten of us, was something like US$17. Awesome!

Now I am chilling in my room and wondering what the fin de semana, the weekend, will hold. I don't have any classes tomorrow. I think that Abel and I are going to go shopping and to the Cambio to change money some time in the morning, but not too sure when. I hope to have more pictures after this weekend.

Love yall!

Universidad and Aerobics Fun

Hey there readers!

Thanks so much for keeping up with me. It's great to know that I have people back home cheering me on.

Yesterday was such an exciting day that I was so tired when I got home that I couldn't even keep my eyes open to write on here last night. I am also trying to keep a personal journal and that requires some discipline in itself. I started as a real foreign exchange student yesterday at the Catholic University for my intermediate Spanish class. Our teacher was quite intense. I think she said one word to us in English and that is because she slipped. There are only four students in that class, so we get to talk a lot. We read in Spanish, conversed a lot with her, and wrote and essay. We were assigned several things for homework but that is good I suppose. I am anticipating a very busy semester academically, but it's all good.

Last night we went and joined the gym that Autumn, my teacher, was a part of the last time that she was here. We went to the aerobica (aerobics) class last night and had a blast trying to figure out what was going on. The room was quite small and there were probably thirty or forty people in there doing aerobics. I ended up at the front and made less of a fool of myself than expected. It was so much fun. I think I will get better at my left and rights in Spanish for sure! I think step class is tonight and that will be even more fun than aerobics!

Today I have my first quiz in Biochem and have been studying and doing homework all morning long. After biochem this afternoon we are going on a bus tour of Montevideo which should be interesting. I am excited to see more of the city!

I would like to send a shout out to two of my best friends in the world back in Abilene: Lacy and Collin, happy 21st birthday! I am sorry I had to miss it to be here, but I love y'all and am thinking about you all day! Don't go too crazy!

I can't believe that it's already September! Crazy! Keep me in your prayers for the rest of this amazing semester in another part of God's world!