Wind.

THE WIND HERE IS RIDICULOUS. Now, that I've expressed that sentiment, we can move on, but really. Its crazy.

Things have picked up a little bit in the past week or so.  Classes are still slow, but it seems like we're getting close to finishing the introductory bit/overview of the conquest of Latin America (aka every Croft class I've ever taken) and are about to start actually learning about Uruguay.  I like my literature class better every day. The material isn't my favorite, but our professor is adorable and every once and a while she'll make a cute joke.  My friend and I decided we're going to start taking a Portuguese class as well.  It only meets once a week, and we won't technically be enrolled in it, because its a year long class and we're only going to be here a semester.  We really just want a way to meet more Uruguayan students and integrate ourselves more into the culture here.

Last weekend was fairly busy, even though it was the first weekend I haven't traveled.  On Friday night, a group of us went to see The Hunger Games. And it was awesome. You should go see it. And read the books. On Saturday, Sarah, Brianna, and I went to La Ciudad Vieja, the oldest part of town that was originally colonized by the Spanish.  Its not the safest area of town these days, but its still very impressive. We visited all the important landmarks, la Plaza de Independencia with the huge statute of Artigas, the cathedral, the door to the city, the Fountain of Love, and several other plazas...with statutes of Artigas. They like him here. I also ate my first chivito, a type of Uruguayan sandwich. Typically, it has beef, ham, lettuce, tomato, egg, and mayonnaise, but i went for the chicken option, without mayonnaise.  As much as I want to immerse myself in the culture, I just can't jump on board with the intense love of mayonnaise. Or the love of Crocs. On Sunday, I went with Giannina (the woman with whom I live) to have lunch with her family at her father's house, which is a little bit outside the city and very pretty.  It's a rustic-style home with a big garden and patio in the back.  Her whole family was there, which I thought would be overwhelming, but they were extremely welcoming. Also in attendance were her two cousins who moved away from Uruguay when they were toddlers and now live in Miami.  We had a few North American moments.  I was also very excited, because I got to eat seafood for the first time since I've been here.  Giannina's dad made paella, a Spanish dish of seafood and rice (a little strange, seeing that their family is Italian, but I wasn't complaining).

Next week is Semana Santa or Semana de Turismo or Semana de Cerveza or Semana Criolla...you get the picture.  Its Holy Week, which means we get the whole week off of school.  Lots of people travel during Semana Santa, and there are also several festivals celebrated during the week.  I'm leaving Friday morning for Bariloche, Argentina, a small town in the Patagonia region, very close to the Chilean border.  Its referred to as the "Switzerland of Argentina."  We're hoping to do a lot of hiking and maybe some kayaking or white water rafting or horseback riding.  Our hostel offers a lot of activities.  We're going to finish the trip in Buenos Aires to celebrate the 21st birthday of one of our friends! To get to Bariloche, we have a 24 hours bus ride.  But first we have to get to Buenos Aires. For some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to choose the bus/ferry that left at 1:15 AM on Friday morning. We actually had some pretty solid reasoning behind that decision, but as it gets closer, I'm regretting it more and more. Anyway, between the 24 hour bus rides and the shared, 8-person room in the hostel, there's going to be some inevitable bonding.

The only other noteworthy thing I can think of is that the weather is changing. Today was the first chilly day we've had. The temperature was only in the 50s, I believe, but that aforementioned, god-forsaken wind makes it feel like its a lot colder.  Its gonna be a looonnnnggg winter in Montevideo, folks.

Beaches.

The past two weeks (weekends, really) have been all about the beaches. We're trying to soak up the last bits of summer before the weather gets cooler.  Two weekends ago, I went to Punta del Este.  There were six of us girls, and we all stayed with Sarah and Brianna's host family's house, which was beautiful.  Punta del Este reminded me a lot of Seaside, Florida, for those of you who are familiar with that area. The houses even have names! It's very pretty, but its very resort-y and the place where all the rich people go.  It is, however, home of Los Dedos.  Dedos means fingers in Spanish.  As you can see below, Los Dedos are giant statutes of fingers that were built to look like they are coming up out of the sand.  Very interesting.  The weekend in Punta del Este was very relaxing.  We slept in, cooked all the meals at the house, and laid around on the beach.  I got terribly sunburned, of course, but that was to be expected.

Los Dedos en Punta del Este

The trip to Punta del Diablo this past weekend was completely different.  We went as a huge group of exchange students.  Twelve of us went together on the same bus, but there was another group who went separately but stayed at the same hostel.  Our hostel was literally on the beach, which was incredibly gorgeous.  The views were unbelievable.  We arrived Friday afternoon, checked into the hostel, and hit the beach.  There weren't that many people, and the water was amazing.  That night we all hung out in the hostel, talking to the other guests and whatnot.  Sleeping in a room with 8 other people was interesting, to say the least.  We did the beach again on Saturday, then walked 4 kilometers to the bus terminal.  We got there two hours before the bus we wanted to take was scheduled to leave, because we had open tickets, and we needed to get assigned seats.  Unfortunately, the counter for our bus company was closed until 4:00, thirty minutes before the bus was leaving. We settled in for a wait.  When they opened the counter, we were told they only had 7 seats for the 10 of us who were returning that day.  In Uruguay, buses sell standing room tickets.  So we went again and all got on the bus at 4:30, agreeing to swap out seats.  Luckily, at a stop about halfway through the trip, there was another bus heading to Montevideo with open seats, and the people who were standing got to get on that bus.  

Punta del Diablo

Las chicas in Punta del Diablo

Other than traveling, I've just been hanging out, trying to get to know Montevideo better and getting a feel for my classes.  I now know how to use the bus, even though I don't know which buses goes to which places.  My classes are fairly easy, if not slightly boring.  I'm thinking they'll get better though.  The material is interesting, but right now the professors are having to be very slow and basic in their manner of speaking to make sure everyone understands them.  My goal next goal is to somehow integrate myself into Uruguayan life and make some Uruguayan friends.  I think that's my best bet at improving my Spanish.  There's only so much you can learn in a classroom.  For that reason, we've decided to stay in Montevideo this weekend and go out and try to meet people.  I'll let y'all know how that goes!

Beginnings.

Well. It has been a crazy first week in Uruguay. And it hasn´t even been a full week. I guess I should start with my plane ride from Miami. We took off about 45 minutes late, due to a guy who was thoroughly displeased with his seat and a crazy lady who was very concerned about the emergency exits. It just so happens that she was seated directly in front of me. The problem started when the flight attendant went around to everyone seated in the exit rows and asked if they spoke both English and Spanish. One man responded that he only spoke a little English, and the flight attendant said he would have to be moved. The lady in front of me took it upon herself to explain to the guy why he was being moved and ended up yelling at him in an impressive mixture of English and Spanish about how he had the responsibility to protect everyone on the plane and if he couldn´t do it then he had to move his (insert profanity here). Turns out the guy spoke English the whole time and didn´t have to move. The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. When I got to the airport, I went through customs and then went to the station where you can pay for the taxi. I paid with my card and got a receipt and a little ticket and went and got in my taxi. When we got to the house, the taxi driver, who was actually very nice, told me I had to pay him again. I didn´t have the courage or the vocabulary to refuse, so I just did it. I was too tired and anxious to really care.  That quickly became the least of my worries though.

Upon first glance, the house didn´t seem too bad...although there was no electricity. There was maintenance being done and the whole street didn´t have electricity.  Only one of the roommates was there, and he showed me the two rooms that were left.  I chose one and started unpacking, only the find that the dresser, the only piece of furniture in the room besides the bed, was broken. At that point, I was mainly concerned with letting everyone know I got there safely, so I went with Paco to find internet. On the walk back to the house, Paco told me that there was no internet in the house as promised.  He had already talked to the landlord about it, and nothing had been done. When we got back, the lights were back on, and I saw how unpleasant the place truly was. I had no pillow or towels, it was dirty, although Paco had already hired a professional to come clean, and there were bugs. I commenced to freak out. I managed to get myself to the house where my two friends, Sarah and Brianna, are living. They were still in class, but they got home soon after, and their host mom helped me. One of her friends had recently asked her if she could help her get started hosting foreign students. Laura called her, she came over to meet me and talk with me, and almost immediately Sarah and I went to pack my stuff up so I could go back with her. Her name is Giannina, and she´s 31. I now live in a neighborhood called Tres Cruces, which is really close to the university.  This is her first time hosting a student, so she and I are kinda learning the ropes together, but she has been incredible so far. Her father owns a hotel that´s right across the street, and her family all lives close by.  They have all been extremely welcoming and helpful to me.

I´m definitely missing everyone back home, and that has been tough. Its getting better though. I´m looking forward to starting class on Monday.  Also, Giannina and I had a long talk last night during which she told me she would teach me the bus system and anything else I need or want to know next week. This week has been kinda crazy because I had to settle in, and she had to get the room ready and everything. I think this is going to be my easiest semester in terms of class schedule. I don´t have class until one thirty every day and no classes on Fridays. I´m taking the recommended course load for international students, which is four class (Spanish, Uruguayan Literature, Political Processes of Uruguay, and Uruguayan Culture) and one other community service class that´s an extracurricular type thing.  All the other international students I´ve met so far have been great. There´s a good number of us from the States, but also from Mexico, Germany, France, Spain, and a few other random places. I´m looking forward to getting to know them all.

I´m going on my first excursion tonight. We´re leaving at seven thirty for Punta del Este, a beach about two hours away. Its really ritzy and resorty from what I hear. Its referred to as Uruguay´s equivalent to the Hamptons. We plan on taking advantage of the last days of summer, although we´ve been told that the weather is abnormally warm for this time of year. It may be summer for awhile.

All in all, its been a hectic, sometimes stressful week. I´m looking forward to some relaxation time on the beach! I´ll be posting again with lots of awesome pictures, I hope.

Boredom.

So I've decided to revive my blog in preparation for semester abroad in Montevideo, Uruguay.  I'm not really sure why studying abroad necessitates starting a blog, but I'm going to conform on this one.  Personally, I don't feel like many people are interested enough in my daily thoughts to read all about them, and I doubt that my thoughts will get more interesting while I'm abroad.  But hopefully I'll do some interesting things that will compensate and keep you all entertained.

This is what I know about my study abroad experience so far:
-I'm going to Montevideo, Uruguay, a city of about 1.5 million people
-I'll be studying at la Universidad Católica del Uruguay
-I've secured a room in a house in a zone of the city called Pocitos which is supposed to be a more modern, safer part of the city where a lot of young people live.  I'll have four roommates, two French and two British, guy and girl of each.  They all attend another university in the city.  The other two girls who are going from Ole Miss will be living with a host family about two blocks away.

...aaaand that's pretty much it. I leave on the March 4th and get there the next day, a full 24 hours later.  I'll make my way from the airport to my new home and then go from there.  Classes start the 12th, but we have an orientation the 7th, 8th, and 9th.  What will happen the next five months remains a mystery.

I've been at home for three months, so, as you might imagine, I have moments of extreme boredom.  Besides traveling around the state to say my goodbyes and fighting a wicked sinus infection, I've pretty much spent the majority of my time reading and playing Words with Friends on my Kindle Fire and watching unhealthy amounts of NCIS, White Collar, and (my new favorite) Downton Abbey.  This week I decided I couldn't take it anymore, so I jumped on the bandwagon with melted crayon art.  For those of you who may not know, melted crayon art is the internet's most popular craft.  People are selling their creations on sites like Etsy for $50 and $60.  So I went to Wally World and spent twenty-five bucks on my supplies.  I wanted to create a canvas that had my intial, like this

but I had difficulty getting the stencil to stay secure enough so that the wax didn't drip down behind anyway.  This has resulted in me making two ordinary pieces that I don't particularly want. If you do, let me know!  Here's a pic (not a very good one).

Besides spending an obscene amount of time perusing food blogs, that's pretty much my life right now.  It's about to change big time, though, so stick around!

Tiputini

What a weekend/week so far! I'll start with Thursday night, because that's where the weekend really began.  After a super long week of class, my fellow gringos and I treated ourselves to a night out in Quito in the Plaza Foch, or "Gringolandia" as the natives like to call it.  I actually ate in Cumbayá with my host sisters and their boyfriends/husbands. We ate at a sushi restaurant a few blocks down from the university. It was so yummy! Some of the best sushi I've ever had.  After dinner, I took a cab up to Quito and met up with my friends. We had a blast, but we didn't stay out super late, because we had to be at the university at the ungodly hour of 6:45 so we could begin our extensive voyage to the jungle.  We spent the weekend at Tiputini Biodiversity Station, a section of the Amazon that is owned by the University of San Francisco.  Its one of the few parts of the rain forest in Ecuador that is left almost completely virgin, so its very important for conservation and research.  To get there, we had to take a (very short) flight from Quito to a pueblito called Coca. Once in Coca, we got in these huge, motorized canoes and were on the water for two hours.  After that, we all crammed onto a chiva (a big open bus with benches) and rode for two more hours through land owned by an oil company.  That was the worst part, because we really didn't fit on the chiva, so we were crammed together on hard wooden seats for two hours.  Once we got through the oil company's property, we had to get back on another canoe and ride for another two hours on the Tiputini River until we finally arrived at the station.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from any sort of civilization.  The sky fell out when we were about thirty minutes from the station.  The canoes were covered, but that didn't really do much good haha. Consequently, we had quite an appropriate arrival to the rain forest.

The first night we just settled into our cabins.  There isn't much to do at night, especially after 9:30.  They only turn on the electricity for a few hours a day, and the lights all go out at 9:30.  After that, its quite dark ha.  We were all really happy at the chance to catch up on a little sleep though.  Also, we had to get up early again, because breakfast was served at 6:30.  We began our activities at 7:30.  We were separated into four groups, and we all did the same things, just a different times throughout the weekend.  I have to say I think my group got the best guide.  His name was Santiago, and he was wonderful.  He spoke to us only in Spanish, which was awesome, but he was also easy to understand, because he is Quechua and Spanish is his second language too.  He spoke more slowly and had vocabulary and grammar skills a little closer to our level.  He taught us a lot.  The first thing we did was take a walk through the jungle to the tower that let us see over the tops of the trees.  Santiago brought a telescope so we got to see lots of monkeys, a toucan, and other birds up close.  That afternoon, we took another walk to a lagoon where we paddled around in a smaller canoe and saw some different animals.  Sunday morning, we joined one of the other groups for a float down the river.  We saw more birds and monkeys, but we also saw several caymans up close.  Needless to say, we were all pretty terrified when they told us it was time to get in the water.  I was scared the entire time we were in the water haha, but nothing happened.  I think the loud group of gringos scared of all the anacondas.  Definitely a memorable experience.  That afternoon, my group went to the canopy walk, a series of bridges and platforms hundreds of feet above the forest floor. We strapped into harnesses and spent and hour seeing the forest from up above.  On the way back to Quito on Monday, we had to spend a few hours in Coca before our flight.  We ate at and outdoor restaurant that was full of exotic animals.  They had several peacocks and toucans just wandering around, turtles, guinea pigs, and really friendly monkeys.  I was absolutely thrilled, because the monkeys would come and sit on your shoulder!  All in all, the weekend was incredible.  Tiputini itself would have been enough, but we had ample opportunity to hang out and get to know each other better.  So many good memories were made this past weekend.

This week has been nuts so far. We have so much work to get done before we leave for Riobamba (Friobamba) on Friday.  Tomorrow is our last day of class at USFQ!  Unfortunately, that means we also have a killer test. I've been studying for days, and I still don't feel prepared.  I'm going to miss our professors here.  They've been really great, and they've taught us so much. I am ready for class to be over tomorrow afternoon, though, because we have a fun day planned.  We're going up to Quito again.  First, we're doing the Teleferiqo, which is this ski-lift type thing that takes you up the mountain so you can see the entire city.  Then a few other Catholics and I are going to mass at La Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus, which is the church covered in gold that we saw on the city tour.  For dinner, we're going to this seafood restaurant that is supposed to be amazing.  Its owned by the father of some of our friends' host brother.  They ate there last week, and they've been raving about it so much that we all want to go.  After dinner, we're going to go out again.  We don't have to leave for Riobamba quite as early as we did for Tiputini.  The ride to Riobamba is about six hours, I believe.  I'm not sure what all we're doing there. We're climbing Chimbarazo one day, and we have class for three days, but I think we might only be going for half a day at least one of those days.  We do have our final exams there next Thursday.  We come back on Friday, and we have Friday free, and then we leave Saturday.  My flight is super early in the morning, but I still don't get back to Mississippi until midnight.  Gonna be a long day of traveling. Its so weird to think my Latin American adventure is almost over! Its been quite the experience.  I'll save the reflecting for a post-trip blog, though.

I should get back to studying. I'll update from Riobamba!

Baños.

This past weekend was the only free weekend we're going to have in Ecuador. The rest are taken up with trips that are part of the program.  My class has been hammered with work so far, so we were extremely grateful for a chance to take a break and relax. We ended up with a group of twenty two total, so we all split a bus down to a small town called Baños, which means baths. Its named that because of the hot springs you can find at the base of the volcano, Tungurahua.  The volcano heats the water naturally.  A group of us went to some of the springs on Saturday afternoon. We've named it the "Gringos in the Pool" incident.  We thought it was going to be a super touristy spot, because Baños is crawling with tourists from all over.  However, we were the only gringos there. It was hysterical, actually.  We were literally in a group in the middle of one of the pools surrounded by Latinos.  I'm sure it would have made a fantastic ariel view.  After that adventure, we paid four bucks to go on a tour of the waterfalls that surround the city.  The tour was on a chiva, which is basically an open bus that drives you around and blasts music. When we got to the first waterfall, we paid another dollar fifty to go on this thing called a Tarabita.  Its basically a trolley on a zip line that takes you over the water right up to the waterfall. It was incredible. I have a video, but I can't get it to upload on here.  We also could have bungee jumped for ten dollars, but none of us were feeling that stupid.  After the tour, we went up to a restaurant called el café del cielo (cielo=sky). Its really high up on the side of the volcano in this incredible resort.  We literally got out of the cabs and walked through clouds to get inside.  After we ordered our food, we were directed to a terrace that had an absolutely gorgeous view of the city all lit up.  A few of the girls and I had been itching to get a massage all weekend, because Baños has several spas.  The resort has its own spa, so Rachel, Ryan, and I finished dinner quickly and went and got a thirty minute back massage. I had never had a massage before. I can't even describe how amazing it was. We all walked out and looked at each other and just started giggling haha.  Baños was so beautiful, even though it rained most of the time we were there.  Small towns like that are my favorite part of Latin America.  Even though there's a lot of tourism, there's still a wonderful sense of authenticity.  There's always something interesting to see and do, but there's still a small town sense of safety, and its super easy to get around. I love big cities too, but since we're not living in Quito proper but the suburbs, its not quite the same.  Cumbaya isn't very easy to negotiate unless you have a car, which most people do because they drive to Quito to work. But not many places are accessible on foot. I really enjoyed living in the center of La Paz where everything we needed was right in our neighborhood.  Also, I want to learn the bus system here. I have no need to take the bus, because I can walk to the university in ten minutes, but I feel like its something I should learn how to do.  I think my favorite part of the weekend was just getting to hang out with everyone and get to know people better.  There are so many people on this trip I don't know, and we haven't gotten an opportunity to get to know each other, because we're always in class. And then our class has four or five hours of homework every night. The segregation is getting to me. I love my friends in my Spanish class, but I feel like I could be in class in Oxford and be having almost the same experience.  We're hoping that these next few weeks will lighten up a little, because we're going to be doing some traveling during the week.  We will see.  I am learning a lot in class, I'm just itching to utilize it in real life. I'm trying really hard to do so whenever I have the slightest chance. I might start being obnoxious and refusing to speak to my friends in English. We started out speaking to each other in Spanish, but that fell apart quickly, as you can imagine ha.  This is my current favorite song: Danza Kuduro. It is literally everywhere in South America, I heard it in Bolivia, Peru, and now here. I can't get it out of my head haha. I'm trying to figure out the words without looking them up.  

All in all, we had a wonderful weekend. I was in awe during the waterfall tour thinking about how impressive the nature was, and how what we were seeing was only a tiny part of a tiny town in what is a relatively tiny country. There's so much of the world out there, and I'm luckier than most people in what I've had a chance to see, but there's still so much to take in.  Its moments like those that make me resent sitting in a classroom for five hours a day, no matter how beneficial it may be to my language skills.  Sometimes you just need to breathe the air, smell the smells, talk to the people, and kind of find you own way. 

Friday, we leave for Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the Amazon. I'll update after with tons of cool animal pictures, hopefully.

Luck.

Goodness. So much has happened since I last posted. This is gonna be a long one.

Well, we left Cuzco, Peru at 6 PM on Wednesday. We were told that we would be in Lima at 2 PM the next day.  However, we did not arrive until  about 5 or 5 30. We were also not on and Ormeno bus, which is the company we bought our tickets from. It was so weird, because we were led to the bus by and Ormeno representative. Oh well, it still got us to Lima. The trip was not super comfortable though, because we had to go through mountains. The bus from Lima to Quito was actually an Ormeno bus, and it was a little better. The trip was longer, about a day and 14 hours.  We had a little delay in northern Peru. There was a protest blocking traffic in the middle of the road. We sat for about an hour until the police came and tear gased the protestors. We had the windows of the bus open, and just a tiny bit of tear gas got in, but it still hurt!  We got here Saturday around ten.  However, we were dropped off at the Ormeno office in the middle of the street, not at a bus station. We called the emergency contact at the university, and she told us that our city tour was starting in half an hour and we had to take taxis to Cumbaya, a suburb of the city where the university is located. At this point, we had not showered since Tuesday night, had not eaten or slept very well, and we had all of our luggage. So we pile into taxis, and go to the university, but no one was there, because the tour was today.  So we wait for about half an hour, stranded orphans on the steps of the university, and then our host families start arriving. Turns out my host familly lives about two blocks away, so I can walk to school! My host family is wonderful. I got so so lucky. Its just me living here. Some of the other students had to double up. That means I get lots of good Spanish practice! In the house its just me, my host Mom, Martha, and her youngest daughter, Monica who is 21. There are two other daughters, but they are married. I met one of them yesterday when we went to Cayambe, where their family has a rose plantation. Roses are the fourth most important export in Ecuador. They also have horses and other farm animals.  Thats where the dad, Felipe, lives. After exploring the plantation, we went to a bull fight haha. Its a part of the holiday that is going on right now, the Festival de San Pedro.

Today, we went on the tour around the city. We started with the equator, which was pretty cool. We saw water spin different ways on different sides of the line and an egg balancing on a nail.  After that, we toured around Quito itself. I wish we were living in the city, but Cumbaya is very nice as well. We had a tour of it today, and there are a lot of cool places to go and eat and eat and hang out. A bunch of us are going out tonight to celebrate the Fourth of July hahaha.

I like it here a lot, but I feel a bit stifled by the program. Not by my host family, they are cool with me coming and going as I please. But our orientation session today was very long and full of them telling us not to do a lot of things. All of it was good advice, but after living in our own house in La Paz and having our own agency and freedom, this is a little strange. I think it will relax a bit after we all get settled in though. We start class tomorrow. There are four classes, a beginner, and intermediate, and two classes of advanced. Thankfully, the placement test that I bombed when my Bolivian internet quit on me was not counted, so I will be continuing at the correct level.

This weekend is our only free weekend. My host family was very excited about taking me somewhere, so they are planning a trip to somewhere where we can see lots of hummingbirds and other animals and zip line in the forest. I think some of my friends are thinking about going as well. The next weekend we will be in the middle of the Amazon at Tiputini Biodiversity Station. The third weekend is in Riobamba, a small mountain town, and then we leave the last weekend. I have a feeling this trip will fly by.

I am going to wrap this up, because I still have some things to do before we go out tonight. I also feel weird taking over my host familys computer for extended periods of time. Sorry for the weird punctuation of this post, the keyboard is in Spanish, and I cant find some of the characters haha.