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!