Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Uruguay is beautiful

We have arrived in Piriapolis. Piriapolis is the most eastern part that is not the Atlantic ocean yet. But it looks like the ocean and it is amazing. Now we have more beaches and ocean. We are staying on a ranch that was built in the early 1800's as a stage coach stop for the spaniards. It was a place to leave your horses and rest. It is absolutely incredible. I feel like we are living on a movie set. In fact there have been some commercials made here. We have our room and then we come to the main building for breakfast, class, lunch and dinner. We watched a movie last night in this room. They have cable! The Internet does not work though, so we will have to ride a bus into town to send these blogs. Because we are in the countryside we are a bit isolated, but there is a city bus that goes by the driveway every hour. We are going to ride it into town this afternoon.
What amazes me is 10 minutes away by bus we have left a rolling green hill ranch to arrive at a seaside beach area.
Uruguay is small in size overall, but the architecture is so different and the influences from other countries are so strong in different areas. I guess the United States is like that, but Uruguay is so small...maybe the size of Montana.
Back to the estancia. We are the only guests and for me it is hard to be waited on. Charro is the cook and maid and I really like her. It just feels wrong not to help clear our dishes or to have her and her husband sit in the kitchen while we eat. She did all our laundry yesterday. We were just expecting the use of the washing machine. I am having a hard time making it clear that she is not going to iron our clothes. I might learn most of my Spanish from her. She is going to make empanadas tomorrow and Allen is going to help her.
Yesterday we hired a man (Diego) to take us on a two hour tour of the town and surrounding beaches. It is definitely a more expensive area but very nice. We are here at the perfect time. We have been told that the day after Christmas the beach towns explode with people from Argentina, Brazil and Mexico and of course Uruguayans. We visited a hotel that has 400 rooms, two hot pools and one outdoor pool and a casino. It is called hotel Argentino. It was built in the early 1920's when there was nothing here except a train station and some houses that were built by the man who founded the city. The hotel is still open and touring it was way cool. There were some exhibits of the older items like glass stemware, wine bottles and other dishes. Some of the swimsuits of the day and the like. I felt a bit like we were on the Titanic. It was impressive now, but in its day it would have been absolutely unimaginable.
The classes might be going a bit better, but still I would have to say "No hablo Espaniol."
We are in good hands and look forward to being here until next Monday.

Monday, November 28, 2011

On to two more busses to Maldanado

Buby did not trust us to get on the right bus on Monday morning. Go figure...she asked Christina, our teacher, to accompany us to the station. Christina did as told, remember I said if Buby tells you to do something you do it! Thankfully all went well and we are on the bus right now on the way to Montivideo. Marta, the owner of the school will meet us at the bus station and ride with us on the bus to our next stay. It is an estancia (ranch) in Maldanado. This will be on the west coast of Uruguay, the Atlantic ocean.

Wedding and LIbertad

We were in a hurry to go to the wedding so we bought a pizza for dinner. Allen threw it in the oven. A few minutes later I was in the kitchen and something was burning and smelled really hot. Buby was on the phone in the living room, Allen figured out that we turned on the one electric burner, not the oven! On the burner was sitting a pack of matches, a lighter and a rubber glove. Now you can imagine the smell. Allen was finding something to grab he things with, I was trying to open windows and doors and deciding if I should yell for Buby, but we had it under control. Buby finally figured out that something was wrong by the smell and the fact that I was sitting by the front door with it open. She took it all in stride though...she said that we were trying to burn her house down, No??? That would have left a good impression.
The wedding was nice. A few of the kids in front of me found out that I spoke only English so they were ready to practice. We had fun. There were not any bridesmaids or groomsmen. The parents stood the whole time, a bit off to the side. In Uruguay the woman keeps her fathers last name. Their children get their fathers name. The priest talked very slowly so I could pick up a few words here and there.
On Sunday we took the bus to LIbertad to meet Christina and Andreas family. They live in Fairbanks so we delivered a few presents. We had a really good lunch and got a tour of a pan (bread) factory. It is so nice to have some connections and meet people who live here and are true Uruguayans. So about the bus ride...Andrea printed out a google map with the bus route and the place to get off the bus and the route to walk across a court yard to get to Gabriellas house. We showed the map to the conductor to make sure that they would stop there. He shook his head in a no type of gesture, then he got the driver and the driver looked at the map and said "Si". After he sat down in his drivers seat he got back up, asked for our map again and got out his cell and called Gabriella. He got back on the bus smiled and gave us our map back. When it was time the conductor found us and he told us to get ready to get off. I gave both the conductor and the driver a snickers bar that we brought along to give away as gifts. Needless to say, Gabriella was at the bus waiting for us. After lunch and a visit she was sure to put us back on the right bus. Buby worries about us so as soon as we got back to her house in Colonia called her. She had to leave on Sunday for a seminar in another city so we will not see her again until we visit later in the month of December or January. We sure will miss her. Two out of four home stays have been amazing. Hope we keep up this streak of good luck.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

church my foot...

last i left off, we were going to see a show in a church about the history of colonia with a music and light show.  well, dinner took longer than expected and we could not get into the church.  we strolled around the city.  it was really pretty at night. lots of people out strolling around, restaurants have tables outside for people to sit at, candles lit and it was so pretty.  we sat on the wall overlooking the river.  it is hard to believe it is a river.  it is so huge.
there was a fashion show set up in one of the town square areas.  the music was pretty loud, but allen suggested we take a seat.  that surprized me.  again, loud music and people, allen wanting to watch...hmmm.  well good decision on his part.  there were about 6 girls who were the models. they were in their early 20´s or younger and boy were they hot.  the first parade was bikinis.  i guess cheeks, and i don´t mean the ones on your face are not covered by swim suit bottoms anymore.  why wear any bottoms i say... good golly miss molly. these girls were beautiful, but for that much bottom to be showing the skinny ones did not look all that great.  interestingly enough, the bikini tops actually cover alot.  new fashion...its all about the ass.
on saturday morning we had a three hour class to make up for missing one last week. we were able to translate our fashion show last evening with the models and bikinis and even made allen blush. 
we went to purchase our bus tickets to libertad tomorrow.  we are going to visit with gabriella.  she is family of christina and andrea who live in fairbanks.  christina...why do you live in fairbanks instead of uruguay...i ask you that. 
we also rented a golf cart and zoomed around town.  went all the way to the end of the town to the shereton resort.  335.00 us per night.  pool and beach were pretty nice though...allen really enjoyed the golf cart.  we stopped and walked in the river...remember practically an ocean.  really nice sand and warm water.  the only bad part of this side is the river is kinda brown in color.  i guess because of silt, but not gross like the tanana.  well, i think allen is gonna skip the wedding.  it starts at 9.30 and bubi said they are usually late.  catholic, so long and lots of ups and downs...will let you know later.



Friday, November 25, 2011

update colonia-more bus-tastrophies

so i have a bit to catch up on. it is nueves, friday.

on miercoles, wednesday we stayed the day in colonia.  school for three hours 1.5 with adirana.  she was excellent.  she helped us put a few things together so we felt like we might be going somewhere with our spanish knowledge.  she did a lot to boost our confidence.  then we had christina for 1.5 hours.  christina does not speak any english and in some ways that makes it kind of fun.  we really have to work hard though.  lots of using the dictionary and pointing at things and saying si´when we don´t really mean it.  it just seems polite to nod and tell her that we do understand.  it is exhausting.

Bubi sent us to buy our bus tickets for thursdays carmello trip and then to see the portuguese bastion.  it was pretty interesting.  we went into a building that was a theatre and then bubi told us a secret.  there is a set of stairs outside the theatre that go down underground and you can look at the foundation under the theatre.  it was pretty cool. 



after that we climbed up inside the lighthouse.  it was a great view.  we sat up there for quite awhile. dinner was pizza at a restaurant on the water.  it was really good.  the best food we have had here in colonia.


so now to jueves, thursday.  happy thanksgiving.  we have 1.5 hour class with christina.  we go over some vocabulary.  we really arent that bad at pronouncing the words, we can read them. that is something.  although rolling the rrrrs and making a h sound that sounds like a dog hacking up some grass is still not coming to us very easily.  after class we go to the bus station to catch a bus to carmello.  sondra is meeting us in carmello.there are three people on the bus to carmello.  allen and i in seat 15 and 16 and another kid in 13. these are all the way in the back.  we are a bit early but we showed the driver our tickets, checked the bus name and got on.  well the fourth person to get on the bus came all the way to the back and said that i was in his seat.  he was seat number 15.  we pulled out our tickets to show him our 15 and 16.  he looked at his and said  áhhhh...he showed us that his ticket said directivo.  he took us off the bus and put us on the next bus over.  which also said carmello.  well, we get on and then i start to worry.  so i get up and go talk to the driver who is waiting outside.  he has to go get the ticket agent who has a written list of who purchased what ticket for what bus.  well the gringos are now on the correct bus.  every person working for a bus company in colonia knows that we are bus´tarded.  now we get to the city of carmello and we are stopping quite often.  both of us are thinking...hmmm where were we supposed to meet sondra- bubi was very strict with her instructions on where to get off in colonia suissa the day before, but what about this town...i went up front again to ask the bus conductor if there was a omnibus terminal in carmello...he said something and shooshed me back to the back of the bus.  two stops later the conductor made sure we got off the bus.  there is a terminal in carmello but it is a storefront.  who knew...one note about this story, the man who helped us get off of the directivo bus spoke spanish to us, but he spoke slowly and was very eloquent. i think he may have been from spain.  it was wierd to know what he was saying and follow along without realizing that he was speaking spanish and we don´t.
so back to sondra and the town of carmello.  we went to a house that was built by 400 slaves for one family in 1740.  it was in pretty good shape.  we could only go into one room, the kitchen, but we looked into others.  the chapel was roped off, but candles were lit and it was very pretty.  imagine a chapel in your house.  imagine having 400 slaves living there with one owner.  how awful.  they were quarrying limestone.  then they were sending the limestone by boat to argentinia.  the first streets in argentinia were paved with limestone from uruguay. you could still see the walls in the salon were painted blue with paint tint sent from france.


next we went to a place that was built by jesuits slaves.  i did not know that the jesuits used slaves...the church was very large although the ceiling was gone.  they had drawings of the size of the original dwellings.  it was pretty large.  bubi was one of the people who did the archeological dig to find not only the jesuit graves but slave graves.  there was a big difference in how the bodies were laid out.  this place was built in around 1750 to 60, but then uruguay became a nation in 1825.  the jesuits could not use the slaves anymore, so they just up and left the area.  uruguay banned slavery and separated from religion when they bcame a nation.



sondra put us on the bus back home and we made our trip home to colonia successfully.  we found a restaruant that had good wifi so we went and made some thanksgiving calls.  it was nice to talk to everyone.we had chivito´s el plato which is beef. not turkey.  we got home late and bubi walked to a place with us that was supposed to have tango dancing at 10.00.  they had not started yet, so we went to the theatre to check on the tango lessons and they had just finished, so no tango for us.

today is friday.  we went to school with both teachers and today is the day that allen zoomed way ahead of me.  darn. it was on page 31.  friday, november 26th he left me in the dust.  oh well, it was bound to happen. he gets it.  i still do not.  at least he gets the ser-estar part.  don´t get me started.
we had a quiet day.  we found our favorite place to sit, shocker, it is at the marina watching the sailboats.  i took my workbook in case i decided to try to figure it out, but really we just sat in the hot hot marina with just a little breeze.  sorry for you all in fairbanks in the cold.  going tonight for pizza and then some kind of show that bubi wants us to see at the church.  must be in the square, because she said it was a light show with music...but then again, the country is not very religious, so maybe....will let you know.

 


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

boat, taxi bus

wow.  our host is named buby and she is like a tour director-b and b owner on steroids.  she is an archeologist and she is a cutie.  we both just love her.  i was up talking to her late last night and i mentioned allens crazy notion about sailing and living on a boat.  well, she was up and on her telephone to her best friend and wa lah. we met with pancho this morning.  unfortunately he was leaving in the afternoon, and not returning until sunday.  we leave on monday so there would not be time for a sail.  but..what buby says goes.  pancho picked us up at 9.00 and he took us to his sailboat.  we went aboard, he started up the motor and we went around the marina and the shoreline. it was very pretty.  sun, ocean and i have to say...it was very nice.  well after that quick trip, pancho had strict instructions to take us into the bus station to help us.  she had already called the station and told them we were coming and told them to take care of us.  we had written instructions and phone numbers.  i told pancho he did not have to walk us in, but again...what buby says goes.


so on the bus we go.  oh gosh this is going to be a long blog. put your seatbelt on.  so buby tells us the route of the bus.  we were supposed to go through three towns on our way to colonia suiza.  not sure thats how you spell it but back to the bus.  before the first town the bus pulls over and another bus is there waiting.  the driver tells us we have to get on the other bus to colonia suiza.  we say, no...we are wanting to go through the three towns.  we point at our map.  the driver says, no...and points to the other bus.  they did not make everyone get off the bus, but we were going on the second bus straight to colonia suiza.  man oh man, that  driver must not have talked to buby.  so we get on the second bus and get to colonia suiza and we meet hernando.  we think that we had to get on the second bus because we were behind schedule.  someone on the back of the bus was sick and they called and had a doctor-ambulance meet us at one of  the stops.  not sure what was wrong, but no one got off the bus...
hernando was a uruguayan born in colonia suiza. he is a retired english teacher who is also a walking encyclopedia of colonia suiza and the three surrounding towns.  we started off with lunch.  it was really good.  if you have not guessed it is a town founded by some swiss immigrants who were brought to uruguay to farm.  actually they were mercenarys who moved to uruguay to farm.  so cheese, fondue, beer. very swiss.  allen had a pork chop and applesause, and i had a crepe with ham and cheese.  both very colonia suiza specialaties.


we visited the parks, a museum that was totally interesting...i must be getting old. and then we went to a few churches.  interesting uruguay is not a religious country at all.  it is kind of wierd.  there is also a cine, cinema that was going to be torn down. every citizen in the town gave some money and they all purchased the theater.  happy feet two is on next week.  they get 20 percent of the ticket sales.  i did not realize that it worked that way for movie theaters.  hernando was big in the theatre group.


municipal employee at work ha ha

we took a taxi through three beach towns.  this beach is on the river.  it is a huge river plato del rio.  plato means silver.  it is the river that you can cross to get to argentina.  allen should be writing this, because i am probably getting half of it wrong. the beach is pretty nice, the river not so much. very brown, kinda like the tanana river but looks like an ocean, not a river.  the beach towns pop from 2000 residents to 20,000 residents in the month of december and january.  how can that be right<- it was so empty today.  nice houses for people to use for the summer months.  some only for their two week vacations.
there is a big beer and cheese festival is colonia suiza on the 9th, 10th and 11th.  sorry you will miss it dad.  we might just have to skip school one of those days.  speaking of school we cancelled today so we could do the mega buby tour.
so we get dropped off at a very small bus station, like a little mini holiday gas station and we get tickets for the bus back to colonia.  hernando helps us purchase them. then he is off to his home. the bus comes, we ask if it is the bus to colonia...si.  so we go to get on and it says we have seat 9 and 10. they are full and so is the whole bus.  so we go up front again, ask if it is to colonia and the driver says no. jeez.  so we are getting off the bus and the conductor uses his hands to shoosh us back on the bus.  allen takes the one seat in the back of the bus and i get the conductors seat. there are two people working on every bus.  both city and cross coutnry busses.  omg from my front row conductors seat i could see the inside of the tail pipe of the motor bike that we would have run over except for the policia word on the back of her jacket.  i know thats the only reason the bus did not take her out.  then we pass a horse and buggy, then a dog comes onto the road.  thank god the dog knew what a honk meant.  good gravy we have a few more bus trips to go.  i hope we figure it out.

when we finally got home, buby had us eat with her.  we had chicken and a salad.  she wanted us to go to tango lessons at 10 but allen is in bed and i am so ready for bed. we promised her we would go on thursday.  tomorrow we go to school and then we are free for the afternoon.  buby wants to take us to her favorite pizza place tomorrow night.  there is a strong italian influence in uruguay.  she has another marathon trip planned for thursday and saturday we are going to an uruguayan wedding with her.  she is so funny.  i will add pictures tomorrow so check back.  she is so darn cute!
oh look, i made this dumb keyboard type an exclaimation mark.  hmmmm...
nighty night.


Monday, November 21, 2011

rain

gonna give up on the capital letters.  wierd keyboard.
last night there was a drum band that starts right accross the street from buby´s house.  they put their drums on the street and start a fire on the street to make the skin of the drum tighten.  it was a pretty relaxed bunch kinda young hippie types.  they do a parade down the street every sunday night.  starts at 8.00 ending at 10.00pm.  they use a house accross the street to keep the drums in, so it was pretty loud at our house.  it was fun to watch.  they start the parade off with a young boy who waves a huge flag.  that was pretty hard work to do for two hours.  then comes the girls who are doing a salsa step or tango or some kinda move your feet, swivel your hips and shimmy your chest stort of dance.  there was one very curvy mesmorizing woman, i saw allen watching only her, but you really could not help it.  she was teaching some little girls the dance. first came two or three 12 year olds, then sexy woman with about 6 girls under the age of 10.  right after that was the drummers.  the part i really liked was the fact that they let two little boys, about age 6 and 4, walk first with their little drums.  in america our drummers would run right over the little ones.  not here.  just another example of the laid back life uruguayans take.i will find out the name of this type of parade later. i am sure allen has pictures of sexy woman.


today was our first class with christina.  it did not go too bad, but we were lucky because most of the lesson we had already done with our last teacher.  at our school they concentrate of the forming of a sentence.  think of the old fashioned writing a sentence with nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives. oh lala my head is spining.  so anyways, in montivedeo they concentrate on forming and understanding, so we really don´t have much vocabulary.  the idea is that you can always describe or figure out the noun if you can write or read or say the rest correctly. today we were lucky that our last teacher told us the english translation of the verb that we were changing into a present tense.  worked on north, norte...south, sur...este,east...oeste, west.  why oh why can i remember those four words.  oh geez, cant even figure out how to find the question mark on this keyboard...i don´t know north from south, but i can say it in spanish.  omg.
today is lunes.  monday.
it was stormy last night. rain, lightening, thunder.  nice to sleep to  and also nice knowing that we are here so long that a little bad weather means nothing.  today better, partly cloudy but cool like 70 degrees.
colonia has a strong portuguese influence in its architecture.  there is a square in the midle of town, but no church at the end of it.  the architecture is very pretty.  cobblestone streets and some really nice buildings.  kinda quaint you might say.

allen is making zapallitos for dinner.  you saw a picture of some that mecki made last week.  he wants to try to keep the seeds to grow some at home. i also think he misses cooking in the kitchen.  smells pretty good  here right now. 
oh lord.  just found the spell check button.  every word is highlighted.  must be a spanish spell checker. oh well you can figure out what i meant even if spelled wrong.  must find wifi to use my own computer.
going on a bus trip tomorrow...should be fun.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Colonia



No wireless at our new home, so I am using her computer.  She has a different key board so it will be difficult to type, especially capital letters.  So there just might not be any capital letters on this weeks blog.
We are staying with a lady named Buby.  She is an archeologist in the town on Colonia.  The first day in a new town is very difficult.  It is disorienting.  The bus ride took two hourse and was great.  Mainly because I fell asleep the whole time.  Marta, the owner of the school brought us all the way here to meet Buby and then showed us the school.  Our teacher is named Christina.  She was just hired yesterday by Marta, and she does not speak any English.  I had the deer in the headlights look at our last classes, can´t wait till this week with no English at all.  Buby speaks English, and she translates to Spanish, she is really good at making us learn how to say what she says back to her.
Her house is right downtown in Colonia. She arranged a trip to the Presidents Forest today with a cab driver.  We leave at 1.30.  Wow this keyboard is wierd.

Yesterday evening we walked around a bit. We really felt like tourists here.  It is basically a tourist town.  Mainly people crossing the river from Argentina.  Argentinia is a very hard word to pronounce.  That might be my next goal.  I have uruguay down, and <i can count to 20! Those were my two lofty goals before I left Fairbanks.

Colonia is much smaller, and alot hotter.  It lookes very charming with cobblestone streets that have wonderful trees lining the roads.

The favorite words are perfecto, bien and Ta.  Perfecto is for everthing that is perfect, bien is good and ta means okay.  You can pretty much make a full sentence with those three words.

Well, adios until later.
t

Friday, November 18, 2011

People

I have a favorite poem about people who come into your lives and you wish that they never have to go...some others come into your life and you wish they would not stay...
The first two weeks of our school session in Montevideo is over and tonight we had a parilla barbecue at Leo and Mecki's house. It makes me want to cry to say goodbye to Leo and Mecki, Francisco, Amalie and Tim, Janie and our teachers, Maria, Maru, Mateo and Xehamna and Claudia. We will really miss Max and Almendra (our dogs). I know that we will be coming back, but when we are leaving something that is so comfortable to move away is sad. Even if our whole trip only consisted of these two weeks, it would still have been "our great adventure adventure"!
Leo and Mecki are awesome people! I love it when Leo breaks into his version of a female/english voice. I love the way he says "bott-els" instead of our boring way of bottles. Watching Mecki and Allen work on a project, planning, googling and communicating in their own language has been a blast. Our expectations have already been exceeded a hundred times over. Thank you to everyone who has been so kind and gracious and giving and for sharing their lives and Uruguayan culture with us. Funny, most of these people do not even have our blog address, but I need to say in my blog that we love them and thank them.
Now away from the sappy stuff. We went to school, rented a cottage for the first four nights of mom and dads visit and then rented a hotel on the corner, one street over for the last five nights. Then Allen and I kicked butt at croquette. We are really good!!!! I love it! If I could I would ride the bus two hours from Colonia next week to play again and then ride a bus back. I would skip school to play croquette. Allen would not even miss me, I bet he would like a break from me...
Well, gotta go get some sleep and pack in the morning. We catch a taxi at 11:30 to the bus station, Oh yeah, the best part of going to sleep is that tomorrow is the "special" German weekend breakfast.
Goodbye Montevideo...


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Busy days ahead!

Okay first, I want to say to all of you who share a bed with another person, listen up. Two twin size blankets! Our very comfy bed in my very comfy room (see the picture of the ceiling) has two twin blankets. This is the first time that I can roll over or get out of bed without feeling like I am taking all the blankets with me. I am going to go buy new blankets when I get home. I guess it could be that Pheobe is not here to take up 2/3 of the bed. I do miss Pheobe and Lucy. Oh yeah and Emily too.
Other random crap-
The fountain in the bathroom. Foot wash or drinking fountain. Wikipedia bidet. European. Good invention.
We still don't know what they are asking us at the grocery store. "Paper or plastic? Rewards card? Donate to prostate cancer month?"
Wait until you see my new collection of cigarette packages!!!! OMG too FUNNY!!!! The last president of Uruguay was an oncologist. There were some people who made a big sign that said "Thank God our President is NOT a sex-ologist! Hahahaha
The photos below are pictures of the packs of cigarettes. They fill the whole package cover.
We really do need to sit down at a big table and take a vote on where to relocate. Why are you reading this blog where it is -40??? Please be safe.
Today school then lunch was a two hour affair at an outdoor restaurant. Then home to figure out where to stay when the "others" get here. We are right at the "high season" on the chart of room rates and availability the day they get here. We are going to call a few places with our teacher at school tomorrow. Most places you have to rent for a fifteen day period. Why??? Because they can.
Big day tomorrow. School, pack, croquette, then home to a parilla party!!!! I am really excited to go play croquette. How weird is that? I am also excited for our party. Remember the parilla is the type of barbecue for Uruguayan beef. We go to Colonia Saturday. I hope the Internet service is good there. We sure are spoiled here at Mecki and Leo's house.
Tonight I am up at midnight waiting for the two hour washing machine to finish its two hour cycle. Wow!
Nighty night.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Uruguay promotional video
 

By the way we had meat empanadas today from this little hole in the wall restaurant -  San Juan Empanadas

School

I gave our blog address to one of our professors so I figured I had better write something nice about our Spanish studies before he reads this..HaHa
We do enjoy all of our teachers. They rotate through the day. I think maybe we should think about running our schools like that. It is very good to hear the different pronunciation and learn different ways and points of view. Differential learning styles would be our term. I am still searching for my style.
It is hot today. We are looking for a place for us to stay in when mom and dad and Emily get here. I cannot believe I have been so lax on that piece of planning. I just was not sure where we would want to be in Uruguay...we might just be on the street. It is considered the high season because of the holidays and weather.
Speaking of living on the street...it is interesting that on every neighborhood street where we are living, there are two dumpsters. You take your garbage out daily and they empty them at night.
There are a group of people that are like dumpster drivers. They are called Caballos. They usually have a horse and cart and the go inside the dumpster and get the glass, cardboard and Plastic and whatever else they can find. Honestly they are completely inside of the bin! You only know because the horse and cart are there. Some people want to ban them from the city because of maltreatment of the horses. Others say it is best to let them make a living rather than steal and beg. Something to think about.


Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Zapallitos, yes it's food

The usual - café, yogurt & cereal. Off to school for 3 hours of class. Grabbed a baguette at the Disco, with cold cuts for lunch. Finished sanding the patio table and gave it the first coat of stain.

Mecki picked up some zapallitos at the market on Sunday and cooked them tonight filled with meat and veggies, they were delish.

Went down to the ocean (technically the river, Rio de Plata) and took a few sun shots with the sextant. It does appear that we are in the southern hemisphere.

Monday, November 14, 2011

School again...

Good grief I really don't think I am going to come back knowing any more Spanish than when I left. Seriously how hard can this be??? The only thing that makes me feel a bit better is that Allen is just as confused as I am. Well that is not quite true. He thinks he figured out something major on Sunday but he has yet to share his coded flashcards with me. He has had some revelation and is quite proud of his system. There seems to be flashcards with codes. Some of them have two corners cut off while others only have one corner cut...maybe he will have time tomorrow to enlighten me. Maybe he just invented the new rosetta stone program and we will be rich. Meanwhile I go to school and do the written exercise not understanding a damn thing.

Mecki learned that Allen can be pretty handy to have around the house. He installed a new fan in the bathroom, used the old one to put on the roof so leaves don't fall in the house, he hung a mosquito net on her door, now they are both refinishing her outdoor table. I think he is enjoying the puttering. Everything is a challenge here. I have been to the ferreteria so many times I can't count. (hardware store) we took three trips to figure out how to translate and find urethane glue. Everything is imported and they only have small stores here so there is a very limited supply and not many choices for supplies. I am sure that's why Allen is fixing stuff. Start saving your wine corks. Wine corks are the new duct tape. The next project will elevate Allen to king status if he can pull it off. She has a Murano glass light fixture that she brought from New York. We might be able to have my dad bring the right transformer to make it work with the different voltage here. I have a feeling Allen could live in Montivedo and trade work for food and housing from the expats. Word is spreading that he is pretty handy. Now if I could get him to do some things at home. I understand that it is not the same challenge when you can go to home depot. I must admit today we went to the largest ferreteria and I am thinking about going back and buying a paint stick and a paint roller that I saw...they were very different than I have ever seen and might be pretty slick!
Food update. The best part of our day...we purchased some Uruguayan olive oil to dip bread into. It is new that Uruguay is making wine, olive oil and cheese. Allen and I walked up to the mall for dinner and had the best Cheviots. That is a sandwich on a kaiser type roll with beef (of course...) bacon, fried onions and red peppers melted white cheese and today's special had a fried egg. It is hard to eat like a sandwich so I just use a fork And knife. Speaking of forks and knives, I am practicing the art of European utensil etiquette. You hold your fork in the left hand while you hold the knife in the right. You do not put either down. Your hands are not supposed to be under the table ever. That is considered rude or that you might be stealing something. I am better at this new utensil use than I am Spanish.

One more food note. While we were at the mall eating, Francisco's maid Christina delivered us a bread pudding that she made because she felt bad about the first flan-tastrophy. I called Francisco on the phone and explained the new American term OMG!!!

Time

Time goes by so fast. We get so tired...
Sunday was a quiet day. We drove downtown to a market because Mecki missed her market day on Saturday due to croquette. The market was closed except for two stalls, one of them was her regular favorite so she bought all the fruits and veggies for the week. The building was amazing. It was originally built in the 1920's but they are restoring it now. It has a new roof and they are working on the outside of the front of the building. It is a huge building.

It was also time to do laundry. Mecki let us use her washing machine which was very nice of her. We were planning on taking it in to a laundry mat that you drop off and pick it up when it's done. Mecki said that she was so glad to have a washing machine that really washes clothes again...not like in the U.S.A. In Germany and I guess other European countries it takes 2 hours to run the was cycle. TWO HOURS!!! Leo said in America we just use more bleach and agitate the heck out of our clothes. Well, I tell you it took two hours to wash one load. We had to do two loads...four hours. Wow, it was much gentler on the clothes though...I am not sure they got any cleaner than my 40 minute cycle...

I am sure you are wondering about the food on Sunday...We had the larger German weekend breakfast. Scrambled eggs, procuitto, cheese plate, bread, Muesli, yogurt, fruit, and coffee. We took Leo and Mecki out to dinner for a good beef meal. We sat at a table for four outside on the sidewalk. It was good food, good friends and we had a great time.