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.
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.
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