Trip Down:
Circling up before heading off
Overall the trip went smoothly. We along with the Oxford group met at ACU at 11:15 to load the bus and head to the airport. Candace brought me to school. On the way I realized I hadn't packed any notes for biochem. Now I'm pretty sure I could do biochem without notes... but we decided to stop by the office to pick them up. After the buses were loaded (early) we circled up to pray with our friends and family that came to see us off (Thanks Candace, Josh, Sandy, and Terri). Sandy took our picture, and off we went.
When we got to the airport we had our only hiccup. Uruguay has a 90 day visitor's visa that we use for staying in the country. Well our plane tickets show us entering and leaving Uruguay more than 90 days apart. It is fine because if we leave and reenter Uruguay (which we do multiple times) the visa resets each time we enter. Because of this we have to have proof that we will be leaving the country, which we had. We had another set of plane tickets to Peru. Well one of the ladies decided that wasn't ok. It was only 5 or 10 minutes of worry, until they called someone who actually knew how it worked. But YIKES!
After that we went on through and it was fine. Alyssa's uncle is the manager of Auntie Anne's in the airport, so we got free pretzels and drinks. The first flight was really crowded and there was a bit of worry about whether I was going to get my carry on bag in, but again... it was fine.
Our flight from Miami was not crowded, my poor students all had to sit with someone (mostly each other) but I had two seats all to myself, which made my 9 hour flight much more pleasant.
Welcome to Montevideo:
Our group at the lookout over the city
We got to Montevideo about 20 min early. Passport control and customs were a breeze. Wimon and Rosalinda were there to greet us and take us home. Montevideo greeted us with another beautiful day. We stopped at a look-out on the way into town to see an overview of the city. When we got to Casa we had some time to unpack then we got eat Raquel's amazing empanadas.
In the afternoon, the students went on a scavenger hunt to learn more about the neighborhood. I ran a couple of errands, got cleaned up and visited with the Walkers. In the evening, we went to dinner at Mercado Abundancia, our traditional first night dinner. Most of us walked home and then slept really well.
Friday:
Palacio Salvo used to be the tallest buildings in South America. I now mainly grateful that they took the radio tower off of the top of it.
The morning was taken up by orientation/ house meeting. In the afternoon, we took the students down to Ciudad Vieja (Old City). They got to meet the statue of Artigas, the Cathedral, other landmarks and have a look around some. The students and I then walked the couple of miles back to Casa. It was another gorgeous day with a high somewhere in the 70's. I was in the faster moving group to get back to Casa because one of the students needed to be back for an online class. I somewhat bullied the other group into stopping at a plaza on the way back.
In the evening the Walkers and I went out for the faculty dinner. We went to a new Mercado that was beautiful. There were lots of fun little stores. The restaurant we ate at was mediocre, but the setting was nice. We actually stayed until it closed down.
Saturday:
We took the students to Punta Carretas Shopping, a high end shopping mall that used to be a prison. After a quick look around, we took them to an open market near by. From there we split up from the kids. The Walkers and I looked around the market, then went back to the mall to buy groceries for the Saturday night dinner. We bought a bunch of groceries and planned to take a taxi home. Turns out that there was a taxi strike and that the buses are showing solidarity. Fortunately, we ended up not having to wait too long for the bus, but it was a very crowded ride home.
Once we got back, I ate lunch with the Walkers then spent the afternoon battling OpenClass in an attempt to be ready to start classes on Monday. I finally, with the help of Vic McCracken, won the first skirmish. I am currently losing the second one.
In the evening, we all worked together to make dinner. A few of the young people from church came over. Diego gave instructions in how to drink mate. It was a fun evening and good to catch up with old friends.
Sunday:
This morning we went to church. It was good to see people again. It was even better to be able to understand a bit more. As our usual Sunday habit, the Walkers and I went to lunch and walked through a big street market. Now I'm supposed to be doing school work.
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