Boy is she bold!!!

Just a quick story...

Last night I went to dinner with three students (Nikita, Jonathan S., and Matt). Because it was a beautiful evening, we were sitting outside. Well, this well-built guy walks by, I reach out and grab his arm. We exchange "Holas" and he walks on. I turn around and the three students are just staring at me. It took me a second to figure out why. I then explained that he was one of my aerobics instructors. One of them responded, "Wow I was wondering... I thought you were getting awfully bold." Haha... you know me... I just stop random attractive men on the street to say hi.

(Oh and this is also funny because I'm pretty sure that Fabricio thinks that I don't know any Spanish beyond Hola... that's all he will say to me... although he'll wave or make a face (not a mean one) every time I walk in the gym.)

See I can tell a short story!

Just checking in...

I don't have anything too new and exciting to say, but I thought I would say, "Hi" and tell you about the last couple of days.

I love the weekends here, because they are always three day weekends. Its handy having two Saturdays in theory you can play one and work the other... or in my case... play more. I've been to aerobics 3 times in the last two days. I went with Anne in the morning yesterday, then went again with Kelsey in the evening. I didn't have anything pressing to do. Then I went again this morning. I keep having to remind myself that I'm in my 30's and my legs might fall off if I keep this up. Mainly, I go because it cracks me up so much. I mean anytime you can hear, Nirvana with a techno beat (that's the song of the weekend), why would you miss?

In the afternoon, Kimberly and I went to the book fair downtown. I even bought some books. All kids books. Two of them I pretty much understood. I translated the other one today... it took me an hour.

Today, most of the girls went to Colonia to have a girls day. As I said earlier, I went to the gym, then headed to the park (the weather is gorgeous) to sit outside and do work. I did my Spanish homework and translated the aforementioned book. Oh on the way home from the gym I talked to one of the girls from class.... IN SPANISH... not well... but I think we communicated.

Now Jonathan Sims and I are sitting around watching Rugby. He's starting on his message of the Old Testament class. They had to take a "Which Old Testament character are you?" quiz. I, of course, couldn't resist. So I'm Moses and it here's what it says about Moses:

"Humble Strong Confident" So far so good.

"Moses is the lawgiver - he does not tolerate other views - its his way or the highway. Moses is a loving man but he lacks a soft touch. Moses wants to get down to business. No frills just the bottom line."

Um... I'm not sure how I feel about that... :) No comments from the peanut gallery... it is my way or the highway after all!

Corrupting the Uruguayans' English

So I wasn't going to write anything today, because I didn't feel like I had any new stories to really tell. And I figured you didn't want to hear another I love aerobics or my students story. Although I do love them both.

But then I went to church. I love going to church here. I may only understand a few sentences at a time during the sermon, ok... that's being generous. Every so often I get the gist of what's being said. But I love being with the Christians here. It is so nice the way they welcome us into their family even though we will only be here a few months. They are so patient with us. They will repeat things over and over for me when I don't understand. And because I'm getting comfortable enough with them, I'm starting to use my Spanish more. Of course now that they are comfortable with us they are starting to use English more. Not a lot of deep conversation, but at least we can communicate.

Tonight a few of us went to the mid-week meeting. After church Rhonda walked up to Pablo, the guy who teaches our Sunday morning class, and says, "Hey, Pablo, what's up?" Pablo replies, with proper head jerk, "Whas up?" Rhonda told him he's watched too many American movies. (Now I missed this part because I was talking to someone else across the room.) But I turn around when I hear, "Otoño, Whas up?" yelled at me from across the room. (By the way Otoño is Spanish for Autumn. It seems much easier to introduce myself that way than to try to get them to say Autumn.) Of course, I have to yell back. Then I told him, he needed to add in a "Yo, Yo" first. It was pretty great to hear a 40ish Uruguayan man saying "Yo, yo what's up?" Jonathan F. says he's going to get Pablo to add dog to the end as well. Rhonda thinks this is a horrible game we've started. I on the other hand have been trying to think of other terrible American slang to teach him. :)

After church, I hung out with some of the students for awhile. Some of the girls got custom made shoes for Tango and had picked the shoes up tonight, so they were on a post shoe buying high. It was just generally fun to laugh together, have girl talk, etc.

You know the funny thing that is of all the things that makes Study Abroad special, its really the nights like this that are so amazing. Nothing big happened, we didn't see anything famous or do anything particularly unusual. It was just a great night with our friends from church and our CasaACU family during which we created bonds and memories. (Ok... you can go throw up now... but I do mean it... I'm done with my touchy feely moment for the semester.)

Greensleeves with a Techno Beat and other News

Good afternoon! I just thought I'd give you the update of life in CasaACU...

First of all thank you for your prayers, it looks like the student who injured his knee won't have to have surgery. YAY!!! He'll probably be on crutches for another 4 weeks, but it looks like he will be off of them in time for fall break. We are really excited and thankful about that news.

We are currently in the middle of the first round of tests. In fact, I'm giving a test right now. :) The students are stressed out, but it is less work for me, especially with at most 4 students in my class. Grading goes really quickly. And really life at CasaACU is all about me, right?

We are still doing English lessons on Tuesday nights. I really enjoy them. The student I'm working with, Sylvia, knows a lot of English. It is mainly a matter of pronunciation and confidence in speaking for her. (I can really identify with that.) One of the men at church and I kind of came to an agreement last night. I'll speak to him in Spanish and he'll speak to me in English. It is good practice for both of us, and keeps us out of vocabulary that the other one doesn't understand. Of course, we aren't going to have any deep conversations with the Spanish I know either... eh... I don't like to have deep conversations anyway. :)

OK... now I know you've been wondering about Greensleeves with a techno beat. (I saved it until last so you'd keep reading.) I really should write this blog some night when I come home from aerobics. I can't begin to explain how hyper we (Anne, Kelsey, and I) are when we get home, I'll admit I'm the worst. But the combination of endorphins and amusement really gets us worked up. Of course, I don't think I could sit long enough to write.

Yesterday afternoon was a good example of why we are so amused and worked up over aerobics class. First of all, we usually go to "Body Combat" which is Taebo type aerobics. So really we are pretending to do martial arts moves to usually 80's and 90's music. Or last night Greensleeves with a techno beat. I mean SERIOUSLY... we were punching the air to a techno beat... how can that not be funny. On top of that our aerobics instructor (a male about my age) starts singing along to Greensleeves (Not the words just Nah Nah-n-Nah you get the idea.) It was almost more than we can handle. We looked at each other at one point and I think we missed out on about 8 beats, because we got so cracked up.

Our aerobics instructor has quit giving us the "I don't think they know what I'm saying" look that accompanies "Ojo." I think he considers us experienced after a week and a half. He definitely knows who we are. Partly because we smile all through class. After the "Greensleeves" incident, he started singing along to other songs like Pinks "I'm Not Here for Your Entertainment." (This time he was singing the words.) The more Kelsey and I smiled when he sang, the more he sang... so I'm pretty sure he is there for our entertainment. Oh another funny thing he does is yell, "Work it!" At one point last night he got right in front of me so that we doing this one punching thing at each other and said, "Work it." I thought I was going to fall over. I just smiled though.

Anyway, we've decided aerobics is pretty much our favorite part of the day. (Yup, even over biochem.) For those of you coming to Montevideo, you definitely have to go to Body Combat at Gimnasio Urbana. My 3 paragraphs can not adequately explain how fun it is. But I'm sure stories about it will keep popping up... I have two much fun with it.

A Weekend in Buenos Aires - Part II

OK... I think yesterday I had made it through the Tango show Friday night. So we are ready to continue on with Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday morning, I got up and met some of the girls for breakfast and then we headed out to do what girls do best... SHOP! (OK, that was sexist... but I'm a girl and can say such things... and I'm kidding... kind of.) Anyway, we wandered down Florida to look in all the shops. Anne was looking for a leather coat, Chelsea was looking for boots, Kelsey, Jennifer, Kimberly, and I were just looking in general. After looking around for an hour or so we went to the Galleria Pacifica, which is a high end mall. We mainly went in to see the ceilings which are beautifully painted, not to shop as we were students and an ACU prof... we don't have that kind of money. After the mall we split up for a little while before lunch so the folks who were specifically looking for stuff could really look. Kelsey and I just went to cheesy tourist shops because we love them. I didn't buy anything then, either. (Don't worry myself control doesn't hold up much longer.) I then had my first American fast food of the trip. We decided to go to McDonald's because it is fast and cheap.

After lunch we regrouped at the hotel, partly so I could get my camera, I was a bit jumpy about carrying it around when I didn't need it. (I'm still a little jumpy over the whole purse snatching thing. My students have almost gotten back handed a couple times when they've walked up behind me and grabbed my arm, esp. when we are outside.) ANYWAY... the Jonathans joined us and we headed to Recoleta.

Recoleta is a very rich neighborhood in B.A. that is famous for its cemetery. There is also a crafts fair that is in the park next to the cemetery. To display their wares at the fair the artists had to be approved so it is all pretty high quality stuff. My shopping could not hold out against the crafts fair... OK... so I had actually planned to do some shopping there. I bought a painting of some tango dancers that I got to go with a painting of Tango dancers I bought in Uruguay. I didn't want to take sides in the whole Uruguay vs. Argentina who can claim tango battle. :) I also bought some other cool things, but as I might give them to people I won't go into detail here. Then again, I thought they were really cool... so I may keep them. nanner nanner nanner.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, there were lots of people and entertainers out taking full advantage of the first full day of spring.






OK now to the cemetery... Cemeteries aren't really my favorite places to hang out, although old ones have pretty cool tomb stones, but this one was different. It is a city within a city. There 4800 crypts in the cemetery. Although, that being said, I'm not sure I'd just hang out here all the time either...


Most of them are family crypts and are full of people. When a family member dies, they are put in a casket in the crypt. When they've been dead for awhile, they are moved to a smaller box to make room for others. In many of the crypts you could see stairs going down to the underground part. (Those are two of the smaller boxes.)


Anyway... most of the crypts are "small" marble buildings that end up making streets, you could almost get lost in the cemetery.








Some of the crypts are well taken care of while others not so much. Supposedly the widows from the neighborhood go there often to take care of their family crypts and to feed the cemetery cats. Now I like cats, but there does seem something appropriate about cats hanging out in a cemetery. They scared us a couple times when they would jump out of a crypt.

Ok... These were just a couple of the cool pictures... If you want to see more, go to my facebook page, or I'll show you when I get home.






Eva Peron (Evita) is buried in Recoleta. It took awhile for her body to reach it, but it did eventually and she is buried in her family crypt (not the Peron crypt... I'm not sure if the Peron's have a crypt). Anyway... it isn't that exciting of a place.



After we passed Evita's crypt, Kelsey found one that had been broken... then we realized the top of the casket was open. Kelsey waved her hand over it, which was quickly followed by Kimberly and I saying in unison, "Ew Ew Ew!"




We wandered around the cemetery a bit more with Kelsey trying to break into a few more tombs. Then we (or really I) finished up our shopping and headed back to the hotel.






I then went back to Florida to buy some souvenirs. That night we all went out to an Indian restaurant. It was super good. Afterwards, Rhonda and I went back to the hotel and hung out for a bit. I then enjoyed my flat screen TV and king sized bed for a bit longer and went to bed. (I got to watch the replay of Argentina's rugby victory from earlier in the day.)

Rhonda and I had made the decision not to go to church in B.A. Sunday morning because we were afraid we wouldn't be able to get everyone back in time to get to the port. For once we were worried about "missing the boat" and we meant it literally! Some of the girls and I went to the park near our hotel to hang out in the morning after we checked out. In theory, we were going to read, but it was such a gorgeous day we just walked around or sat on a bench and laughed.


We got to see the Kavanaugh building which borders the park (Plaza de Liberador General San Martin). It is significant because it is evidence of what happens when you have too much money and too much spite. Apparently, these two RICH old women were feuding. One built this beautiful church across the park from her home where she could look out her window and see it. Her rival built the Kavanaugh building in front of it so that the first woman couldn't see it. Now that seems spiteful... but it gets worst. At least for awhile, I'm not sure if it still does, but the Kavanaugh building held the world record for how fast it was built, which was in 12 months. Mrs. Kavanaugh had it built that fast because her rival was dying and she wanted to be sure that the church was blocked BEFORE her rival DIED so the first woman would know that it was built to spite her. Is that crazy or what?

After lunch we all made it safely back to the port and got on the BuqueBus. The waves were pretty bad on the way back and it was a pretty rough ride. I don't think anyone in our group got sick, but other people certainly did. The attendants actually handed out barf bags about an hour in... EEEEWWWW

Once we got back to Montevideo we got into taxis and headed back to CasaACU. Luke's and my taxi driver has a sister that lives in Garland, TX. He also knew and remembered Rhonda... of course I think Rhonda knows at least a third of the people in Montevideo.

Once back at CasaACU, we unpacked, had a communion service, and got ready to start a new week. It's always a little sad to get back to reality after a trip... but its much better if that reality is living in Montevideo. Of course unlike my students, I don't have to take a biochem test this week... so I might have a slightly different view point.

A Weekend in Buenos Aires - Part I

You know I really have a cool job! I'm continuously marveling at the fact that I'm getting to spend the semester in South America. This weekend was our group trip to Buenos Aires. We were there from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon. We took the BuqueBus (a very fast boat) from Montevideo to B.A. Something came up at the last minute and Rhonda couldn't go until Friday, so I found out that I was in charge without a lot of notice. Normally, I like being in charge (no I'm not bossy), but the being in charge with finding out the details at the last minute was a bit stressful, esp. going to a new place where I didn't speak the language. Fortunately, everything was really well arranged and the students are awesome, so basically we just had to show up at the right time and we were in good hands.

We had a fantastic tour guide named Marcella who met us at the port, took us to our hotel, did our city tour on Friday, made sure we got to the tango show, and took us back to the port. I think I looked pitiful and helpless enough, that she was really worried that we wouldn't make it anywhere. (It was easier to be pitiful than to let her know that if I tried hard I could eventually figure it out.)

OK... once we got to the hotel at 10:30 on Thursday we all got checked in and then headed out to get something to eat. We hadn't had dinner. By the way... my hotel room was really nice. I'm uncultured enough that I took pictures including the one of the bathroom. That was complete with a whirlpool bath and phone... if only there would have been a TV. :) By the time we ate, I went to bed really late. I think I wouldn't have been so pitiful if I hadn't been so tired on Thursday and Friday.

Yes I still get excited about big hotel rooms with king size beds... I'm just a girl from Arkansas after all!







Friday morning we had a tour of the city with Marcella. She took us to the Casa Rosada (the Pink House), the presidential palace. It is famous because that is where the balcony is from which Evita addressed the crowds. There we also went to Catedral Metropolina. The liberator of Argentina is buried there. There are guards at his tomb and we managed to get to see the changing of the guard.


From there we went to La Boca, the mouth, which is where the mouth of a river is. The Boca Juniors, a very popular soccer team, have their stadium there. All around their stadium they have murals. The one in the picture is of famous Boca Juniors acting as members of a Tango band and Tango singer. They also have their own version of the Hollywood Stars with footprints of soccer stars instead of handprints.


La Boca neighborhood is actually rather poor. It was where the Italian immigrants worked on the docks. They had aluminum houses. When their wives came they painted the buildings really bright colors. It is still a poor neighborhood that is dangerous to visit at night. During the day however it is a major tourist destination (read tourist trap). The buildings were really pretty. Many artists displayed there work.


We then drove to the Northern part of the city center through Recoleta, a really rich neighborhood I'll talk more about it tomorrow, to the diplomatic district. We also got to see some cool things on the way like a sculpture that is a giant metal flower that opens when the sunrise and closes at sunset. We also saw the Tower. It was originally called the English tower because it was a gift from England. Well when England and Argentina fought over the Faukland Islands it just became the Tower.

We then finished up at a modern art museum. We were supposed to be there at 12:30 for a tour, but we were too late because of traffic and missed it.

We looked around a bit. I'm afraid I do not properly appreciate modern art, but it was pretty cool. At two, I finally fed my poor, starving college students. The plan had been to eat at the museum, but it was full. Marcella helped up find a nearby restaurant, and we ate and headed back to the hotel. All of this was made more exciting by the fact that we had a student on crutches. He hung in there though. It gave me a good excuse to take a taxi back rather than ride the bus. I had to make sure my student made it back ok.

In the afternoon, the students rested. After enjoying my giant bathtub, I went and explored Florida, the pedestrian street filled with shops a couple blocks from our hotel. I must admit that I enjoy souvenir shops waaaaay more than I should. Rhonda arrived around 7. I was super glad to see her.

At 8 the group met in the lobby to wait to be taken to dinner and a tango show. Marcella again went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure we made it ok. (Earlier in the day we hadn't known if Rhonda would make it in time, and I seemed pretty helpless, so she didn't want me to be on my own.)

Anyway... The Tango show was awesome. It was fun to all get dressed up and go out together. First of all the food was great. I had quiche, crepes, and chocolate mousse. (Oh one funny thing, we were sitting at a table full of ladies from Dunedin, New Zealand, a place I have visited several times. So it was fun to talk to them too.) The Tango dancers were incredible. The intricate steps that they could do without kicking and/ or stepping on each other was amazing, especially to a really uncoordinated person like me. I was also fascinated by the accordion player. That is quite a workout.

After the tango show... I went to the hotel and crashed.

I'll tell you about the rest of the weekend tomorrow (Tuesday). I should probably write lecture notes for class at 8 tomorrow rather than writing my blog.

Trying to get the full experience...

Well, so you know how a couple days ago I wrote about being told to "Ojo" all the time when we were walking in the city. Well, a couple of kids helped reinforce that lesson last night. Uruguay is really a safe place. Violent crime is not a problem, but petty theft is. And since I really wanted to experience Uruguay... I needed to have something stolen from me, right? So here's the story:

Rhonda and I were going to dinner around 9:30 (typical for Uruguay). The first restaurant was really full and we were both hungry (I had just come from aerobics) so we decided to walk to another restaurant. We were walking down the main street (18 de Julio) near the old city (which we know is a common place for purse snatching at night.) Well I was not ojoing, didn't think and took my hand off my purse. It is on a strap across my body and I usually carry it in my hand against my body. Well, I let go for a second, and a kid walked up and grabbed it. (I think he cut the strap, but I'm not sure.) My first thought was, "Well, great, there goes my purse." My second thought was, "My passport wasn't in there, was it???" So I decided to chase the kid and his friend. They had a pretty good head start on me. I didn't actually want to catch them, I just wanted to see where they dumped my purse. However, since I was half a block behind them I lost them when they rounded a corner after a couple of blocks.

A man "helped" me look for them. I'm not so sure he wasn't actually helping them by helping me so I'd quit chasing them. Anyway, another Uruguayan man saw what was going on and insisted we call the police. A lady at a hotel called for us. Meanwhile, I called back to the house and made sure my passport was where I keep it in the house. (OK... the reason I thought it might have been in my purse is that I had changed money from US dollars to Argentine pesos earlier in the day. I didn't know if I'd need my passport for that. I've been in countries where you do need a passport to change money, so I took it just in case. I got back to CasaACU and thought I'd better take this out it'd really be bad to get my purse stolen with my passport in it today since we are going to Argentina tomorrow." Yes! I had thought that through.) So Thanks to God! my passport was safely in my apartment!

OK back to the story... Once I realized the passport wasn't in my purse I really wasn't that worried about it. But Rhonda and I were indecisive about the police and since the locals thought we should talk to them we waited. While we were waiting, I decided to walk around the block checking trash cans. I'm pretty sure I saw the kids again on 18 de Julio. They didn't have my purse, but I couldn't find where they threw it either.

When I came back from the stroll around the block, we only waited a few more minutes for the police, which considering we were waiting for police in a major city, the 20 minutes total we waited wasn't bad. Now just so you know, by this point the whole thing is getting kind of funny... I mean you might as well laugh about it. So the two police officers (Juan and Nester, I think) put us in the back of the car and took us to the police station. You see I wanted to see everything in Uruguay... so my trip wouldn't be complete without a ride to the police station in a police car. On the way there, Rhonda who can talk people into anything, talked them into waiting for us and taking us home.

In the police station we had to fill out a report which took way longer than it should have, but these things always do. By this point its closer to 10:30 and we still hadn't eaten dinner and were getting a little slap happy. Rhonda kept giving the police officer taking the report a hard time, i.e. telling him it wasn't polite to ask my age. And when he asked my marital status (for the form) she told him I was single followed by "Que triste" (How sad!) So eventually we had the form filled out and could go. They called us a taxi, but Juan and Nester were waiting to take us home. Rhonda tried to get them to take us by McDonalds, but rather than focusing all her energy on that, she called CasaACU to tell the students that we were coming home in a police car so someone would take pictures. Which happened as you can see. The police officers laughed at us a lot... Of course I laughed at us too.

So here's what I lost: A credit card which has already been canceled and a new one is on its way, an ATM card that only goes to a little account and is really made to be lost, my drivers license which I can fill out paper work and get replaced, Rhonda's extra cell phone (whoops), less than $100 and MY AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP CARD! Que Triste! But really, I had another credit card, another ATM card, and my real debit card all at CasaACU so things could have been much worse.

So that's the story, I'm really not upset, certainly not traumatized like the women on TV who get there purse snatched. And really its kind of funny. I mainly feel stupid because I was doing so many things that I know better than, i.e. I don't even usually carry my purse at night for that very reason, and if I do I hold on tight. I was just being careless.

I must thank my jogging buddies at home... I certainly wasn't winded from chasing the kids.

Now I know how fast rumors can get going at ACU... by the time I got home last night the story was that I had chased some men 5 blocks instead of two 12 year olds 2 blocks. By the time I went to bed the students said they were going to tell people at home that I had chased big burley men 10 blocks while wearing heels.

Also... since the pictures of us coming home in a police car are already on facebook... the other rumor could be that Dr. Collier and Dr. Sutherlin were arrested... THAT'S NOT TRUE EITHER!

OHHHH! I almost forgot the funniest end to the story. The police officers gave us their phone numbers! HAHAHAHAHAHA! See and you thought this was a bad experience!

We are heading to Argentina in an hour and a half, so I most likely won't be blogging again until Monday! Have a great weekend!

Greet One Another with a Holy Kiss

This command has become to mean a lot more to me since I've been in Uruguay. It is something we practice every day when we see Uruguayans. Growing up I always thought it was kind of weird... "Um... you want me to kiss someone every time I see them?" My dad translated it for Americans in a sermon a time or two as "Greet one another with a holy hug."

When I participated in study abroad in Italy as an undergrad, I understood it a bit better. In Italy, our professors made us give the people on either side of us "Italian greetings" which is a kiss on each cheek at house meetings or when we had church at the villa. (We were always excited when we were sitting next to the cute missionaries, but that is a whole other story.) But it wasn't something we really participated in with the Italians... well at least not that I really remember. Partly, because as I remember it this was a way you greeted people you knew reasonably well.

In Uruguay, this is the standard greeting and parting. You don't shake hands when you see someone... or even meet them for the first time, you kiss them on the cheek. Well really it is you put your right cheeks together, or at least close and make a kiss noise. People that know you well may literally kiss you on the cheek. Uruguay is a one cheek country, whereas Italy was a two cheek country. Most people go right cheeks together, although, every so often someone will throw you off and go for the other cheek. This has led to some close calls. :) If you don't kiss someone, you can be considered cold.

Now if you noticed I said even when you meet someone for the first time, you kiss. It has taken time to get used to. "Hi, nice to meet you... let's touch our faces together." And I don't particularly have any personal space. I'm sure this is difficult for people who do have a lot of personal space. I like the way one my students put it in facebook when she was talking about things that she learned in Uruguay, "In Uruguay, you must embrace and kiss everyone on the cheek when you enter the room - even if there are 50 strangers in the room." This does sometimes mean that it takes awhile to get in the door at church. :)

Now don't take me wrong, I think this is fabulous. I think its fun to run into someone from church on the street and to stop and take the time to give them a hug and a kiss. It does however lead to some funny conversations. For example, about the young Tango teacher teacher that came to Rhonda's class:
One of the students: "Dr. Sutherlin, what's the name of the young teacher?"
Me: "I don't know. I just let him in and kissed him. Um... wait a second..."
It is a weird thing to be in the habit of kissing (even on the cheek) men who I have no idea what their names are. :)

So watch out when I come home... If I look like I'm swooping in to kiss you on the cheek... its just a new habit and its just a holy kiss!

Ojo!

Ojo! (pronounced o-ho) is currently my favorite Uruguayan phrase/ gesture. Ojo literally means eye, but in Uruguay when accompanied by the gesture so beautifully demonstrated by Rhonda and Kelsey, means a wide variety of "look out."

My first introduction to ojo was at the Rama's house just before I left Texas. When Bev was telling me about people on the bus telling each other to watch out when a pickpocket was on the bus. Bev just did the gesture and I really didn't think much about it until I got here. So it can be a warning that you need to watch a person, they might try to steal your stuff.

When we got Uruguay, Rhonda kept saying to ojo and point to her eye, when talking about watching our surroundings and safety. So it can mean to be careful and watch your surroundings.

Then at church, someone was teasing one of the men and told him she was keeping her ojo on him. So it can mean I'm watching you.

I've learned in aerobics it can also just mean to watch or look. Our aerobics instructor is always yelling for us to ojo (complete with gesture) whenever he's going to show us a new set of moves. It is usually accompanied by him looking back at the other ACU girls and I with a look that we read as, "I can't believe I have people in here that don't speak Spanish... I hope you're watching." (Just for the record we understand pretty well in class... I think he thinks we are clueless, b/c I'm pretty sure he thinks I misunderstood the question when I said I was 32. People don't tend to believe I'm my age when my hair is in pig tails.) OK... so that was off-topic but aerobics is cracking me up these days.

Ojo also makes me think of the kids song "Oh be careful little eyes what you see.."

So remember to ojo and take care!

Cast of Characters Part I - Los Estudiantes

Well I keep talking about the students and its time I introduce them... so here they are left to right.

Anne is a biochem major from Memphis. Luke just behind her is also a biochem major and is from Lubbock. They are taking both of the upper level chemistry classes. So we spend 8 hours a week together in class.

Kelsey in the red jacket is from American Samoa and is my third biochem major. Kelsey is rooming with Chelsea, a poli sci/ international relations major from the Metroplex. Chelsea is in my intro chem class. (I'm right behind Chelsea.)

Next to Chelsea is Jonathan S. Jonathan isn't sure what he's majoring in, but is at least finishing his chemistry minor with biochem. Jonathan and Kelsey, both normally go to Minter Lane with me.

Next comes Matt, our LCU student. Matt is a senior and is spending his last semester in South America.

Nikita is next to Matt and is in my intro chem class. She is one of our two Californians majoring in nursing.

Caitlyn and Jenna are next. They are also both in intro chem. Caitlyn is from Indiana and Jenna is from small town Texas.

None of the last three students are in any of my classes. First, comes Jonathan F., a psychology major from Lubbock. Then Jennifer, our second Californian nursing major. I had Jennifer in class a couple of years ago. Last of the students is Kimberly, an education major from Austin. She also serves as our R.A. So she gets the lucky job of assigning people their weekly duties and helping to organize chapel.

Last but not least in the picture on the far right is Rhonda Collier, the on-sight director.

So our students basically break down into three groups of four, from my perspective:

The Scientists: Anne, Luke, Jonathan S., and Kelsey -- They are all in biochem, while only Luke and Anne are crazy enough to take two upper level chemistries while at study abroad.

The Intro chemists: Jenna, Chelsea, Caitlyn, and Nikita. We spend an hour a day four days a week together.

Not in my class: Matt, Jonathan F., Jennifer, and Kimberly. Its kind of nice not to have a few students in class.

Aerobics, understanding more, and other weekend news

Well, it appears I'm not going to go running much, because basically I'd have to take a taxi or bus to a good place to go running and that would just be silly. Now if you are wondering why I wouldn't just jog in the neighborhood or to the good place to go running, the answer is that I like my ankles the way they are. The side walks here are pretty uneven. On top of that there are lots of people and dog poo to avoid. So some of the girls and I have started to going to a local gym to do aerobics. On Saturday, I went to my first aerobics class which was Body Combat (Cardiokick boxing/ Taebo). So basically after a few weeks I'll be able to beat someone up if there is a good beat. Ok, maybe not. The instructors were really funny. Both were men, I don't know why, but male aerobics instructors always crack me up.

The nice thing about aerobics is you don't have to understand much, you just have to follow. Although most of the time the "boxing" term was either the same as English or they used the English word: jab, cross, upper cut. And it is helping me remember Spanish words like knee, elbow, and hook. Anyway, its a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to trying to figure out step aerobics on Tuesday.

In other news, I made the mistake of just before leaving Abilene saying that I don't get sick unless it is a cold or a stomach bug. I've been here two and a half weeks... and guess what??? I've now had both! A cold the first week. When I headed to the gym yesterday I didn't feel good, but I figured it was weird new situation nerves. I won't go into the gory details, but I feel much, much better today. I even got up and went to church this morning. Oh one funny thing about it... I woke up in the middle of the night and my shoulders were hurting... and I thought, "Oh, what's wrong with me now???" Then I remembered that I had done push-ups in aerobics... I hate push-ups!

After church, those of us who went to church went out to lunch with Eric Rama. His father teaches at ACU and he's in school down here. Eric went to ACU last year and almost came as part of our study abroad, so we all knew him before. He lives in the same building we do, but we haven't seen him much since we've been here. It was really good to catch up with him.

Tonight at church was exciting because I was able to follow what Oscar was preaching on. For some reason, I understand Oscar the best of the mean who preach. I don't know if its because I know where he's going or because he's speaks a little more slowly... but I followed the sermon well. I also made myself ask people to slow down and understood more in conversations with people after church.

After church, Rhonda, Kimberly, Anne, and I went out for Chinese. It was the first time I had eaten much since Friday. (I had only picked at my lunch.) But, wow, I feel great now.

One funny thing about teaching at Study Abroad is that students and teachers have much more access to each other. I got home and printed out study guides for the exams I'm giving this week. I went around and handed them out to the students I could find. Then at 10 PM, a student came in to get help on homework. Now at home I refuse to do chemistry after 10, I'm usually in bed, but here I keep much later hours. I'm enjoying all the contact though.

I guess that's all for now. Some time soon I need to introduce you everyone and tell you about watching Rugby in Spanish, my favorite thing to watch at the moment. Until next time...

Just Chillin' Out

Well I wanted to stop in and say, "Hi!" I'm just sitting around hanging out with the students. To show this is a high tech generation. There are 7 of us in the room, 5 have out our laptops. All of us brought our laptops with us to Montevideo.

Today has been a nice day. Its great to have two Saturdays every weekend. We didn't do much in the morning... it was raining so most of us lazed around the house. In the afternoon, a bunch of us wandered down to the city center. It was fun, although, I think we ended up in a not as great neighborhood when we wandered down to the Rio. Of course as one student said, "If you are down by the shipping docks in any city... you aren't going to be in a good area of town." There were 7 of us and it was in the middle of the afternoon, so we didn't think we'd be mugged.

We did a lot of souvenir shopping, not really buying, but just looking around. It is very strange that no matter where you go in the world, you can buy replicas of "The David" and "The Last Supper." I wasn't going to buy anything, but of course I found a painting of Tango dancers that I couldn't resist.

Oh, the student who got hurt went back to the doctor today. They couldn't do an MRI on his knee for various reasons, but we might be able to get it done when we go to B.A. next week. Anyway, the doctor is pretty sure its just a sprain. The student was able to move his knee today at the doctor. So its looking better.

Well so no clever post today... I have a list of clever things for days that I feel clever. That's using clever too many times in a row... but I'm not with it enough to come up with something better. :)

Things that didn't go exactly as planned!

All of the students are enrolled in an international studies class taught by Rhonda. She takes them on all sorts of trips around the city and brings in special guest speakers which is really cool. This is the same class that the Tango teachers came to. Well yesterday, was a field trip to El Cerro, the hill of Montevideo that was fortified and is now a symbol of the city and Uruguay. It also happens to be a great look out over the city... well usually. A cloud had descended on El Cerro, and the view wasn't so great. (You can see the view in the picture with the girls.) So instead, we went into the fort. There were lots of weapons and such. I think most of our attention was focused on the weather though.

Afterwards, we went to see some other sights, but as it was raining we weren't too excited to get out and see stuff. We did go to another museum, which had some of the more famous works of Uruguay... but as on par with the day... many of the paintings were on display at the capital.

Poor Rhonda... she had a great trip planned but the weather just didn't cooperate. We may have to repeat the trip on a day when we can actually see some thing.

The other thing that didn't go quite as planned was a student's basketball game. This led to our first student injury. One of the boys was playing and just turned wrong. He managed to dislocate his kneecap. At best he's sprained his knee at worst he tore a tendon/ ligament. Please pray that its just a sprain. He's holding up pretty well considering he's so far from home and having to deal with something that really hurts. We should know more after he goes to the doctor tomorrow.

English Lessons

English lessons for members of the El Chana church. We mainly do the lessons in Friends Speak (Let's Start Talking) style. The first week Rhonda paired us with students the first week. We are supposed to work with the same people every week, although I have worked with two different ladies, Mary and Silvia.

The students are on all sorts of levels of English abilities. (Kind of like our group is with Spanish.) Mary, the first week, barely spoke English, but it was really fun teaching her some of the basic phrases. And she greeted me on Sunday in English which was fun. This week Silvia was much more advanced. She started out telling me that she couldn't speak English... well it turns out she could speak quite a bit. In fact, we are probably pretty similar in our ability to speak each other's language. We spent of the time telling each other about our families.

I think the English lessons have been a great opportunity for our group to bond with the El Chana church. It is nice to have one-on-one time with members of the church. I think it is also great that we can provide some service to a church who welcomes ACU groups with such open arms every semester.

I also want to brag on my students while we are talking about service. I have been so proud of them pitching in to help. The first Sunday the church gave a lunch for us. The group stayed to help clean up afterwards. Rhonda said she had never had a group do that before. They also help set up and clean up after the English lessons. I'm really proud of them!

CasaACU Tour

I thought it was time to show you the larger area in which I live... So welcome to CasaACU!

To get into CasaACU you come in a big set of double doors. This is taken just inside the doors. You can see the glassed in foyer and patio, with lighter walls on the other side of the tiled foyer. The curtains on on the windows of the computer lab. On the right of the tiled foyer is the door into CasaACU proper.

This is taken from in the foyer and the wooden door is the main entrance. We always keep this door locked. If we are leaving and we know someone is only a minute behind us, we lock it if we aren't waiting on them. This leads to some fun times of irritating each other by locking the door before the other person can get there.

This is taken just inside the door in the inside foyer. Just in the right of the picture you can see the stairs that go to the second floor. There are two doors in the little hall. The wooden door is a girls' dorm room. The metal door leads to the courtyard. We are going to go through the metal door first then we'll come back and go down the hall just to the left.


Here's the courtyard. My apartment has the three windows on the first floor. Rhonda's is on the second floor. The ground is so shiny because its raining at the moment. This picture was taken just outside that metal door. If you continue across the courtyard to right of this picture you go back inside to the extra girls' room/ professor's children's room (its empty at the moment), the quiet room and the back door to my apartment.

Here's the quiet room. To be honest, this is the first time I had been in here. The only reason I knew it existed is that it showed up on Facebook in one of the student's pictures. I guess since it's quiet it is good at hiding. Wahahahaha!

OK... so now we've gone back through the courtyard and turn right. OR Instead of going towards the courtyard from the front entry we turn left and go down the long hall. (In the picture from the front entry you can see the dark tiles leading to the left.) Anyway... on this hall we have four girls' rooms. The bright light is a reflection off a picture above the downstairs phone in the waiting area. You can see to the right of the reflection the hall continues on. (It gets brighter down there.) That hall leads to the kitchen, dining room, TV room, and workout room.


This is the waiting area on the first floor. The couch is front of my apartment. The open door is my front door and the window is over my kitchen sink. The wooden door on the left is to the girl's bathroom. Right behind me when I took the picture is that patio that was in the back of the very first picture. Now we're going to go in front of my apartment door and turn left and go to the very end of my hall.

This is the dining room and kitchen. In the background you can see Raquel and Mariella our amazing cooks. I'll write more about them later. This is where we go to try to ensure none of our clothes will fit when we go home. Luckily we walk a lot! (The wall in the back of the picture goes up against the girls' bathroom. For those of you who like to stay oriented.) Now just to the left out of sight in this picture are some stairs that lead up to the loft.

Hey and here are those stairs. You can see the dining tables on the right. Through the doors are the washer and drier. Behind a door beneath the stairs is a room that has fridges or something. It is an area we are not allowed to venture.

In the loft is the TV room/ Den/ chapel. Yup chapel too. The room through the other door is the exercise room. It has the world's loudest elliptical machine. Apparently Matt was using it while I was teaching... BUT I was so enamored with chemistry and the sound of my own voice, I didn't hear it.

DON'T WORRY WE ARE ALMOST DONE!

Now we are back in the front entrance way. And are ready to head upstairs.

Just to the left at the top of the stairs is the computer lab. The computers are a bit old, but as everyone has a laptop and there is wireless in the house it's not a big deal. At least we can print from them. The curtains are the same one's I pointed out in the first picture.

From the computer lab you can see the second floor foyer. The second floor has the same basic layout as the dorm room/ apartment part of the first floor. There is even a balcony on the courtyard and rooms on the other side. Notice the beautiful hardwood floors! In the room next to the courtyard that was a girls' room downstairs is the most important room in the place!

That's right... The classroom... We do have a projector so we have smart capabilities.

And here it is from another angle. If you are thinking, "Wow! that room looks small!" You are right... although if you only have 4 in a class it is plenty big. :)

If you have stuck it out this far... I'm super impressed! Today was a rainy day so it seemed like it was a good day for a house tour.

El Fin de Semana

The weekend...

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. I slept super late for me on Saturday - 10:40 AM!!! I spent most of the rest of the day watching rugby or tennis. I think I'll at least be able to speak sports' Spanish by the time I leave. I was in theory doing school work too... but that was really only in theory.

Around 5, I decided I had to get out of the house, so Anne and I walked to the grocery store. I spend lots of time in the grocery store staring at stuff trying to figure out what exactly I want to buy. Then I came back and went to dinner with Matt. When we got back, I joined the group watching Dodgeball, which was way funnier than I expected.

Sunday, almost our entire group went to church and Bible class. Afterwards, Rhonda and I went to a market then lunch. The weather here has been unseasonably warm... as in in the upper 70's lower 80's rather than upper 50's lower 60's. We sat on the porch of the restaurant looking at el Rio de la Plata and the park. I know its a rough life.

In the afternoon, I pretended to work again. Kimberly, Jennifer, and I were the only ones to go to church in the evening. It was fun with just 3 of us, because they were more willing to try English, and to be honest I was more willing to try Spanish. Then we had Subway. (Yup there is a Subway in walking distance.)

When I got home I got to watch U.S. football. Apparently they show the NFL here on Sunday and Monday nights! Good times!

Trip to the Big Mall

Yay for having Fridays off!

I had heard much about the big mall in Montevideo and how nice it was. So I decided I wanted to go. Sandra, Rhonda's assistant, went with several of us so we would know which bus to take and where to get off. I had heard several times that the mall here was just like those in the U.S., but since I'd never seen a mall like the ones in the US outside of it, I didn't really believe it. (Do you notice that I have had a heard time believing what people tell me about stuff here?)

Anyway the mall was like an upscale mall in the U.S. Much nicer than the ones I usually shop at. One difference was that it has a nice grocery store. We decided to buy stuff to make dinner together. While discussing what to make I mentioned that I had seasonings for taco meat. So we bought the makings for taco salad. (We could even buy Old El Paso refried beans and jalopenos.)

On the way back we had an interesting experience on the bus when a couple of transvestites got on the bus to entertain the riders. Now these weren't transvestites that we had trouble telling that they were men. These were clearly men. One of them could actually sing pretty well. It was funny. They really carried on harassing some folks. But they left us alone more or less. They did of course ask for money after they entertained the crowd. (Not that we had a choice about listening.) The only one of our group that they asked for money was Jonathan F. He just told them he didn't speak Spanish and that seemed to work.

It was a fun... pretty mild adventure... I'll let you know how the taco salad turns out. :)

The First Week of Lessons

Well we've been here for one week now. It has really been a fantastic week. It feels like longer, but not because I've been bored or lonely, but because we've done so much. The first few days as I've already described were full of activity.

It has certainly been a week of lessons. The first group of lessons are the classes I taught. I'm going to be thoroughly spoiled by the time I come home. If I didn't have to do brand new preps for P-chem, I almost wouldn't have to work. My schedule is Introduction to General Chemistry Monday through Thursday from 10-11 AM, Biochemistry on Monday and Wednesday from 4:30-6:30 PM, and Physical Chemistry Tuesday and Thursday 8-10 AM. P-chem was originally from 4:30-6:30 on Tues and Thurs, but since none of us had anything at 8, we decided being sleepy was better than brain dead for class. We do enjoy getting to take a break in the middle of P-chem to eat breakfast. Of course, we've only had class at 8 once, so who knows if we might get tired of it. But it looks like I'll be getting up just before class and waiting until after Intro chem to shower and put on make up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Can I just say that I love teaching at CasaACU where I don't have to wear shoes or makeup to class???

I am really enjoying my students. It is pretty cool to have students that I know so well. On the first day of class I brought up the fact that it was going to be weird sometimes that I hung out with them, but would be telling them what to do in class and sometimes out of class. I think it is going to work out fine. You know, grading goes a lot faster when you only have 4 people in class!

Second set of lessons: Rhonda has organized English class for the people at church on Tuesday nights. I and the students are the teachers. We work one on one with los estudiantes. It was amazing, there were the exact number students as teachers. 15 students 15 teachers. I was working with Mary, who speaks no English... But it was good because I had to use the Spanish I knew. We were doing English that I knew the Spanish for. "What is your name? My name is... Where are you from? I'm from... What do you do? I'm a..." It was pretty fun.

Third set of lessons: TANGO... Rhonda brought in a couple of Tango teachers to the International Studies class. The teachers were really great and the class was super fun. I now know the basic steps. The picture is of me dancing with one the teachers. That night some of the students went to the teachers class that they have every week. I had to work on P-chem so I couldn't go, but I may go next time. Some how it seems like it would just be cool to know how to tango.

Fourth set of lessons: I've been learning a lot about being in Uruguay. I'm sure I'll be expounding on some of these later. First: The people are really nice and helpful. I've had all sorts of people gently give me mini-Spanish lessons. The guy at the meat counter, the servers at restaurants, the people at church. They are much more tolerant of my inability to speak Spanish than we are tolerant of peoples' inability to speak English in the States. Second: Don't say you are an American as a nationality. They are Americans too. Third: The food is great. I may like the food here more than any place I've traveled except for maybe Italy. Fourth: I had been told that Montevideo was really European. I had found that hard to believe, after having been here for a week and I can agree that it does remind me of many places I've been in Europe.

It has been a great first week!

Apartment Tour

Welcome to my home!

The kitchen is the first thing you encounter when you enter my apartment. As you can see I use the kitchen table the same way here that I do at home: As a place to collect my purses, school stuff, and other assorted junk. You can also see that I have full sized refrigerator.

I have a little stove, a toaster oven, microwave, and a coffee maker. You can see more evidence that I live here in that there is an empty Diet Coke bottle on the counter.

From the front door you can see down a long hall. The first door you encounter on the right is the office. The door you can see at the end of the hall is for the bathroom. The bedroom is just around the corner at the end.

And here's the office. Just like my office at ACU, papers are everywhere. Its not quite as bad yet, but then again I've been here less than a week. :)

Here's the bathroom with the nice marble counter tops. Its waaaayyy bigger than my bathroom at home.

And here is my sitting/ bedroom. I actually rearranged it so that I could have a sitting area in front of the TV in case I wanted to watch something with people in my apartment. This way we don't all have to pile on the bed... That might have been weird. (Again... do you like how I already have papers everywhere in the apartment?)

The room has a giant post in the middle of it. Its structural, so it has to stay... I haven't run into it yet, but I figure it is only a matter of time. When I rearranged the room I pushed the bed into a somewhat awkward spot, but it works for a single person. The little hallway on the other side of the bed leads to a back door, that actually goes into a hallway that leads back to the girls rooms. (The building has an atrium in the middle. My apartment is on 1 1/2 sides and there are girls rooms on the other 2 1/2 sides).

Finally, here are my dressers and TV. I know very exciting, but I figured at least the Cukrowski's would want to see the whole room. Its really pretty big.