Trip Across the Continent - Part III - Valpairso y Santiago de Chile

We left El Refugio los Valdes around 10 and headed back to Santiago. Once we got to Santiago, we took a bus to Valpairso, a town on the Pacific coast.

When we arrived in Valpairso, we went to our hostel, which was very cute. Staying in a hostel is fun because it is cheap and there are lots of other young travelers from all over the world staying there. It can lead to unusual situations though too, b/c they tend to have mixed dorm rooms. Well with 8 of us and 6 girls, we could work around this... or so we though. We booked a room for our guys, and then the 6 of us would fill up a dorm. Well the dorm in our hostel in Valpairso was a 7 person dorm. So it ended up being the six of us and a guy from Columbia, named Andreis. It ended up not being a big deal, he was really clean cut and didn't go to bed until after we were all asleep and didn't get up until we were all up and out. But there were lots of jokes about us sharing a room with a Columbian. Is it weird that was less uncomfortable than the idea of sharing a room with our guys?

ANYWAY... the first thing we did was to head up the coast to Vina del Mar the resort town next to Valpairso. It is the ritzier place to stay. It was really pretty. We wandered around some then headed to the beach to put our feet in the Pacific.



I love this picture because everyone was nicely posed as we waited for the wave, but the water was so cold we got quite a reaction. The funny thing is that the wave turned out to be really high. I think the bottom of several people's jeans were a bit damp.

When we went back to Valpairso we climbed the big hill up to our hostel. We had planned to eat at a restaurant down the street from our hostel, but we found out it was closed. Then the debate became whether to venture back down the big hill. 5 of us decided to head down to a German-Chilean restaurant. The food was good and it was really fun kitchy place. We had the best time laughing and carrying on. The owner who is a German who moved to Chile 20 or so years ago (or as the English version of the flier about the restaurant said, "droped his anchor" yes droped, not dropped) came over to visit with us. He kept giving Luke a hard time about being out with 4 women. It was a really fun night.

I had a caught a cold at some point, so I had a hard time sleeping. I stayed up really late because I felt bad coughing was afraid that I'd keep everyone else up. Anyway, I slept in while the rest of the group headed to a museum. It did give me a chance to visit with Andreis who is a computer programmer.

We had lunch at the restaurant we had intended to eat at the day before. It was a gorgeous day and we got to sit on the balcony that overlooked Valpairso and Vina del Mar. The food was amazing. We could order Thai, Italian, Indian, etc. Like most of our meals, this one took us about 2 hours to order, wait for the food, and eat. But I grew to enjoy this pace on vacation, esp. when we got to enjoy beautiful weather and see amazing views. After lunch we headed back to the train station and back to Santiago.

Once we got to Santiago, we headed to our hostel. This one was in the middle of the art district, and this time we had a room for 6 girls, so we didn't share with any strange men. It was interesting that everyone that stayed at this hostel spoke English and I don't think anyone was from South America. In the evening we went to a nearby neighborhood that had lots of little shops. When you are in a group with 6 girls... shopping cannot be neglected. After shopping we ate dinner at an Incan Restaurant. I'm still not sure what kind of sauce was on my chicken, but it was super good. After dinner we went back to the hostel. We met an American couple that took a year off from work to travel. I hung out with them the rest of the evening. Among other things we watched the World Series.

On Friday morning, Chelsea, Kelsey, Jennifer, and I headed to Starbucks. (Our excuse is that Kelsey's uncle collects Starbucks mugs.)




Then to waste time until the museums opened, we went to Cerro Santa Lucia which is a park on a big hill. It was like stumbling on a fairy land, or as Kelsey put it, into the Secret Garden. There was a big fountain where you could make wishes. (Of course it required throwing coins... so...) At the top of the hill there was a castle like tower. From the top there was an amazing view. After we finished exploring the park we headed to Palacio de Bellas Artes to meet the rest of the group. It was really cool because there was a "live"
exhibit, which was people painting and doing art. The coolest exhibit was a a giant exhibit was a room with black material covering the wall. There was pictures of rooms done in stick pins with color ends, it was so pretty, but impossible to describe.





After the museum, we split up. I visited the pedestrian streets, grabbed some lunch, and successfully got cold medicine from a pharmacy. Unlike the States, we have to talk to some one behind the counter to get the cold medicine. I was proud to do it Spanish. I then headed back to the hostel to meet the others. Anne, Chelsea, Luke and I went to the zoo in Parque Metropolitano which again is on a big hill. Then we rode the funicular to the top of the hill, which is even bigger.

After the trip to the zoo we went back to the hostel and spent quite awhile hanging out with some folks from the hostel. Several of us sat outside, including the American couple, an Israeli woman, a German guy, and 3 Brits. It was a lot of fun. For dinner we went to eat Greek food. When we got back to the hostel, some of the girls went out to listen to some local music. I ended up watching Elizabethtown with the German guy. He had missed the first part, and we could hardly hear it. It was funny trying to explain the non-plot.

Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to the bus station. Then we began our 28 hour trip home. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. We slept a good portion of it. Our trip was fun, but I was glad to get back to Montevideo and my own bathroom.

Trip Across the Continent - Part II Los Andes

After arriving in Santiago, we had a couple of hours before we were supposed to me Sr. Pado, who was supposed to take us to the place we were staying in the Andes. It took almost all of that time for us to find ATM's that would take all of our cards. After a frustrating hour and a half or so, we got enough money that we thought we'd be ok (we needed cash for our 2 days in the Andes), then headed to the Plaza Italia where we were supposed to meet our driver. While we were waiting, the rest of the group was able to get money. We finally found Mr. Pado and headed 2 hours outside of Santiago to Canjon de Maipo where we spent Monday afternoon until Tuesday morning. It was an amazing place. We kept having to remind ourselves that we were really this blest to get to spend time surrounded by the Andes. Rather than going into a long explanation about our time there, I thought I'd show you some of the roughly 200 pictures I took and tell you about them.

This is probably my favorite picture. Everytime I see it, I can't believe I was there and took the picture! On Monday night we had devo and this was the view we were looking at.

This is my, Chelsea, and Ann's room at Refugio de Los Valdes. The Refugio only used electricity from a generator from dark until 11 or 12.

The view out our bedroom window.

When hiking behind the Refugio we even found wild life. I can't help but take pictures of lizards now, because they make me think of my nephew. Can you spot it?

Flowers can grow everywhere!

The Horseback Ride:

Heading up the mountain. I was on a burro named Macho. I'm afraid I couldn't resist all the donkey/ burro jokes there were, esp. since Macho like to walk on the edge of the trail next to drop offs, I enjoyed yelling, "I'm a donkey on the edge!"

Heading toward snow covered mountains

Now if you are starting to think, I'm just using this blog to brag about the scenery we saw, you are probably right.

The biochemists who went horseback riding. This was where we took a break. Its sad that we had to suffer through such scenery. (Yes I know the hat looks dorky, but it saved me from a horrible sunburn.)

Across the mud flat.

Over the edge.


El Refugio Los Valdes from a distance. It is the red building among the trees. They had to do lots of irrigation to keep all of those trees.

After 4 hours on a horse/ burro, we were a little saddle sore.

Sunset in the mountains... And yes, I'm still bragging.

Tuesday night we shared chocolate fondue to celebrate our time in the mountains.
(Because the scenery wasn't enough.)

Our traveling group. From the Left: Kimberly, Anne, Kelsey, Luke (in back) Chelsea, Jennifer, Me (in back), Jonathan S.

Trip Across the Continent - Part I On the Bus and Mendoza

We started our grand adventure from Tres Cruces, the bus station half a mile from CasaACU. We were very excited to be on the bus and on our way. As you can see from Jennifer and Chelsea's picture, we were also really clean still. :) Watch we get dirtier and dirtier as the trip goes on.

The bus ride from Montevideo to Mendoza was 24 hours. They served us lunch. It was a very unusual one. It had sandwiches that had ham and cheese or chicken salad. Which wouldn't have been weird except the bread was really cake. It was... um... different.

We had been on the road about an hour when the bus pulled over. Its never good to see all the people that work on your bus. When we started up again they had turned off the A/C and on the heat and were driving really slowly. After awhile it got pretty miserable. After about an hour of driving slowly and stopping periodically we stopped at a mechanic. They fixed the bus pretty quickly. And we were back on the road.



We stopped about 1 AM, for dinner. It was a little strange to try to figure out a new bus station when you are half asleep.

When we woke up in the morning we were surprised by the scenery just east of Mendoza. It looked amazingly like West Texas... flat, dry, with little trees, shrubberies, etc.

For breakfast they served us a cookie and coffee. Here is the weird thing: I liked the coffee. (For those of you who don't know... I hate coffee.)

About an hour outside of Mendoza we got our first view of the Andes. It was hard to believe we were actually seeing them. It was fun because pretty much everyone on the bus started leaning over the right side to see them. It wasn't just us uncultured Norte Americanos. The South Americans were as excited as we were.

Because of the bus troubles, we arrived a little late, but after 24 hours, we were finally in Mendoza.


Once we arrived we had two main tasks, to get to our hotel and to get some lunch. After we checked in we started to wander. We found a restaurant where we could sit outside and enjoy the weather. We split up so that we would get our food faster... I can't imagine how long it would have taken if we hadn't split up. It was crazy as it was. Jennifer and I got our food pretty quickly, but I think it was over an hour and a half before some of the kids got to eat.

Those of us who ate quickly managed to get our tickets for our next bus trick from the travel agent. (Who was super nice and came in on a Saturday afternoon to get them for us.) And also booked our whitewater rafting trip for the next day. We have decided to always trust men with babies. The travel agent brought in his baby girl and was super helpful. Another time some of the girls had been warned about some guys trying to steal their stuff by a man with a baby. (So guys if you want girls to trust you, carry a baby with you.

Once the whole group got back together we headed to Parque de San Martin. This park is almost as big the entire city. It was gorgeous. We found a beautiful fountain, which not surprisingly someone (Jonathan S.) almost ended up in it after he splashed the girls. We found a big crowd. We couldn't figure out what was going on. Then all of a sudden I realized it was Spanish I understood -- AEROBICS! They were doing aerobics in the park.


There was also a rose garden in the park. We wandered around and took lots of pictures. If you are interested I'll show them all to you when I get home. It was gorgeous though!

Our group split up and Anne, Chelsea, and I walked around the lake in the park and sat and talked and compared wedding horror stories we had heard of or were involved in. I still win with the soccer/ Southern bell wedding.


As I mentioned last week, we went Whitewater rafting on Sunday morning. It was one of the highlights of the trip. We still giggle over splashing the other raft, Anne being kidnapped, and Jonathan and I falling out of the raft. Every so often we still quote Estaban with "Forward, my team." Always great for random moments when we are heading somewhere.

After our rafting experience we went back to Mendoza and fed ourselves. Then Kelsey, Jonathan, and I went on our afore mentioned quest to dry out the shoes. After trying a couple places, the people at the hotel put them in their dryer. It did get them some drier, but they were still kind of damp. They didn't end up mildewing on us, so we were in good shape.

Our bus left around 10 that night. We stopped at the Chile-Argentina border around 3 AM to go through passport control and customs. I guess between being asleep and the altitude, I felt pretty terrible. In fact we were standing in line when I got really light headed and couldn't see straight. I looked at the students and said, "I'm going to sit down now so I won't pass out." They just looked shocked and said, OK. Here was the person who was experienced at crossing borders, about to pass out. The other exciting thing that happened there was that a couple of the girls had oranges in their bags which were found. One of the girls had declared them and the other hadn't. I think the one that hadn't declared her oranges and got a lecture, but they didn't keep her... so that was good.

Horseback ridig in the Andes

I'm borrowing Luke's computer... but I just wanted to check in and brag really quickly about that. Yup we went horseback riding in the Andes yesterday. Today we stuck our feet in the Pacific. It's a shame I never get to do anything cool!

Swimming in the Rio de Mendoza

We went white water rafting this morning. I´m sure I will write about this in more detail later, but it was awesome. We rafted down the Mendoza river which has water that is run-off from the snow from the Andes, and yes that means its cold! So we went rafting with the Andes above us. Our guides were awesome. We had two rafts, each group thought they had the better guide, so that´s good. Estaban, our guide, was really funny. He gave us several commands including ''Splash'' which lead to us splashing the other canoe copiously. At one point he kidnapped Anne out of the other canoe. As in he had us row close, reached over and drug Anne into our raft. It was pretty funny... especially since he then made her get back in the other canoe. The most excitement was when we were surfing some rapids and Jonthan S. and I got dumped out. Did I tell you the river was cold? It wasn´t scary at all... don´t worry. Anyway, it was a blast.

We are currently trying to convince someone to dry 9 pairs of shoes for us before we take an overnight trip to Santiago de Chile. If not there are going to be some STINKY shoes!

Oh have I mentioned that I can see the Andes???

Because I Can!

I have computer access, so I thought I would check in. We made it to Mendoza, Argentina after 24 hours in a bus. (Our bus had engine problems, we think overheating, which slowed us down a bit. It was repaired ok.) The bus is a pretty nice way to travel. Much more room than an airplane. We sat on the top of a double decker bus. And we got our first view of the Andes!!!

We arrived in Mendoza around noon, checked into our hotel, and went to find some food. The restaurant we picked had outdoor tables which was really nice, because it was a gorgeous day, but the service was definitely moving at South American speed, which was unfortunate because we were really hungry. After lunch Jennifer, Chelsea, Kelsey, and I checked on our bus tickets for tomorrow and made reservations for us to go white water rafting.

After showering, we spent the rest of the afternoon in a HUUUUUGGGGEEE park, as in it is almost as big as the city itself. They had a beautiful rose garden, which we took all sorts of pictures in. There was a gathering with people talking in microphones. All of a sudden I realized I recognized what they were saying... There is one set of Spanish instructions I know well.... Aerobics! There was an outdoor aerobics class going on. It was really funny!

After hanging out by a lake with Chelsea and Anne, we met with the group and found someplace to eat again. We were super hungry by the time we ate at eight-thirty. We followed with ice cream and got to sit outside and eat it. Did I mention the weather is gorgeous? Now we are hanging out at the hotel, getting ready to go to bed soon, mas or menos...

It has been a good start to our trip!

I'm on vacation! Nanner Nanner Nanner!

Actually, I've technically been on vacation for almost exactly 12 hours, ever since I finished intro chem this morning. But I ended up having to do some work (isn't that terrible) like editing a students presentation and writing recommendation letters.

Let's see what's been happening since I last wrote...

First, Jonathan F., the student in the hospital is greatly improved. I've seen him the last two days. He's still weak but doing much better. They would let him out of the hospital on Saturday, but his doctor is going to be out of town, and the doctor wants to be here when they let him out. Ironically, the doctor is going to be on Brazil for vacation which is where Jonathan was supposed to go.

Church tonight was really funny. I kept thinking I was following the discussion... but then something would be said that made me think I wasn't. I am pretty sure they began and ended the class with the same argument. I wish I had understood better, because I was really wanting to say something. Aldebar did end class by making fun of Kelsey and I again (or teasing... I'd call it making fun of, because we had no idea what he said, but could tell it was directed toward us.) They are always teasing us though... I take it as that they just really like Kelsey and I. Yes... I'm sure that's it. Tonight it was probably because Kelsey and I had gotten to giggling. But Aldebar and said something, I was sure I heard wrong and asked her what she heard him say. She heard the same thing, but we are sure we were both wrong... But it sure sounded funny. To us, it sounded like he said in Spanish, "Jesus is a woman." So just when we think are Spanish skills are developing... they are crushed again.

After church, I was talking to Oscar. We got to talking about our families. When I told him that my younger brother was married, he asked if I was married and then why not. He started going on about how my heart was empty... I assured him it was just cold. Then I told him that I didn't have room in my heart, because it was full of my students. He said (I think... again this is a Spanglish conversation so who knows what I missed) that I had a space for God, a space for my students, and a space for that one man. Then started going on about me looking for that special someone and that I needed to start right away... including on my trip next week. Then he began miming me walking down the street flirting. It was pretty funny. Of course, I started playing along and batting my eyes for them and such. It was really funny, but you probably had to be there.

I think the folks at church are starting to catch on to my age and the fact that I'm still single. So I keep being asked about it. The funniest comments made to me have been: when I was asked why I couldn't find someone to love me.... Oscar's miming me trying to pick up a guy on the 18 de Julio (the main street in town... not the date.) And being told how this one guy was really good marriage material. I was given lots of reasons why he was. My favorite though: Because he is clean!

Well, I guess that sums up the latest... I may later regret writing that last paragraph, but I'm tired, so I don't care at the moment. As I mentioned earlier I'm on vacation! We take off for a 10 day trip tomorrow. We are going to Mendoza, Argentina; the Andes; Valparaiso, Chile; and Santiago de Chile. We are supposed to be back on the 28th. We will be spending lots of time on buses, like 20 hours tomorrow, 8 hours Sunday night, and a 28 or so on the way home. But I'm sure it will be a good time. Yeah... I'm sure it will be. :) The rest of the trip will be totally worth it though.

I probably won't post until I get back, unless we stay someplace with free internet access... but really why would I post, when I could be out experiencing new things??? But then I'm sure I'll have lots of new stories that don't involve how much fun I have at church and aerobics. In fact... I'm going to miss a whole week or aerobics! Don't worry... Kelsey and I are going before we leave tomorrow! ;)

Things that make me happy!

I know this it why you all read this blog. To find out what makes me happy... But today has been full of things that make me happy.

1. The students got Rhonda and I flowers, chocolate, and wrote us sweet notes just to thank us for all we do. It was a nice surprise. I LOVE getting flowers, and I don't get them often... so that made my day.

2. A visit to Oscar's store. Oscar, one of the elders from church, owns a hardware store near CasaACU. Kelsey and I decided to go visit. It was way fun. The look on his face was great. First it was "Oh wow... this is so cool the girls came to visit me." Quickly followed by a look that said, "Wait a second, they don't speak much Spanish, I don't speak much English. How are we going to communicate?" We managed to communicate ok though. Eduardo also works at the store and so we got to talk to him too. I think they thought it was really neat that we visited.

3. Aerobics... Of course... Body Combat is always fun. The girl next to me and I kept laughing about having to do jumps in class. After class she asked me a question. I panicked for a bit then realized I knew the answer. She had only asked if it was really only 5. I confirmed that it was.

4. I survived my first phone conversation in Spanglish. I called Pablo, the guy who teaches our Bible class, to ask him a question. He was a tad bit surprised when it was me. I had already figured out how to say what I wanted to ask him in Spanish. So that part went fine. Then we talked about other stuff. We switched back and forth between English and Spanish. But it worked! I've talked to him a lot at church... but I wasn't sure how much gesturing played a role in our conversations, so I was glad we were able to communicate.

5. My classes... I really an enjoying getting to know the students in my classes. In intro chem we all have nicknames: I'm "The Great Grade Giver" for obvious reasons... but I can't remember why it came up. Jenna is "Math Head," because she can do arithmetic at a crazy speed in her head. Nikita is "Bone-cracker," because she is always cracking various joints. Caitlyn is "The Distracter" because she is the one who most often get us off topic. We didn't have a nickname for Chelsea until today when she became "The Usurper" because she did math fast today, and taught part of the class, and got us off topic. So she tried to take all the rest of our roles. We have way more fun in that class than should be allowed.

6. AND tonight is English class which is always fun... Speaking of which my hair is still wet and class is in 20 minutes... so I should quit writing and get ready!

Another Weekend Gone

The first week here went so slowly, now time is flying. I keep feeling like our time is up here, even though we are less than half way through. Let's see what happened this weekend...

On Saturday, the Finchers, the parents of the sick student arrived. I spent part of the morning with Jonathan at the hospital while we were waiting for them. Jonathan has been kind of up and down all weekend with how he is doing. I think that is normal for pneumonia. He was moved to a regular room yesterday. His father has to return to the States tonight, but his mother is going to remain for awhile.

After the Finchers arrived at the hospital around noon, I headed home. I walked in the house and was very confused because it smelled like someone had been cooking. I didn't think our group would be awake enough to be cooking by noon on Saturday. I walked in the kitchen and Raquel and Mariella were there. It took me a few minutes to figure out that it was indeed Saturday. Rhonda had them come in to cook for us on Saturday, because the Finchers were there. They also made food for us to heat up for Sunday lunch. It was a great surprise.

Saturday afternoon, I went out to enjoy the nice day. I walked to the bigger grocery store that I found out was reasonably close to CasaACU (15 or so blocks). It was exciting because I was able to by salad dressing! (They don't tend to put dressing on their salads.) After buying salad dressing, I sat in the park, read, and worked on my Spanish homework. It was a really pretty day, albeit a little cool in the shade. It was fun watching all the grandparents or parents out with the kids in the park.

In the evening, the Finchers, who are super nice, took a few of us out to dinner. We went to Molto Bene which is Jonathan's (and most of our) favorite restaurant. The waiter just laughs when we walk in. We are there at least once a week, and he is always working.

Sunday, the upper level Spanish class had a day trip. They went to their teacher's house in Piriapolis. That led to only 3 of us being in class at church Sunday morning. (Rhonda had gone on to the hospital.) Anyway, Pablo was gone and so were all our translators. Martin (pronounced Marteen) taught instead, which was pretty impressive since I don't think he knew he was going to teach until I walked up to him and told him Pablo was gone. Anyway, he said he'd just speak slowly. He... spoke... Spanish... about... like... this... the... whole... time... He also tried to use simpler vocabulary. Luke speaks a little more than Kelsey and I do, but it went really well. After about 20 min, though, my brain was really really tired. It did help that we were discussing 1st Corinthians.

(Oh funny side story to this. At the beginning of class Martin said he'd keep class short because I could only listen for about 20 min. Which I had told him last Sunday night when he asked me if I understood the sermon. I had told him that I knew most of the words, just couldn't think fast enough to put them together into thoughts and that I couldn't focus after about 20 minutes. According to Rhonda, he said that I said last week that his sermon was too long. So something got lost in the two languages. Even if I had thought that I wouldn't have said it. I'll have to straighten that out when I see him.)

Sunday evening, Kelsey and I went to Tres Cruces with Guillermo while he bought bus tickets for his trip home. We spotted these three boys that I thought they looked like American teenage punks. The haircuts, cargo shorts, and jeans with a big hole in the rear was a dead give away. And it turns out we were right.

The men at church were cracked up when I intelligently discussed the rugby match. Argentina lost to South Africa in the semi-finals, by the way.

Jennifer had really been missing American food, so last night when they returned from their day trip, some of us went to McDonald's. Its only the second time I've had fast food since I've been in South America. I must admit we all enjoyed our Quarter Pounders. Its a little sad. :)

Never a dull moment!

Well, we have another prayer request. One of the students, Jonathan F., caught pneumonia. His throat had been hurting a little for a couple days. He saw a doctor on Wednesday afternoon. She said he had a cold. Then he got worse. His lung started hurting Wednesday night. Then he got really sick overnight. In the morning, we called the doctor again, and he had pneumonia in a large portion of his right lung. And they took him to ICU in the hospital.

Anyway, it was kind of scary yesterday. He is doing great today. Yesterday, they thought he'd be in ICU for 4 days, now he's being moved to a regular room tomorrow. He's in good spirits today. When I visited him he was joking around. He's mainly worried about missing classes and missing out on our spring (fall) break. His parents are supposed to arrive tomorrow morning.

Please pray for his rapid recovery and his parents safe trip.

In other news, its rainy, but thing are continuing about like normal, well except for the whole student in the hospital thing. The students are stressed out with work because mid-terms are next weeks. I will be done piling on my students on Monday after they have their biochem exam. I gave my other mid-terms last week. I think the students are glad that I don't make them write about their feelings about chemistry. For two of their classes, International Studies and Message of Testament, there are lots of reflection papers that are all about their feelings. I, on the other hand, don't care about their feelings. :)

My Note Cards Can Totally Eat Your Note Cards

One of the hazards of traveling with a bunch of science majors is that you may find yourself stuck in really nerdy conversations. The 8 students who are traveling with the 5 scientists find themselves in this position often. I think it happens to Chelsea, Kelsey's roommate, the most. Actually I told her she should guest blog about it.

Every so often she complains about the Tuesday night study sessions that occur in her room. (My biochem students have a quiz or exam every Wednesday. Cruel prof!) Last night I was in the girls' room talking to Kelsey, Chelsea, and Jonathan S about non-science things. Kelsey changes the topic by asking me if I could look at an amino acid structure and tell her if it was correct or not. I told her sure. Chelsea thought that was frightening. But then again, I am a biochem prof, so it was probably ok. (I proved I was a nerd long ago.)

Then the conversation turned to which classes to take and which parts of labs were fun, i.e. biochem II lab is way more fun that biochem I lab. (With Chelsea asking, "Why Me?")

About that time Anne walks in and looks at Jonathan's note cards that he was using to study and says, "My note cards can totally eat your note cards. Look they are bigger AND have different colors." Jonathan then used to note cards to mimic Anne's cards eating his. I had to agree that Chelsea is subjected to much nerdiness.

Well once they got Luke down to study, I made my exit... why would I want to be in on a biochem study session. I want to make them suffer not help them!

Although I did come back to take pictures and came across this shocking situation: Mixed genders and their feet weren't all on the floor! THE HORROR!

Oh and I think Chelsea secretly enjoys the discussions about amino acids, DNA, and proteins and whether a PCR lab is more fun that an assay lab. :)

And the Word became Meat

I really love the El Chana Church of Christ. We are so blessed to have Christians that welcome us so openly into their family. They tolerate our (my) bad Spanish and give us (me) a safe place to practice speaking. Sunday morning, I actually had multiple conversations in Spanish before church. I sat with a couple I hadn't sat with before and enjoyed visiting with them. (All in Spanish... so I think I know what we said.)

We "Sprang Forward" going onto daylight savings time. So... umm... we had fewer students there than normal and a few came late. (But some of the members showed up an hour late too.) And just like when at home, not all of the students go to church, so as the semester has worn on, some have stopped coming. They don't realize what they are missing.

In Bible Class, there were 5 ACU students, myself, Eric Rama, and Pablo, the teacher. We were discussing Christianity as compared to different religions. Eric really does a great job translating. It gets funny sometimes because he's the only one who can really think philosophy in two languages. Some of the students are good and can understand all of the discussion. Pablo can speak English, especially in one-on-one conversations, but generally only speaks Spanish in Bible class. There were a few times I'd have to stop the Spanish discussion to get Eric to sum up. It was really fun, even though sometimes I'd get giggly over the craziness of doing these discussions in two languages. But then again I get giggly over a lot.

As I said, Pablo can speak English, but sometimes the problem in languages is that what is two words in one language is only one in another. For example carne can mean meat or flesh. So we hit a discussion of John 1. And Pablo wrote on the board "Verbo hecho" The Word became... And then wrote in English "meat." So it was "Verbo hecho meat" - "The Word became meat." We all knew what he meant but we got cracked up. Eric managed to explain to him that we usually translate that to flesh.

In the afternoon, I hung out in the apartment and watched Los Pumas beat Scotland in the World Cup Rugby Finals. Well, I saw the first half anyway, the second half was during evening services. On Saturday, the number 1 (New Zealand) and 2 (Australia) teams in the world lost. While the 3rd (South Africa) and 4th (Argentina) teams won their matches. So the semi-finals are set for next weekend: Argentina vs. South Africa and England vs. France. I know you are all as excited as I am!

For evening services, a weird set of circumstances led to me be both the only North American and only woman at church. I got a tad bit of attention. (Which that is ok, because I like attention.) I was forced to use my Spanish because there were no one else to translate for me. At one point after church, Martin and Pablo decided they wanted to practice English and they had me switch to English. So then we got to playing with switching back and forth. Depending on what words we knew.

After the sermon, who ever preaches almost always asks me if I understood. I don't know if it is because I look like I'm listening so hard or what. Yesterday I could honestly tell Martin I knew many of the words, but I don't usually have enough time to string them all together to get a meaningful sentence. More and more often I understand the gist of what is being said, but there are some people I still can't really understand at all. But I don't have the heart to say, "I don't understand a word that comes out of your mouth when you are speaking at the front of the church." Other people I can understand pretty much everything.

I've realized that I've grown used to this new church, because rather than leave immediately afterwards, I stand around and talk for awhile. Or in the case of Sunday night for 40 min. Oh, one kind of funny thing, I got stuck in a conversation with one person for about 10 minutes. It wasn't bad, I just couldn't talk to anyone else, and we were getting repetitive as we had reached the extent of my Spanish and his English. (Like 10 min of trying to explain that I was born in Canada and live and work in Texas now, got a little old.) I was pretty sure that the rest of the men could see that I was stuck. (Pablo was making faces at me.) At the very end Pablo and I were the last two to walk off. He makes some comment about how I enjoyed that conversation. And I said, "You knew??? You could have rescued me!" He replies, "Rescue?" thinks for a bit, and then says, "Ah, yes! Rescue, Ahahahahaha!"

Oh, another thing that is funny about spending a lot of time with people from church, is that they are much more comfortable speaking English in front of me. (Which is good for me getting to know people, not so good for my Spanish.) Well, I found out yesterday that one of the men who had pretty much acted like he spoke no English actually speaks quite a bit. Both Sunday morning and night, in front of me, he spoke complete sentences in good English like, "I need you over here." to the people I was talking to. So the second time he did it, I say, "Wait a second, you speak English!" He just laughs and shakes his head. Then I say, "Yes you do, because you even understand the jokes! That's the sure sign you understand!" He just laughed more and went inside. I'm glad they are comfortable with me though!

After church I went to dinner with Luke and then visited with other students. Some what ironically I was having a hard time making myself work on my talk for chapel the next day. Why was this ironic? Because it was on Self-control!

Monday was pretty much a normal Monday. It was a little different because it was Raquel's birthday. Some of the girls showed how awesome they are by getting up and fixing breakfast so Raquel wouldn't have to and getting her flowers. By the time we get out of class at 6:30 on Mondays, Anne, Kelsey and I are pretty wiped out. (The kids have 4 hours of class in the afternoon with only half an hour break between the two.) But it wasn't anything that a good step class couldn't fix. It of course was super fun. Our instructor gets really excited about big finishes. We are always refreshed and ready to go back to the house and work. (Or in my case, continue to procrastinate writing P-chem notes for another hour or two.)

Dia del Patromonio

Saturday was Dia del Patromonia, a Day of Cultural Heritage, at least from what I can tell, that's what it is... I'm not exactly sure what that means. Many of the historical and other public buildings were open. There were also multiple stages with music and dancing set up. Basically, its a day to go outside particularly in the Old City and see many of the buildings you walk past everyday without noticing.

Carolina and Charo took several of us around the Old City to see what was going on. We ended up having a beautiful afternoon to wander around. It had been raining all morning so we weren't sure how it would work out. There were even more booths than normal set up to sell tourist type stuff. But I actually resisted the urge to buy anything. One of the first things we saw were Flamenco dancers, which were very cool. There were also a bunch of little girls walking around in flamenco dresses, but we never got to see them dance.

We then started toward the port. When we were walking through Plaza Zabala, we had to stop and look at the monument there. All of the students have to present on a monument for Rhonda's class, so we often stop to look at monuments to try to tell if they are significant and to take pictures of them. Anyway, while we were there we saw an old lady and little girl feeding the pigeons. With the pigeons was a bright green bird (parakeet?). It was really pretty.

On the edge of the plaza was Palacio Taranco. In the basement they had a lot of Greek and Mesopotamian artifacts, most bowls and vases. The rest of the house had been restored to its original form, although, I think the furniture came from another house. It had some amazing marble staircases. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside. I believe the house was done in Rocco, so it was a tad gaudy. Pretty magnificent... but gaudy. There was a garden in the back that adjoined the plaza. We did find this really gross but... probably a roach of some kind. But I kept trying to get a close up of it for my nephew. Apparently it grossed out my camera too, b/c it refused to focus on it. So the best I can get is this one of Kelsey and the bug.

We then headed to a museum dedicated to Carnivale. We had to wait in line for awhile, because they gave guided tours. It was really neat though, once we got in to see the different costumes and hear some of the history. The museum collaborated with a local school and some children would do presentations on different ones of the costumes and some famous people from Carnivale, which was super cool. The school is a bilingual school. While Charo and Carolina went to watch a film, Matt got to talking to some of the boys. He was a huge hit.

After the museum we were tired, hungry, and really getting a little grumpy, well at least I was a little grumpy. We were next to the Mercado del Puerto which is pretty touristy, but filled with restaurants AND PEOPLE. It was really pretty crazy in there. Rather than fighting our way to the interior, especially since there was 9 or so of us, we chose a restaurant near the door. It was funny how everyone's mood improved after they got something to drink and ate something.

While we were sitting there, we got to talking about aerobics (of course) Kelsey, Kimberly, and I were reliving the aerobics of the morning or something. Well I say something about Fabricio and look up and there he is walking through the restaurant. We all yell at him and say, "Hi." Now Montevideo is a city of more than a million and I only know about 20 people that live outside the El Chana/ CasaACU building. I can't believe we've run into him two Saturdays in a row in two different parts of town. (And he's probably thinking I can never get away from these crazy girls from the US.)

Mercado del Puerto was super loud. As in we were having to yell to anyone not sitting right next to us. We knew that there was really loud music. What we didn't know was that it was coming from a Brazilian band walking around with dancers. Well at least we didn't know until they came by where we were. They saw a group of tourists and came over to entertain us. Charo got up and danced with them. It was pretty funny. We were pretty disturbed by their dancers though. To say they didn't have on much would be an understatement. I'd say it was less than a bikini. Now really, I do not have a body to pull of such a thing certainly. Really you have to be super skinny. While these girls were not really big... um... they shouldn't have been wearing that either.

After that we paid and left. We went to a bus stop that was close by. A bus pretty quickly arrived that we could have taken back. Well it was super crowded, so Carolina said we should wait a couple of minutes and take the next one. We all thought it sounded like a fine idea. Well 15 minutes later the bus still hadn't come. Jonathan S. and I had wanted to walk back anyway, so we took off. (We found out later that they waited a few more minutes, then decided to follow us, but just as they got across the street, the bus showed up.)

Well, Jonathan and I were really glad we walked. The old city was full of people. Several bands were playing, although they seemed to mainly be covering Beatles songs. It was fun just to walk through. After we got out of the Old City, the crowd thinned out some. We were walking through one plaza and got stopped by a huge circle of people. We could hear Tango music playing and when we got closer we could see it was a bunch of old couples Tangoing. It was so cute!

We walked a little further and could hear drums. In another plaza, there was a percussion group playing upturned plastic barrels and other everyday items like team kettles. And even cooler than that was the fact that they had fire dancers with them. It was super fun.

We finally got home and bragged about what we got to see. (Plus we walked an extra 2 1/2 - 3 miles... makes up for the fried dinner I had.) Oh another good thing that happened, was that as we were walking along, I suddenly remembered that the we were going on daylight savings time. For those of you playing along at home we are now three hours ahead of you!

Swimming in the Rain... Trip to the Estancia Part II

When I left off (in the last post just published last night), we had just returned from horseback riding. We had a little bit of time until lunch and so we split up to do different activities. A couple of the students went swimming while most just hung out. Jonathan S., Jennifer, and I went to the barn to play ping-pong. One of the things we noted on the way to the barn was how dark it was getting, it looked more like late evening than noon. Just as we got to the barn it started to downpour. The electricity even went out. I watched Jennifer and Jonathan play for a bit. Then I played Jonathan, the winner of their match. I had a totally dominating game. It was awesome. (Sadly, it was my best game of the day. I apparently used up all my good shots in that one game.)

After ping-pong we went back to the house for lunch. They served barbecue and all sorts of salads. It was really good. Then we had our choice of cakes. I went with the chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and dulce de leche. Mmmmm... During lunch the electricity came back on which was super exciting!

After lunch we decided to go swimming. Their pool is heated so even though it was in the 60's, it was like getting in a warm bath. (Dad, you would hate it.) Half the pool was indoors. The indoor part totally steamed up though... especially just above the pool.
We decided to go out side to swim and went under the divider. It was kind of fun because it was sprinkling. As long as we kept our bodies in the water, we stayed plenty warm. I think before it was all over there were 10 or so us in the pool.


Ok... so here's the part when I tell you how we aren't just really bright. :) When we got in the pool we could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Several of the students had asked me if it was very likely that the pool would hit by lightening. I said no especially since it was a ways off. Well... the storm moved closer. Most of the people got out of the pool. But there were a few of us who were like, Eh... it won't hit the pool. Well I look around and laughed because its the four science majors, the science professor, and one other student that were dumb enough to be in the pool during a thunderstorm.

Some of the guys who worked at the ranch were doing some stuff near the pool. One of them looked at us and just shook his head. We were going on about how they were saying, "Stupid Nortes Amerincanos." (We can't just call ourselves American... they are Americans too.) And then I say something along the lines, "And to be even better, We're scientists." As I say this I throw up my arms... At that instant there is a much closer lightening strike, followed by a huge clap of thunder, AND the power going out. We took that as a sign from God that we should get out of the pool. (Don't worry, Mom, it wasn't super close... just close enough to know that we probably shouldn't be swimming in the pool... and the timing was great.)

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out. Many of the students did what college students do best: Nap! A few of us went back to the barn for ping pong. As I said, my good games were earlier... I even got skunked once. (YIKES!)

We headed back to Montevideo around 4. I think pretty much everyone slept on the way home, except maybe Pedro. When we got home, we found that Raquel had left homemade pizza and cake for us. We love Raquel!

When we got back, I wasn't too tired (I had a nap after all), so I decided to go to Body Combat. (Dad was teasing me the other day, telling me that when I get home and people ask me what I did for fun, I'll have to say aerobics... which really is true... isn't that strange?) Anyway, one of the regulars broke her hair clip in the middle of class. She spent an entire song trying to fix it. So Fabricio started making fun of her for doing her hair in class. At the break between songs, she asked if she could use one of my pony tail holders since I had my hair in pig tails. So I hand it to her as the next song is starting. Fabricio looks over and now two girls in his class (of only about 15) are fixing their hair. (I had to get mine in a pony tail at this point.) He just shook his head and rolled his eyes. Kind of a this is what I get for working with women look. :) But hey, I may have gotten an eye roll... but I also have a new friend in class.

Ride Em' Gaucho... Trip to the Estancia Part I

On Friday we went to visit an Estancia (a ranch). There are lots of fun activities to do like horseback riding, ping pong, swimming, or just hanging out. You can go and spend a weekend or just visit for the day like we did. (They have rooms and such.) Its really more of dude ranch, although they do have do actual ranch things there too. It was really nice to get out of the city for a day.

We left the house at 8 in the morning, and I think everyone was ready to go. I think that shows how excited we all were. I don't think I even heard anyone complaining about getting up early, but then this is not a group of complainers. (Which is awesome!)

There are lots of weird things about life at study abroad, not bad, just weird. One is that you have to be ready to do class things everywhere. Eight of the students are taking Message of the Old Testament online. Usually they would just take the quizzes online, but usually everyone taking an online class doesn't live in the same house. So instead I give them the quizzes on the day they are due. Well, Friday was one of those days... so since we were going to be gone all day... they took the quiz in the bus. (Luckily it is multiple choice, so it wasn't hard to read their writing!)

When we arrived at the estancia, they had breakfast ready for us, which was way good. Apparently Uruguayans think eggs are a weird thing to have for breakfast, but they had all sorts of bread, meat, cheese, and jams. What everyone was really interested in doing though was horseback riding. There was an added urgency to the desire to ride because it was cloudy and supposed to rain later in the day.

(On a side note... I'm apparently not good luck to study abroad and good weather for group trips. When I went to study abroad as an undergrad, at first it seemed like every time we went somewhere as a group it rained. That seems to be starting to happen here too. Of course, it might because I go to study abroad in the spring for the place I'm visiting. But I'm sure that's not it... everything centers around me!)

Anyway... back to the story. After breakfast we headed out to the fence (it wasn't really a corral) where the horses were tied up. At some points it seemed like the horses and the students (and I) were sizing each other up. It almost looked like a junior high dance... horses on one side, students on the other, who are YOU going to as? Who do YOU hope asks you? As we were watching the men saddle the horses... all of a sudden we came to a realization: We aren't in Texas and they aren't using western saddles! There are no saddle horns. And the stirrups are different. I don't know enough about such things to comment intelligently on them... but one thing that was interesting is that all the saddles were covered in sheep skin. (Still not quite enough cushioning for trotting.)

After the horses were all saddled, the gaucho started pairing up horse and rider. He started by asking who's the best rider, because we need a good rider for this horse. We all start volunteering the most experienced rider. I'm not sure Jenna appreciated it though when we all yelled out her name for best rider. (I did find out later that her horse was hard to handle, but you couldn't tell from watching her.) Chelsea even appreciated it less when we nominated her for second best. I think the Gaucho really wanted Matt to be the best rider. It didn't seem right to him that the girls were the best riders. My favorite moment of the loading of the horses were the California girls getting on the horses. I think one had never been on a horse before, and the other had only been on once at Girl Scout Camp or something.

Once everyone was on a horse, off we went. Now just for the record, from here on out all the pictures are taken from horseback. So if I have some straight horizon issues, its because of the bouncing, not because I've been drinking! Actually my camera did really well.




Anyway we started riding around the ranch, and neighboring area. The scenery was beautiful. It is interesting though. I have been blessed to travel in several parts of the world. And really green rolling farm land looks pretty much like green rolling farm land. That is not a complaint. Actually, it makes me really happy because it is some of my favorite scenery. And there is something comforting about going some place that looks familiar.



Our group quickly split into two groups. The horses who were in a hurry and the horses who weren't. Pedro, our bus driver, went with us. He apparently is also experienced on horseback. He went with the faster group, while the gaucho (I never did find out his name) stayed with those of us who were on the plodders. The gaucho did tell us several ranch/ farm type terms like wheat. I'm afraid I don't remember any but the ones I already knew. :(


We rode past several cattle pastures, around a pond and through a "forest" of eucalyptus trees that were planted in perfectly straight lines in both directions. It was pretty amazing. On the way back it started to sprinkle. The gaucho had us make our horses trot. Mine, Rubio (Blond), would go for about a minute and then slow back down. Jonathan F. had the best comment. Trotting is not just a... um... real smooth ride and Jonathan passes me yelling, "I have no butt, I don't have the cushioning for this!"

When we got close to the estancia, the gaucho let us go a little longer. When it was time to turn back my horse all of a sudden decided it was ready to go and we went home much faster.

Well it was a good time. Here are some more pictures:

Our group taking a break by the pond.

Ride Em' Cowboy... Jonathan S. and the other side of the pond.

Anne only posed for this picture in honor of one of our aerobics instructors who seems to love this move. (See I can't make it through without mentioning aerobics.)

Proof that I was on a horse. The gaucho took it when we got back.

The End!