First Three Days in Brazil

OK… so I tried this post yesterday. And the computer ate my post after an hour or so. But here we go again with the first 3 days in Brazil.

Friday and Saturday – Bus trip and Arrival

We left Friday afternoon. We had our own bus which was nice because we could spread out and have two seats apiece, which was much nicer for sleeping. We had three awesome guys taking care of us. (And they’ve continued to take care of us all week.) Andrés is our tour guide. He doesn’t speak much English, but he speaks Spanish slowly enough that even I can generally understand. (Although I’m always afraid that I’m going to miss a key word like no or not that makes what I understand actually be the exact opposite… so I always double check with someone who speaks more Spanish than I do.) He gives extra great advice, like he rates bathrooms for us. Our bus drivers are Palanca and Carlitos. They are really fun too.

We had a good trip up… it was much nicer than when we had to share a bus with strangers. (The bus bathroom stayed much cleaner.) The scenery was beautiful and we just enjoy being together in general. It was also nice to have Andrés take care of all the border crossing too.

After 17 hours on the bus we arrived in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil. We got there early, and so only a few rooms were ready, including my closet of a room, which really was fine. So we went and wandered around for 45 minutes until everyone else’s room was ready. The others got in their rooms then Kimberly, Caitlin and I went to Pizza Hut. (I know… a little sad… but oh it was good.) We then went back to the hotel to recover from a night on the bus. Apparently Rhonda was appalled by the size of my room, so she got Andrés to get it changed for me. So I’m sitting on my bed when Andrés and a bellboy show up. They take me to one room and ask if it is ok. It was fine so I told them to give me 10 min… I don’t think they believed me so they gave me 15. Then Andrés says that they are taking me to another room to see if I like it better. I said it was fine… they wanted to know which I wanted. I didn’t know how to explain that the closet fine so either of the bigger rooms was great. I just stayed in the one we arrived in second. Apparently later Andrés told Rhonda I took the smaller one and he was surprised. Rhonda explained that I’m not picky.

Saturday night, we were supposed to go to the Iguazu Falls for a moonlight tour. But a thunderstorm put a damper on that plan. So we just ate at the hotel.

Sunday – Tres Fronteras and Moonlight Tour

Sunday, we had our own church service in the morning. For lunch we went to a big parilla buffet. Then we headed to Tres Fronteras where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay all meet where the Iguazu River tees into the Paraná River. Paraguay is to the west of the Paraná, while both Brazil and Argentina are on the East with Brazil to the North or Iguazu and Argentina to the South. Because Brazil and Argentina are bordered by two rivers, they are represented by triangles and obelisks, while Paraguay is represented by a rectangle and a rectangular tower. In the picture Brazil is in the foreground, Argentina is on the left and Paraguay is on the right. We then headed to a big market to look at souvenirs.

Sunday night was clear so we could actually go to the falls. I couldn’t take pictures because it was too dark. So you will all have to come down here and see for yourselves, but it was amazing. The only picture I got was of this big fat frog/ toad. For dinner, we ate at another parilla buffet. We didn’t start eating until 11… so we all really enjoyed it.

Monday – Argentine Side of the Iguazu Falls

Monday morning we were met at 8:30 by Andrés and Wilson, a Brazilian ecologist who was to serve as our tour guide. Wilson speaks English, Portuguese, and Spanish (at least) and seems to know everything. He's pretty amazing, we really like him. On the Argentine side of the Falls we can get close to the falls, as in walk right over the top of them. Apparently you can actually see the falls better all at once on the Brazil side which we are going to later in the week. While Niagara is the largest fall in terms of volume of water, and Victoria is the tallest, Iguazu is the widest. We started the morning with a hike over several of the falls where we got to see lots of falls and lots of animals. Then we went on a boat ride that took us under one of the smaller falls and as close as we could get to the San Martin Falls. It was wild to see the huge splash coming up from the fall and over us. After getting thoroughly soaked, we went on a jeep ride through the jungle. The jungle around Iguazu is a secondary forest, meaning that it had been clear cut and this is the second growth. We then took at train and hiked back to Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat) which is the biggest most magnificent part of the falls. (Its the same part of the falls we went to the night before.) Then exhausted we returned to the hotel. Rather than trying to describe everything… I’ll just so you some pictures.

The Animals

The Coatis… They are kind of like raccoons.

Small Lizard

Big Lizard

Guinea Pig

A Cayman

Birds’ Nests

The Falls

The first view of the falls


I think this is Salta Goque Barnaraba Mendez

On November 26 when everyone at ACU was in class in cold weather. This Biochem class was in 85 degree weather in Argentina!

With Anne and Caitlin. The big splashy waterfall on the left is Salto San Martin, the one we went as close as we could. Unlike the "little" fall we went under this one was warm.

Why do they call it Devil's Throat, it doesn't look that big... look how calm the river is.

Oh...This is getting serious...


Aaahhhhhhhh!!!!!


Birds and the Rainbow

A bunch of "little" falls.

Something funny about our boat
When we pulled into the the dock and noticed the name of another boat:


"Holy Spirit" ... so we wondered what the name of our boat was:


Alex!

The Mommy Bag

OK... so I had a long post written full of pictures filling you in on the first few days in Brazil... and it disappeared... so I'll catch it up later. Instead I thought I'd tell you about the Mommy Bag, or Mary Poppins bag. I love being around college students, if you hadn't caught on to that yet. And one of the funny things about them is that most are somewhere between 70 and 90% adult. (Just so you know I certainly don't consider myself 100% adult...) Anyway, one of the ways I explain to them that I don't find them 100% adult is the Mommy Bag (pictured above.) When going on a group activity, I now pack it partly for me and partly for my students. I actually think through it and figure out what I will bring, including stuff the kids will need.

Today among other things I packed: sunscreen, bug spray, tissues, ibuprofen, Excedrin, paper towels, water, and snacks for the kids who get sick when their blood sugar gets to low. (Yes I pack food for them.)

The kids started calling it the Mary Poppins bag over spring break when I could pull almost anything out of it (dictionary, notebooks, band aids, pens, food, etc.). I started calling it the mommy bag when I started planning what to pack for the kids.

English Class Party (and some notes)

Last Tuesday was the end of our tutoring people from church in English. To celebrate 10 weeks of classes and Rhonda's mother being in town we had a party and gave out certificates to those who completed the course. I was a bit skeptical about how it would go, but it turned out to be a blast. Not only did our "students" come, but so did most of the church. It was really a great time together. Of course anytime food and friends are together, it should be entertaining.

Everyone mixed and mingled. I took a lot of pictures, that way I wouldn't have to make small talk in either language.

This is Pablo, the guy who teaches our Sunday morning class, we gave him a hard time because he came to the first class then didn't show up to English class again until it was time for a party.

Oscar constantly talks about what a great Chelsea was.

And this is my "student" Sylvia. I really enjoyed getting to know her. She is someone that I have grown comfortable enough with to actually speak Spanish.

A couple of other notes:
My aunt Luanne died on Tuesday. The memorial service was today (actually while I'm writing.) Please remember my Uncle Roy, my grandparents, and the rest of the family in your prayers.

We are off to Brazil for the week. We are taking our own bus and are staying in one place, so we don't have to worry about being efficient packers. I'm taking way too much. Its like when I drive home rather than fly. :) The hotel we are staying in is supposed to have free wi-fi, so I am taking my computer and plan to update the blog periodically. That way I can show you all pictures from Foz de Iguazu and make you super jealous! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, even though flowers are blooming and it is 85 degrees outside, we managed to have an appropriate Thanksgiving dinner. Because she is absolutely amazing Raquel managed to procure two turkeys. (They don't eat much Turkey in Uruguay.) Rhonda had brought some French's onions and cream of mushroom soup back from the States we had all we needed.

Several of the girls and I pitched in to help. Last night Jennifer and Kimberly made sweet potato casserole and Anne started on cornbread for dressing. Raquel and Mariella got here early this morning and started cooking. Anne and Luke started on one of our THREE types of dressing, while Raquel worked on some more. Just like at home, I took the responsibility for the green bean casserole, now if you do any cooking, you know this is not a huge job to volunteer for. It was a little more of a challenge because we didn't have enough cream of mushroom soup, so I had to make a cream sauce to supplement it. It turned out really well though. Nikita and I were going to make the mash potatoes too. We along with the help of a couple others peeled a large pile of potatoes. (Just like my army days.) Well to make a long story short, I didn't start the potatoes early enough, so Raquel had to come in and save the day and finish them for us.

So we managed to have turkey, 3 types of stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole (although they had to use pink marshmellows), cornbread, cranberry sauce (also brought by Rhonda from the States), and more. It was great. The true Thanksgiving Miracle was that Raquel managed to use the squash closest to pumpkin here and make pumpkin pies for us.

For chapel today, some of the girls lead the discussion of what the group was thankful for. (I actually missed it because I was still in the kitchen.) They had the group draw hand turkeys and write on the tail 5 things they were thankful for. To help get everyone in the mood... Caitlin dressed as an Indian. Considering the things she had to work with, I thought she did a pretty fantastic job!

To make the day more holiday like, we had lots of guests. I think there were 27 here for lunch. The group included Eric Rama, who is from Abilene, Caitlin and I had to really pester Grandpa Eric to come. All 4 of the Spanish teachers joined us, Rhonda's mother Gwen, Rhonda's Uruguayan friend from the States Rosana, plus the other usual friends of ACU Sandra, Marcos, Charo, Carolina, Carletta, and the other girl from North Carolina whose name I blanked on. Anyway it was great fun to be with so many loved ones.

I was really proud of our group for helping pitch in to set up and clean up rather than leaving it all to Mariella and Raquel. Several times after lunch, I would walk in the kitchen and see different people doing dishes so that no one got too tired of it. (I swear I was working too... we were doing dishes in my kitchen.)

Of course afterwards, many of the group participated in a normal Thanksgiving post-dinner tradition: Going to the beach.

Anyway... Here are a few more pictures from the day:

Mmmmm Pumpkin Pie

Jenna, Jennifer, and Nikita


Marcos, Sandra, and Eric


All sorts of folks!

Caitlin and I... this is mainly here because I really like this picture!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gimnasio Urbano

Well, I know I've mentioned the gym... ummm... a few times before. But hey considering that I spend somewhere between 5 and 8 hours a week at the gym... it makes up a pretty significant part of my week. I had been meaning to take my camera before, but I kept chickening out because I really didn't want to draw extra attention to myself. I had finally told Fabricio that I was going to bring it on Monday. But I forgot and Fabricio was disappointed in me, so I was sure and remembered on Tuesday.

Well Tuesday was Body Combat, probably my favorite class... although I love Dario's step classes, too. If I don't forget/ chicken out, I'll have to take my camera to one of those too.

I tried to take pictures in a way that wasn't super obvious, so I started by taking pictures when everyone was turned away.

This is the famous Fabricio. Even though we always punch the air, the instructors wear the gloves... I guess it gives an air of authenticity to being a cardio kick boxing type class.

In this picture, you can see about half the room. Tuesday afternoon the class is relatively small (like 20-25). If you can imagine on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights there are roughly 50-60 people in there. It gets super exciting trying not to hit or punch your neighbor. But it is worth it because the night classes are always fun and energy filled.

Atrás! I decided I wanted to take a few pictures while Fabricio was facing my direction. But it was ok, because I knew the song and it was one where people mainly faced the front, so I thought I could do it without everyone noticing. Then Fabricio posed for me (I didn't move fast enough to get the picture.) Everyone got a kick out of it... get it... Body Combat... Kick... GET IT???

After class, I wanted to take pictures of the guys. (Dario teaches Power Jump after Body Combat on Tuesdays.) Now notice in all the pictures before this Fabricio is wearing a red shirt. He realized he was not wearing an official Body Systems shirt. So before he took a picture with us, he went to change. Which of course meant that Dario waited to start his class. So subtly went out the window... we stood in front of approximately of 15-20 people while we were waiting for Fabricio and then took pictures. Dario explained to them later that it was for my blog.

So here are two of my favorite guys in Uruguay. Fabricio is on the left and Dario is on the right.


Just to be sure the change was worth it: Here's a close up of the shirt. BODY COMBAT BODY COMBAT BODY COMBAT. (Fabricio, ese es para ti.) I wanted to be sure that Body Combat was really mentioned.

Here's Kelsey with the guys, too. I figured she should be featured as she's the one that got me started going to the gym.

Anyway, I demand that all of you that come down here go to see these two great guys. It is super fun and it helps balance out all the food that Raquel feeds you!

Always Behind

Well maybe that's an overstatement, but I realized I hadn't updated the happenings of CasaACU in a week. Spring is really here and the weather is gorgeous. (We do have occasional rainy days which is appropriate for spring too.) I hadn't managed to take a picture of them yet, but several streets are tree-lined and several of those trees are covered in purple flowers. Soooo pretty.

Classes are winding down. I'm having a hard time remembering that its time for Thanksgiving. Flowers don't usually bloom before Thanksgiving... but then again as we are talking about glycolysis and the Kreb's cycle in biochem... it must be time for the holidays. (Isn't it sad that I can tell the time of the year by what I'm talking about in biochem?)

Let's see what has happened in the last week... OH YEAH:

Wednesday night, on the way home from 2 hours of aerobics, Caitlin and I ran into Eric Rama (ouch that hurt). He was going to dinner with Jonathan and invited us along. One of his German friends from school joined us. It was really fun. Caitlin and I found out that if we really feed off each other when we are in the right mood. (That means we get just a tad silly.) Poor Eric took the brunt of it, because he hung out with us outside of the building until late talking.

Thursday, we went to the Brazillian consul to apply for visitor visas for our trip this week. It actually went really smoothly. Because we some how got split up from the rest of the students, Sandra went to look for them. So when our number was called I started the process... frankly I was overly proud of myself for it. Sandra got there before any confusion hit.

Friday was a gorgeous day. Kelsey, Kimberly, and I decided to head to the river to "study." We passed Oscar's store and visited with him for a bit. Then we went on down to a park. We spread out our sheet under a couple of palm trees, pulled out our books, and started the mate drinking. I'm not really a big on the mate. I did feel like we were becoming Uruguayan between the girls drinking mate and me wearing my black sweater in 70 something degree weather. The wind was cold... I swear. :)

We intended to study, but it was too nice and there were so many interesting people to watch, like the old men fishing right in front of us. Or the families walking together. There were also too many displays of PDA... but I'm trying to wipe that out of my memory. There was also some napping that went on.

Friday night after aerobics, Anne, Caitlin, and I went to dinner together. Towards the end of dinner, the owner of the restaurant came over to talk to us. He was really nice and it was a lot of fun. That is one of the fun things about going to lots of little restaurants verses big chain restaurants, we get to know the servers and owners. Its way fun.

Saturday, I went to aerobics (of course) and did some shopping. That night, we had a girls night and several of us went out to dinner. Because the weather was nice we were able to sit outside and enjoy the weather.

Sunday was church. I don't know if its the weather or what, but there were a lot more of the members there. It is really fun to be able to greet so many people. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy the church here. Sunday night was funny because I think it was the first Sunday night or Thursday night were the women outnumbered the men. But that might have had something to do with the fact the National Uruguayan soccer team was playing Chile just down the street. (Notice I said that the women outnumbering the men was unusual... that is one different thing about this church, especially on Sunday and Thursday nights, there are always more men... One night I was outnumbered 12 to 1 or something.)

Monday was a normal class day. I went to aerobics and disappointed Fabricio because I had forgotten my camera. Biochem ran over a bit (stupid prof) so I was running a bit late. I had asked him if I could take pictures since I talk about them all the time. I walked in and he looked at me and gestured asking if I had brought it. He was sad when I didn't have it. So I'm taking it this afternoon... I don't want to disappoint him too much. :)

Prayer request for my family

My aunt Luanne has cancer and is not expected to live through the week. Please pray for my uncle Roy (her husband), my grandparents, and the rest of the family. Thanks!

Why ACU faculty should be fighting to teach at CasaACU

I've thought about writing this blog for ages, but almost decided not to. I'm not sure I want to talk anyone else into going, so the Study Abroad office will be begging me to come back all the time. Or this could be considered why I love being a Study Abroad Prof, esp. in Montevideo.

1. The Students - If you don't enjoy spending lots of time with college students, study abroad might not be for you. I love hanging out with students, in general, so this has been a fantastic semester. At home, I spend a lot of time with my students in my office, lab, and home and love talking with them, but living in a house with them gives a great opportunity to develop really deep relationships with the students.

Most of my favorite moments of the semester involve spending time with students. Whether it is sitting on the kitchen counter laughing hysterically as all the females unconsciously start to surround the chocolate bars, having a devo in the Andes, or having conversations about what they plan to do with their lives, it is an incredible experience. I love all the interaction that most of the time I just think of as being fun, but to have so many opportunities to shape young adults lives is amazing.

2. El Chana Church of Christ - CasaACU shares a building with a Church of Christ. They are super nice and welcoming. The first few weeks it was kind of tough, because I understood so little, but as the semester has gone on I have understood more and really made some good friends. We spend a lot of time teasing each other, which is impressive since we are working in two languages. (Several of them keep encouraging me to find a husband here. They worry about my single state. Hahaha!) If you come here, I encourage you to keep going to El Chana until you get to know all the great folks, like Oscar, Evelyn, Nestor, Aldebar, Pablo, Sylvia, Mariam, Ximena, Eduardo, and all the others. They are amazing. I'm going to miss them!

3. Raquel and Mariella - Oh my goodness these are wonderful women. They take such good care of us. Oh - and they cook for us twice a day. Yeah... ACU provides 10 meals a week by really, really good cooks. AND they give you a per diem for food for dinner and weekends... so you certainly save on food. I can't effectively describe how good the food is here. People kept trying to tell me, but it didn't mean much to me until I started eating their food twice a day!

They go above and beyond. We have a student this semester who has a lot of food allergies. They always make sure there is something especially for her including dessert. Raquel has spent the semester researching new recipes that she could fix for the student.

They are also super patient with our Spanish. When a student was struggling Spanish, Raquel told her that she'd help her with her work.

4. Laundry - Don't you hate having to wash, dry, and fold your laundry? Me too. Well here, rather than doing it myself, I take to a laundry place around the corner that washes, dries, folds, and returns fantastic smelling clothes, for depending on the exchange rate $2.50-3.00 a load. Totally worth it and you don't have to buy laundry detergent!

5. Um... And Hello... You Get to Go to Another Country! Now personally I LOVE to travel and am always take every opportunity because I never know when I'll get to go again. I didn't really know what to expect out of South America. But the Southern Cone anyway, is very European. Even though what everyone had told me this I didn't truly believe it. Too many movie images of scary South America and too many stories of Columbian drug lords had infiltrated to deep in my brain. But I have totally fallen in love with Uruguay. I have visited England and the city of Oxford... but I like Uruguay better.

6. The Uruguayans I love the people here. They have been so kind and patient. I've turned everyone and anyone into Spanish tutors from my actual tutor, to the folks at church, to the guy behind the deli counter, to my aerobics instructors. The Uruguayans are so fun and friendly that I just wish I spoke more Spanish so that I could deeper conversations than the basics of where we are from, our families, etc. I'll no more when I come back!

7. Gimnasio Urbana OK... this may apply more to women faculty or wives... but if you come here and don't go to this gym you are missing out on an hour or two of fun a day that makes up for all the food that Raquel and Mariella fix for you. (Raquel told us the other day that she and Fabricio work together. She makes women fat so that they go to Fabricio!) Seriously, Fabricio and Dario make up one of my favorite parts of everyday. Dario has even taken it on himself to help me with the words in aerobics that we don't actually understand.

8. Montevideo Montevideo is full of beautiful parks. I often take some work and go sit under a palm tree (yes palm tree) and watch people and work. Its fantastic.

9. No car I thought I might miss my car. But every thing is in walking distance or buses and taxis are cheap. And I love not having to remember pesky things like gas and oil.

10. Giving up some day to day responsibilities and stresses Ok... I've basically said this in some of the reasons stated above, but I feel like I have so much less to worry about here. I'm not responsible for the light bulbs, plumbing, a car, my laundry, or even most of my cooking. Its like going back to being a kid. Its FANTASTIC.

OK... I'm sure I could keep coming up with reasons... But I'll stop for now. Seriously though... One of the really cool things about getting to teach at a university is the opportunities to go abroad. I know that others have a family where I don't which makes it harder to get away. (Note to my family... I don't mean I don't have a family... I'm just not immediately responsible to or for you. I still love you and haven't forgotten you exist!) But please don't miss this opportunity because its in South America and you aren't sure if its safe. I've felt safer here than in scary neighborhoods in big cities in the US.

IF YOU CAN, TEACH AT STUDY ABROAD ESPECIALLY AT CASA ACU!

This Week in Uruguay

Well it is time again to catch you up on the happenings of CasaACU. When I last reported our activities we had been cooking together in the kitchen on Saturday night.

Sunday, several of us got up and went to church. I didn't understand the whole sermon, but I did manage to catch the 3 or 4 key sentences that told me what Nestor was talking about! Class was all in Spanish again. We had the Spanish speakers of our group translate once or twice, but really we did ok. (Now, ok means that with the aid of the Scriptures, I could pretty much tell what we were talking about. I was not able to make any deep insightful points... I mean I have trouble doing that in English... Of course I didn't make any shallow points either.)

After church, Kelsey and I quickly changed and headed to the ferria (market) in Parque Rodo. It was crowded, but fun. There were tons of little stalls. Our favorite thing was reading t-shirts for sale with bad English. My favorite was "Mousy Pop Princess." There was another really good one, but I can't think of it at the moment. I'd ask Kelsey since she is only sitting 5 feet or so away... but as she is taking a biochemistry exam, I probably shouldn't interrupt her.

That was the major excitement for Sunday. The rest of the day was spent catching up on work, studying, and going to church again.

OH... We did get a call from our student with pneumonia. He is out of the hospital and back home, tube free! We are really grateful and happy!

Monday, Tuesday, and today have been back to our normal non-guest schedule. Which means I did foolish things like stay up way to late Monday night righting P-chem notes. I already told you about my 3 hour Spanish conversation on Monday, of which I'm still totally proud. Tuesday night was our last official English class. Next week we are going to have a party to celebrate the end of the classes.

Today, we went to the American Embassy. I still want to take a picture running toward the embassy with passport in hand yelling, "I'm an American Citizen," but I was afraid if I did it today, they might not let me in. After going through tons of security, they took us to a room in the basement. We started joking about them taking our passports and leading us to a locked room in the dungeon. (A marine had traded us our passports for visitors badges. We weren't too worried, since these were the people who'd have to make us new ones if they didn't give them back.) Anyway, it turns out they just took us to a meeting room. We met with people from several offices who told us about what they did. We even got to meet the ambassador who was super friendly.

Now we are back at CasaACU. As I mentioned, I'm currently giving a biochem test. It looks like Jonathan is on the enzyme kinetics page, Kelsey is doing the mechanism page, Anne is doing the allosteric regulation page, and I can't see what Luke is doing from here. (This is just me trying to prove that we do some school work here!)

Things I never thought I'd say...

Well I don't feel like writing a long blog today... but I thought I'd share one of the funny things living in community with students in another culture in another language. Now I know you can't imagine things would ever get a little weird. But every so often I end up saying things I never thought I would say. Here are some of my favorites:

"When we finish talking about the photoelectric effect, we'll take a break and have breakfast."
(Said during P-chem... although the subject changes from day to day. And really I had tried to avoid teaching photoelectric effect.)

"Call the students so they can take a picture when we arrive in a police car."
(After I had my purse snatched.)

"You know... Andres, our male Columbian roommate."
(About the guy that was in our room in Valpairso.)

The greeting with a kiss on the cheek has led to several including:
"I don't know his name... I just opened the door and kissed him."
(Referring to the young tango teacher.)

"I think I got stubble burn on my cheek at church tonight."
(I hate it when the men at church don't shave.)

If the referrals to women's clothing makes you uncomfortable... Stop reading!

Here's the one I REALLY never thought I'd ask someone:
"How do you say, 'I can't find my bra, do you have it?' in Spanish?"
Now before you are too shocked... it was to ask the place that does our laundry... and they did have it. :)

Check Me Out!

I just spent 4 of the last 5 hours conversing in Spanish... not necessarily good Spanish... but in Spanish none the less. First, I had Spanish class with Amelia for an hour, and we speak almost totally in Spanish, sometimes we switch to English so I can ask a question or she can explain grammar. Then I had chapel so I spoke in English there.

Then I met Sylvia, who I go to church with and is my "student" for English tutoring on Tuesday nights. We went to lunch together and conversed in Spanish for THREE HOURS!!! She really nice and patient. Every so often I'd have to ask about a word. Sometimes she knew the English word and sometimes she didn't... but I had my handy dictionary with me. (It is usually close at hand.) We stuck more or less to topics I know... BUT STILL... THREE HOURS... YAY ME!

The cool thing is that I often feel like my Spanish hasn't progressed at all even though I know it has. Of course this is a good Spanish day. There are days that the littlest thing trips me up and makes me want to cry. (I have come close to tears in my Spanish tutoring before.) But I know logically that I have improved. Today I feel like I've really made progress. I know I was messing up verb endings left and right and Sylvia was making a point of speaking slow and correcting me sometimes (other times she just let it go)... but that's ok... I could actually survive a lunch with a Spanish speaking friend. AND I've had so much Spanish in my head that I keep thinking of Spanish words to say here instead of English... maybe I'll get this speaking Spanish thing yet! Again: YAY ME!

Other good news... Jonathan the student with pneumonia had the tubes removed and is doing much, much better. Thank you for your prayers!

Catching Up

Well I don't want to go into exhaustive detail and bore you all to death... but it is time to catch up on all the activities of the week. As I had mentioned before, it has been a great, super fun week full of activities. One of the highlights was a trip to Ciudad Vieja (Old City) with Ronnie. Most of the students, Bio, Dr. Brown and her nieces went along. Ronnie took us down the big pier and pointed out several buildings. He also stopped and explained how the topography of the city effected the way it was designed by drawing a map (in pencil) on the sidewalk.

For lunch we went to el Mercado del Puerto and ate at another Parrillada. (That's a grill/ steak place... like we had eaten at on Sunday. I had mentioned that we ate really well this week.) The food was great. Matt and Jenna had a big sea food dish with all sorts of stuff including little octopus tentacles. It was funny to see the waiter describe what they were. I stuck to stuffed chicken. One of the grills near us had a whole little pig grilling, including the head. Mmmm...

Wednesday was a non-stop day full of among other things food. I got around 8:30 (I know... its a rough life) to prep for biochem. Then taught from 10-11 and had Spanish from 11-12 and chapel from 12-12:30. Luke's birthday was on Wednesday so Raquel made her amazing fajita's and the best chocolate cake of the semester. We then had biochem at the unusual time of 1. Everyone was totally on a chocolate cake high. It was funny to watch us all crash about 1:45. We managed to survive the class until 3.

At 3:15 we left for the INTS field trip. Ronnie, Bio, Dr. Brown and I joined the class. First we went to the Legislative palace which is beautiful and full of intricate details. There was something like 6 types of marble used in the building. I took tons of pictures, but restricted the one posted here to two. We got to see the changing of the guard.

After the palace we went to El Cerro. This is the big hill over the city that we went to before and a cloud descended on and prevented us from actually seeing the city. It was really a beautiful day. I'd post the group picture we took... but it was a terrible picture of everyone.

From there, we went to have a tea party at a hotel in the Prado. It was really pretty and fancy. We had lots of little sandwiches and of course tea (or coffee). They had amazing desserts, but after a huge lunch and the sandwiches, we just tasted them. At this point our group started to break up because Dr. Collier and a couple of students had to go back for class and Luke and his mother left because he has a doctor's appointment. Eric joined us at about this point.

We then headed over to the rose garden where the flowers were starting to bloom. Ronnie took pictures of everyone. I'm sure they are awesome, but I haven't seen them yet. The best was when he was taking pictures of Eric, because Eric did not seem to be excited about being a big tough guy having his picture taken with a bunch of flowers. :) We then headed home... Ronnie pointed out the most important building in Montevideo... the place where he was born.

We got home around 7:30. At 8:30 Dr. Brown took us to another Parrillada to celebrate Luke's birthday. It was yummy... but after already having two big meals... many of us ended up with leftovers to enjoy the next day. We got home around 10:30... I told you it had been a crazy day.

Let's see Thursday and Friday... nothing super exciting to report, but they were good days. We enjoyed our last couple of days with Bio. I talked to Dario, the aerobics instructor, after class on Friday because I was trying to figure out what some of the words they were saying are. (I know what they sounds are and what we were supposed to do when we heard them... but I was pretty sure they weren't the words I was hearing.) He's super nice, and turns out the more comfortable he gets around me the more English he can speak... he used the word transcribe at one point... so he knows a lot of English... I think there are people from the U.S. who don't know that word. Haha... I couldn't remember what all the ones I wanted to ask about were. But he said when I remember them to right them down and he'd write the word for me. He's so nice.

Friday night, several of us went out with Bio for coffee. We gave him a going away gift and enjoyed our last outing with him. He left this morning at 3:30 AM to go to the airport. Being the responsible adult here (Rhonda is gone for the weekend) I got up to see him off. But it was at 3:30 in the morning... so I don't remember it clearly... I think he got in the car to leave. :)

I've realized that I am on the downward slope towards going home. Because of our trip to Brazil, we only have 2 more weekends after this one in Montevideo before we gone. That means shopping has become even more important. So a group of us went to the Ciudad Vieja to go to the Antique Fair and souvenir shopping.

Tonight, we all stayed in... I guess we're worn out from the week (and the 5 miles or so round trip we walked today). But it was one of those fun nights where we decided to cook together. We made use of our taco seasoning stores, got refried beans from the imported goods section of the store, attempted tortillas, and made ourselves a Mexican dinner. (Notice I said attempted tortillas... they actually came out ok in the end, if a bit small.) Then we all ate together. It was good fun.

Well now you are updated on the happenings at CasaACU... and I even restricted it to only one aerobics story. ;)