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. ;)