Happenings at and around CasaACU

Well, it has been entirely too long since I've updated what's been happening around her. I'm afraid I must confess its mainly laziness. The past two weeks have mainly been living life and trying to get things done in classes and such between trips... its a rough life. But here are some of the the highlights.

We had a group visit to the Torres-Garcia museum, which not surprisingly features the work of Joaquin Torres Garcia, an important Uruguayan artist. They not only took us of a tour of his work, but conducted a workshop in which we learned about the stages of his work as it was influenced by different cities he lived in. We had a really good time producing our own art. At the end the students divided into groups and did a drawing that represented what they learned.

Last Friday night Alli cooked for us again and we enjoyed enchiladas. We had found real jalapenos, so it was even spicy! We started decorating the house for Halloween. After dinner we piled into the loft and all watched a movie together. This group is so fun, and they really do love to be together.

It seems like I cannot come to study abroad without someone visiting an emergency room. Well, hopefully the only trip from this group occurred on Monday. At aerobics, one of the girls sprained her ankle. I had gone to the class before, so I wasn't there, but our friends from the gym drove her home. When I went to the gym the next day, they all came and asked me about her. They are so nice. (Oh and I may have I high- fived Matt in the middle of my conversation with Fabricio because I knew the word for sprain... I think it says something about my level of Spanish that I still high-five people when I know a word...) Anyway, Amber is ok, hopefully she'll be walking on it again soon.

Wednesday night, we had the annual Study Abroad Halloween Party. The Walkers and I fixed dinner. Wimon mixed the batter and sauces and I manned the skillets to make crepes. At the high point, I was running three skillets at once... I'm awesome. The students really did a great job of coming up with costumes from the stuff around the house, with a little help from Halloween make up. We had every thing from the Fanta girls, to a helado man, and a guy and girl who dressed as each other. It was really fun.



Now I know that I sometimes give an impression that we play all the time. But we've been having to do quite a bit of work, including adding an extra biochem class and had exams in both classes. I took my camera to the P-chem exam because I wanted to download some pictures from it. The students thought I had brought to take pictures of the exam. When they mentioned it, it seemed like a good idea, so we did. This is not posed, they are actually being tortured.

Next week is our free travel week. We have split up into three groups: Peru, Chile, and Argentina. The first group left around 4:15 on Thursday afternoon to fly out to Lima, Peru. We all gathered around to hug them goodbye. The next group left for Chile around 5:30. That just left the 6 of us that are going to Ushuaia, we aren't leaving until Saturday, so we have the house all to ourselves.

Working with a smaller group, we came up with a good way to console ourselves and headed to eat Mexican food. Now its not quite as good as the Tex Mex we are used to, but after not having tortilla chips for 2 months, we were really excited. We really had a good time. Our plan when we got home was to watch a movie. It was a really warm night however, so we decided to move our movie watching party into the courtyard. So we rolled the classroom tv outside and carried out some mattresses we aren't using. We then piled onto the mattresses and watched Harry Potter 3.


Oh and when we were carrying out the mattresses, we may or may not have slid down the CasaACU steps on the mattress.

Not Quite as We Planned Brazil Trip - Day 4

On Wednesday morning, Thigo met us at the hotel. Technically, it was a free day, but all the students, Wimon, and I decided to go on a tour of a Guarani village that Wimon had arranged for us if we were interested. The village was in Argentina so we had to cross the border again. Well, when we got there, we were behind 6 other buses, and had to wait over an hour.

Like usual, the students handled the wait without complaining, although they did come up with unusual ways to entertain themselves like trying to see in how few seats they could cram themselves... and esp. how many people they could put in the back seat. Eventually, we crossed the border and headed to the village.

The Guarani are native to South America, they originally lived in areas ranging from northern Brazil to Uruguay. There are several villages in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. In most of these villages, the Guaranis have decided to go back to the old ways as much as possible. One of the men from the village, whose name I forgot, showed us around.

Thiago and the man took us into the forest to show some of the old traps. Because they know that many animal are endangered in the area, they no longer hunt, but they still teach the old ways of hunting.

After the tour, our guide and some of the children sang a couple of songs from their religion for us. They were pretty good singers. They are standing in front of a traditional hut. Many of the people in the village still live in similar huts. The government came in and built houses for them, but most families choose to live the traditional way because the new houses were not blessed.

They do some farming including growing pineapples. In the village, they also have stands at which they sell handcrafts to tourists. We bought lots of stuff. Thiago thanked us for supporting them and being so interest in their way of life.

We then headed back to Foz do Iguazu. We said good-bye to Thiago and then we headed into town. Wednesday also happened to be Amanda's birthday, so we let her pick our restaurant for lunch. She picked Pizza Hut. Now you may think that sounds really lame, but you just do not understand how good the pepperoni pizza was. We didn't realize how much we had missed "American" pizza until we had some. We really enjoy the food here, but it was nice to have something from home.

After lunch, Kate, Joyce, Abel, and I headed to the main tourist street and looked around a bit. It started to rain so we grabbed a taxi back to the hotel.

Wednesday night was the World Cup Qualifying match between Argentina and Uruguay. The winner would make the World Cup, the loser would to go to a play off with a team from another division to make the World Cup. Almost all the students and I piled into my room for the match. We sang "Soy Celeste" a lot and cheered for Uruguay. But while Uruguay dominated for the first 3/4 of the game, Argentina managed to pull off a 1-0 victory in the last few minutes. Uruguay will go to the play-off with Costa Rica.

Thursday morning we had free to rest and pack. After checking out at 11, we had lunch then started our long drive home. We entertained ourselves with paying games, visiting, reading, and napping. I was surprised when at 11 PM, I as the only one on the bus reading and not trying to sleep. I soon went to sleep too. We arrived back in Montevideo around 9 AM. It was a great trip. But it was great to be home.

The Not Quite as We Planned Brazil Trip, Day 3

Because we had switched our Monday and Tuesday plans, David, our guide from Sunday couldn't come with us due to other commitments. However, Thiago, one of his friends who was going to accompany us on Wednesday, was our guide. He was awesome and really interesting. He has a degree in Biology and speaks 5 languages. He has a two year daughter that he is very proud of. She already speaks both English and Portuguese because his wife and the nanny speak Portuguese to her and he speaks English to her.

We were going back into Argentina, so we had to do another border crossing. Thiago took care of everything for us. On the way to the park, Thiago told us that he had checked to water level the night before and it was at 4,500 cubic meters per second. (Remember on Sunday it was twice the normal amount at 3,000 cubic meters.) He said if it was any higher today, they might close Devil's Throat, the biggest part of the falls. At 5,000 cubic meters per sec they shut it down because the water reaches the walkways. When we got to the park we found out that in 8 hours since Thiago had checked it had raised to over 9,000 cubic meters per second!!! (That's six times higher than normal.)

We were a bit disappointed not to go to Devil's Throat, but we had more time to enjoy the other walks. It also gave Thiago, who is an expert in plants, time to tell us all about many of the plants and their medical uses. It was really interesting. We saw all sorts of things, plants for stomach issues, coughs, birth control, and more.

There were two waterfall trails that we hiked, the upper trail which went above the falls and the lower trail which went down along the bottom. After our nature hike, on the green trail we started the upper trail. The amount of water was incredible! Last time I was at Iguazu, it was beautiful and amazing and it was this time. But POWERFUL was the number one word that came to mind. It was unbelievable!

After the upper trail, we headed back to the entrance for lunch. Several of us ate at a big buffet which seems to be the specialty of the area. It was really good. I asked if we could take a nap before moving on. :) Wimon told me only in my dreams. Har Har Har! We then were ready for the lower trail.

Oh my goodness was there a lot of water. It was beautiful. We could see lots and lots of waterfall rainbows. We all got a little wet from the amount of mist coming off the crazy amounts of water coming off the falls. Some of the students got soaked. :) It was an amazing day, way beyond my ability to describe. I've included several pictures below that still don't do it justice.

I mentioned that we didn't go to Devil's Throat, which I had been really disappointed about early in the day. What makes Devil's Throat so special is that half the river goes through a smallish area, so it is super powerful. Well the massive amount of water made the rest of the falls as powerful or more so than the last time I went. So I really don't think we missed much, esp. since we would have died had we gone to Devil's Throat this time.

After we returned to the hotel, the biochem majors and I, plus our audience, made a video for this years Chem Circus. We had a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures:

Thiago talking to us about one of the plants.

Huge amounts of mist coming up from Devil's Throat in the distance.

Lots O' Water

If you look at my post from Day 1, there is a picture of these same falls from a a different angle with a lot less water.

Here they are again.

Biochem I Class 2009

Biochem Majors

It almost felt like the world was being washed away

See that walkway that's being splashed like crazy??? When I was here last time, we stood there and took pictures. We might have felt a bit of mist.

Over the edge!

OK, so I was (am) fascinated by the amount of water. It was almost up to the walkway.

Very close to one of the smaller falls.

In the spray... we kept telling Kate to stand there while we took pictures... she got soaked! HeHeHe

I just like this one.


This is on the walkway that was getting splashed, but not out at the end, it was roped off. The students still came back looking like they had stood in the shower.

One of the really cool things about all the spray was that there were rainbows everywhere.

Waterfalls and Rainbows #2 out of roughly 673.

Hopefully I'll get the last day (which should be short) tomorrow. :)

The Not Quite as We Planned Brazil Trip, Second Dam Day

On Monday we were supposed to go the Argentine side of the Falls. But the forecast had a 100% chance of rain, so we decided that might be a bit miserable and changed our plans for Monday and Tuesday. Monday we headed to Paraguay to visit the Itaipu Dam and Ciudad del Este.

Now you might wonder... hmmmm they're going to a dam, did they make an excessive number of dam jokes. Oh yes, yes we did, esp. Matt, Kate, and I. They actually started on Sunday as we anticipated the dam trip. We decided on Sunday we were dam fools, but after the tour we'd be dam smart. We also read several dam brochures. Although rain had been threatened, the storm moved through faster and it turned out to be a sunny dam day. My favorite moment though was when Wimon accidentally said that we were going to watch a Dam Video on the bus. (We had been trying to avoid making to many dam jokes in front of the 11 year old.) OK... I'm done... for now.

When we arrived at the dam visitors center. (They really are impossible to avoid.) I was able to take a picture of some of the giant ant hills around here. Apparently they were protecting this one. At the center we watched another video that we are guessing was made around 1990. Anytime they talk about 'modern' technology and show a computer screen that is black with amber letters, you wonder a bit.

After the visitors center we went to see the dam. There are two parts to it, kind of, there is the overflow area from the lake, which is what is in the foreground. Apparently they only have to open the gates 3 or 4 times a year. (Remember the water was high at the falls too.) It was pretty impressive to see. While it looks like a big water slide, apparently traveling down it wouldn't be a great idea as the water is moving at about 75 mph.
Rosalinda certainly did tell several of the students to "get in the dam picture." Who'd of thought Rosalinda would say such a thing??? :)

We also got to go inside one "little" part of the dam. Under the floor are the turbines. There are 20 in the dam, 18 are running at any one time. If you look carefully in picture you can see a bright spot far off in the top part of the picture. That is the other end of the room 1.2 km away.

The Itaipu Dam from the Brazilian side. Itaipu was (or is) the largest dam in the world, depending on how far along the Three Gorges Dam in China is. While the dam in China will be bigger, this dam still produces the most electricity. It supplies 78% of the electricity used in Paraguay and 25% of the electricity used in Brazil. (It could supply 100% of the electricity in Paraguay as Paraguay sells a lot of its electricity generated by the dam to Brazil, but for reasons unknown to me it doesn't.)

After the dam trip we went to visit Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. Rhonda Collier described it as, Walmart on crack that spilled out into the streets. That seems about right. The streets are lined with vendors, people are trying to sell you socks everywhere, it was bizarre. There are also several legitimate stores we could go in. 5 of the students and I went off to find lunch and shop. The 5 students bought 12 soccer jerseys among them. I bought a fake Rolex... its a bad fake which makes me really happy. The vendor assured me it was worth $100 (U.S.) so I got a great deal at about $10. :) Its still ticking though after 3 days so I'm impressed. After we had a great time shopping we headed back to the hotel.

In the evening we went to dinner and a show at Refain. It seems that most of the restaurants here feature meat from a parilla and a buffet. This was true of Refain too. The show demonstrated lots of music and dancing from around Latin America. They kept bringing out different "bands." For the most part, it was the same musicians, singers, and dancers in different costumes. We kept laughing during the tango part, because you could tell they were Brazilians doing tango... they kept smiling... Tango is serious if you are from Argentina or Uruguay!!! When they started playing music from Mexico, we felt right at home. One of our female students got pulled up on stage by a lecherous tambourine player in the Brazilian part of the show. He told her to hit him with wooden in the chest and then the stomach and then in the well... and she did. According to Wimon and Rosalinda she hit him harder than most girls do... so we were proud... he asked for it. The show was lots of fun.

We headed back to the hotel exhausted but ready for another exciting day as we were going to the Argentine side of the falls the next day.

The Not Quite as We Planned Brazil Trip, Day 1

Well, tomorrow (Thursday) we head back to Montevideo. It has been a good trip although most things have not gone quite as we planned. We've had a great time and the students have been great with rolling with the changes.

(SIDE NOTE: Aunt Marti, if you read this, you won't like the 5th picture.)

Sunday morning we got up and headed to the bird park. There was rain forecasted for the afternoon. Our guide David said he had talked to St. Peter, so we should be ok. The bird park is a preserve that tries to rehabilitates birds and re-release them into the wild. It gives us a great chance to get up close and personal with lots of the birds. One of my favorites was a parrot that like to laugh with us. We'd laugh and it would laugh back. Its friend in the cage would say, "Hola!"

We could go into enclosures with some of the birds. I think the toucans were as interested in us as we were in them. They would come right up to us. This picture isn't taken with any zoom.

This is probably my favorite bird in the park. As it can kill humans, we can't go in the cage with it. I don't remember its name, but I call it the dinosaur bird.

We also got to go into a macaw enclosure. Its actually kind of scary because they are really loud and the fly right over tourists' heads, as in they would hit us in the head with their wings as they flew over.

We had an opportunity to hold a macaw. This one lost its chew toy (his latest had been a button he had pulled off the shirt of a guy that went before me) and decided to lick my hand to see if I would be good to chew on.

And we got to hold a big ole snake.

After the Bird Park, it was time to head to the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls. The Iguazu River is on the border of Argentina and Brazil, so the Falls are between them too. Each country has a National Park on their side. The Brazilian side is better for looking at the falls as a whole and the Argentine side is better for getting up close and personal with nature and the falls and particularly Devil's Throat.

On a normal day the Falls have about 1500 cubic meters of water flow over them a second (That's 1,500,000 liters per second!) On Sunday it was twice as big at about 3000 cubic meters per second.

So here's where things started not going as planned. It turned out that Monday was a national holiday making it a long weekend (it was Children's Day by the way) and I think half of Brazil came to the Falls on Sunday. We had to stand in line for at least an hour to get into the park. (For comparisons sake, I think we pretty much walked straight in when I was here last time.)

Close to the front of the line is way in the background. Its that row of little dots. We did have fun making up standing in line songs. It was taking so long that we decided to start sending groups to buy sandwiches because weren't going to have time to sit and eat as planned after we got into the park.

But finally we made it to the front of the line. This caused our guides some stress though. Remember those people who went to get sandwiches? Well the second group wasn't back. They started arriving as we got to the entrance, or a little after. But David and Andres know everyone, so it was ok. Luckily they bought sandwiches for a third group who wouldn't have gotten to eat.

We also changed our order of events. The original plan had been to hike along the falls and then those of us who wanted to were going to go on a boat ride and get wet. Well because this was going to be another line, they decided to have us do the boat first.

This was cool though, because the students got their first view of the falls from the river.

After we took our fill of pictures, we headed in here. We got a little under one of the falls, but that was certainly enough to soak us. Remember how I said the Falls had twice the volume as normal, well it led to lots of mist so in many of the pictures it looks like we can't see the falls for the water.

After the AWESOME boat ride, its pretty much inexplicably fun, we changed into dry clothes. Some of the students asked me what we were doing next. I told them we were going to hike and look at the Falls. One of them actually said, "Um we've seen the falls." I assured them there was much more to see. They repeated this conversation later and they said I was very right. My favorite thing. As words (and really even pictures) can't really do the falls justice, I'm mainly just going to show pictures.

Most of the group at a lookout over the falls.

Jaimie and the falls. Notice behind Jaimie's head is a bridge. We are about to walk out there.

Jaimie and Kate on the bridge.

Over the edge

Abel, Kate, and Jaimie at the end of the bridge. Remember how some of us had changed into dry clothes? Um... well... last time I was here we got a little splashed on this bridge. This time we were drenched!

This is a Coati. They more or less remind me of racoons. You aren't supposed to feed them, but someone (not us... seriously) did. It did make it easier to take a picture. They aren't particularly afraid of people. My favorite sign about them says "They can and will bite."

The beginning of the falls. They were really sending up a lot of spray. Notice how it has turned cloudy. It was time to go home anyway. David's discussion with St. Peter apparently worked. We stood in line to get on the bus to take us back to the beginning of the park and back to our bus.

Our day finished up with dinner and church at the hotel. We had a really great discussion about how we had seen God at the falls. I was really impressed and moved by the things our students said. As we were finishing up the thunderstorm struck, we lost power for a bit, but that was fine.

Actually I didn't have lights in my room the rest of the night, but fortunately Wendell had given me a flashlight right before I left for Uruguay, so I was prepared. For some reason, several of the students ended up hanging out in my room for awhile. We had a good time playing with my iPhone and trying to read the Bible in Portuguese. Trust me its entertaining when Matt does it.
Well I think that covers our first day at the falls... Whew...