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. ;)

So Busy...

FIRST - before I get into my ramblings... our student with pneumonia went home on Sunday. He ended up having to have surgery again yesterday. Apparently the infected fluid turned into some kind of jello stuff that was coating his lung. (EWW!) So they actually had to open him up and clean it off. They have his lung all cleaned off now, but he now has two tubes draining the fluid off around his lungs... This has been so crazy... Please keep him and his family in your prayers!

There are times I'm not writing much because I've run out of new things to say. Then there are weeks like this one that have been so busy I haven't had time to write about them. We have been really blest to have three visitors this week.

Bio, who I've mentioned before, is still here. The kids are still loving his class and we all really enjoy hanging out with him. He has been such a blessing to our group. We are all really sad that he is leaving this weekend. He is so fun and such a spiritual leader that we all feel like we have grown from knowing him.

Dr. Brown, Luke's mother, arrived last Saturday with two of her nieces. Luke's birthday was yesterday. She had not missed one of his birthday's yet and she wasn't going to let a little thing like being on a different continent cause her to miss this one. She has really been fun... and she enjoys telling stories on Luke... which we enjoy, even if he doesn't.

Ronnie Rama, who I believe I've also mentioned before, teaches in the art department and is Uruguayan. He came down to show Dr. Brown the city and to visit Eric, his son. Ronnie is so much fun and has such a great knowledge and love of the city that it is very interesting to go places with him.

So with three visitors here, I've been kicked out of "I live here mode" (you know where you never go see the touristy things in the place you live), which is good because I would have kicked myself when I got home and hadn't seen these places.

The visitors also have meant that we have eaten really, really well. (I know its hard to believe that we could top the way we've been eating all semester.) I've been to three different grill/ steak places this week. And even better I didn't have to pay for them. Yesterday we had three big meals after noon.

So anyway that's why I haven't said as much in the last couple days. Later I'll upload some pictures and tell you more about what I actually did.

Another Good Weekend

It's hard to believe how fast time is moving now. It makes me sad that we have less than 6 weeks until we leave... but I will not dwell on such things.

Saturday started as normal... that means Kelsey and I went to the gym. It was great fun as usual. On the way back we saw Eric Rama helping someone unload luggage from a van. I was a little confused because I knew that Luke's mother and cousins were coming to visit... but they weren't staying in the house. It turns out it was Eric's dad Ronnie Rama, who teaches in the art department at ACU. Ronnie is Uruguayan and started the program here. He is also the architect who designed the inside of the building (church and CasaACU) and built it. He also happens to be super fun and knows everything about Montevideo and Uruguay (which makes sense because he grew up here.) So anyway, it was a fantastic surprise to see him.

We had a double birthday on Saturday. Both Rhonda and Bio were born on November 3 in the same year... I won't announce the year in case they wouldn't appreciate it. In the afternoon, we had a birthday party for Rhonda. She had something else to go to in the evening. But the students and I took Bio out for his birthday. We went to a Mexican restaurant and had a great time. We then came back and watched Transformers, which Luke's mother had brought. (Mom's are great.) I didn't finish it though, because I had seen it before and I realized it was 1 AM!!!

(On a side note... Bio kind of cheated although we are ok with having a party twice. He was born on Nov 3, but his mother did't file the birth certificate until the 5th, so we celebrated his birthday today and Saturday. Hahaha But it did mean we got cake for lunch today.)

The 1 AM time was significant, because Kelsey and I had decided to get up early and go see one of the local markets before church. It was really fun. Our favorites were the vendors selling all kinds of birds: Turkeys, Pheasants, Ducks, Roosters, Parakeets, Love Birds, and all sorts that I can't identify. It was more or less a flea market, so there were all sorts of random things being sold like door knobs, old keys, hub caps, mate cups, clothes, old records, etc.

I pretty much always enjoy church here, even if I still don't understand much. It is a great thing to be part of this family. One of the men celebrated his 91st birthday yesterday, which was very cool. We were also excited because it was the first time we and Pablo had been there for class in several weeks. Class was also very cool because I understood pretty much everything that was discussed (without translation). I can not predict when I'm going to understand and when I'm not... there seems to be no rhyme or reason.

After church I went to eat at our favorite restaurant (Molto Bene) with Anne, Jonathan, and Bio. As usual we had a great time. It was a pretty plain afternoon, I was supposed to work... but I played and went to the grocery store.

At church in the evening, Ronnie, preached. He talked about his trip to Jordan. Again... I felt like I understood most of what was said. After church I impressed everyone with my technology skills when I got the projector to work so that it would project from the table top and not from the ceiling. (They had turned it upside down for the presentation during church.) Then Nestor wanted to know how they'd get it back the other way if they decided to put it on the ceiling. I told him I'd be here for 5 weeks to help them learn. He wanted to know about in 5 years.

After church, the Ramas, Pablo, Bio, 3 students and I walked toward the Old City. We went to dinner at a Uruguayan grill. We had salad then meat, meat, and more meat. Oh I guess we had grilled cheese (not the sandwhich but literally cheese that had been heated on the grill), too. The food was good, although I think I ate more meat last night than I had in the last week. While the food was good and the company was great. We had a mix of three languages at the table Spanish, English, and Portuguese (Pablo can speak it, too.) So that always adds to the fun. It was fun to listen to Ronnie make stuff up and Bio believe him. On the way back the students and Eric were walking on ahead and I was back with the men. All of a sudden I realized I was the yougest by several years... some how it felt good not to be the oldest or the most responsible person in the group. (Well at least the person who was supposed to be the most responsible.) And walking with Ronnie and Pablo I got to learn more about the city.

Speaking of being a responsible adult... when I got home at 10 last night I realized I still had to organize stuff for chapel, prep my lecture notes for intro chem, and do my Spanish homework... see what a good example I am?

Anyway, it was a great weeked. I'm really grateful that ACU has sent both Bio and Ronnie down here. :) And I'm even MORE grateful that ACU has given me this experience!

Bio and Buceo

Ok those two things don't have much to do with each other, except that we went to Cemetery Buceo with Bio. Bio Gomes, in between Luke and Jonathan in the picture, is a Brazilian minister who is here for two weeks teaching the Latin American Missions class. We are really enjoying having him here. The students in his class are really enjoying it, which is saying a lot since they are meeting for 20 hours a week. The rest of us just like talking to him and hanging out with him. Bio obviously has a heart for people. I think he had everybody's names down in the first 2 hours of meeting everyone. (I'm still not sure what all the kids names are and I've been living with them for 2 months... I'm kidding... mostly.)

Yesterday was the Day of the Dead here. Bio and 8 others of us went to visit Cemetery Buceo which is by the beach. Like the Recoletta in Buenos Aires, it is full of beautiful monuments. Its not quite as much of a city as most of the family crypts were more underground and not actually little buildings. Many of the crypts had beautiful statues on them though.


We did find a couple that were open again. In one you could see some of the caskets, then the smaller white boxes that the family members are condensed, for lack of a better term, into after they are only bones. After I took the picture, one of the girls noticed that a casket had fallen and that you could see bones. Then we discovered that the skull had ended up on a shelf... eeewww...

As I mentioned, many of the crypts also had statues on them. Some looked very European, while others had the distinct South American look of the over exaggerated bodies. I'm not sure how to describe it, I'm sure someone who knows more about art is reading this shaking their head... but hey at least I know enough to know it is a South American style. Some of the statues were very triumphant, many involved angels (ok being a math-science person, and certainly not a speller, I had angles there until I proof-read... and I had to look at it for awhile to figure out which it was supposed to be), while others were incredibly mournful. I guess it reflects the families attitude toward the death of the original family member buried in the crypt.

After we left Cemetery Buceo we went to the British cemetery across the street. It was weird to see a cemetery filled with British names. After two months in Uruguay, its just weird to see Smith as a last name. The tombstones were much less elaborate which I guess reflects the fact that these were mostly protestants... at least that was Bio's theory, and I agreed.... although the gravestones were much fancier than ones you'd find in most places in the U.S. I didn't take any pictures in the British cemetery because Bio and I got in trouble for taking pictures right before we left Buceo... whoops... always good when its the teachers that get in trouble.

OK enough cemetery talk...

The other half of the title was Bio... as I said we are really having a great time with him. We are very grateful to his wife and kids for sharing him with us for a couple of weeks. Last night there were several us gathered around the island in the kitchen eating leftovers, when we decided that Bio should teach us some Portuguese before we go to Brazil later this month. So we learned the important phrases, like "Yes", "No", "Thank you", "I don't speak Portuguese", AND "Where is the bathroom???" Ok I don't really remember any of them... except maybe where is the bathroom... But we have them written in Chelsea's notebook... of course she says she's going to charge to let us see them. Hmmmm... What could I hold over her to get her to share it with me???

Putting the Study in Study Abroad

Some people after reading my blog are concerned that no studying happens at Study Abroad. (Ahem... Wendell...) In fact I was advised that in case any administrators were reading this I might want to include the fact that I am actually working some down here... OK... the students might be working harder than me... But isn't that the joy of being the prof? I just haven't written about studying as much, because really which would your rather hear about: My trip to the Andes or the nucleophilic attack of the catalytic serine of chymotrypsin on the carbon of the carbonyl of the peptide bond? That's what I thought... And you can snap back out of the stupor I just put you in.

But seriously, I've been impressed at how dedicated the students have been to studying. I think all the students I traveled with on Spring Break brought work from both of their International Studies classes to work on. (Being the nice teacher, I didn't assign them anything... then again, I was traveling with them, and didn't want to spend the whole week hearing about how heavy the chemistry books were.) I even got a picture of two of the girls studying in our hostel in Santiago.

If anything the students study too much and don't go out as much as they should... well or they intend to study and talk to people at home online a lot. (I think they study about like I write P-chem lecture notes. OH... I worked for 4 hours... of course 2 of those hours was spent talking to friends at home.) At least one student is taking the 3 hardest classes offered here: Latin American Thought, Biochemistry I, and Physical Chemistry for Life Sciences.

OHH! in case you are wondering, here's what I've been covering in my classes lately:
Intro chemistry - Solutions - Percent solutions, Equivalents, Molarity, etc.
Biochemistry - Inhibitors, Catalytic Mechanisms, and Enzyme Regulatory Strategies
Physical Chemistry - Rates of Reactions

Happy Halloween

I know I'm always a bit behind. Last night, being Halloween, we had a Halloween party. Raquel and Mariella made an awesome cake for us. They are so talented.

Our group dressed up. Its exciting to try to come up with costumes when you don't have many resources. There wasn't a lot of costume stuff readily available. But the group came up with some great costumes. We also had several friends of CasaACU join us for the party. Sandra and her boyfriend, Marcos, Fernando, his mother, and Charo joined us. Only Charo dressed up... she dressed up like an ACU student.

We also had a costume contest! Nikita, on the left, won first. Kimberly, in the middle, came in 3rd, and I, in my fabulous spider costume came in 2nd.

We tried to introduce the Uruguayans to bobbing for apples. They wouldn't join us, but we had a bobbing for apples relay anyway. I have the winning team pictured... basically its the team of ultra-competitive people who were willing to dunk their whole heads in the tub. After Anne squared off with Bio, the other 4 of us got our 4 apples in maybe 10 seconds. (You can see how soaked we are.) It was a little scary. Pictured from left to right: Anne, Me, Jonathan S., Luke, and Matt.

Oh on a sad note. Our student who had pneumonia had a relapse. He had to go back into the hospital on Tuesday night. He had surgery yesterday to drain the infected fluid around his lungs. It looks like he is going home on Medjet when he is healthy enough to travel. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.