Before We Head to the End of the World...

I need to update you on the past two weeks, as promised!

First, I want to mention something about Brazil that I forgot to put in my last post. In Brazil the main language spoken is Portuguese, so it was strange to suddenly be in yet another country where we didn't know the language again! Someone would say something to me, and once I understood what they wanted in English, I would try to translate it into Spanish, only to realize that they wouldn't understand that either! Talk about getting your languages confused!
It was a fun week of trying to communicate with people from all over the world, since Iguazu Falls is a hot spot for tourists from all over the world. At one point during our train ride to the falls, Brandon was speaking to a couple from Argentina in Spanish, Joanna was talking in English to a man from Germany with a heavy German accent, and Aaron was talking to our Uruguayan guide in Spanish as he was replying in English, both of them working on their speaking skills. I bounced from conversation to conversation because I was sitting in the middle of all this, but it was fun to just sit and listen.

Anyways, last weekend Jordan, my roommate Alex, and I went to Piriápolis! It was so nice to just go out and be on our own for a weekend. We stayed at a small hotel that was half a block from the beach and spent most of our time exploring and relaxing on the beach. My favorite story from the weekend came from Sunday as we were about to leave. Sunday morning we woke up and it was raining, so we were afraid that we would have to get earlier bus tickets to come home since we had been planning on spending the day at the beach. After we had eaten breakfast though, it had stopped raining and the skies had begun to clear up, so we decided to wait a little while and see if it got warmer outside. While we were waiting, we explored the area around the coastline and found a dock with several rock pools and had a great time climbing them and trying to maneuver our way through the slippery areas into the water. I felt like Pocahontas!

Once we had been playing in the rock pools for a while, it finally got warm enough for us to head back to the beach. Once we got situated there, two dogs came running right up to us. Alex and I got really excited; they were so friendly! It was strange though, because anytime someone walked anywhere close to where we were laying out they would both run to that person and bark at them until they were far enough away from us. Then they would both come running back and just lay down near or against us. It was precious! This went on for about an hour until we decided it was time for us to head back to the hotel and get our things so we could catch our bus back to Montevideo. The dogs both left with us and walked us to our hotel, where we then told them "adios!" and went our separate ways.

After we picked up our bag [yes, the three of us successfully packed in one bag], we started walking to the bus station. It was a pretty short walk, and when we got there, guess who we found waiting for us?! Our two friends!! They had gone all the way to the bus station to see us off! ;D It was adorable, and they continued to stay by our side until our bus arrived. It was the same story there - anytime someone walked close to us they would get chased and barked at until they were a ways away from us. Then the dogs would just trot back and plop down next to us again. God had a couple angels watching out for us that day :)

So that was our weekend! Needless to say, we were glad that we didn't buy tickets to come home early Sunday.
Monday brought about the start to an incredibly busy week. We had a picture party/Halloween party, since there wouldn't be time to celebrate Halloween any other time during this week. We all dressed up and submitted our 25 favorite pictures so far from the semester and had a great time laughing at some of the ridiculous things that we had caught on camera so far. The costume part was a lot of fun too - a lot of them came from jokes and things that had happened within our group here at Casa. I was a Uruguayan futbol player!

Tuesday night we got all dressed up to go to the Teatro Solis and see a ballet titled "Beyond Borders." It was really modern and actually had a lot of influence from the United States - I even recognized some of the music that was used. We all really enjoyed it!

Oh, another thing that has been going on the past two weeks is that we've all been going to a place called "the Alianza." Literally translated, it means "the alliance." It is a place where people living here can go to speak and learn English, as well as learn about the United States. We have all been going there in assigned pairs to volunteer by sitting in on classes or leading conversation clubs. We basically just go and talk to Uruguayans for an hour or so. It has been a pretty great experience for the most part, and we've gotten to meet a lot of Uruguayans that way!
Today Jordan and I are going to visit a classroom of intermediate speakers who will probably be around our age, give or take several years. We are also going to go to a classroom of eight year olds and teach them about Native Americans in the US. I'm excited! That's going to look pretty cool on a resume someday.. ;)

The rest of this week has been filled with everyone here at Casa frantically trying to get last minute things done before our ten day free travel break. Six people are leaving on a bus tonight for Brazil, three are leaving Saturday for Peru, and myself along with five others will be leaving early tomorrow morning for Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, located at the southern tip of Argentina. We're all SO excited!
One small fact about where we're headed for the next ten days: there's going to be 18 hours of sunlight during the day... that's how far south we'll be! How awesome is that?? :D

That's about all I've got for this post! I'm headed out to the Alianza now, and we're leaving for Patagonia in.... about 17 hours!!

¡Brasil!

I think all my posts on here are going to end up being long ones. I really should start updating this more often. This post, however, will only be about Brazil. I'll try to update again soon with everything that has happened since then.

Two weeks ago we all went to Iguazu Falls, Brazil for the week. It was such an amazing trip! Brazil is beautiful. At times we were literally in the rain forest, it was so cool! Our hotel was pretty awesome, too. Behind it was a plethora of animals, including peacocks, rabbits, turkeys, ostriches, bulls, and monkeys! We spent our first afternoon in Brazil walking around and exploring the area around our hotel.
Sunday we went to a huge bird park and saw many exotic birds up close. Some of the highlights were when a toucan attempted to eat my camera, a giant parrot tried to steal the bobby pins in my hair, and we walked through cages filled with butterflies. [All of the birds we were able to get close to were perfectly harmless though, don't worry.]

After the bird park, it was off to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls! We were told the saying that, "Argentina has the waterfalls, but Brazil has the view." Once we reached the falls, the view was simply amazing. Everywhere we went, I felt like I was right in the middle of a postcard. [which, by the way, I'm going to try and start sending more of... so send me your addresses!] I took a ridiculous amount of pictures - my camera died before we even made it to lunch! Everything was so breathtaking. And what was so crazy was that everywhere we walked, the more amazing it became! I would be stopped dead in my tracks, just in awe of what was before me, only to walk a little ways further to see something even more incredible! There were waterfalls EVERYWHERE, all around us, mixed with rainbows, butterflies, and flocks of birds flying in the vast quantities of mist.

After lunch that day ten of us were able to go on an extra tour through the rainforest and board a raft to go out INTO the river with the falls coming down around us. Our driver even took us under one of the falls four times - it was incredible! One person riding with us told us that the driver went under it two extra times just for us because we were having so much fun and being so enthusiastic.

In between two of the times we went under the waterfall -

INSIDE the waterfall -

Monday we went to the Argentina side of the waterfalls. We saw many waterfalls up close and ended at "Garanta del Diablo," literally translated to "Throat of the Devil." This is where many of the waterfalls meet and fall in one area - it was incredible. Seeing all of that makes it utterly impossible to doubt the majesty of our God. There was just SO much water in that one location - it was so powerful and beautiful.

Tuesday brought about a new kind of adventure by the name of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. We first visited the Itaipú dam, one of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World." After visiting the falls, it seemed kind of boring in comparison, but it was still pretty neat to see. After that we went into the city where we ate lunch and shopped around. The difference in our surroundings once we entered Paraguay was incredibly drastic. I was able to change some money into the Paraguayan currency, which ended up being about 4,500 guarani to 1 US dollar. At the end of the day, I left with five different currencies in my wallet - Paraguayan guarani, Uruguayan pesos, Argentine pesos, Brazilian reais, and US dollars.

Later that night, we all got dressed up to go to the Full Moon Dinner at the Falls. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to do it or not because it had been cloudy all day, but the sky cleared up just in time to head back out to the falls. The walk back out to the Garganta del Diablo was breathtaking - literally one of, if not THE most amazing sight I've ever seen in my life. It was so peaceful. We were walking solely by moonlight, and the only sounds were from the water rushing around us and falling in the distance. However, once we got to the actual falls, it was anything BUT peaceful. Apparently the Devil's Throat was quite a bit more active that night than when we had gone the day before, because we became SOAKED, nice clothes and all. We spent the remainder of our night at dinner eating and having a good time, despite being drenched to our bones.

The last couple days in Brazil were spent visiting a Guaraní village [the indigenous people of the area]. Something interesting we learned about them was that since they live in the rainforest, they have adapted to their surroundings in that they are a very short people so that they do not have to crouch down as much to navigate through all the trees. Anyways, we spent some time there and were able to buy some things from them that they had made.

We also went to a Jesuit Mission for the Guaraní. That was a really awesome place to get to explore around in - the buildings, though broken down, were incredible.

So there you have it - I think that covers all the main points from the Brazil trip. I'm going to try and update this again tomorrow and write about my trip to Piriápolis this past weekend and all the things going on this week - we are in the midst of an incredibly busy week right now!

Another Long Post

Hey everyone!
Last weekend we took a day trip to Colonia del Sacramento, about two hours east of Montevideo. It is a small historical town filled with tourist spots and museums. It was a beautiful day and the town was really neat. I really have been enjoying our opportunities to get out of Montevideo and see some areas where we aren't surrounded by buildings in every direction. Right as arrived at the town we stopped at an old bull-fighting stadium called the Plaza de Toros. The actual stadium was closed off due to the fact that it was falling apart, but there were already several other tourists that had climbed through the various holes in the fence. So, being the excited and curious college students that we are, we followed suit and climbed on through so that we could explore. It was such a cool feeling to step through the arches and onto the field. Even as I climbed into the stands I could just picture what it would have been like when the stadium was full with spectators waiting for the big bullfight.
Afterwards we ate lunch and explored the town, spending a lot of time at a lighthouse along Rio de la Plata (the widest river in the world). I bought a Uruguayan soccer jersey there too! :)

This weekend is Dia del Patrimonio, or Patriot's Day. It is an important holiday for Uruguay - all the Uruguayans spend the weekend outside taking part in some of the many festivities going on. Today and yesterday we spent a lot of time exploring around Ciudad Vieja (the Old City) which is like downtown Montevideo. A lot of places that are usually closed to the public open for this holiday, so we were able to explore some interesting places, such as the Teatre Solis (Montevideo's equivalent of our Bass Hall), a museum dedicated to the history of Uruguay's government, as well as some other random places we found while walking the streets. There were crowds of people everywhere watching the countless street performers, so we stopped to watch a few of those as well. There were dancers, people dressed up, and a man doing tricks on a tightrope. It was fun to see Uruguayans acting like tourists in one of their own cities.

Next weekend is going to be a big one for us, too. We have four days of classes this week, then early Friday morning we will be heading out on a 20+ hour bus ride to Brazil! I'm not exactly sure what all we are planning to do there, other than that we will be spending some time in Iguazu Falls. If any of you have seen the new Indiana Jones movie and remember the scene with all the waterfalls, that's where we'll be! It is one of the world's largest and most spectacular waterfalls. I'll be sure to take TONS of pictures, I promise. :) We'll also be stopping in Paraguay, I believe. Which means another passport stamp! I'm hoping by the end of this trip I'll have stamps from the majority of the countries in South America.

Some other big news - from October 31st until November 8th (I believe those are the correct dates) I will be heading to Patagonia, the southern tip of Argentina. Myself and five others will be staying in Ushuaia, which is the southernmost city in the entire WORLD. We already have our plane tickets and reservations at a hostel for the week. We also already purchased tickets for a train tour, the entrance fee for a day in Tierra del Fuego (a famous National glaciers park), a full day at Lago Escondito, and a boat tour where we'll get to go and see penguins! (I'll make sure to get pictures of them for you Steven). Those are the main things we have planned already, and I think we'll be spending our last night in Buenos Aires. I'm crazy excited :D

I think that covers all the major news. Oh, two weeks ago I started taking Tango lessons with some of the other students here as well as our directors, Wimon and Rosalinda. Every Monday night a couple comes to Casa ACU and gives us a formal lesson. It is a ton of fun - I'm loving it so far.

Also, our daylight savings started yesterday. It's kind of strange, since all of you in the United States won't change for another three weeks. So for three weeks we'll be three hours ahead of you, then once you guys change we'll be four hours apart. Pretty strange stuff.

That's about it! Time is flying down here. I feel like December is going to be here in no time - but I'm trying not to think about that yet. Until my next post.. I love you guys! And I'll try not to wait so long until my next post. :)