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. :)

Of Excursions and Birthdays [Catch Up Post]

Sorry it has been so long since I wrote in this last! A lot has been going on. Which also means that if I don't update this now, I'm never going to be able to catch you all up with everything. I'll try to cover all the major things that have happened since last time I posted..

The fútbol game was really fun. Neither Equador nor Uruguay scored any goals, so they ended the game as a tie. Even though that was kind of a bummer, it was definitely a huge cultural experience. The entire stadium was filled with light blue clothing and Uruguayan flags and the crowd would frequently burst out in chants/songs.

The next weekend we went to Buenos Aires, which was one of the most amazing weekends I've had so far. We took a bus similar to a charter bus to Colonia, Uruguay and then got on a ferry that took us across the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires. I fell asleep on the bus before we even got out of Montevideo, so when I woke up to miles and miles of the greenest grass I'd ever seen, it was a pretty big shock. When all you've seen for two weeks straight is buildings and sidewalks, so much green was definitely a nice surprise. After I woke up I just stared out the window and watched the scenery as the sun set in front of us.

The next day, Friday, was filled with a three-hour tour of the city and two art museums. The tour was pretty interesting and we were able to make stops and see some popular sites, including the La Boca neighborhood, famous for their brightly colored buildings and street performers luring in tourists from all over the place:


Buenos Aires was incredible in itself. It is called the Paris of South America and with good reason - it is HUGE. I thought Montevideo was big, but it doesn't even compare to Buenos Aires. That night we all got dressed up and went to a Tango show/dinner. The food was amazing, and the show afterwards was just as good. It was a lot of fun to have an opportunity for everyone to get dressed up and have a night on the town afterwards.

Saturday evening we were able to go to a local church and meet with a big group of kids that were about our age from around the area. As amazing as the whole weekend was, I think this might have been my favorite night in Buenos Aires. We hung out at the church for a while and had a time of worship with them. Afterwards we decided to go to a place with several small fútbol fields and play soccer with people whose passion lies in those fields. We started walking to the fields and at least a good hour and a half later, we finally arrived. Needless to say, we got a good warm-up just walking to the fields. We broke up into teams of five, intermixing with the locals so that the teams wouldn't be TOO unevenly matched. Cindy and I played on a team with three of the local guys. It was pretty interesting because we found that guys generally do not pass to girls, so Cindy and I did not have a lot to do for a while and kept up the defense. Towards the end of the night, however, we started getting the ball more once our teammates figured out that we were pretty decent players :)
Here is our team:

Sunday morning we went to church to discover that there is a group of 60 students from Pepperdine University studying abroad in Buenos Aires! A portion of them were at the same church we went to, so we were able to spend time with them and hang out a bit later during the afternoon before we left to come back to Montevideo. It was exciting to see others studying abroad from the States and we got each others' names so we might be able to meet up again sometime later in the semester.


So that covers the main things that happened in Buenos Aires. The next week was pretty chill in Casa ACU because everyone was pretty tired from such a busy three-day weekend. The end of the week brought our first birthday here in Uruguay. Birthdays are becoming one of my favorite parts of living in Casa ACU. Raquel makes the most amazing cakes, and even though every meal she makes is basically guaranteed to be amazing, birthday meals are even more so, if that is even possible.
Earl's birthday was on Thursday, so we ended up making enough confetti to cover his entire bedroom floor and throwing it on him at midnight. Then we threw what I'm pretty sure has to be the first toga party Casa ACU has ever had.

Finally, this past Saturday we went to an Estancia about an hour and a half west of Montevideo. We were able to ride horses, go canoeing, and swim in an indoor heated swimming pool. It was a day filled with activities and we all were pretty beat by the end of the day. It was nice to get out of the city for a day and be surrounded by that abundance of green I was writing about earlier. Not to mention the horse I got to ride was an amazing pick. It was a very good day. I'll be sure to put up a picture or two once my friend Aaron puts his up onto facebook or shutterfly. [After my camera fell out of my pocket when my horse started trotting, I became a bit wary about keeping it out much - Don't worry, it is still good as new though.]
Here is a picture from our horseback ride and as we were pushing off in our canoe.


This weekend we are going to Colonia, the place mentioned earlier that we drove to in order to board the ferry for Buenos Aires. Apparently it is a city full of Uruguayan history and culture, so it should hopefully provide for more adventures and fun experiences.

Backwards Seasons and Upcoming Events

Something you may or may not have known about South America - the seasons here are opposite of ours. So currently, the weather here is making the transition from winter to spring. Some days have been gorgeous here, sunny and in the upper 60's, but this past weekend it got cold again, with the addition of rain. Since most of the activity here takes place outside and by walking to and from places, our weekend weather made life pretty uneventful for the past few days. I am so lucky to be in a group of such fun and entertaining people - we spent most of the weekend watching movies or just hanging out with each other, talking, playing cards, and whatever else we could think to do in the house.
By the way, here is a picture of everyone who is in our Study Abroad group:

[this is on the roof of Casa ACU. The building's actual name is El Chana, and right above us is the bell tower]

Thankfully, the weather has begun to warm up again and we have sunny skies once more. :] Hopefully it will stay that way, since we have an eventful week and weekend ahead of us! Tomorrow evening we are going to a World Cup Qualifier fútbol game! We'll be able to cheer on Uruguay as they play against Equador and experience the craziness of South American passion for soccer.

The next day, Thursday, we will be packing up after our morning classes and heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina! We will be spending several days there before heading back to Casa ACU late Sunday night. We do not have a permanent schedule for the trip yet, so I'm not quite sure about what all we will be doing. I do know we will be going to a dinner/tango show Friday night, taking a tour of the city on Saturday, and spending some time with some Argentinians from one of the local churches, possibly playing indoor soccer with them at some point. It should be a great trip!

Speaking of tango, we had a lesson Friday night by a couple right here in Casa ACU! It was SO much fun. If enough people sign up, we might try to continue the lessons if we can get a good group rate. I hope so. :]

I think that covers all the major upcoming events. I have a couple papers to write before we leave for Buenos Aires, so I should probably stop procrastinating and get onto writing those. ha!

I'll leave you with a couple pictures from an outing to the Rose Gardens a few days ago. Most of the roses were only just beginning to bloom, but we are planning to go back once it warms up more. Even so, it was beautiful and a lot of fun to explore around!

A Few Updates

Since we have arrived in Montevideo, we have done a TON of exploring around the city. The first couple days we were here we all went out together or with at least half of the fifteen students that are here. Now we are finally getting to the point where we are slowly gaining the courage to go out in pairs for extended amounts of time and explore without getting TOO turned around. It's so strange living in such a big city and walking everywhere. I really need to take pictures of more of the city soon. Speaking of pictures, I'm going to steal the link from Jordan's shutterfly account so you can see his pictures until I take some with my camera. [If you're reading this Jordan, I'm completely justified in doing that since I took a bunch of those for you.] So here it is - http://jordanrlowe.shutterfly.com

Classes started on Monday. So far I have just been trying to soak in as much Spanish as humanly possible. This is really the only thing I have legitimately been struggling with, because I have realized that this one is not completely in my control. I can't just sit and read my Spanish textbook or go out and talk to people all day and all of a sudden know the language. This is something that comes with time, patience, and perseverance, so I'm doing what I can to keep my attitude about that in the right place. Here's my schedule:

Not too shabby! All the classes on Friday will only be held on certain weeks, so we will often get three day weekends. This Friday we will have class, at least in the afternoon, since we did not have our Latin American Studies class yesterday. Not sure about the Elementary Spanish class yet.

This past Sunday we went to church for the first time down here in Iglesia de Cristo, a building that is actually attached to Casa ACU. It was definitely a new experience for all of us. We arrived pretty early so that we could take the time to greet everyone before the service started. Which, by the way, definitely takes up quite a bit of time, because everyone has to greet every single person before they sit down. Have I mentioned how people greet each other down here yet? Well, here they kiss each other's cheek. Usually you just touch your cheek to the other person's cheek and make a kiss noise, so it's really not as big of a deal as I thought it would be. However, the first time I was walking down the street and saw two thirteen year old boys kiss each other's cheeks as they said bye, I couldn't help but laugh!
Anyways, all the people at church were SO friendly and excited to see us. I recognized several of the tunes to the songs during worship, but was completely lost when it came to the actual message. I sat by an older man named Rubén who was ADORABLE. The congregation ate lunch afterwards and he sat by me again, telling me about how he turns seventy next month and that he gives art lessons. Neither one of us could understand basically anything the other said, which made for interesting conversations. He ended up stealing some of the napkins and drew my picture though, which was really sweet. After that he wanted to show off his drawing skills and ended up drawing me two other pictures, one of which had a poem that went along with it that he recited to us. It amazed me how God's love can be so evident even when no one has any idea what the other person is saying.

After church on Sunday some of the kids from the youth group took us down to La Rambla, which is kind of like a boardwalk that goes along the beach. We walked around for the entire afternoon/evening in the park across the street from La Rambla and by the ocean and eventually to a mall on the other side of town for dinner. We definitely got our exercise in for the day, and I was able to get some really great pictures of that end of the city. I'll put the rest of them up on facebook soon, I promise.

It was a gorgeous day. Though I learned a valuable lesson - not to slide down those hills on a piece of cardboard, no matter how many other people are doing it. Ask me to tell you about that story sometime.

Speaking of exercise, I joined a gym last night! There is a huge list of classes that you can go to, and with one monthly price you can go to as many of them as you want! Six of us went to the Aerobics class and worked out for an hour - it was pretty dang intense. But I'm really excited to go back - it was so fun! Take THAT, Raquel's cooking! There's no way I'll be gaining weight this semester if I keep working out like that.

We made it!

Hey everyone! I just realized that if I don't update this right now, I probably will end up just not updating it at all. This is only day 3 in Uruguay, but already so much has happened! We have done a lot of exploring around Montevideo. I'm not really sure how to describe the city though - it is the biggest city in the country, and when I say big I mean like New York City big, but without all the lights and flashiness and noise. I haven't been able to take many pictures yet [we were encouraged to spend our first few days just taking in everything and to save taking pictures for later], but I'll start taking some soon and try to put them up so you can get a better feel for what I mean.

Some interesting things that I have learned or experienced so far - Well, the first would definitely be our overnight flight here. I ended up having a section of three seats all to myself, which was awesome. The entire flight I had at least two of those seats to spread out a bit, so I was able to sleep for at least a couple hours. When we first arrived in Montevideo, it was 51 degrees outside and drizzling - a weird experience to have towards the end of August. But the next day [yesterday] and today have given us much better weather. Today it has been in the mid-upper 60's and sunny... it feels amazing.

We met our first Uruguayan friend last night at the mall. Five of us ended up spending some time talking to a guy working in one of the stores, and between our Spanish skills and his English skills, we were able to have a pretty long conversation. [Okay, so I mostly just listened. But that is still one of my favorite experiences so far.]

Something I've learned - the "ll" and "y" are pronounced as a mixture of "j" and "sh" here. This Spanish is different from "Mexican Spanish" and sounds much prettier, in my opinion. [It's called Southern Cone Spanish.] I'm really looking forward to having a Uruguayan accent in my Spanish once I begin to learn more. For example, "playa" would be pronounced "plah-jah" or "plah-sha," depending on who is talking. It's difficult to explain in writing.

The food is amazing here. Our cooks, Raquel and Mariana, are truly astounding. I'm going to have to join some kind of gym here pretty soon so I don't gain twenty pounds while I'm here. [At least we walk everywhere around here - which is different, but fun.] And on the meals we are supposed to buy on our own... well, let me just say that Pesos > Dollars > Pounds. Dinner last night cost me a little over $3.50. And that was at a pretty nice sit-down restaurant in the mall. Good stuff.

Tonight we are going to meet some of the kids from the Iglesia de Cristo that Casa ACU is attached to, so I'm excited about that. I'm so ready to learn more Spanish - right now talking to people alone is way too intimidating. I guess I just need practice.

I'll put up pictures soon! If there is anything specific you want to know about, let me know!



Here's the only picture I've taken so far:

The sunset was GORGEOUS on the way to Miami.