Highlights from Weeks 6 & 7

As you have probably noticed, I have not been a very good blogger. While I am very prompt here in Uruguay, my blog posts have not been. Since I wrote my last post, I have really started to feel comfortable here. Because of this, the past few weeks have been packed with excitement and adventure. One layer of this is some of the trips I have been on recently; however, you are going to have to wait to hear about those. More to come soon.

Turismo Adventura: 
As mentioned in an earlier post, I took a tour of the city of Montevideo with a small group of other international students one of my first weeks here. Although it was not the best tour I have been on, I gained some pretty useful information from our tour guide (a Tourism grad from my university-yes that is a real major). My favorite thing that she told me about is a class at my university called Adventure Tourism. Yes...it is as cool as is sounds. I decided to register for it, even though there was no one else I knew taking it. No worries...I was later able to convince a girl to take it with me. I realize that I am spoiled here when it comes to classes. I only need Spanish credits right now and so I am living the life taking whatever I like and having a really relaxed schedule. This class, in particular, is the only class I have with Uruguayan students and it only meets every other week. AND, class consists of mountain biking, canoeing, rock climbing, repelling, or other such adventures. Again I say, I am spoiled. Two weeks ago was our first real class. This past week, we just learned and practiced basic skills, such as tying various knots. However, it was still a blast. And this class has also been a blessing because all of my classmates always recognize me at school and warmly greet me, even when I don't even remember that they are in my class. Here are some pictures of us being monkeys in the park:

Uruguayan friends:

Speaking of how great people have been to me, I have a couple specific experiences to prove it. My Techo leader(See previous post if you are confused), who studied abroad in New Zealand for a year and speaks English fluently, also happens to live really close to my house. When he discovered that I had never tried dulce de leche pancakes(really just crepes with dulce de leche), he invited me over to his house to make and eat them with him and his girlfriend. It was nice to have the chance to spend some time with local doing something I adore: eating! I do not have any good pictures of us, but here is one of the star to the party: the pancakes. yummy!

Another Uruguayan friend who I have had memorable experiences with is a student at my school named Camila. We got connected through my wonderful friend Courtney Walker from Queens, who studied here last year. It has been so great to get to know Camila. She is so easy to talk to. On numerous occasions, we have just met and talked for hours. However, last week, I decided to attend one of her field hockey games. It was my first time ever watching one and so it was an adventure for me. Her team embraced me and even let me sit on their bench and use their camera to take pictures of the team. And I got to meet her dad, who was very friendly and inviting as well. This past week, Camila and I met at school so that she could interview me for one of her Communications assignments. I felt so honored! Here is a picture of the coach talking to the girls before the game. Camila is the one getting her hair braided.

Gaucho Museum: 

This past week, I went to a local museum in Montevideo all about gauchos. Gauchos In simple terms, a gaucho is a Uruguayan cowboy, but you can read more about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaucho
Most of the museum was filled with old artifacts used by the gauchos, but my favorite things were that it was in a beautiful old house tucked between buildings in the old city, I got to watch two of my classmates dress up like gauchos, and I was able to take old coins out of a room meant to look like an old Uruguayan bank.

 

Community Service:

I have the incredible opportunity to work alongside other exchange students and collaborate with the university and local organizations on service projects this semester. I decided to do two different projects. For the first, three other girls and I will be planning activities that stimulate imagination and creativity for a group of  fourth graders who attend a school in a poor area of Montevideo. The school that we are working at is technically private, but families only have to pay around $15 a month for their child to attend. They spend the whole day at the school-the first half they take normal courses and the second half is electives and recreational activities. I went for the first time this week and I am already falling in love with these kids. I look forward to getting to spend time with them on a weekly basis. My second project is similar as far as content, but the context is entirely different. With a separate group of exchange students, I will be visiting a cancer city in Montevideo once a week to lead creativity/art-based activities with a group of 6 kids(ages ranging from 10-20) with cancer. As a student pursuing a career and Nursing and as a granddaughter to someone with cancer, I was excited to learn that I would have this opportunity. I was not able to go last week, but I will keep you posted as I continue to participate and interact with this group this semester. 

Thank you for hanging in there on this long post. More to come soon!