La Vida Uruguaya

As much as I love all of the traveling and once-in-a-lifetime things that we're doing, I think my favorite parts of living here in Uruguay are the simple, day to day things. This morning it rained so Raquel and Mariela made tortas fritas for breakfast. It's a tradition here in Montevideo to make them when it rains and I love them; they're kind of like a fried pancake and they're delicious with cinnamon and homemade whipped cream called chantilly. You know it's going to be a good day when you wake up to the smell of tortas fritas cooking in the kitchen.

The other day Ashley and I went to the mall to find a bookstore so that Sam could buy a kid's novel in Spanish. While he was looking for a book, we sat down in the toddler's section next to a little girl who looked two or three years old, about Adah's age. She pulled books off the shelves and wanted us to read them to her, but the funny thing was that she ended up teaching us Spanish! Just like I do with Adah in English, we pointed to pictures and asked her, 'Que es esto?' She'd say 'Un avion!' and point at an airplane or 'Un arbol!' and point at a tree. It was just the cutest thing because we'd repeat what she had said and she would say 'No. Un avi-on' if we had pronounced something incorrectly. Eventually her dad came over and looked at us a little strangely. 'Estamos aprendiendo espanol!' I told him. 'Con ella?' he asked. 'Si.' It was a sweet and also humbling experience to realize that a two year old here knows more than we do. Even with as much as we've learned, we have a long way to go!

I have become an expert in packing. Our flight for Peru leaves tomorrow so I've spent the afternoon trying to get everything ready, and I've managed to pack everything I'll need for the nine day trip into my one hiking backpack. I'm pretty proud of myself--I'm starting to feel like I'm actually a world traveler. It's about time!

I just didn't feel right posting a blog without a picture, so here's one from horseback riding in Rocha the other weekend!