I've never seen so many llamas in my life!

We got home from spring break in Peru about a week ago, but I've finally had time to sit down and write about it! The trip was amazing but exhausting, and I had to spend all last week catching up on homework and sleep! The flight took a long time--I didn't realize it, but the distance from Montevideo to Cuzco is about the same distance as Miami to Cuzco. One really interesting thing that we've learned here: there's a famous Uruguayan artist from Montevideo named Joaquin Torres Garcia who started this really cool idea of drawing the world upside down. After all, the direction "north" is just relative--if you were looking at the world from space, you'd have no way of saying which way is "up." And since Europeans were the first ones to create world maps, they made their land on top. So every once in awhile here you'll see an upside down world, symbolizing the idea that South America can be just as important and powerful as the European world. Interesting, isn't it?


Anyways, the reason that I've put off writing about Peru for so long is that honestly, I can't think of any words to do it justice. I can't describe what it felt like to be hiking through the Andes mountains; to be standing at one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, seeing a city built by Incan architectural geniuses, a city that was never even discovered by the Spanish conquerors; to be eating dinner with my friends at a restaurant on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean; to be surging through rapids down a river in the mountains. There are no words for it. Peru was absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I really hope that everyone who reads this gets to go someday.

I went with Lawson, Ashley, Sam, Sara, and Rachel, and it was so much fun getting closer to all of them through our nine days of traveling together. First we flew through Santiago, Chile, (the first of four national capitols that we would be in during that nine days!) before landing in Lima, Peru, and spending a couple of days there. While in Lima, we stayed in the beautiful and wealthy Miraflores district, where we took a city tour to see the beautiful old Spanish cathedrals and town square. Probably the funnest part of the tour was when we saw the "fertility fountain" in the town square. It's a huge, beautiful old fountain where women go to dip their hands in hopes of healing their infertility. Also, the city of Lima fills the fountain with Pisco Sour (the national drink which is something like lemonade with vodka) once a year and all of the people get to drink from it! We also got to go into the catacombs underneath an old cathedral, where thousands of people were buried a long time ago. It was so creepy, seeing so many real bones and being so far underneath the earth! And it was also so humbling, to realize that each of those skulls was at one time part of a living, breathing person with hopes and dreams, and that my life won't last forever either. Sometimes it's nice to remember that you're not immortal. It makes life a lot sweeter.

A few other things we did in Lima: see the Watchmen movie because movies in Montevideo come about about 3 months later than in the U.S. and Lawson's been dying to see it, get a donut at a Dunkin Donuts in the Lima mall (I don't even really like donuts normally, but we've been so starved of American food that it was like a gift from the gods to find an American restaurant), and went shopping at the artisan markets around town. Seriously, the trip to Peru is worth it if only for the shopping! They have the coolest souvenirs and crafts that I have ever seen at these enormous markets, and they are all so cheap. I bought a beautiful handmade cloth suitcase and completely filled it with amazing souvenirs and crafts for everyone back home (plus Ashley and I got a bunch of things for our house in Abilene that we get to move into in 62 days!) and in total I spent less than $100 on all of it. It was so great.

After staying in Lima we flew to Cuzco for five days, and that was where the real adventure started. Cuzco is up in the Andes mountains, pretty high above sea level, so you have to be really careful to avoid altitude sickness. We drank lots of tea made from coca leaves to help settle our stomachs and keep from getting sick, and luckily we all managed to avoid it except for Lawson who was already sick with a cold almost the whole trip. Cuzco was another world from anything I've ever seen. The people there were tiny and we stuck out as obvious tourists with our white skin and the amazed looks on our faces. The food there was incredible, and people on the streets would come up to you and beg you to eat at their restaurant, and they wouldn't go away until you said yes. Luckily, you could get an entire meal--appetizer, main dish, drink, and dessert--for 10 soles, which is about $3! No matter where you were in the town, you could see the gorgeous Andes mountains in the background. One night while walking back to the hotel after dinner, we got caught in a rainstorm and it was just beautiful, with the cold rain and the smell of mountain air and the six of us running through the cobblestone streets. When we got back to the hotel we were soaking wet so we all changed into pajamas, pushed two of our twin-sized beds together, and cuddled up to watch The Emperor's New Groove--it was perfect since we were in Cuzco! That movie is even funnier when you can actually understand so many of the little Peruvian details. Like llamas. They were everywhere in Peru! When we were at Machu Picchu, they were just grazing around in the ruins, eating grass and enjoying themselves. We toured the city of Cuzco, traveling outside of it a little bit to see some of the other, less famous but still amazing Incan ruins, and saw an enormously gaudy Spanish cathedral whose inside was completely covered in gold, altars, and beautiful paintings. The only thing that wasn't perfect about Cuzco, though, was that there were street children and people in poverty everywhere you looked. Most of them were selling different things--crafts, handmade dolls, or paintings--and they would follow you around, begging you to buy from them. So a lot of times, I did, but it's just not possible to buy something from everyone that asks...especially when after you buy from one, five others rush over to beg you to buy from them too. And that was a little heartbreaking. Peru is such a beautiful place to see, probably my favorite place I've ever been, but it also reminded me of how very fortunate we are to have all of the opportunities that we do--and not only me, but almost anyone who lives in the United States and has plenty to eat and a place to live.

After spending a few days in Cuzco, we took a four-hour train ride to Aguas Calientes, the town outside of which Machu Picchu is located. I took about a million pictures as we sped through the mountains, but not a single one could do justice to the view. Once we were at Machu Picchu, all I could do was be amazed. The architecture, the history, and the beauty of it all was breathtaking. (Literally. At the high altitude, it was really difficult to breath as we had to hike up the mountain for parts!) We had a guide who was a young guy from the area and he spoke English pretty well. There were some pretty entertaining tourists at Machu Picchu--huge groups of older Chinese people, a man in indigenous garb carrying a wooden flute and taking dramatic flute-playing pictures from every angle in Machu Picchu, and middle-aged white women standing at the Incan sun dial with their hands outstretched, trying to capture the "energy" of the place. After our tour, which was honestly too incredible to describe, we decided to hike up into the mountains to try to find the Incan bridge. By then it had rained and most of the tourists had left for the day, so we were able to quietly enjoy the park by ourselves. We took tons of pictures, hiked along part of the Incan trail, and eventually found the Incan bridge just as it was time for us to head back before the park closed. We spent the night in Aguas Calientes and the next day ventured out to find the hot springs for which the town is named. Along the way, we ran across a butterfly garden, a museum full of Machu Picchu artifacts, and a botanical garden, all of which we took the time to visit. We finally arrived at the hot springs in the afternoon and spent hours in the pools there, relaxing in the springs as every once in awhile it would rain, and the combination of cold water falling with the hot spring water we were swimming in was incredible. The next day we took the train back to Cuzco, where we spent a day white water rafting in the rapids of the Utuamba River before flying home through Chile (where we spent five hours sleeping in chairs in the airport) and finally returning to Montevideo.

Wow, this blog turned out to be long. If you've managed to make it this far, I think you deserve this as a "thank you":


So to wrap this all up, Lawson and I celebrated our first anniversary on Sunday! I woke up in the morning to a slideshow of photos of us next to my bed, along with a castle built out of my favorite chocolate bars. He asked me if I wanted to go to a fancy restaurant to celebrate, but all I really wanted was Subway. But once we got there we found out that Subway is closed here on Sundays. We ended up going to a food court instead, since we were tired from walking, but it was wonderful anyways! It's been such a blessing to be able to be here and travel together.

I love and miss you all very much and hope that everything is well back in the U.S.!

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!

Rocha

This weekend Lawson and I sat on a beautiful beach in La Poloma early in the morning to watch the sun rise over the Atlantic and celebrate a day that doesn't technically exist. Our 11-month-iversary was February 29 but because it's not a leap year, the calendar skipped right over it. We thought that was pretty cool so we celebrated by waking up at 6:30 AM to see the sunrise. We are so, so blessed to be having all of the opportunities that we are. This weekend our whole group took a trip to Rocha, the beautiful eastern coastal part of Uruguay, and it was definitely the most fun trip we've taken so far. We stayed in a town called La Poloma, where our hotel was on the beach and we could open the windows and fall asleep to the sound of the waves at night.

We didn't have classes on Friday so we left that morning and had a four hour bus trip to Rocha. After arriving, we went to the coolest place I've ever been to, called Cabo Polonio. It's on the ocean and it is surrounded by miles of huge sand dunes so hardly any people live there, and the only way to get in is by riding a monster truck or a horse through the dunes. We all piled into a big truck and then spent the day in Cabo Polonio seeing the lighthouse, buying handmade crafts from the few locals, and relaxing on the beach. One of my favorite things there was a little house painted teal and covered in a mural of the ocean with tons of little mirrors to make it glitter in the light. I just kept thinking about how housing associations back in the States would never allow something like that, but it was just so beautiful.

On Saturday we woke up early to go take a boat down a river to visit a forest of Ombu trees. Ombu are amazing--genetically, they are actually classified as grass rather than trees, and they have large holes in the trunks big enough for our entire group to climb inside. Ombu are only found in Uruguay so it was really special to be able to see them. And now I can say that I've been inside of a tree--or a grass. Whichever way you say it, it sounds pretty cool. The boat ride down the river was just beautiful. As far as you could see, there was no "civilization." Along the banks there were palm trees and cows...something you'd only ever see together in Uruguay! We had lunch at an estancia, a small ranch taking care of all kinds of wild birds and animals. They had a one-armed monkey who had been an escaped pet from Montevideo and I got to hold his hand. It was precious. The owners cooked one of their own lambs for us for lunch but I couldn't really eat it because I felt so bad after seeing them!

After lunch we went to Punta del Diablo to see the Fortaleza Santa Teresa, a fort built in 1726 so it's actually 50 years older than the United States! We're learning a lot of South American history here in our classes and it makes me sad to learn some of the terrible and wonderful things that have gone on, yet we are never taught about it in school in the States. There's so much to learn in the world but life is too short to learn it all, I guess.

We spent Sunday riding horses through the countryside and along the beach in La Poloma. I've been so sore and a little sunburnt the past two days because of it, but it was an incredible time. Yesterday I had to carry around a pillow to sit on in my classes because I was so sore! Lawson's horse was a little wild so occasionally he'd get left behind the group and then have to run to catch up. It was funny--he looked like a man from a romance novel, galloping across the field with his hair blowing in the wind. My horse belonged to a twelve-year-old boy who worked at the horse riding place; he had received it just the day before as a gift for working there for two years. That's a long time to work somewhere when you're only twelve years old. But his horse was sweet and I was glad that he was so well-trained since I haven't ridden a horse in years. We got back to Montevideo Sunday night and have spent the past two days catching up on homework and looking forward to another long weekend this week. Next weekend, starting on Friday the 13th, we'll be heading out to Peru for ten days!

The view while boating down the river to the Ombu forest

I have another album of pictures up on facebook from our trip this weekend. If you want to check them out, you can click here.

Chaille turns eighteen tomorrow. I wish I could be there. Happy birthday little sis! I love you!

My friends Zanessa, Carolyn, Sarah, and I on the beach in Punta del Diablo.

No puedo hablar ingles!

It has been a beautifully relaxing week. It's still Carnaval here (Uruguay boasts for having the longest Carnaval in South America) but this was the big week, the final week, when most natives here go out of town to escape the craziness. Some of our teachers had also gone out of town and we got a couple of classes canceled this week, which was a welcome and much-needed break. One problem, though, is that because of Carnaval week the laundry place has also been closed...so right now I'm sitting here in the last pair of clean clothes that I have, some pajamas. This afternoon it'll be open, though, so I'm more excited about the idea of clean laundry than I think anyone should be!

We've really been enjoying our relaxing week here. The other day Ashley, Sam, Ben, and I went walking around town and found a pretty little park by the beach with a small river going through it and some pedal boats for rent. So yesterday we went back with Lawson and Sara also and we spent the afternoon riding pedal boats and enjoying the sunshine. There were little islands in the river with just a ton of bunnies, chickens, and ducks running around--it was the cutest thing! People put lettuce and food on the islands for the animals, so the rabbits were huge and fat...they were actually bigger than the chickens, believe it or not! One thing I love about Montevideo is the parrots. If you go to a park in the U.S., you'll probably see lots of ugly black birds flying around, but here you can see flocks of pretty green parrots! I love the sounds they make and it makes me so happy that here they're flying free and not trapped in a pet store somewhere.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday so my classmates who are taking the Bible class put together an Ash Wednesday service for everyone in the casa. It was really beautiful, and then I got to walk around with ashes on my forehead for most of the day! The people in the Bible class (which is almost everyone except for me and a couple other people) were encouraged to give up something for Lent, and as crazy as this sounds, most of my friends decided to give up speaking English--Lawson included! So yesterday was a very difficult and at the same time very rewarding day. By Easter forty days from now, we're all going to be so much better at Spanish! My Spanish isn't quite good enough yet that I could entirely give up English, but every day from 7-9 PM I've decided to do it, as well as trying to speak it as often as possible with my friends. Until you've spent an entire day intensively learning another language, I'm pretty sure you don't know what it means to be mentally exhausted. Learning another language takes up so much brain power that by the end of the day I honestly feel like I can't think anymore. It's so much fun, though, and I feel so accomplished when I really learn a new word or when I can carry on a conversation with someone.

Last Friday I got to have dinner with the president of the central Uruguayan bank! The ACU honors program paid for Sara, Ben, and I to go to a really, really nice restaurant that served all kinds of delicious meats to have dinner and talk with this economist, Walter Cancela, and his wife, who is an artist here in Montevideo. Aside from the conversation being very interesting--I learned that Uruguay's economy is actually doing really well right now, even though the rest of the world's isn't. They have the fastest growing economy in South America and the unemployment rate is ridiculously low, something like 3% for heads of household--the food was amazing. I really don't like to eat meat very much, but the waiters kept bringing us samurai swords stacked with every kind of meat I've ever seen! There was tons of steak and asado and even cow tongue (called "sweet meat" in Spanish). So it was really fun to get all dressed up and get to talk with such an interesting person while eating steak off a sword.

Tomorrow we're leaving to go on a group trip to Rocha, which is about five hours north of Montevideo. It's a beautiful, sparsely-populated beach area and I'm really looking forward to going. One of the places that we're going to see, Cabo Polonio, is impossible to get to unless you ride monster trucks or horses because of the enormous sand dunes! Hardly any people actually live there, but there are beautiful beaches, and I'm really looking forward to going there!

America Latina, Mi Amor.

I am in love with South America. I love the people, the history, the slower rhythm of the city, the beauty of the Uruguayan countryside, and the way it feels to relax on the beach after a long day in class. I love the smell of the rain in the courtyard at our casa and the taste of Raquel and Mariela's homemade food. I love the way it seems like there's always at least one person in our house playing guitar or singing and the way it feels to finally know my way around the city. I can't believe we're already a third of the way through our time here. Right now I think I'll never want to leave.

Yesterday we went to a palace! Well, sort of. We went to the Palacio Legislativo, which is where the Uruguayan Congress meets, and it really was like a palace! Uruguay's Palacio Legislativo is the most expensive legislative building in all of South America. It was built in the early 1900's, when Uruguay was incredibly wealthy--even wealthier than the United States (it took two U.S. dollars to equal one Uruguayan peso!). I'm not even exaggerating when I say that all of the walls are made out of marble. There are 53 different kinds of marble making up the walls in one room alone, and all of the stone used was from Uruguay. The whole palace is just absolutely beautiful. We didn't get to spend much time there because we misunderstood the time our tour started and arrived halfway through it but I'd love to go back sometime to look around, and it's only a twenty minute walk from our casa.

Mi Buenos Aires Querido!

I finally have a few minutes to sit down and write so I guess I should tell you all about Argentina! We got back home to Montevideo around midnight Sunday night after spending the past week in Buenos Aires. It was so much fun but now we all have a huge amount of homework to catch up on. Study abroad is probably the most incredibly fun thing I have ever done in my life, but sometimes I forget that "study abroad" actually means studying...so it's a lot of work too. So for now I'll try to just give you an abbreviated version!

In the past week I:

- rode a train for the first time in my life
- used up a new page in my passport
- saw the world’s largest keychain and pencil collections
- walked across the widest street in the world
- saw paintings by Picasso, Rembrant, Monet, and Renoir
- actually went to a capital building that is painted pink!

While we were in Buenos Aires, we took a train to Tigre, a beautiful little town outside of the city with a river and lots of craft markets and pretty things like that. Tigre was a lot of fun but I was actually a little disappointed by the train...I've always thought that all trains were like the ones in Harry Potter, with neat little compartments and a lady coming by to sell Bertie Botts Every Flavor Jelly Beans. It was actually just like a subway--kind of dirty and crowded and it stopped a lot--and on our way there we had to sit in the luggage compartment (where there were no seats) because we got there right before the train left. It was fun though and I really enjoyed Tigre. We took a boat ride down the river there and it was so beautiful and relaxing; the riverbank had some little houses and hostels and I think that the only way to get to them was by boat...it was cool. I also really enjoyed the craft market in Tigre--I bought a hand-painted leather purse for 50 Argentinean pesos, which is less than $15, and spent some time talking to a man who makes wooden instruments. I told him I was a music student in the U.S. and he showed me how he made his wooden saxophone and we even talked for a while in Spanish! I'm really learning a lot here and it's so exciting when I realize that I'm able to communicate with the people I meet.

Some highlights of Buenos Aires:

• Making new friends We spent some time with a youth group in Buenos Aires, just playing futbol and going out for dinner. It's cool to see how much we can have in common even despite all of the language and cultural differences. Also, Lawson and I made friends with a guy on Florida Street who makes beautiful jewelry by hand. He was from Peru and spoke no English, so we got to practice our Spanish with him. We watched him make a silver bracelet for awhile as we talked and he had a wooden flute that he let me play!
  
  
• Spending our free day seeing Casa Rosada and the Buenos Aires Zoo Casa Rosada is the Argentinean equivalent of the White House--except that it's pink! It's where the president does her work and also where Evita Peron did her famous speeches back when her husband was president. We also saw the Zoo on our free day, and even though I've never really liked zoos I had a great time. I saw an albino walabee and a hippo for the first time...I never realized how enormous hippos are!
  
  
• Shopping on Florida Street It's one of the biggest shopping streets in Buenos Aires and the streets are lined with vendors selling all kinds of souvenirs and handmade things. I bought a really awesome hand-knit shirt and of course some cool souvenirs for you guys! (Let me know if there's anything in particular that you want while I'm here and I would love to get it for you!)
  
  
• Seeing a tango show We went to dinner as a group at a really nice restaurant that had a tango show while we ate. Last week at Casa ACU, some instructors came to teach us tango and we had a blast so it was really fun to watch some professionals dancing. I really want to learn how to dance like that while I'm here!

I posted an entire album of pictures from our trip on facebook, so if you're interested you can check them out by clicking here! I love and miss you all very much!

Yemanja, Llamadas, and More Punta del Este!

It's been another adventure-filled week here in South America! We are having such an awesome experience here--I can't believe we've already been here for three weeks! It feels like we've been here forever because we've already grown and learned so much but at the same time, it is already going by so quickly.

One of the most interesting things I got to see this week was a religious celebration called Yemanja. Only about 2% of Uruguay's population follows this religion, but huge crowds of people came down to Montevideo on Tuesday night to celebrate and watch the people celebrating. Yemanja is the name of the "mother of all the gods" in this polytheistic religion and she is represented by the ocean; so thousands of people came down to the Montevideo coast right near our casa to honor her by putting their offerings into the sea. Some of them built small boats and filled them with fruit, flowers, candles and other things to float out into the water and others wore long white dresses and robes and waded out to place their offerings in the sea as well. Some people leave silver jewelry or cakes as well as the fruit and flowers--it was so interesting to watch. I thought that it was really beautiful in its own way, just the idea of honoring the goddess of the sea. However, we went to the beach yesterday after class and it was just disgusting because of all the offerings that had been left in the water a few days ago. So we probably won't be going back to that beach for a few weeks, until all of the trash has been cleaned up.

Carnaval week ended on Friday night with the Llamadas parade. Up until this year, Llamadas has been one extremely long parade starting at about 9 PM and lasting until about 5 AM--but this year, the parade officials decided to split it into two nights (Thursday and Friday) because too many people got too rowdy after drinking all night long and being out in the streets. We got to go to the Thursday night Llamadas parade and it was such a cool experience! I was going to post pictures here for you but then I decided that a video would probably give you a better idea of what it's like...I wish it wasn't so dark and the sound was better quality because there's really nothing quite like actually being there. I wish you all could have seen it!

Yesterday we finally got to go back to Punta del Este for our group trip! It was an absolutely beautiful day--a nice contrast to last weekend when we were there!--and we got to see a lot of really interesting things. A very famous Uruguayan artist named Carlos Paez Vilaro built a home (more like a castle!) on the beach in Punta del Este and named it Casapueblo. Carlos Vilaro is an extremely respected person here by a lot of people because most of his artwork focuses on blacks, poor people, the struggles and life of lower-class society, and women, and he has spent his life traveling the world and experiencing so many different cultures and helping people in need. His home, Casapueblo, is probably the most beautiful and interesting building I've ever seen. He actually sculpted it himself with the help of friends and it looks like an enormous white sandcastle overlooking the ocean. Part of it is open now as a museum for his artwork but we weren't able to go inside of a lot of it because I think it's still his home. If you get a chance, you should look of photos of Casapueblo online...it's a fascinating place. We went to a park for a picnic lunch--it was really ghetto and I think that if I had played there as a kid I would have had nightmares from all the giant, creepy statues of weird animals, but all the kids there seemed to be having a great time. It was pretty funny. Afterwards we went to the beach and spent another day playing in the enormous waves and working on our tans. Almost everyone got extremely sunburnt; I'm pretty sure we just haven't gotten used to the hole-in-the-ozone-over-Uruguay thing yet! After we got home some of us pushed our beds together and stayed up late watching Breakfast at Tiffany's on my laptop. One thing I really love about being here is living with my friends and always having someone close to hang out with and talk to. All of these experiences wouldn't be half as fun without having these people to share it with.

Today we're going to the marketplace and trying to catch up on our loads of homework! On Wednesday we're leaving for Buenos Aires, Argentina for a week! I'm really, really excited about that--we've heard that it's the "Paris of South America" so I can't wait to see it for myself. Ashley, Sam, Lawson and I have finally decided where we're going to go for our ten day spring break next month--we're going to go to Peru to see the Incan ruins in the rainforest at Machu Picchu! We talked to a travel agent and she's able to get us a really good deal so we're going to spend a few days in Lima, a few days in Cuzco, a day and a night at Machu Picchu, and maybe see a few other things in Peru. Sam wants to go back-packing up the Incan trail and I think that sounds like a lot of fun so we're going to try to do that also. I really can't get over how blessed we are to be here.

I love and miss you all so much! I hope things are going well back in the U.S. of A!