A bit of Spanish

Note: Apparently, blogger doesn't enjoy it when I try to copy and paste Spanish text from Word to here. Word has a nice spell checker that adds accents for me and such (which is next to impossible on a laptop with no number pad), so the Spanish section below is far from correct due to lack of all accents. Enjoy.

Me di cuenta de que no he escrito en espanol. No estoy tratando de mostrar mis talentos o algo asi, solamente quiero mostrar que he estudiado y aprendido algo este semestre. Quiero decirles gracias a todos Uds. quienes han estado orando por mi. Sepan que Dios les escucho y me bendijo muchisimo. Acabo de terminar con mi examen del Antiguo Testamento. Solamente tengo tres examenes mas. Dos van a ser faciles y el otro es Griego que no va a ser dificil pero tampoco facil. Pues, no voy a escribir mucho mas porque yo se que la mayoria no puede leer esto. Estoy divirtiendome aqui pero, a la vez, no puedo esperar volver a los EEUU.

Well, I figured it was about time for a bit of Spanish blogging. I'm sure some of you were expecting it at some point. I'm not going to translate that because that would be cheating (not really, I just have more to say).

The Spanish language is hurting me. Not so much in the act of studying it. It's beginning to hurt my English portions of my brain. Certain words are becoming much easier to say in Spanish: "si" for "yes", "por supuesto" for "of course", "buscar" for "look for", etc. These words are beginning to come to mind before the English such that I sometimes have to pause and think of what the word is in English before I can move on. This has also had quite an impact on my TextTwist abilities. Most, if not all, of you are familiar with TextTwist and so are the people with me this semester. To call it an addiction would not be much of a stretch. I'm beginning to spot Spanish words before English words. Sometimes I will even type them in and enter them and get angry at the game for telling me those words aren't in the dictionary. My brain is breaking.

I think it's time I expressed a frustration from this semester. You've all heard the great things but it has not all be sunshine and daisies. One of the biggest frustrations has been my "Advanced" Spanish "Conversation" class. The words in quotations are presented in this way because those aspects of the class do not exist. There is nothing about this course that suggests 300 level material. In fact, our teacher told us more than once, "There are A's and no other grades in the world." Which sounds like a student's dream, but it also means that our workload was a joke and therefore unproductive. The conversation aspect also did not exist. The majority of class was spent forming simple sentences with different grammar structures one sentence at a time. I had hoped that this course would aid my speaking ability, but all it really did was help alleviate the pain of Latin American Thought (my philosophy class in Spanish). I have gotten more fluent through speaking with locals and others around CasaACU, but I still feel let down.

Now, to end on a positive note (sorry if my complaining [quejar- to complain; another one that comes to mind before the English] got on your nerves). It is now less than a week until I am on Texas soil. I know that I will miss this experience, this place, and these people more than I can imagine, but I cannot wait to see all of you, eat spicy food, drink Dr. Pepper, and drive my truck (in order of importance). I love each of you and cannot wait to tell you about my adventures and hear about your lives.

Until next time, may our God and Father give you hope for the future. May He give you peace and clarity about the past. Above all, may He give you the strength to be in the present that you may be Christ to your family, to your friends, and to your world. Seek Him, serve Him, be Him.

Blessings,
Matt

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, even though it goes against everything I stand for when it comes to blogging, I figure it's time for a "What-I'm-Thankful-For" blog (not to offend any of you who support that sort of thing. . .I just don't like trends). Anyway, Hannah wants me to do the ABCs like she did, but I'm not that thankful. Just kidding. However, I want to make mine more specific about Montevideo and my time abroad. Considering I'll be back in the States this time two weeks from now, I felt a little reflection would be healthy. I also prefer top ten lists so here we go.

The Top Ten Things I'm Most Thankful for This Semester:

10. Mate. This drink has revolutionized (enslaved) my life. I love (am addicted to) this new drink and it's just a great way to relax (stay up all night) and share with friends (get everyone sick).

9. Ferias. I wish Abilene had outdoor markets (that's what a feria is). There is a market every Sunday down the street and I've gone most of the Sundays that I've been in town. I normally hate shopping but being outside in the feria atmosphere looking at really old books and knives or just assorted junk is so much fun.

8. Public transportation. I have never used public transportation before this semester. Buses and taxis are part of my daily life now. I never had to use them and so I never thought about how convenient they are. The flip side of this is I am also very thankful for the opportunity to have a truck that I can drive whenever and wherever. I take such blessings for granted too often and this semester has taught me a lot about what a different life I could have without so many of the blessings I have been given without earning them (for the most part).

7. My high school Spanish education. This semester has shown me just how amazing my high school Spanish classes really were. Here's to you, Sra. Croft! I would have never been as confident as I am today had it not been for you.

6. The Internet. Trying to imagine this semester without being able to communicate so easily with the people that I love back home makes my heart hurt. We use the internet so much that we forget how amazing it really is. I have the ability to talk to my family and friends for free and face to face (sometimes a little grainy and jumpy, but still). Even email is a great comfort. I know that I can sit down when I have the time and tell my loved ones what I want to say with confidence that it will reach them quickly. Even though the internet has created the majority of the problems I had to work on this semester, I am still exceedingly thankful for it.

5. Languages in general. This semester I have come into contact with many languages: (in order of intimacy) Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, and French (one night). I had forgotten how learning a language made me feel. I remember now why I decided to minor in Spanish in the first place. I tell people that I'll use it for mission trip and such, which is true, but the main reason I study Spanish is my love for learning the language. My desire to learn more languages has been heitened by my Greek class and my encounters with other languages along the way.

4. My life in general. As the semester goes on and as we have adventure after adventure I am forced to stop and marvel at the blessing that is my life. God has given me more than I ever could have imagined. As I mentioned above, I take these things for granted. The very fact that I can attend college is a blessing, how much more that I should have the opportunity to study in another country. I continue to thank God for His ever new, ever increasing blessings.

3. Relationships. I have discovered over the past couple of years and especially this semester that I have a deep desire to form relationships and to figure out what makes them run, change, and grow. This semester I have had the opportunity to form new relationships with classmates, professors, and Uruguayan friends. I tend to get caught up in the friends I already have and forgot the joy of discovering and building new and lasting friendships.

2. My new family. Even more than just being able to build relationships with the people here, I have been able to pour myself into the amazing group with me and I have felt them pouring out their hearts as well. We have truly grown together this semester. Sure, we have disagreements and we get tired of each other (as families do), but those times are far surpassed by the good memories I have. We help each other, laugh together, listen to one another, and love each other. Trying to imagine a week without seeing these 18 other people every day is strange to think about.

1. Where I am with God. This semester has been an adventure into the unknown in all aspects of my life, including my faith. The Bible class I'm taking this semester is Message of the Old Testament. This class has been such a blessing in so many ways. I knew most of the stories beforehand (thank you, LTC), but I hadn't thought about them as ways to connect to God. I had heard sermons and been in classes that tried to get me to do so, but apparently I was asleep. Now, I see that the OT is much more than just boring history mixed with some awesome/funny/disturbing stories. It is the story of God's people trying to figure out how to relate to their God. God has also spoken to me through His creation. I posted blogs about both Iguazu Falls and Ushuaia, so for more specific reflections on those you can look there. God has also been working on my heart and teaching me three important lessons: 1) The world can work without me. My friends and family will function without me and their problems do not need my attention. God will be there with them even when I can't be and He does a better job anyway. 2) Pouring yourself into others has two effects: you grow to love them as they are and you grow to love yourself the way God wants. I am happier with myself than I have been in a while (not that I was depressed or angry at who I was. I just didn't understand quite what God saw in me). I also love the people around me more. 3) My relationship with God is different from everyone else's and vice versa. God is alive and relational. He made us different and He is going to relate to us according to the way we were formed. We can learn so much by watching the relationships of others and learning how they do things, but to copy their relationship would also be robbing ourselves of the joy of discovering the unique nature of our relationships with God. Watch and learn, but don't forget to discover.

Happy Turkey Day!

Blessings,
Matt

El Fin del Mundo

I know it's been a while again, but I've been busy. This entry may be kind of long. Just a warning. I'm going to include some pictures because facebook and I are having relationship problems again.

Free travel week was amazing! Let's start with the days before we left. The other two groups left on Thursday right after classes got out. We had decided to take a day of rest on Friday and leave on Saturday morning. This turned out to be a huge blessing when one of my traveling buddies, Amber, sprained her ankle a few days before we left. Thursday night we decided to take one of the flat screens that's on a rolling stand out into the courtyard to watch a movie. We took mattresses outside to lay on while we watched. I was bringing my spare mattress (no roommate) down and realized that this would be a perfect opportunity to slide down the stairs on said mattress. So, we did that for about half an hour and then watched Harry Potter. The next day we just relaxed. Saturday we left for our grand adventure.

Our driver who took us to the airport was late. Now, I'm not just talking normal South American laid back schedule late; he had fallen back to sleep. He proceeded to apologize for that fact profusely while standing on the sidewalk talking to us...not driving. When we got to the airport the apologies began again full force along with wishing us safe travels. While I appreciate the sentiment, we were cutting it pretty close.

We went through the security checkpoint where we had a little fun. You see, the Montevideo airport doesn't let you carry on yerba (the tea stuff that I'm addicted to now). The Walkers and I both had some with us. However, mine was tucked away neatly in my backpack with the rest of my carry on junk. I passed through without any trouble. The Walkers brought theirs in a mate carrier which is a special case designed to carry the yerba (the tea leaves) and the mate (the gourd you drink from). The security guards noticed it and promptly confiscated the yerba. The checkpoint also missed the two oranges that Wimon had forgotten were in his backpack. Overall I felt pretty safe with such reliable security. . .

We got to Ushuaia and immediately fell in love with the town. For those who do not know, Ushuaia, Argentina is in Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. It is the (disputed) southermost city in the world. The slogan of the city is "Ushuaia, end of the world, beginning of everything." The town is sandwiched between the Beagle Channel and the Andes Mountains. See picture below:

The picture may have lost a little quality, but you can see that Ushuaia is literally sandwiched. The first adventure we went on was a boat ride through the Beagle Channel. We saw sea lions, penguins, and an old lighthouse. See pictures below:



On the boat we met a girl from Seattle who had been living and working down there for a couple of years. We also met a father and son from Brazil. I started talking to them and they were struggling with English so I asked if it would be better to switch to Spanish. They both said yes (or si) and we talked for a while in Spanish. Later, Antonio, the dad, started talking to me again, but sometime between our first conversation and our second he had decided that I could understand Portuguese because he spoke nothing but that for the second interatction. It turns out I kind of can understand Portuguese. With all the Spanish and the little French that I know I could piece together the basic meaning. So there we were, having a conversation in which one of us was speaking his native tongue and I was having to pick apart his language using two others and piece together a response in Spanish. My brain was a little tired after that. That night, while some of our friends were near starving on late night bus rides across boarders, we had king crab (some of us).

The next day we went on a 4x4 excursion through the Andes to some lakes and to be out in nature in places that we would not be able to reach with our little rental cars (they are called Elves if that gives you an idea). We reached a point in the dirt trail where there were ridiculously deep ruts from the 4x4 traffic and the going was slow. A guy walked up and was talking to our driver as we trudged along. Then the guy jumped up on the hood of our jeep and rode there for a while. When we got close to the jeep in front of us he hopped and climbed into the other jeep. . .into the driver's seat to be exact. The driver! The ruts were so deep that he set the cruise control and jumped out to mess around while his jeep drove itself! We got some great pictures and stopped at a shack in the woods to eat lunch. We had the greatest steaks I have ever tasted. I'm not much of a steak connoisseur, but I don't think I will ever eat a better steak. I also shocked one of the drivers when I went to stand by the grill (as men do) and started drinking mate. He literally ran across the group to question me about my mate drinking (seeing as I stand out with red hair and all). Anyway, here my two favorite pictures from the excursion:



The next day we went to some museums around town which were a slight disappointment overall. We still had fun though. Amber, Autumn, Karaline, and I were able to make enough jokes and spot enough English translation errors to make us happy. Our favorites ware the following sentences from a display about Antarctic expeditions:

"Some people belives that Amudsen arrived first to the South Pole because he carried sled dogs instead the ponnies of Scott."

"Scott and his eople died just very near from where it was the tent with provisions. They couldn't arrive to it because of a big storm of several days."

I have to admit, it would be easier to carry a dog than a ponny. There were many such mistakes throughout these well made displays.

The next day we hiked up a ski slope to see the Martial Galcier. Now, the glacier was covered in snow so it wasn't too impressive alone. The hike up, the view, and the fact that it started snowing on us made this my favorite part of the trip. It was so beautiful and it felt so good to back in the mountains. I've decided that the mountains are my home. I know I've never lived in them, but it's where I belong and I'll get there eventually. That part of the trip is hard to express in words, but I have one picture that I feel comes close to getting it (I hope it retains enough quality):

Why wouldn't you want to live near those?

That afternoon we went to the national park and saw even more of God's awesome creation. This trip has taught me a lot about how we are to interact with the world. We are to care for it and enjoy it so that we may see that wonderful things that our God is capable of doing. We are to see these marvels and cry out in joy and thanks to our Creator who made such things for us to see. We are to long for Him as we see the beauty of His creation because we know that He is far more beautiful, far more powerful, and far greater and anything we have seen or hope to see.

I know this is getting long and so I'll leave off here for now. If I feel the need to share more I'll do so soon. Life right now is sort of hectic as we're trying to wind down classes and squeeze out the last drops of our Study Abroad experience. This week we have our final tango lesson (oh joy...), the World Cup qualifying match between Uruguay and Costa Rica (which we are attending!!!!!!), and good old school. I'm loving life down here while I'm also ready to be home. I miss you all and love you.

Until next time, may the God of wonders show you the things that you have been overlooking. May you find joy in the world that He has given you. May you find even more joy in the people that He places in your life. May you find true joy in Him as we walk together though we are worlds apart.

Blessings,
Matt

A deep breath

Brace yourselves, readers. I am actually ahead on school work. Now when I say ahead I mean done before 9:00. If you know me then you know that is a pretty great achievement. It gives me a chance to get another blog entry done so that I can say I've gotten better at keeping up with this thing.

Tonight we had a Halloween party. Yes, we do know that it's not Halloween yet. We are all about to head our separate ways for free-travel week. Two of the three groups are leaving tomorrow. My group is sticking around for a couple of days then heading out. Anyway, we all got dressed up and had crepes and candy. I dressed up as Wimon, the program director and my professor for three classes. There will be pictures tagged on facebook soon, I'm sure (not that you will enjoy them as much not knowing him, but still). Mom, we had quite a bit of fun with those vampire teeth and skeletons that you sent.

We figured out that after we get back from out free-travel week we will only have four and a half weeks left in Montevideo. I can't believe how quickly this semester has flown by. I know that after I get back next Saturday it will speed up even more. Well, there isn't all that much to report right now. I just wanted to post a little something for your enjoyment and so I could say I've posted more.

Until next time, may God grant you peace in a land of worry, unity in a sea of individualism, and love in a world that desperately needs it. I love and miss you all.

Blessings,
Matt

Not much better

The title once again refers to my ability to actually keep up with a blog. I have decided that I am simply not capable of doing so. Although, it would probably be much easier if I weren't in another country where I have a million other things I could be doing most of the time. Don't get me wrong, dear readers, I love each and every one of you very much. However, empanadas and ridiculously good ice cream are sometimes more enticing. I hope I have not offended you with this information.

We went to Brazil! It was such an amazing trip. We went to Iguazu Falls (now the spell-checker wants me to spell it Iguassu, but that is dumb...I like it the Spanish way so that's how it is) and I cannot even describe the impact they had on my life. I'm going to include a few pictures and I hope that they come close to capturing some of the beauty and power displayed by those falls. Our God is an amazing artist.




These pictures look better on my computer, but they are good enough to give a little taste. Anyway, the falls really made me stop and think about how truly awesome our God is. We had a devo the night after we saw the falls for the first time and we talked about the falls and what we felt about God in relation to them. As many of you know I am a fan of strange analogies, so of course I formed one about the falls. The falls are like the macaroni pictures that children make. The point was never the macaroni picture itself. The point was to show it to Mommy and Daddy so that they would give some sort of recognition in return. Now, I'm not saying that God is five years old or that we are his parents. What I am saying is that the falls were never meant to be about the falls. If I were a supreme being with the power of creation at my fingertips, I would definitely create waterfalls like those. The difference between the two is that I would create them simply to look on them and say I had done it. God creates such wonders so that WE can look on them and say, "My God alone is capable of such things and He is worthy of praise." The point of such awe inspiring creations is that we would see them and long even more for a relationship with the Creator.

While in Brazil I felt a discomfort that I hadn't felt in a very long time. We had been immersed in Spanish speaking culture for about two months and suddenly we were in a country that speaks Portuguese. I had forgotten what it was like to know that I could not communicate effectively with those around me if I needed to (of course, I realize that many know enough Spanish that we could have worked it out, but the anxiety was still present). By the end of the trip I was ready to get back to Montevideo to be surrounded by a language that I know. This was the first time this semester that I thought of Montevideo as home. I haven't been very homesick compared others in the group and I've never been a very homesick person to begin with. It was nice to be able to associate such comfort with the place that I am living. It also brought a new aspect to my learning of the Spanish language: it is a place of comfort. When I began to learn Spanish I loved the language and would jump at chances to speak it. The further I got in my studies, the more concerned I became with getting everything right and speaking became much harder because of this preoccupation with being correct. Now I feel that I can speak easier because it isn't someone else's language so much as it is now one of my languages. I still have a long way to go in learning Spanish, but I truly love and enjoy it as if it were my own language.

Anyway, this entry has been kind of strange and introspective, so I hope you have not been bored by it and I hope that I have not come across as self-cenetered or whatever. I'm still working on getting better at this blogging business. Thanks for bearing with me.

Until next time, may the Creator open your eyes to the wonder and majesty that surrounds you. May you embrace His wonders and praise Him for His mighty works. May you realize that, above all, we are the height of His creation and that God longs for an ever growing, ever intensifying relationship with you.

Blessings,
Matt

Been a while

Well, my blog readers, I have been negligent. I haven't been updating my blog enough nor have I been writing anything down outside of the blog. This entry will probably be long, or short and disjointed. Regardless, you will know more about what I have been doing.

I'll mention a few things that I forgot last entry about our trip to the ranch:
The ranch is a touristy place so they have some demonstrations and such. One of the things they have there is a model of the old train system that used to be in Montevideo. It made me think of Grandpa Rod (for those of you who didn't know him, he collected model trains and had a model train system set up).
On the way back from the ranch our bus blew out a tire. Now, I've seen flat tires, but this tire was dead. It was in shreds. Now, let's move on.

The main thing that has happened is our trip to Buenos Aires. We spent the afternoon in Colonia, Uruguay, but we stopped at a random farm on the way to Colonia. The owner of this farm is a collector. Of what? You name it. Keychains, pencils, calling cards, ash trays, perfume bottles, and other odd things. He holds several world records (some of which have since been broken). They also make jam. They had most of the normal flavors (strawberry, peach, yadda yadda) and some not so normal (tomato, red pepper, and onion). The onion one was nasty. We spent about an hour there and then we were off to Colonia.

Colonia is the oldest city in Uruguay (?, I'm pretty sure but let's be safe). We drove past an old bullfighting arena that was built in the early 1900s right before bullfighting was outlawed. Now, I'm not going to say that there were signs that said not to enter and we did anyway, but...

Other than that we just explored the town and relaxed for the afternoon. We walked up on an old section of the city wall and sat down by the water for a bit. Then we headed to the Buquebus (the ferry between Uruguay and Argentina). The ferry ride was okay on the way over, but on the way back the water was rougher so we were all feeling a bit queesy on the second trip. When we got to Buenos Aires we went to our hotel and then grabbed some dinner at an Italian place down the block. It was great. The next day we went on a tour of the city that took us by the president's office building (the Pink House), several monuments, both the richest and poorest neighborhoods, and the cemetary. Now, when I say cemetary you have the wrong picture in your mind right away. Think of a city with buildings that are very close together. Now shrink the buildings a little. Now I'll just show you.

This is one of the "streets" in the cemetary. The place is HUGE. There were tons of different statues and types of tombs and such. I came back to the cemetary the next day to take pictures and wander around some more.

We spent some time in La Boca which was one of the poorest neighborhoods when immigrants were pouring into the Americas from Europe. The whole neighborhood is made up of random building materials (scrap metal, mismatched windows, etc.) and painted bright colors. The story goes that an artist decided to paint all the buildings because he didn't think they had to be sad just because they were poor. We also came back there the next day and ate at an open air restaurant with a free tango show.

We went to another tango show with the whole group that was pretty good. The food was really good. I got a steak (because even though beef is supposed to be a staple food in Uruguay our cooks don't cook it for us much) which was delicious. Also I finally got some awesome coffee. My addiction was satisfied for a short time. Some of us saw a few other musical performances: a jazz band and a weird hippie band. They were both pretty good, but not the greatest thing ever. But at least we had some adventures.

Sunday we went to the church that Hannah was with when she stayed in Argentina. We were supposed to go to a market near the church after service but it was raining so we stayed and played foosball and ping pong and ate pizza. The people there were a lot of fun and we had a blast.

I know I'm forgetting things but I'm tired of typing and I'm sure you're getting tired of reading so we'll call it quits for now and I'll try to be better about updating. I love you all. May God put a fire in your heart that you cannot help but be His light to those around you.

Blessings,
Matt

Texan at last

Well, I did it. I rode a horse as you can see. Now, I need to explain a bit about the picture. It seems that I am smiling, but I am actually speaking sarcastically to the idiot. I dubbed my horse Wow-I'm-Stupid. He liked to stop walking every once in a while at which point he would get whipped by our guide, yet he continued to stop. Then he would decide that he could fit in a two inch gap between other horses. Needless to say he was not the brightest creature. I am glad to be able to say that I have taken part in this famous Texan stereotype (even if it took leaving the country to get me to do so), but I don't think it's an activity that I will be taking part in again anytime soon. Not that I don't wish cars could be bumpier and smellier, but they are just so much faster.

The estancia was a lot of fun. Aside from the horse ride we got to simply enjoy the scenery and relax for most of the day. We chased some geese like 3-year-olds (don't worry, I led the chase) and fed bread to various types of birds. We were also fed lunch there. Let me tell you about this lunch. There was bread to start with, always a good sign. Then they brought out sausage (an appetizer). Then they brought out piles of beef and chicken. . . mounds of it. And there were some baked potatoes in there. There were too many different kinds of food. If you know me, then you know that I like to get a bit of everything. Well, that made this meal the biggest meal I think I've ever had aside from Thanksgiving. By the end of the meal we were all ridiculously full. That's when they brought out dessert. Crepes rolled up around dulce de leche. Take a moment and let that idea sink into your brain. It was awesome. Then we all threw up. . . not really but close.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. I went to the market down the street on Sunday to check out the book vendors. I thought I might be safe from my addiction to buying books when I came down here, but apparently I love really old books at cheap market prices. I've only bought one so far, but the temptation is growing.

Speaking of addictions, the coffee here is not good. I know what you're thinking: "Wait, I thought you were in South America. Isn't the coffee supposed to be great?" We have been mislead my friends. There is good coffee in some countries, but here it's nasty. The cooks here try to brew it "American style" but it doesn't quite make it (although it is really strong so that part is good). This is one of the factors that has lead to my new addiction to mate. It's not as good as the coffee I'm used to but it is more fun to drink. I found out that there is a website that you can order it from in the States so I'm pretty pumped about bringing this crazy beverage to ACU.

Well, that's about all for now. May you continue to seek the Lord and have the courage to wrestle with your Father. May you be lost in His love, found in His salvation, dead to your sins, and alive in His mercy.

Blessings,
Matt

Soy celeste, celeste soy yo

The title of this entry is part of a song sung by the Uruguayan fans at the soccer (futbol) game that we went to Wednesday night. It was the most fun I have ever had at a sporting event (it even topped crowd-surfing out mascot from the top of the stands to the bottom at the volleyball state championship my senior year). Imagine an Aggie football game. Now throw in jumping up and down in unison and screaming things at the top of your lungs in another language (sprinkle in foreign expletives as needed). Even though it is a very low scoring game, soccer is one of the most exciting sports to watch. It's amazing the things the players can do with their feet and heads and everything else (but hands of course). Sometimes things would happen that would make Isaac Newton go, "Say what?" Uruguay won the game 3-1 so it was awesome. This week has been pretty hectic as far as school is concerned because I had a pretty hefty work load and we had a lot of planned extracurriculars (soccer, a tour of the legislative palace, and a tango lesson). Yeah, I forgot to mention the tango lesson. . .

If you know me then you know that dancing and I are not on good terms with each other. It said some things that it can never take back and the relationship simply spiraled downward from there. The tango is no different. I am glad to have experienced this piece of culture, but I simply don't enjoy dancing. Part of it has to do with the fact that I am, in fact, terrible at dancing. This boy just wasn't made for that sort of thing. The 7th grade sway-back-and-forth dance is about as far as I make it with dancing (I must admit I have a mean sway). There are quite a few pictures on facebook of me in all my awkward glory (just click on the Pictures of Matt link below my profile picture and click through until you see them). Enjoy.

The legislative palace (yes, it's a palace made of 70+ types of marble and 50+ types of granite) was sort of interesting. I think I listened and took pictures more for my dad's sake than my own. I figure he'd enjoy a little about it when I get back. So there's your souvenir, Pappy (just kidding).

Last night we had our second English Conversation "class" with the church. People who want to practice English come and talk to us. I met a guy there last week named Nicolas who was there again this week. He is an interesting character. Here is a typical conversation with Nicolas:
Me: How are you, Nicolas?
Nic: I am very well. (Explanation of day in Spanglish). How are you?
Me: I'm good. I'm kind of tired, but good.
Nic: Wow! That is interesting.

Nicolas and I have different definitions of interesting. I find people's opinions on religion or other topics interesting. He finds it interesting that I think it's cold outside. He wins some points for trying so hard. Only some.

Well, this weekend we're going to an estancia (ranch) and I think we're going to ride horses which I have never done. It's one of the top stereotypes of Texas and the first time I'll do it is not even in the United States.

Until next time, may our God and Father open your eyes more to His glory and power that you may bless those around you. Have peace, exude joy, be love.

Blessings,
Matt

Mate and more

The first word in the title of this blog is pronounced mah-tay. It is a type of tea like drink that they drink a lot of in Uruguay (and Argentina) and it's great. The first awesome thing about it is that you drink it out of a gourd with a metal straw thing with a strainer on the end. The really cool thing about it is you drink it in groups a lot. We made friends with the youth from the church connected to CasaACU and we drink mate with them whenever we hang out. It has about as much caffeine in it as coffee but you end up drinking a lot more because you just keep adding hot water to the gourd and keep drinking without noticing how much you've had. It's been a very long time since I've actually truly felt the effects of caffeine because I have a severe addiction to it (see facebook note "Addiction") but mate keeps me up. It's awesome. Enough about my new addiction and on to what you're here for: adventures.

We went to church last Sunday which turned out to be more frustrating than anything else. Autumn (on of the professors) told me that the guy who was preaching that morning was the hardest man to understand. She wasn't lying. Considering the church used to be a coffee factory and the microphone was a bit scratchy, the sound quality was already not the best. I caught a few sentences but the majority of the time my brain got too tired and checked out. Hopefully the next preacher will be a little clearer.

Classes started this week...I had forgotten I was here for school. My classes aren't bad except for one. I'm taking Latin American thought through the Catholic University here in Montevideo and it is going to be the hardest class I have ever taken (and possibly ever will take). Our professor is German but he lives in Montevideo and speaks Spanish without any noticeable accent, except when he says some phrases in English then he sounds German. It's a very strange combination of languages and ethnicity that comes together in that room. The worst part about the class is that it's two hours every Tuesday and Thursday when it only counts as a 3-hour course. Basically I am in class an extra hour per week. My brain keeps trying to check out after an hour and a half so it's a constant struggle for that last 30 minutes to pay attention.

We haven't been out much this week because it's been raining like crazy. We did go down to the beach and played some friendly futbol with our church friends and drank mate (of course). On that trip I made a deal with Martin that I would only speak spanish to him and he would only speak english with me. That has been really great practice for me and for him. Spanish Conversation is a lot of fun too. My teacher, Amelia, reminds me of Senora Croft in some ways and she looks like Edna Mode from The Incredibles.

Well, I'll post more when I've had some adventures. Until next time, may God continue to bless you in ever changing ways that you may spread His love and glory.

Bienvenidos: The Longest Blog I Have Ever Written

Well, it's been a crazy week but I finally have some time to get down to typing this thing out. Welcome one and all to the longest blog I ever hope to write.

The days before I left the country were awesome. I have the greatest friends that anyone could ask for and hanging out with them before I left was wonderful and sad and great and everything. The notes provided quite a bit of entertainment for the trip as well. Even though it was a hectic few days with meetings and trying to see everyone, it was a good time.

The trip got off to a slightly rocky start. We weren't able to check in for our flight because we couldn't prove that we weren't planning on staying for less than 90 days at a time in Uruguay. Which some of you may think, "Yes, you are silly boy," to which I say, "Nay." We are in fact traveling to Buenos Aires and Brazil at opportune times throughout the semester so that we are never in the country for more than 90 days at a time. ACU is sneaky like that. Eventually, through lots of calls and a fax or two we got through with the help of our sweater-vest sporting "Buddy" Nasir. Then, we were off to Miami (yes, Hannah, we sang the Will Smith song a lot). The Miami airport is the worst. Nothing was open except two or three places which were overpriced (though delicious) and the Starbucks was closed. The place we ended up going had coffee...but wait, it was ALL decaf. Needless to say, Miami (and the state of Florida for that matter) has been docked several hundred life points.

We got on the plane to Buenos Aires and settled in for a nice long flight. Now, we had learned that the flight would not be 12 hours as we were led to believe. It would be 8 1/2 hours with a three hour layover in BA followed by a two second (not much exaggeration) flight to Montevideo. The Lord was with us, however, and the captain told us shortly before we took off that the plane had been rerouted through Montevideo. Considering the majority of the people on the flight were headed to BA we kept our celebratory dancing to a minimum.

After we arrived in Montevideo we took a bus to CasaACU. We had lunch (four varieties of empanada followed by dulce de leche empanadas for dessert) and immediately fell in love with our new home. Then, we were given a scavenger hunt to get acquainted with the neighborhood around Casa. Given that we had not had much real sleep in the past 2 days it was an interesting adventure. A girl tried to sell me perfume, but that was about all that happened that was worth comment. That night we went to a restaurant by taxi. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but I will forever remember the rides there and back. Taxi drivers have no fear whatsoever. Pedestrians here do not have the right-of-way, so you look both ways or die...immediately. Sitting in the passenger seat having a casual (if broken and awkward) conversation with a man who is almost killing innocent bystanders and switching lanes like a middle school girl changes boyfriends is the craziest experience I've had in a while. Now, to talk about my favorite part of the trip so far: the FOOD!

At the restaurant I ordered chivito al plato. This is an Uruguayan dish that consists of a heart attack. First, a bed of french fries is laid down. This is topped with a very thin steak. The steak is then covered with cheese and a slice of ham. Picture this in your mind. It should resemble a mountain. Now, hold that picture and add a fried egg. Who knew eggs were such a useful condiment? This meal was the most delicious thing I have eaten in a while. I really need to find a local gym...

Today we went down to La Ciudad Vieja (the Old City). We visited a few museums and a cathedral along with looking at quite a few plazas and street vendors. After we finished with the scheduled activities we were set loose to return at our leisure (well, before curfew anyhow). We had been exploring in groups of 3 or 4, but we met up with a few of the other groups and decided to walk down to the Rio de la Plata (it is the biggest body of water that is not an ocean that I have ever seen). There we walked and talked and generally looked like tourists. A few of us met four Uruguayans who were sitting on the wall by the edge of the water. They were really nice and spoke English very well. Luckily, the guy with them did not speak English as well so I talked with him in Spanish a bit. The first thing we learned from them that surprised us is that we don't have Texan accents which made us happy. Then they said something that I don't know if I will ever hear again and never expected to hear ever. After we spoke in Spanish a few times with them one of the girls said, "You are so Mexican." She was referring to the way we speak Spanish, but it was still hilarious. After we explored a little bit more we walked back to Casa.

Some of us went to the store after we got back to buy stuff for dinner. We decided on pasta with spinach sauce and leftover empanadas. We fed a group of nine for around 5 bucks. Take that Oxford! Plus, we had enough pasta leftover for some (if not all) of us to eat it again another night. We had a blast cooking together and generally being weird. After dinner we decided to try out La Cigale, an ice cream shop just a few blocks from Casa. It was amazing. They had a bunch of flavors including raspberry, tiramisu, strawberries and cream, and so many others that I'll probably try before I leave. After our ice cream adventure we came back to Casa and watched the Goofy movie. Now I need to get some sleep on a mattress I'm convinced is made of phone books stuffed in cloth. When I sit on it I don't sink...at all.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to post more before I have so much that it gets to be this wordy, but, let's face it, that probably won't happen. If you made it all the way through then congratulations.

If you had not plowed with my heifer...

I have always loved the story of Samson. When I was little I loved it because he was like a superhero. I love it now because of the message I see in it. Samson was a Nazirite and so had many restrictions placed upon the way he lived his life. He eventually broke all of them. He was arrogant, rebellious, and vengeful. Everything you look for in a good family film as well as a children's bible story, right? He was married, but his wife was soon given to another man. He stayed with a prostitute and then he lived with another woman, the famous Delilah. Samson is most well known for his incredible feats of strength when the Spirit of God would come upon him. My favorite, of course, slaying 1,000 men with the jawbone of a donkey. He also brought down an entire temple as his last act. This man was, as the kids say these days, ballin'. All of these things are no longer my favorite pieces of this story. The greatest thing that I see in this story is that God was willing to work through this disobedient, unruly man. Samson did just about everything wrong that he could, but God did not look at him and say, "Well, this is a lost cause. I might as well move on." God had a plan to fight the Philistines and human stubbornness and stupidity couldn't even come close to stopping it. That's a very comforting thing to remember when I look around me today at all the craziness and malice in the world. Samson was a failure most of his life, but when he earnestly cried out to his God, God answered.

Joshua stopped the sun, why can't I?

Well, as some of you may have predicted, I have fallen severely behind schedule. Life is just plain busy. That does not absolve me from being behind schedule but it is one of the main factors leading to my slacking. I did finish Numbers today. I've been imagining what it would have been like to listen to Moses give speeches about the Law. I don't know if I could have done it. I find it hard enough to read, but imagining listening to this man who many believe had a stutter ramble on...it boggles my mind. This may be slightly sacrilegious, but it's how I feel. Deuteronomy is going to be a little more exciting, but what I am really looking forward to is Judges. I know I have a ways to go to get there, but there are some pretty great stories there. I'm especially looking forward to rereading the story of Samson (my second favorite figure from the Old Testament). You can expect a post devoted to his story (I know you're just brimming with excitement at that thought). He might be one of the few men in history who compared his wife to livestock and survived. Well, I realize this post hasn't been very interesting, but I promised updates so there ya go.

5th day update (on the 7th day)

It has been a while since I read through Genesis all the way. It was in Bible Bowl, so it was more of a superficial read the first time. There is one theme that has jumped out at me throughout the book of Genesis: deception. Husbands pretend to be brothers of their wives. Brothers deceive their siblings (sometimes for revenge, sometimes for blessing). At first I was a little frustrated at all of the lying and trickery, but I've realized something that makes me appreciate this first book of our religious tradition. Christ's message is all about grace which we as Christians tend to focus on. We forget that the grace came from God in the first place and that it has always been around. I think it's beautiful that the patriarchs of the great nation of Israel, the very people of God, were cheats and liars. Their flaws are representative of the flaws of all humans. God chose to establish His people through humans. If these men were flawless and perfect, they would not be human. These men were considered righteous and they were as screwed up as you and I. The Bible is characterized by an over-arching message of grace and hope through God and it only makes sense that these would be presented in the first book.

I've been keeping up with my reading well, but then again I haven't reached Leviticus. I am excited about getting to the stories of my third favorite man from the Old Testament:Moses. Well, that's all for now.

Give Me the Bible

I just finished the book The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs (Kayla, I saw it one time when you had it and then when I was at the Book Rack over Christmas break I was able to get it on store credit). If you haven't read it, I highly recommend that you do. It is a very interesting and compelling look at the Judeo-Christian traditions from the view of an agnostic man. That being said, I've decided that I need to read the Bible. I don't mean that in the sense that I need to read a little each day. I have felt for a long time that I need to read the scriptures of my faith in their entirety. I think it's a shame that there are books in the Bible that I have never even turned to in my Bible let alone read them. Today I sat down and planned out a schedule to read the entire Bible. Now, in case you didn't know, the Bible is a really big book. I decided that ten chapters per day was a fair amount considering the time I need for school, Seekers, and a little fun (not that reading the Bible isn't loads of fun). A few days will have different amounts (I decided twenty psalms would be about ten chapters and Revelation got split differently) because when I got the the end of the schedule I found a number of days that I couldn't resist. I have always had a strange thing with certain numbers (maybe more about that in another post). I am going to read the entire Bible in 111 days. I know it sounds like a long time and that's because it is a long time. The length of this undertaking will give me more time to absorb each section of scripture while leaving me with a light load each day so I don't get burned out. I'm going to try to posts updates about weird/interesting/funny/amazing things I find, but don't hold your breath since my blog track record is terrible. Well, that's all for now.

-Matt