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.