Nick forgot where Spain be

And it resulted in too many selfies. He got to experience: 

• a true asado and its accompanying meat sweats
• a glorious run down the oceanfront Rambla
• more meat 
• a Candombe drum festival in the streets of Buenos Aires (which, when we found it, we just so happened to be prepared with bottles of champagne)
• followed by steaks at 1 am
• a mini-Uruguayan Ren-fair
• delivery sushi
• wine
• the Pope´s former church
• the Evita balcony
• my fantastic roommate

Pictures!

Proof.

Breakfast 1 with roommate.

Breakfast 2 with roommate.

Alerady cleaning something. Less than 6 hours in the country.

Working out on the Rambla. Less than 24 hours in the country.

Selfie in the Boca. Old immigrant neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

Yes, it´s summer.

Favorite restaurant in Colonia, UY

It´s blurry because I refused to stop dancing.

Trying to capture the magic of a drum festival with over 20 drum groups.

Mate

There are not many things I miss about the US (I'm only here for 4.5 months, not enough time to miss things [I said THINGS and not people, chill out]). However, coffee is one of these things. I usually drink 2-3 cups a day from my large thermos I carry around (thank you Donna Watz). 

Uruguayans drink mate. Or, to be more technical about this, they drink hierba (herb) from a mate (the cup). It's a bitter tea that comes with it's own special cup and a straw. I have not been able to fully commit to it:

1. You must buy a special cup and cure it. That's already 2 steps too many. 
2. You fill the cup with herb and drink from a metal straw that strains out the herb. The straw is too hot for me. Allegedly, there was a time in which the straws were made of glass. However, people became disgusted when they realized they could see the saliva of everyone they shared mate with, so metal straws became popular. 
3. The real reason: the cups are not very large. The Uruguayan solution? Carry a huge thermos of hot water at all times so you can refill the cup at any point during the day. Many Uruguayans walk the streets with an open cup of hot liquid in one hand, and a large thermos under the other arm. I am already prone to spilling hot liquid from my double sealed coffee thermos; there is no way I have the grace to carry a mate cup with me everyday.

Despite the awkwardness of carrying it around. Uruguayans seem to love it, and drink just as much as North Americans tend to drink coffee. It is a cultural institution here and in Argentina. But they are weak in Argentina. They don't carry a thermos. 

A ridiculous number of mate cups 

Mate Carrier. These are surprisingly rare.

That is an entire aisle of herb for mate.

80 degrees at the beach? Perfect time for mate.
That is my Bolivian-ecuadorian roommate enjoying an Uruguayan friend's mate.

Coffee is such a special occasion that they gave me a water, juice, and an alfajor (local cookie). 

Cataratas

Dear Reader,

I finished classes and took two finals, so I thought it was time to get traveling again. I traveled to Iguazu Falls, allegedly the inspiration for Up!, with another American, a Canadian bro, and an Italian girl. Despite waking up early everyday to study, I only woke up 25 minutes before my 6:30 am bus to the falls. Somehow I managed to pack underwear and a toothbrush! I did not, however, shower after lots of soccer the night before.( Side note, large head bands turn dirty short hair in to soccer player chic).

24 hours of buses and travel later, I was in Puerto Iguazu! I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but they were huge and beautiful. I can't remember Niagra's set up, but the Iguazu park is designed so that you can walk along the top of the falls above the water. It's mind-melting.

The falls are at the border of Argetina, Brazil, and Paraguay. Brazil has a better view, but, thanks to US immigration policy, they make it a little more difficult for Americans to enter. There is a high tax on Americans called the reciprocity fee. They're not trying to hide their motivation here. I also needed to solicit my visa months in advance....clearly didn't happen.

Here are some photos. 9/10, would visit again (knocked one point for making me cold and wet at one point).

You're looking down over a fall!!!!!!

Paraguay on the left. Brazil on the right.
Surprisingly, Brazil had the most fireworks go off.

Holy crap, I'm on top of this fall.

To both my left and right, you will see the falls from afar.
Also to my left, you will see the slight flip of a mullet.

Coati.
 South American squirrel that will rip your plastic bags and steal all your cookies. 

It's loud.

Devil's Throat Part 1.
I couldn't really capture this ring of waterfalls very well.
The ring was so tight you could only see mists and birds diving in and out of it.

Devil's throat Part 2.
Excellent photography work.

One day you'll grow up to be large waterfalls.

Here is where the falls are. 

Over kill.

Bonus night bus meal.
Ham/bird meat swirled with vegetables, hard boiled eggs and something sweet is such a regional treat.

Hippie People, Dear Reader

Viewers of Anthony Bourdain shows may vaguely remember the artist colony Cabo Polonio. It's the part of an Uruguay episode with a live penguin in a bar owned by a blind man. Found the man, the penguin is long gone.

Cabo Polonio is an artist colony started at the edge of the Atlantic ocean. It's dune buggy ride away from the highway. It's basically a bunch of houses scattered over a mini-peninsula. They don't have electricity, and most don't have running water (but they do have large reserve tanks!). We rented one of these ranchitos on a rainy weekend in October. (We = me, roommate, roommate's mom, and a friend from Spain). The rain lowered the temperature a bit, so we kept a fire going all weekend and moved all our beds into one room for warmth. I refused to shower (suprise) due to the cold, and to the fact that I would have to light a giant gas burner to get any hot water.

Despite the weather, it was immensely relaxing to be disconnected and live feel like we were living a little more simply - while also taking breaks from the simplicity to eat at the fancy restaurant with a generator and wifi (password: desconectate [disconnect yourself]). 8/10. Definitely going back.

The artist-owner of our ranchito appears to have made it to Disney World.

View from the dunes. High quality stuff.

Life saving fire.

Cute baby sea lion...that was so friendly because it was an orphan destined to die. 

Selfie as we are sailing in on the dune buggy mobile.
That hostel in the background has its own marijuana garden, of course.

Ranchitos.

Soy Celeste

Money shot.

Last night, Uruguay won it's world cup qualifier, 3-0, against Colombia. Colombia beat Uruguay in the last round of qualifiers. Given the that it was a grudgematch, it was fairly sober and pleasant. But I'm slowly discovering that Uruguay might really be the Switzerland of South America, so this was not entirely surprising.

Other things I learned at the match:

• A new chant: "A esos putos, vamos a ganar."
• Uruguay is a great, staccatoed name to chant.  (ooo-roo-GWHY)
• No fist pumping, you punch towards the air with an open hand. 
• The stadium Estadio Centendario was built for the the 1930 world cup and is the only historical momument of World Football, so take that Azteca and Bernabeu...and a list of others.
• Patagonia, the store, must be Uruguay fans. I already had several items of clothing in "celeste" blue.  (that's heaven/sky blue). 
• "Soy Celeste, soy celeste, celeste soy yo" is an easy chant for a foreigner. 

Celebration after the second goal. Note the open hand fist pump.

Is this the origin of Liz Lemon high-fiving a million tiny angels? 

1-0 Uruguay

Short trip to Piriapolis

Spring is finally (sort of) here! In between some rainy and particularly windy days (I thought I was going to be thrown into the ocean on at least one run), we've had some gorgeous sunny ones. I took advantage of a sunny Sunday to go to Piriapolis, about an hour and a half up the coast. It only took me 10 tries to stop inserting an "n" into the name by calling it Pirianapolis. I used to think it was funny when people said Minninapolis, but now I understand that it is very clearly part of an English-speaker's nature to add extra consonants.  It was a small town with a beach and a restaurant on top of a hill. So, I don't have any stories of getting lost in the middle of a foreign country, but rather I just have memories of a sunny afternoon and a lunch on a hill. 

I finally managed to volunteer in class, which is a feat. There is no raising hands here. Students talk when they feel like it, and usually they're talking over another student or the professor. It's not the easiest environment for a non-native speaker who is used to the orderly nature of raising hands or being cold-called by law professors. One of my answers was met with cheers of "Kerry! Kerry!" Coming from 18 year olds, I'm pretty sure that it was not an indication that I should be proud of my answer, and I should not volunteer ever again. I have more tests in the weeks to come, and hopefully I will be able to tell you all that I am actually passing classes here in Uruguay. But that remains to be seen.

Fotos:

Switzerland? No, silly. That chalet is pink. It's Piriapolis!

Aerosilla = chairlift.  (Pronounced Ay-arrow - see - jah in Uruguayan Spanish)

Glamour shot at the top.

The school cafeteria has a snack that looks like a layer of jelly on to of a layer of cheese.
??/10 (I have no desire to pay for it)

Spring is here! And I did such a great job of conveying it through this photo.
I give this photo a 2/10. 

I'm still in Uruguay.

I've most definitely been shirking blogging responsibilities. To the 4 people that read this blog, I'm sorry, but thank you. My own brother refuses to read it. 

The last two weeks were somewhat uneventful as I finally encountered my first round of tests here in Urugay. I have not gotten them back yet, but I am hoping everything went well. It's difficult to tell here. When I arrived to my second test, I was feeling great about how the first one went. I slowly realized that the students on each side of me were not in the class with me for the test. Recognizing my confusion, they explained that they had failed the class and were re-taking all the tests. They did not have to retake the class, just the tests. They weren't even sure at what point were in the class. This very same class doesn't have an actual textbook. Our syllabus consists of different themes and you must search through a series of manuals that are 5-20 years old to learn about it. I'm sure I'm doing super bien. 

I also had the chance to attend the Expo Prado which is best described as a state fair, but for an entire country. I spent the day amongst live stock and witnessed my first horseshoe competition. Not the game horsehsoes, rather a competition of men in berets (it's a gaucho thing!) hammering shoes out of metal, scraping hooves, and then hammering the shoes on. This was followed by a traditional Uruguayan tray of 5 lbs of assorted meats and sausages (suggested serving size) and red wine (tannat). When I managed to stand again, I got to see Uruguay's one classic rock band, Cuartteto de Nos. They had a great energy despite the fact that one band member spent 90% of the concert on a comfy couch on stage. 

Pictures below of Uruguayan things: 

Beach off of the Rambla (ocean front path which lasts for miles), my favorite running spot. 

It's a sunset. On the Rambla. .25 miles from my house. 

Only the American shows up for running group when it's raining and windy.
4/10: Unpleasant wind, but it was above 50 degrees. 

Montevideo.

Political Art: "Si toma Si mato Tio Sam" 

A hipster restaurant for the hipster vegetarians.
It still serves meat. 9/10, I want to eat there every week.  

The entrance to a medical center on my walk to school.
 It appears they only treat people with upper body issues. 

Gramajo: Basically Urguayan Poutine
There was some sort of sauce, eggs, salty ham, onions, fries and parsley.
8/10: best when warm. Will eat again.

New law school. Better than the old law school.

Hammering a horseshoe. 

Banging horseshoes. 

Horseshoes be banging.

Candombe in a tourist area.
Brent's attempt to keep up with their dancer. 

This is the money shot right here. Brent dancing, random man dancing, woman candombe dancing in large shoes (she did this for hours), and a candombe drums with an enthusiastic leader.