Why Uruguay?

This post will kick off my writing marathon of 31 posts in 31 days. Prepare for nonsense and happy October!!

This question always follows the typical conversation of "Where are you from?", "Do you like Uruguay?", and "Are you travelling?" that every extranjero experiences when they meet natives of the country they just happened to arrive in. But my favorite question after "Are you from Chile?" to which I immediately think "did you just inadvertently call me a native Spanish speaker? Why yes, then. I am from Chile." But as my second favorite question, "Why Uruguay" I like it because it reminds me after seven months of catching my first glimpse of Uruguayan fields how I came to be here in Montevideo, Uruguay of all places.

So... Why Uruguay? I am a Spanish major seeking fluency through a year in Spanish, so hence the study abroad in the first place. Now, my heart has been set on Mexico ever since I discovered my passion for Spanish and the lucky people out there that happen to have been born in hispanic America. Unfortunately, the Mexican drug wars occurred right as the final deadline came which made my parents very uneasy and to be honest I was no where near prepared enough mentally to take such a big voyage away from everything I knew for an entire academic year. So, I got to sit on this decision to study abroad for the rest of the semester and during winter break while I got my mind straight and prepared to go somewhere in South America as that was the only way this late in the game that I could still study abroad for two consecutive semesters. (S.A. has reverse seasons compared to N.A. which means the first semester begins in March). The only thing I really knew was that I didn't want to attend a university located in a big and, even worse, touristy city. I remember my supervisor throwing out Uruguay because she had studied in Argentina and our school had a program nearby in Uruguay. (I don't think a program in Argentina was available at the time). I did some research online and decided Uruguay would be perfect.

Now that I'm here I get asked this question all the time by uruguayans who can't believe I would actually chose Uruguay over all the other cities and countries in Latin America. So, as those three months of winter break passed where I was constantly looking up new information on Uruguay and beginning to fall in love with it, my answer morphed into something like this: most students in the states go to either Mexico or Spain. I wanted to do something different and go some place less explored in South America. And can I be anymore different by going to Uruguay? No one I know has ever travelled to Uruguay and I certainly have never met any uruguayans. Plus, it would be a great opportunity to explore a place that is often called the Sweden of South America and educate people about it as I will be giving a presentation about my year abroad at my university when I return.

Despite the fact that Uruguay wasn't my first choice, I don't regret coming to Uruguay one bit. I like what I've gotten out of this experience academically and personally plus my Spanish is 400% better. Mission accomplished with three months to go.