The End is Near!!! (Review)

In two months today, I will be boarding an overnight flight back to my real home and wishing my family spoke Spanish. I can't believe it. I remember thinking "oh my gosh, I'm going to be here foreverrrrr". I'm pretty sure I even titled another review almost that exact title. I just can't believe it.

I'm mostly going to be spending my last 50 days doing things I haven't done before and if exams and time allow I'll hopefully still make it to Santiago, Chile. Who knows! I'm going to try to go up the Telecommunications tower, check out the visual arts museum in Parque Rodó as well as the Torres-García Museum in Ciudad Vieja, try a milanesa (yes, I've avoided them this long), go to a couchsurfing gathering, visit Malvin, visit Punta del Este for real, and other things I found of the list of activities from Día de Patrimonio. Also, I want to eat something completely different every time I go out to eat until I leave. No more hamburgers, pizza, or chivitos. Time to step out of the comfort zone.

My Spanish has reached a plateau-- and I'm cool with that. The days where I seemed to be learning at least a whole textbook chapter worth of Spanish are long gone. I know how to interact with people in all the daily things and if I don't, I have gotten pretty good at charades. I still makes tons of mistakes, but I am working on them as well as using the voseo. Say what? I've purposely been not using it because I didn't want to go through the trouble of un-learning it later, but I really like it now. In fact, I am in love with how Uruguayans speak Spanish though they should really slow it down sometimes. But my two latest "Oh, wow, look how much my Spanish improved moments" actually occurred pretty close together. One was in Brazil as I was surrounded by about 19 other people speaking Spain Spanish and Mexican Spanish and speaking to me. I was able to handle it very well even if I still have to ask people to repeat things more than I should. The second one occurred during a group project meeting. There is this girl who speaks so fast in my Anthropology class that I just couldn't really be friends with her because I am constantly asking her to repeat things or just simply nodding like I understand, but in that group project I felt like someone turned the slow-mo dial down a few notches. I could finally understand her without staring her down. Progress!

(And by staring her down what I mean to say is that when I find it hard to understand what someone is saying I have to read their lips and their face to help me out. I'm sure to them I look super intense, but it helps me out.)

*Sigh* I still have another 50 days and I'm using every single one to improve my language skills and explore what is still left. I'm excited to get back home to family and friends and to graduate too, but, man, I am going to miss this place.

Iguazu Pictures

Iguazu

*Captions Coming Soon*

P.S. I added Day 3 of the Iguazu trip to the post "Cataratas".

Desayuno

I got lucky and had my morning class cancelled today which meant I had time to spare for breakfast at McDonalds. I was disappointed in the lack of choices and the lack of pancakes. Or even a McMuffin. The menu only consisted of small ham and cheese sandwiches, medialunas (think croissants with a sugar glaze), donuts, and coffee.

I only chose a donut and a medialuna as I have had way too many ham and cheese sandwiches whilst here and the cashier gave me the weirdest look for not wanting only that. I think she asked if I wanted coffee about three times. Gotta love those moments that remind me I'm a foreigner with weird eating habits. And, by the way, I am not a fan whatsoever of Uruguayan coffee. Admittedly I don't like coffee in the first place, but no matter how much sugar I put into it I just can't seem to enjoy it.

On the good side though that donut and medialuna tasted awesome. The donut even reminded me of Dunkin Donuts. I will definitely be having bfast at Mcdonalds again and I'll even try it with coffee to complete the experience. Maybe.

Cataratas

Day 2:
We visited the smaller Brazilian side of the waterfalls (cataratas) which offered a great view. We took a bus to a drop off point where we walked a trail and caught glimpses of the falling water as we walked. By the time we reached the end of the path we were at the U-shaped juncture of several waterfalls. There was a platform you could go out on to be super close to what you've been photographing for at least an hour before and, of course, get soaked if you didn't have to bring or buy a poncho before you headed out there.

Since it only took a few hours to knock down this side of the waterfalls people kind of did their own thing afterwards. I visited the mall since its one of the things I like doing in new countries. Nothing really spectacular about it until I hit the third floor food court. There was a variety of food! I was so surprised and happy. I went to every single restaurant minus the Subway and looked at all the menus. You just don't get choices like this in Uruguay where you'll find a lot of the same dishes in different restaurants all over the country.

The language barrier did pop up on this visit though as realized that I seriously knew virtually no Portuguese except Obrigada, or thank you. I just had to point to what I had a question about and the guys behind the counter had to put their heads together to come up with a response in English or Spanish. It was a lot of effort to order a hamburger with pineapple. What? I didn't realize that rice and beans was traditional Brazilian food until after. Oops?

Day 3:
We visited the Argentinian side through a reservation with the hostel which meant we got a ride there and back, help with customs both ways (we handed the guy all our passports, he disappeared inside with them, came back, and voila), and a tour guide in the park. I took advantage of the tour guide and was really glad for it because he managed to show us the highlights of the park in just the few hours that we had to spend at the park. We walked a trail where we kept catching glimpses of waterfalls until we started heading for the boat tours where we got a great few of the falls. I was against the boat ride at first and was not even dressed for it (jeans), but it was hot and I didn't to pass up that photo op. Everyone started screaming when we met the blast of the falls, but it was more because it was freezing! Completely worth it though. We then kept hiking in our wet clothes except for the fortunate few who brought swimsuits or extra clothes and arrived to the top of the U-shaped falls. It was great looking down and remembering I was down there yesterday and now I'm up here and in a different country.

Then before crossing back over to Brazil to change clothes and head to the airport we made one more stop. The "Three Frontiers" is a point where you can stand and see the intersection of river where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay come together. Each has a cone shaped thing (sorry, my English is failing me at the moment) painted in the colors of their flag that you can see from standing on the coast of whichever country at that point. Of course, I saw the lack of coast guard and security in general watching out for the borders and wondered if this was a great smuggling place at night when the tourists went back to their hotels, but that's just me.

We then almost uneventfully board our plane back to MVD and arrived home around two in the morning. Talk about a long day.

So, which day/ side was better? I think to get the complete picture you should visit both sides. BUT if I had to choose one... Argentina. You get to walk around in the forest AND see falls up close and personal. And, that side spoke Spanish. Big plus.

Three Countries in Three days

So, I went to Brazil, Argentina, and kinda Paraguay this past weekend. Frankly, the area didn't have as much to do as I thought it would. Despite there being twenty people in our group, the city of Foz do Iguacu, Brazil doesn't have much else outside of the waterfalls. So, we spent our days catching glimpses of waterfalls through the trees and our nights hanging out at the hostel though we did luck out one night when one of the workers at the hostel invited us out.

Day 1:
Unfortunately, it rained enough the first day to probably ruin the views of the waterfalls. But we had three full days to spend in we took this rainy day to visit ITAIPU which is a power plant and a dam at the same time. This is where I learned that Brazil tourism operates in three languages: , English and Spanish. Our poor tour guide had to translate everything she said three times in all three languages and it was obvious she was exasperated at the idea. She even tried to get on me for wanting to speak English, but I had to get on the defensive and tell her that I definitely did not raise my hand for that one, but the seasoned gentleman at the back of the bus did. I can understand Spanish just fine thank you very much.

During the visit to the dam/ power center we even entered Paraguay... for about two minutes. Maybe less. That's because ITAIPU is a joint venture run by both the Paraguayan and Brazilian governments. So, when we crossed the halfway point of the dam we changed countries. Didn't even need our passports.

And allow me to say that Brazilian public buses are hell when you have twenty people with luggage who have never boarded a bus in Brazil. First off, don't even think about handing them a bill worth 50 reales that you received in an exchange booth the day before. You will get a fierce shake of the head and a wave of the hand telling you back away until you figure out how to make that bill into something much smaller like a 2 real bill. Also, there is a pesky gate you have to wesel through after you've paid your fair. I am not a big person by any means, but I had trouble getting through it and my luggage was a added problem. Not to mention there were less seats and way more standing room. That got pretty uncomfortable after spending hours walking in the wilderness snapping pictures of waterfalls.

The first day was alright all in all. It also helped so much that Portuguese speakers can understand Spanish more or less and vice versa so the language barrier was hardly a problem.

P.S. If you count Uruguay, it was four countries in three days.

Montevideo, Minnesota

Anyone who has ever put in 'montevideo' on google knows that there is also a Montevideo, Minnesota. Whoop dee doo, right? Wrong! Can you believe that they are sister cities? The city in Minnesota (MN) was purposely named after it's Uruguayan namesake though the reasons are unclear from my viewpoint. There is a statue there resurrected for Jose Artigas, Uruguay's national hero given to the community by Uruguayan citizens. Then to top it all off every year Montevideo, MN celebrates Fiesta Days in honor of it's sister city down here in Uruguay.

How awesome!

Inferiority Complex

It is late as all get out, but I ran across an article that explains the attitude of Uruguayans toward their own country which I liked. I so wish I could have been there for when Uruguay played Costa Rica in a home game last year to qualify for the World Cup. It sounded insane.

Uruguay's Inferiority Complex

Yeah...

I completely forgot about another Uruguay reference I heard about. I was watching True Blood online and he was talking about places he lived and mentioned Uruguay. Get this. He even said it right. This is probably because he was hispanic but nevertheless!

This blog has no real meaning but to make up for one of the posts I missed. Hey look a youtube video of comedian Gabriel Iglesias that has Spanish at the end!

The Classroom

I figured since I'm "studying" in the library anyways that I'd finish up this post while I'm here. I know I've already generally talked about my uruguayan university, but I thought I'd highlight some of the differences.

1) For people like me who are consistently five to ten minutes late to class, Uruguayan classrooms are forgiving and even welcoming. A lot of my classes start five minutes later than what the schedule says and teaches often greet me by name as I stroll into the lesson a few minutes late. However, I do say disculpa, excuse me, as a courtesy when the class has already started as will everyone coming in behind me .

2) Say "hello" again to individual desks. I might have had desks in three classes classes throughout my college career not including the fold out insta-desk in auditorium classrooms, but here it's every class. It kinda makes me miss the extra space and freedom you get from tables, but then again now there is a built-in foot rest on the bottom of your chair.

3) The policy for cell phones isn't as strictly adhered to. It's a given that students are going to text and that their phones will go off in the middle of class, but the teachers hardly get irritated about it. In the states, the cell phone policy is often written in the syllabus and discussed on the first day of class and some lucky classrooms even get points taken away if it's seen or heard. After seeing the student scramble to muffle the device with a mumbled disculpa the teacher usually nods or smiles slightly and let's it go. What!? That is no fun.

4) There are always random English words being said. They typically involve technology terms like "web" or companies and people, but they also use select English terms/ phrases such as "play date" and some of which I know are random English my teachers and classmates remember and just want to say since I'm in the room. These ones just make me smile. But it surprised me a little to hear them using my native language in the classroom albeit selectively. I know English is the universal language these days, but it's different to experience your own language that way.

4) No laptops in class. There isn't even a policy for it. They are never use plus there's the added advantage that it's dangerous to carry it on your person in the streets. Just leave it at home loading movies while you're in class and use the computer labs between classes to check what's going on in cyberspace. That's what I do.

5) There is a lot less work... in a way. For the most part all my classes have midterms, second midterms, then finals. That's it. Your grade is those three tests. Good luck, sucker! (Channeling Mitch Hedberg for that joke). Hah, but just kidding. Sometimes you write a paper. And, that's it. It's definitely a less forgiving system with no chance of extra credit which makes it harder and also you have a whole lot more material to study for just one test. Of course, if you're an international student, you have the chance to talk to your professor about doing extra work, or maybe less work if you happen to sign up for a course where you write multiple and/or extensive papers, and have more focused tests.

6) You get to save money on textbooks because their are none. Yay! You still having plenty of reading material though. Instead they use every but a textbook like the library, book stores, and the sometimes faithful fotocopiadora (Photocopy Center). It definitely saves money (as long as you don't have a literature class), but it also makes it harder to find the reading material compared to simply finding a chapter out of your textbook. Serious pros and cons to this one.

6) And, obviously the general format and unspoken rules of the classroom are different. Things that often go unsaid for them that needs to be said for you like holidays and strikes which mean days off. Then if you're in two different faculties like I am some procedures/days off/ exams times are different as well. I have learned to just ask when I'm not sure why we are suddenly watching a movie in class, can't find a book, or don't know if we have class or not that day. Plus it opens up another opportunity to talk some Spanish. Oh, yeah.

Other useful things:
- A carilla is one side of the page; a pagina is both sides.
-This doesn't apply to international students who usually only stay one semester, but you actually have three chances to take your final for the course on scheduled dates throughout the next year.
-Sneaking drinking mate is hard to do, but I've seen it done.
- Papers are single spaced instead of double.

Literature

I don't know why I'm so worried about not being to find any books about Uruguay or by Uruguayan authors when I return to the states, but I am for some reason. So, let me mention some Uruguayan writers I've read whilst in the UM:

Horacio Quiroga: I would name him my favorite mostly because he has written children stories and I love uncomplicated story lines that speak volumes. He had a really sad that affected him deeply and it shows in his work. For example, I read one of his short stories for kids where a turtle had his head almost severed off and was barely hanging on to his body. I wrote a short paper on his collections of stories titled Cuentas de la Selva.

Idea Vilariño: She wrote wonderful poetry about love and heartbreak about Juan Onetti who was her lover, but refused to leave his wife for her. How sad!

Juan Carlos Onetti: He was once admitted into a mental institution which can explain why he chose to write psychological stories. As an accomplished novelist and author of short stories, he also managed to win the National Prize in Uruguay for literature and was a distinguished writer in Latin America.

Love these authors and want more? Uruguay experienced a boom in literature from 1945 to 1950. There is a list of about 15 other writers.

If it's Uruguayan history books you're after, Benjamín Nahum and José Pedro Barrán have got your back. Both wrote a series of books about the history of Uruguay titled Manual de Historia del Uruguay and Historia Uruguaya, respectively, with the last compilation being the more descriptive of the two.

*Picture is of the book section of the Tristan Narvaja outdoor market that takes place every Sunday. If you don't wake up in time on Sunday, there's also a lot of book stores along the same street that are open Monday through Saturday.

Party Hardy

I regret I wasn't able to get a picture, but the other night I managed to see some bachelorette party-goers just starting out their night around three in the morning. I love how here you can point out the group with no effort whatsoever. They usually have a theme going so everyone is dressed up accordingly. The girls from last night all wore the same funky head bands in varying colors of pink, were holding pink balloons and I think they all had on pink shirts. The soon to be bride was easily identifiable as she wore a pink wig with a veil. If all that didn't grab your attention, just about every car that passed them was honking away as the girls went "Whoooo!". I wonder if it was a Black Out Korea kind of night.

Speaking of parties full of girls, Analia celebrated her birthday last Thursday. She's actually not big into partying up her birthday because she thinks she's getting old at 27 so I doubt I witnessed a real uruguayan birthday celebration, but she did invite a bunch of friends over and we stayed in and had pizza. My favorite! Then she grabbed a bunch of bite sized desserts from a confitería, or a bakery, and we chowed down on those. And, Analia fussing at her mom and repeatedly telling her "Máma, es MI cumpleaños-- Cállate!" (Mom, it's MY birthday-- shut up!) was awesome too. :P

P.S. Seriously check out that Black Out Korea website. Do Koreans know how to party hardy or what?

Total Uruguay Expat Meeting

On Sunday (yesterday) I went to my first expat meeting sponsored by the Total Uruguay website. It was nice to meet fellow foreigners in Montevideo who weren't actually studying abroad, but retiring here or simply just setting up house for a while. It was a nice change of pace. They meet ever Sunday as they have for almost 5 years now at an Italian restaurant in Pocitos. It was kind of weird going as I'm not living here long-term yet not exactly passing through either. They accepted me either way and even joked about what exactly is an "expat"? They really are a nice group of people and a great reason to wake up a little early on Sundays. I'd definitely recommend it and hopefully I'll be able to go again before I leave.

Día de Patrimonio

I know this post is a few weeks late, but August 25th and 26th were Día(s) de Patrimonio here in Uruguay which translates into Heritage Day. Basically, museums, some embassies, naval ships, and the like were open for free all weekend to tourists and locals alike to celebrate the local culture. I didn't enjoy as many of the sites as I would like due to my waking up after noon and having to stand in long lines by the time I did make it out of the apartment. However, I was able to upload the program for the weekend and have a nice, new long list of things to see and do in MVD. Did I mention most of it is free any other day as well?

The website I managed to snag the list of events is still up here (only available in Spanish) and if you click around like I did you can eventually find the file with the list which you can upload to your computer.

Some things I was able to do over this weekend were tour the Peñarol museum, a church, see inside the Mexican embassy, and visit the Carnaval museum which I had been dying to see since I first heard about it and some other things as well of course. Marie and me even got to watch a full sunset from the pier alongside the port after everything closed down.

For pictures check out this.

Parque de Diversiones

Ah, Spring. It's still on the chilly side, but at least it looked beautiful today. So much so that I went for a walk with a fellow North Carolinian around MVD after lunch and later hung out with Marie and Analía who drove us to Parque Rodó where we rode some of the rides in the amusement park and chowed down on some churros. I had the ones filled with chocolate and they were delish. It was a small park so it turned out to be OK that I ate before riding anything. Thank goodness. Enjoy the pictures and if you click around you can find the rest of my pictures as well.

Parque de Diversiones

Paro

Today Uruguay is having a "dry strike", un paro seco, against the government of Pepé Mujica as he starts working on a new budget proposal. This means a lot of people are going on strike by not working today. Some services affected: Transport (buses, taxis), banks, health (except emergencies), Schools (all public schools and la República, the city council, among a few others. UM still had classes, but midterms today were postponed until next Thursday as some people can't get to school since the buses aren't running.

Here's an article in the national Uruguayan newspaper, El País. On the upper righthand side of the page you can choose the language of the article by clicking on the corresponding flag.

Oh, and our cleaning lady went on strike too. We actually had to take our own trash out for once. :P

Joaquín Torres García

Joaquín Torres García (1874-1949) is a popular Uruguayan artist. He developed a technique called constructive universalism, and this combined with the colors white, blue, yellow, and red are some signatures García's later paintings that can be found all over tourist items such as magnets, t-shirts, and hand bags. He actually had a strong argument for changing his painting style so drastically which you can somewhat see through a progression on his drawings I managed to find on the internet below. His idea was that Latin America needs to find its own identity away from that of Europe by drawing artistic inspiration from the indigenous people of their region of the world while also using universal abstraction. Interesting, huh? My favorite painting of his has to be the one of South America inverted. Don't even need a teacher to explain that one to me. :D









A museo dedicated to García is located right by Plaza Independencia at Peatonal Sarandí 683 and if you can don't happen to be in Uruguay you can check out the website.

I Don't Know What to Call This

I had this written a while ago (Sept. 25), but I was holding on for pictures.

First, I betrayed my beloved Penarol when I went to a Nacional game this past weekend. My friend Sol and I went to another smaller stadium by Parque Batlle called Parque Central. The game was somewhat exciting as a player got nailed pretty badly in the first fifteen minutes of the game and one red card was given to Nacional. One thing I hate about soccer games though it that I just don't know what to say. My Spanish may be coming along, but I don't know how to talk trash at a soccer game very well. I can, however, tell the flag person where to shove their flag (Por que no te metes la bandera en el medio del orto?) and a few other basic things like Corre, hijo de puto, corre!, but not much else. It was good fun overall though. We sat in the setting sun the entire time which means the sun was in our eyes for a good portion of the game, but it was actually a lovely, warm day which we are getting more of these past couple of weeks, so I didn't complain too much.

The next thing was el Dia de UM that took place on September 22nd. The university gave us tickets to trade for food and in between panchos and hamburgers you could play games like miniature soccer and basketball, ride a bull (I almost lost my camera on this sucker), and find a friend to beat up with padded fighting poles. It reminded me so much of the sober night event my high school hosted immediately after prom except the promotion of sobriety wasn't happening even if we were in the courtyard of a high school. Unfortunately, my camera faked me out by looking like it was charging for hours the night the before, but didn't so I have no pictures of my own to show. However, I will take no shame in stealing them from my friends' facebook accounts to show you guys.

In other news, I think I found someone who I can formally teach English. I can already tell it's going to be a challenge, but a good one. I'm just glad she can't speak English as well I can like so many other people I have met here or it would be entirely too easy. My first time teaching her will be this upcoming week so we'll see how it goes!

Rap in the Unlikeliest of Places

So, in my sociolinguistics class a few weeks ago we were talking about how the Bible has influenced English and one of the uruguayans started to sing Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio. How in the world did that song even reach this side of the world?! In case you never heard of the song, the rap starts with the Lord's prayer "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...", which we were talking about in class that day. Imagine a uruguayan girl rapping that in the middle of class. Unfortunately our older British professor did not get the joke at all, but that was his loss. I, however, was having trouble breathing from laughing so hard.

Procrastinators Unite... in Latin America

Two time zones may separate the east coast of the US (GMT -5) and Uruguay (GMT -3) causing a one hour time difference in the winter time and three hours in the summer, but this is not the only time difference to be overcome. Welcome to Uruguayan time where you can add an "-ish" to whatever time and still be on time. Anyone familiar with Latin America has already heard of this phenomenon, but experiencing it is another, wonderful thing.

I don't feel bad about late for anything here. Usually how late I am depends on the situation. If it is a very informal situation such as a party, which they don't really get going until about 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., I will be hours late. For more formal things like class and meetings about school I'll be up to 10 minutes late. Anything definitely formal or serious I will be on time for like exams... nope, not those. Meetings with International Program personnel... not them either. Or maybe... no, definitely not that. Hm, I think the only thing I've seriously had to be on time for were the UM sponsored trips that went by a strict schedule. This country really is very informal.

In fact, I don't think I have ever heard someone say "You're late" to anyone. Ever. And it's so nice to be in a place that doesn't stress being on time. Of course, being punctual is still a valued trait as Latin America most often tries to adopt Western rules when it comes to looking professional, however the times when this is necessary are obvious such as appointments with the embassies or a hospital/clinic, job interviews, and arriving to work on time only if your job requires it, of course.

I know this new time system is going to bit me in the butt when I get back to the states. Enjoying it while I can.

*Edit. To make things even more complicated I just figured out the States and Uruguay don't change their clocks at the same time. In Uruguay we will be moving our clocks ahead one hour today, October 3rd, while the states will move their clocks back our hour November 7th. That means there will now be a two hour time difference between the east coast and Uruguay. On November 7th it will be a three hour difference. Have fun processing that.

79 days till I'm US bound.

Afro-Uruguayans

1) 4% of the population in Uruguay is Afro-Uruguayan. This is compared to the caucasian population being 88% and mestizo (mixed) being 8%.

2) On a typical day, I see one other black person and he goes to my school. He's really tall; he can't be missed. It's mostly the fact that I go to a private school and happen to live in a decent neighborhood. Depending which way I walk to and from school I might see the black lady who tends to the cars on the street around the corner. I have never spoken or had a reason to speak to either of them.

3) I want to steal the black lady's dreads.

4) Afro-uruguayans are known for two things: being brought into the MVD port and mostly shipped elsewhere in Latin America and candombe.

5) Their contribution to society has been greatly overlooked with Soccer players as the majority of the most notable of the Afro-Uruguayans.

6) I have no idea where they get their hair done. It's probably why 80% of girls I see are wearing braids or have their hair cut really short.

7) The stereotype of being black in Uruguay isn't a particularly positive one. While most people have been treating me with respect I have had instances where kids will openly point me out to their mothers (cute), mothers will yank their kids away from me (really?), and my favorite is when I was standing in line at McDonalds and a guy grabbed his wife and pulled her to his other side, wrapped his arm around her, and kept looking at me the entire time I was waiting for my order like I was going to do something (rude). These occurrences, thankfully, are few and far in-between.

8) I feel like there is no black subculture here at all. I'm not all tied up in the this particular subculture in the states, but I miss it something awful sometimes.

9) This one is just opinion, but I feel like I have a much lower chance of getting robbed. This upsets me a little because number two on my list of things to accomplish here was to not get robbed and it seems like no one is even going to try.


Afro-Uruguayan Alvaro Pereira who started for Uruguay in the 2010 FIFA World Cup

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.