With hours remaining in my study abroad experience I would like to recount my last few days in Uruguay which went a little like this:
Exams were done for me on Friday morning and, man, it felt great. I mostly spent the weekend packing and hanging out with as many people as I could and especially my host family. I had my farewell dinner on Saturday which was fun and Sunday night I made barbecue meatballs with rice as a thank you to Analia and Mary for dealing with me and my intermediate Spanish for 10 months. And, being the nostalgic person I am, I made sure to eat at all my favorite places and see my favorite sites before now.
I even managed to finally work up the nerve to go see the ashes of Artigas in Plaza de Independencia and that was unexpectedly scary. I happened to be the only person in that dark, spacious room along with two statues, or rather Uruguayan soliders. Apparently, they can't move, talk or anything as they guard the ashes and it was pretty scary since I knew nothing of this and with their spiffy uniforms they looked like very well constructed soliders like the nutcracker statues. It scared the crap out of me when I realized they were watching me taking pictures and that they had rifles on them. The light on the stairs that kept flashing on and off didn't make the situation any better either.
Also, I took out money before going to the Tristan Narvanja outdoor market and just went crazy buying things I've always been eyeing and doing my souvenir/ Christmas shopping. It was cool because the venders were actually being chatty with me so I got to talk to some of them and observe my further progress with Spanish as they hardly gave me any confused looks as I used English syntax for a Spanish sentence. I seriously love those moments where you can see what kind of progress you're making with Spanish.
I am super tired and this post is all crazy. I'll edit later. I just wanted to get it out because obviously tomorrow I'll be feeling much different.
Hey. I've read through your entire blog over the course of the day and have enjoyed it. I'm considering moving to Uruguay with my sketchy knowledge of Spanish and was wondering if you could expand a bit more on your experiences as a woman of color in Uruguay. Also how did you end up finding your housing? You could put it in a post or email me with a response. Thanks Tai. [tyr ock ford a t g ma il do t com]
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