Update on school. Classes are super long. Every class lasts two hours! And I'm told that isn't bad.
Update on Volunteer projects are slowly getting found. Another rotary scholar and I are going to use the Week of Turism or la semana santa to particpate in a project called un techo para mi pais or a roof for my country. It's kind of like a habitat for humanity type deal. We leave this coming Friday and we will be building houses for 4 days with families in a community of Montevideo. It should be a lot of fun and a great experience.
Update on things I miss. Honey Bunches of Oats. Peanut Butter. Cheddar Cheese. And even though it's sappy, I'll say it; you :). The good news is I have found a substitute for Honey Bunches and cheddar cheese. Honey Nutos, made in Brasil, is the only delicious cereal around, and after analyzing the brazilian cereal market I believe I am solely responsible for the boom that began Feb 10 and will last until December. That's a stock to invest in :P. And the cheese is a Parmesan Farming. It's not cheddar but it has great flavor. The women in the cheese store now know me by name and my tastes. When I walk in they cut me slices of cheese for me to try, and I can try as many as I want. Uh, I feel like I'm in need of sabor a aveia e mel. Saboroso!
sábado, 28 de marzo de 2009
viernes, 20 de marzo de 2009
When animals attack!
Hey Hey Hey! A dollar to the first person who knows which famous man I just quoted. To begin, I just started working with a rotaract club, and last weekend we tried to jumpstart a trash-recycling-awareness program in a beach town called Piriapolis. The deal is they´ve got a decent sized hill located behind a zoo that a lot of people climb. The hill is called (pan de azucar)sugarloaf, and with good reason. Some may not know it, but the bread of latin america is pessima. It´s all one flavor, sugar bread, and it´s hard like a rock. So the bulging rocks that form the south side of the rock have the consistency (and if I were to lick them) and the taste of sugar bread! Seriously, the problem is that people climb with water bottles, then leave them up top. There is no place to put the bottles and other waste as well as no easy way to bring them down; the trail is kind of rugged and requires a lot of 4 legged motion. So the idea is to take pictures, speak with the bottled water companies, and see if we can´t get a program of some sort going.
I hopped off the bus early saturday morning and asked the woman at the turist desk how to get to the zoo. Turns out the zoo was momentarily closed. There is another hill in town, so I went to climb it to pass some time. Upon my return to the bus station, Natalia (the woman at the desk) told me that the zoo was still closed because a little animal had escaped but it might open later. It so happens there is another hill in town. I got back to the bus station, and natalia tells me that the zoo, lamentablemente, was still closed. All of that fuss for a little animalito I thought? What happened was that a black panther had escaped from the zoo! Luckily, when I ran down the last hill at full boar waving my arms, I was only fending off the mosquitos as opposed to a hungry kitty. The result was similar though, the mosquito bites left me looking like a big pink lump of meat. Looks like I´ll try again next weekend.
I´ll end the story as a very sweaty, and very stinky, Yankee sitting in my assigned seat on the bus as the seatcover quickly stopped absorbing more sweat. Hey, it was at least 100 degrees outside. All you can do is sincerely say sorry to the person next to you.
I hopped off the bus early saturday morning and asked the woman at the turist desk how to get to the zoo. Turns out the zoo was momentarily closed. There is another hill in town, so I went to climb it to pass some time. Upon my return to the bus station, Natalia (the woman at the desk) told me that the zoo was still closed because a little animal had escaped but it might open later. It so happens there is another hill in town. I got back to the bus station, and natalia tells me that the zoo, lamentablemente, was still closed. All of that fuss for a little animalito I thought? What happened was that a black panther had escaped from the zoo! Luckily, when I ran down the last hill at full boar waving my arms, I was only fending off the mosquitos as opposed to a hungry kitty. The result was similar though, the mosquito bites left me looking like a big pink lump of meat. Looks like I´ll try again next weekend.
I´ll end the story as a very sweaty, and very stinky, Yankee sitting in my assigned seat on the bus as the seatcover quickly stopped absorbing more sweat. Hey, it was at least 100 degrees outside. All you can do is sincerely say sorry to the person next to you.
jueves, 12 de marzo de 2009
a couple firsts
Well, looks like the era of saving money is over. Monday I start school so I am to stay put for the semester. Monday will be the first day of classes. I´m taking some good stuff, looks like. I had my first Rotary meeting last week. That was fun, it was a group of about 15 characters. Meeting topic was a sort of shelter that the Rotaract club, which is very active, is working on. I met the Rotaract characters a few weeks ago and tonight will also be our first meeting. ¿Are there any hitchhikers guide to the galaxy fans out there? ¡TO BUSINESS!
The other first I had today was a class of Taikwondo. I´ve always wanted to learn a martial art and since the place is 2 blocks from my house, I figured now was the time to learn. I found out that punching bags, after an hour so, give back as good as they get, or more. :) There´s class tomorrow as well! Any saving silverman fans? Cmoneeyeahhhaaaww!
as an addendum to the backwards- seafood is not good backwards.
The other first I had today was a class of Taikwondo. I´ve always wanted to learn a martial art and since the place is 2 blocks from my house, I figured now was the time to learn. I found out that punching bags, after an hour so, give back as good as they get, or more. :) There´s class tomorrow as well! Any saving silverman fans? Cmoneeyeahhhaaaww!
as an addendum to the backwards- seafood is not good backwards.
lunes, 9 de marzo de 2009
A forward continuation of backwards
Sorry to interrumpt the Quebrada of the Cuervos adventure but a report on backwards is called for. As I was out tearing around in the one-time tallest hill in Uruguay, el cierro de las animas. I discovered two things that are quite backwards yet enjoyable.
One- I was in a life and death fight with athlete´s foot for over 2 months before I came to Uruguay. Sure my life wasn´t in danger very often but multiply the strenth of tough actin tinaktin by 100 and you will have the total of my desire to eliminate that itch. Who would think that despite my best efforts, the dryness, and the cold that defines my mother´s house, athlete´s foot could cling to existance? I came to Uruguay, in this time of year, a hot, humid country where athlete´s foot should be everywhere including your face. It dissappeared. Completely gone. Needless to say, somewhat backwards, but I have no complaints =D
Two- In el cierro de las animas, there is a series of cascades that cause a pooling of water in a place called pozos azules, or blue pools. I climbed the cascades up as close to the top as I could get without a machete. Peaches and nisperas from the local fauna floated by in irregular intervals. Late in the day, I watched clouds begin to gather of the cierro and decided to high tail it out of there. I asked the owner of the property if I could pitch a tent right there but he told me to camp in an arroyo under a bridge nearby. I took a quick look at the clouds and a quicker look at the bridge. It didn´t take long to make my decision. Sleep there and I´d probably wake up swimming in an overflowing river of cowpatty water working its way to a beautiful beach resort. The resort sounded nice but this guy forewent the rafting trip. To make a long story short, the rain caught me as I blasted down to a hotel of sorts that I had seen, and I spent a fair while slogging along the highway until I found the turn off. Nice story but it doesn´t seem at all backwards. I negotiated with the owner, got a nice 40 percent discount and made a little swimming pool in the room he gave me. After I dried off, warmed up, and killed off the locals...not people-mosquitos...I removed a dripping, sticky wad of money from my wallet and realized that I had been travelling for several days and I had more money than I would have had had I stayed in the capital. That´s backwards. Everyone saves money to go on vacation. They do not go on vacation to save money. The capital is expensive, but again, I have no complaints. Who wants to come down and save some money with me?! :)
One- I was in a life and death fight with athlete´s foot for over 2 months before I came to Uruguay. Sure my life wasn´t in danger very often but multiply the strenth of tough actin tinaktin by 100 and you will have the total of my desire to eliminate that itch. Who would think that despite my best efforts, the dryness, and the cold that defines my mother´s house, athlete´s foot could cling to existance? I came to Uruguay, in this time of year, a hot, humid country where athlete´s foot should be everywhere including your face. It dissappeared. Completely gone. Needless to say, somewhat backwards, but I have no complaints =D
Two- In el cierro de las animas, there is a series of cascades that cause a pooling of water in a place called pozos azules, or blue pools. I climbed the cascades up as close to the top as I could get without a machete. Peaches and nisperas from the local fauna floated by in irregular intervals. Late in the day, I watched clouds begin to gather of the cierro and decided to high tail it out of there. I asked the owner of the property if I could pitch a tent right there but he told me to camp in an arroyo under a bridge nearby. I took a quick look at the clouds and a quicker look at the bridge. It didn´t take long to make my decision. Sleep there and I´d probably wake up swimming in an overflowing river of cowpatty water working its way to a beautiful beach resort. The resort sounded nice but this guy forewent the rafting trip. To make a long story short, the rain caught me as I blasted down to a hotel of sorts that I had seen, and I spent a fair while slogging along the highway until I found the turn off. Nice story but it doesn´t seem at all backwards. I negotiated with the owner, got a nice 40 percent discount and made a little swimming pool in the room he gave me. After I dried off, warmed up, and killed off the locals...not people-mosquitos...I removed a dripping, sticky wad of money from my wallet and realized that I had been travelling for several days and I had more money than I would have had had I stayed in the capital. That´s backwards. Everyone saves money to go on vacation. They do not go on vacation to save money. The capital is expensive, but again, I have no complaints. Who wants to come down and save some money with me?! :)
miércoles, 4 de marzo de 2009
there you have it
I´m okay! For someone reason, there was some worry over my well-being in the last few days. Even through reports of soaring temperatures, water and food shortages, supposed wild boars running rampant in the country side, I made it out of the weekend with nothing more than two enormous blisters on my feet (they are pretty cool, I took pictures of them if ever you want to see), some cool pictures and memories, and a couple of Uruguayan buddies.
I spent the last couple days taking advantage of the time before school starts to explore the place a bit. Look up el departamento Treinta y Tres de Uruguay if you want to see for yourself. You´ll find almost flourescent green pastures beneath a blazing sun. A few hours to the north east and I found out I had taken the wrong bus so I got off 45 km. before my destination. I managed to make it 20 km more (Vacilio, you are one cool Italian Uruguayan) and needed to walk 25 km. No problem. I took a sip of water, threw on my pack, and looked at my watch. 18:30 ETA sundown, 21:00. Uh oh, to make it I had to move fast, so I double timed it down the hills and up the hills and in the shade and enjoyed the sunny flats to admire the very green pastures speckled with eucaliptis tress, cows, sheep and horses. I passed a Uruguayan couple resting; we talked for a moment then parted ways, all of us confident we would make la quebrada by nightfall. Making good time, expecting my destination, la quebrada de los cuervos, to be around each corner, the sun failed me and precipated below the horizon. Whoops. Since Genius here, forgot to bring a flashlight, I threw my tent together and heaved my sweat soaked pack and my sweat soaked self into it, reveling in the mosquito free shelter. A little while later, as the barely cresent moon tried its best to iluminate the off brand cheerios I was eating(the only food I had brought with me) Chino and Melen, the uruguayans happily passed me by.
I´ll live the story there for now as i sit in my tent, content in my running shorts, still sticky with sweat, sated with off brand cheerios´ 9 essential vitamins and minerals and the very last of my water.
I spent the last couple days taking advantage of the time before school starts to explore the place a bit. Look up el departamento Treinta y Tres de Uruguay if you want to see for yourself. You´ll find almost flourescent green pastures beneath a blazing sun. A few hours to the north east and I found out I had taken the wrong bus so I got off 45 km. before my destination. I managed to make it 20 km more (Vacilio, you are one cool Italian Uruguayan) and needed to walk 25 km. No problem. I took a sip of water, threw on my pack, and looked at my watch. 18:30 ETA sundown, 21:00. Uh oh, to make it I had to move fast, so I double timed it down the hills and up the hills and in the shade and enjoyed the sunny flats to admire the very green pastures speckled with eucaliptis tress, cows, sheep and horses. I passed a Uruguayan couple resting; we talked for a moment then parted ways, all of us confident we would make la quebrada by nightfall. Making good time, expecting my destination, la quebrada de los cuervos, to be around each corner, the sun failed me and precipated below the horizon. Whoops. Since Genius here, forgot to bring a flashlight, I threw my tent together and heaved my sweat soaked pack and my sweat soaked self into it, reveling in the mosquito free shelter. A little while later, as the barely cresent moon tried its best to iluminate the off brand cheerios I was eating(the only food I had brought with me) Chino and Melen, the uruguayans happily passed me by.
I´ll live the story there for now as i sit in my tent, content in my running shorts, still sticky with sweat, sated with off brand cheerios´ 9 essential vitamins and minerals and the very last of my water.
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