Life and Colonia, Uruguay
Trip Start
Aug 03, 2008
1
17
23
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
Colonia del Sacramento,
Uruguay
Saturday, October 25, 2008
I added pictures to my previous couple of posts because my computer is back in action!
I'm in my bedroom with the door shut right now because my host mom is pissed at me! I lost my house keys during my day-trip to Uruguay, and she's not having it. Haha, I think she's a little bit over having an exchange student in her perfect house. She's also started doing some funny things. For example, she must have found some water on the floor somewhere or something, because every time I fill up a glass of water in front of her she goes, "Don't spill it." Also, every time I walk into the bathroom, she goes in after me and wipes up the floor, as though I spilled something. Maybe she's got a screw loose? Oh well. She's still a good cook, and that's all I really care about :-P.
In other news, while my host mom was gone in Chile, I had a great time! I had people over to watch tv a couple times, nothing disrespectful, and I definitely miss my short-lived life as a Recoleta bachelor. I could cook what I wanted, do the dishes when I wanted, and listen to MTV as loud as I wanted. Fantastic. I'm realizing it's hard to be living with a 'parent' when you're 20. My host-aunt (and the mother of my friend/host cousin Ailin) came over a few times to make sure I ate (as my host mom thinks I'm anorexic), and she's really cool, total riot. So she provided me with food and shelter when I got back from Uruguay without my keys.
About the anorexic thing, it's part hilarious, part frustrating. My host brother will come over for dinner, and she'll tell him, "He's so little, he doesn't eat anything, it's why he's always sick." I eat everything she makes me, always, and a lot more when I go out to eat with friends. I'm pretty sure my daily caloric intake is double hers. I also caught her telling somebody on the phone that I drink a ton of water to stave off hunger. My host-aunt told me to ignore it, haha.
Okay enough host-parent venting. Few discoveries. When I'm feeling over Argentina, my new haven is the Hard Rock cafe. First, amazing greasy food including hot-wings and potato skins. Terribly uncultured of me to say, but the "Jumbo Combo' appetizer platter is better than any other meal I've enjoyed in all of Argentina. Plus, the Hard Rock hosts a concert-ticket buying office, which is where I found out about the Personal Music festival happening next weekend, which I'm going to. The day for which I have tickets include REM, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs, and Mars Volta. For most of my family, who almost surely knows none of these, trust me--that's a GREAT lineup.
Yesterday I wen to Colonia, Uruguay for the day. It was great. It was basically all of the IES kids, and we got there a couple hours before any other tourists, which I was a tad bitter about because I had to get up at 6:30. The weather was extremely warm and sunny (I've got the sunburn to prove it), and the town is beautiful (pictures attached). Additionally, I have to say that the people in Colonia were all around amazing. It was like Minnesota nice. We had to stop people and ask them questions for our respective Spanish classes, and everybody was just so nice and so willing to talk to us, and also curious about how our time here was going. In short, I want to move to Colonia!
We were pretty lame tourists, actually. I didn't make it into one museum. We just relaxed all day, sat on the rocks on the shore of the river (which is the widest in the world, I found out), sat at an outdoor cafe and enjoyed some beer, etc. It was a really good, relaxing day. I'd like to go back because they have go-carts, golf-carts, and mopeds for hire, but the roundtrip ferry ticket to Colonia is 100 pesos ($30). Maybe toward the end of my trip.
Now I'm going to go shopping for a halloween costume! Some kids from my program arranged for a club to hold a halloween party for us, so it should be fun. And the day after halloween is the Personal Music Festival, so I'll be 'tuckered out' after next weekend, I'm sure.
Oh, one last thing, I decided to go along on a trip to Santiago and Valpraiso, Chile the weekend of November 15th. I'm kind of running out of money, but I just figure I want to see the most that I can because it will be quite some time before I can get back down here. Plus, the people I'm going with are great, so it should be a really good time. Wish me luck!
