Hola!

Well we?re here.  All flights went well (except for a slight delay in Buenos Aires) and we arrived in Montevideo at 1:30pm on Saturday.  We were met at the airport by a very nice man who drove us to our apartment.  The man was not Fernando and did not speak English.  He gave us the keys, dropped us off and left us with a folder that said be at the school by 9am on Monday. 

 

Our apartment is amazing!  It?s small but very modern.  We have one bedroom with a futon in the living room.  It?s very cute with painted walls and art work everywhere.  The location is great ? about a 15 minute walk in any direction will get you where you want to go (the school, restaurants, shopping, and the beach).  We have a workout room (very small), pool, garden, and a doorman. 

 

The one thing that has been tough is the accent of the locals.  We are both having trouble communicating because it is hard to understand.  For those of you who know anything about Spanish, ?I? is ?yo? but here it is pronounced ?sho.?  Even with this difference, we?ve managed to find food for every meal, take taxis, go shopping at the mall, and join a fitness club. 

 

After getting settled in our apartment we went in search of food. We found Buffet 21 about 4 blocks from the apartment.  This was our first taste of the local food.  It?s not bad, but we didn?t know what a lot of it was and couldn?t really ask.  The rest of the afternoon flew by and before we knew it, it was the evening.  We ended up getting some sandwiches from the gas station across the street from the apartment and crashing.

 

The next morning, after sleeping in of course, we went walking.  After about 10 minutes we ended up at the beach.  People are walking around in big jackets because it is ?winter? here.  The wind makes it a bit chilly, but a fleece is all you really need!  When the sun is shining and the palm tree leaves are blowing in the wind, the big jackets look a little silly to us.  Fast forward to the evening and we took a taxi to the mall.  The mall is very Americanized, and reminded us of malls we?ve already been.  At 7pm on a Sunday it was packed!  Everywhere you looked, the people were carrying these thermos with cups that had metal straws (which we found out later was mate, the national drink).  Luckily for us, the mall has a supermarket so we were able to get some groceries while we were out and about.  We also ran into a lady from our flight (from Texas visiting a friend in Montevideo). 

 

Monday morning we made our way to school.  Since we weren?t sure where it was (and no one could show us on map where our apartment is) we decided to take a taxi.  Once at the taxi stand, I swear the guy said 1 block over, 2 blocks up and 1 block over.  Ryan wanted a taxi but I thought I understood his directions.  Well, 1 block over, 2 blocks up and 1 block over landed us at the ocean.  We ended up taking a taxi and found that we were about 8 blocks in the wrong direction.  I have learned to leave the translating to Ryan .  At the school everyone is very friendly.  Ryan and I are in a class with an older couple from Germany.  It makes for some interesting time since they don?t speak English and we don?t speak German.  In the more advanced class there is Jasmine (from New York), Alyssa (from Texas), and Jo (from Kentucky).  Karin is from San Francisco and takes private lessons.  Everyone is very nice and helpful!  We start class at 9am.  Each class is 55 minutes with a five minute break between.  After the second class we get a 20 minute break, which we usually walk to a small store and buy a snack and a drink.  We have two teachers who trade class times (which keeps it interesting!)  We participated in our first group activity Monday night ? dinner at El Tigre.  We met six others there and enjoyed ?carne de plato? or plate of meat.  Although I was reserved in trying different things, Ryan had some steak, sausage, kidney, and some other stuff that its probably better not to know what it is.  It was a great time!

 

Tuesday we developed our new ?routine.?  Leave for school at 8:30am, walk home at 1:30pm, stop at the pizzeria a block from the apartment for pizza and coke, nap, workout and dinner.  This is the life!!!!  Since the work out facilities at our apartment building are lacking by Ryan?s standards, we joined a fitness center about 8 blocks away.  Eduardo, who can speak some English from his time in New Jersey, walked us through everything and gave us a tour.  The place is like 5 stories with classes and activities all day (seriously, they have everything you could imagine!).  They even have hockey (floor hockey!).  Eduardo brought us to the weights and introduced us to the instructors, who helped us get acquainted with the facilities.  Not many people speak English in Montevideo, so it was nice to have Eduardo to translate while we work on our Spanish.  I was excited to see a cardio boxing class going on across the hall from the weights ? and they were doing the same moves as the cardio boxing class I took back home!   

 

Everything is going great!  As soon as we get the Spanish down we?ll be able to better communicate.  Thank you to everyone who helped us get here, it has been an amazing experience and it?s only going to get better!

PHOTOS ARE COMING SOON!