Camacho Watcho

Today marks the halfway point in my eleven week work assignment in Uruguay. I will actually be in South America for more than twelve weeks, but given that the last ten days are all fun, I am concentrating on these first eleven weeks of work. On this landmark date, I have decided to give a full update of my life as it is now. For this, I will focus on updating you on my most important things in life. So, what are these important things? For me…Life, Love, Friendship and Food…”Food?” you might ask. I love Food, just go with it. I will also give you an update on Work, although I do not think it qualifies as one of the most important things. That is just my opinion, feel free to disagree.

Life
This is a broad category, but I’m using it to define the aspects of daily living. Therefore, all in all, I have to say that life is good. It’s different than my life back home, but it’s good. I have found a rhythm here and I like it. I work, eat, sleep, work out, go to Spanish classes, travel and hang out with friends. As for an update on these different things…some I will address now and others I’ll address in the updates of the other important things to me.

Living Accommodations - I have to say that living in a hotel is interesting. The staff definitely know me by now, which is kind of nice. What do they know about me? They know the following: I like my coffee “solo” (black); I like plain yogurt each morning; I work out each night at 7pm or 9pm; I prefer to speak Spanish to the bell boys to practice; and I like to try new restaurants and am always asking for suggestions. That’s me in a nutshell, I guess. But the downside of living in a hotel is just that….I’m living in a hotel. I had a reality check this past Sunday when I checked back in after my trip to Chile. We pulled up in our taxi and the bell boy said “Welcome home!”…hmmm…then I checked in at reception and the man said “Welcome back…same room for you…you’re here for 42 more nights?” Wow. So then I was back up to my green and gold “home away from home”.

Language - My Spanish is definitely improving, which I am so thankful for. Many times on this trip, my friends and I have talked about language and the general concensus is that we would pay an undetermined amount of money to instantly know Spanish. Kind of like in “The Matrix” - how much would you pay to instantly “upload” a program into your head to just “know” a new skill? It would be amazing. Although there have been some funny “language” moments, all in all, I seem to get by just fine with the skills I have and hope to just keeping improving. On that note, I’ll share a quick funny language story from our weekend in Chile. On Saturday night, we decided to go to a discoteque called “Huevo” (translated…Egg). Odd name for a club, but we thought we would try it. Anyway, we hopped in a cab and the driver said “De donde son?” My friend, thinking he asked “Where are you going?” quickly said “Huevo”….So what actually happened? The cab driver asked “Where are you from?” And my friend said “Egg”. Ha! So that was the joke of the weekend…”I am from egg”.

Travel - Not too much more to say about this. Travel is great! I love the adventures of new places and new things. I know I’ve blogged enough about these and there are more to come, so I won’t dwell on this.

Love
This is an easy update…I am counting the days until Kyle arrives. I think that’s all there is to say.

Friendship
Everyone I’ve met here has been great! I really like the people in my program and we have a good time traveling, exploring, and going out to eat. It’s a really fun group and I like that everyone here is up for experiencing everything! We’ve been to wineries, small towns, historical sites, markets, art museums, theater and restaurants of all kinds. And we’ve definitely shared some funny moments. I’m remembering our trip through the country to Carmelo when we were totally lost and our experience of the play “Barro Negro”. We’ve just had a great time! Sometimes we go out just a few of us on a new adventure or out to eat, but at minimum we get together at least once per week for dinner as a group and swap stories and update each other on everything.

Food
Definitely an important category for me. So what can I say? First of all, the food here is amazing. I thought it would be beef, beef and more beef, but I was only half right. There is certainly a prevelance of beef here, but there are many many other tasty things to choose from as well. The pasta is fantastic - honestly, I can’t say enough about it! The fish is so fresh and prepared so simply that it is so good. The vegetables are good, I would say that I’ve had some outstanding vegetables and then there are vegetables that are just mediocre. Although, I must remember that it is just spring, so the reason for poor tomatoes is probably just timing. My favorite vegetables here are eggplant and pumpkin. I don’t know the difference between them here and at home, but they are everywhere and they are good! I’ll do some more blogging about food sometime in the future.

I made a New Year’s Resolution this past year to try anything and everything that comes my way (hence the blood sausage at el mercado del puerto). This resolution has been the best thing and I’ve really had fun with it! It’s been especially useful here. I know many foods in Spanish - most vegetables, meats and grains - but there are some that I still do not know. And that is half the fun of it! I don’t like to get the menu in English, frankly it confuses me because the translations are usually poor. I prefer to browse the Spanish menu and try to find something that has ingredients that I like. There are generally a couple that I’m not sure of, but I haven’t been disappointed yet when I order something and it’s not what I expected, which usually happens because I don’t quite know all the preparations and ways they serve things here. In fact, just today that happened to me at lunch. I will be going out to dinner tonight, so I wanted to eat light and just order a salad. I got the menu and saw salad and vegetables…perfect. When it arrived, it was a salad with vegetables, but it came with a huge piece of vegetable quiche on the side. Not what I was expecting, but definitely a good twist….now I just need to figure out what to do for dinner.

The last comment on food is just that I miss cooking. I love to cook and try new recipes so I will be very excited to get back in my kitchen and cook and cook and cook. Definitely. Oh! And I probably have some issues of Bon Appetit waiting for me at home too!

Work
Work is going well. I’m enjoying the change in responsibilities from my work back home and I’m enjoying working with everyone here. I’ve definitely learned a lot, ranging from Uruguayan employment laws to new HR skills. So, in that way it is very good. I like to be challenged. I’m at a point in my project where the planning is complete and we’re working on actions and implementation. This is hard, but I knew it would be. I won’t go into the details of the project, but I will say that it’s expanded in scope which I hope is for the best. I have a little less than five weeks to complete the project and to prepare for a few presentations that I have to give, one related to the project and one for an entrepreneurial conference. So, I’ll definitely be busy.

That is my update on my life here in Uruguay. As my adventures continue, I’ll keeping writing and sharing stories. I love hearing from everyone too! So, keep the blog comments and the personal emails coming!

So at the halfway point, I’ve been thinking about this experience and what I’ve learned from it thus far. I would say that my biggest take away is this…Tomorrow is just another day, yet it marks the start of something new. Life is made up of a series of starts; a series of opportunities, adventures, and obstacles and we are the ones who decide what to make of them.

Chau everyone! Take care!

Posted on November 7th, 2007 by katiejocannon
Filed under: Food, Language, Travel