Camacho Watcho

It’s no secret that I absolutely loved the three months I spent in Uruguay! I shared many a story last year on my blog about it and I continue to long for the good times and good food that I had there. Therefore, when I heard that Anthony Bourdain had travelled there this past February and No Reservations would be airing the show in late July, I was excited! I DVR’d the show and sought out some friends for an Uruguay party!

The scene was set to happen at my house this past Sunday with our friends Ed and Carly. They had joined Kyle and me for the last ten days of our trip and had travelled in Uruguay and Argentina with us. We were prepared to eat and drink like Uruguyans and to enjoy the show! In true Uruguayan fashion, we started out the night with some beverages and appetizers. The wine was a Sauvignon Blanc from Pulenta Estates in Mendoza, Argentina. We had drank that wine in Mendoza as we stood under a trelise in the dappled sunlight, looking out at the Andes Mountains in the distance. Ahhh…that was the life. Our appetizers were twofold, a chorizo wrapped date wrapped in bacon and the typical melted provolone with oregano. Sweet and salty – I love that combination! If you’re wondering, the provolone platter was a purchase in Uruguay; you see these everywhere there!

We then started the show and began our asado (the Uruguayan terminology for grilled meat fest…my translation). A few tears came to my eyes as I watched Anthony drive around La Plaza Independencia, where I ate lunch every day when I was there. And we were overall happy with his choices for locations – Punta del Este, Jose Ignacio, Cabo Polonio, Montevideo (of course). I longed to be there with him. I was a little disappointed, however, that he kept hooking up with non-Uruguayans to get his tours and information. He made a comment at one point that he had not met any true Uruguayans…uh, try talking to some of the locals. I promise, they are very friendly and many speak English. The best part of it all was he and his brother eating at el mercado del puerto…at the same parilla where Carly, Ed and I had eaten just eight months prior! The show ended and our food fest began.

A quick overview of the food we grilled and how we prepared it. A true asado is not really a grill like we know it. I wrote about it last year when I was invited to an asado by an Uruguayan, so if you’re interested in the grill and technique, I’ve linked to it here. In true Uruguayan fashion, however, we did keep the preparations simple. Just sliced some veggies (peppers, onions, sweet potato) and threw them on the grill (parilla) along with corn on the cob, a large steak and some sausages. Although we were missing the typical blood sausage and sweet breads, we were pretty proud of how our asado turned out.

We broke open the second bottle of wine, a cabernet sauvignon from Finca Familia Cassone and again we were taken back to our wine tour in Mendoza. We had wondered if the wine would taste as good as it did that day in the sun, and we were not disappointed. Wow. For dinner, we served up our food family style, with a big platter of veggies, a platter of meat and, of course, a side of chimichurri. I am in love with this chimichurri (I’ve included a link to the recipe here). The food was simple and delicious.

The only non-South American part of the evening, besides the fact that the party ended at 10pm instead of the usual 4am that would happen there, was the dessert. I had previously bought some key limes that I didn’t want to go to waste. So, although this is not typical to Uruguay, we ate homemade key lime pie for dessert. And I have to admit that it was good!

A trip down memory lane on a wonderful Sunday night. Both Kyle and I said that we can’t wait to go back to Uruguay. Punta del Este…here we come! Well, maybe not now…but soon.

Today is another day…I believe that is what I said a few months ago while in South America. It’s true, obviously. But, it’s something to take to heart as well. Be where you are and enjoy. So, on that note, here are my final days in Argentina and my return home.

The last few days after Mendoza were spent in Buenos Aires. This was my fourth and final trip and I was finally going to do some sightseeing. Buenos Aires is made up of many neighborhoods that have such unique personalities. It really is amazing to wander through each one and experience the people, the food, the sights and the sounds. I had already spent a great deal of time in Palermo, where most of the boutique shopping is, therefore we decided to start out on our first morning for La Boca. This is a bright, vibrant area of Buenos Aires where many artists live. There is a large market with tango, vendors and small shops called Caminita and it is also the home to several of the local soccer teams such as Boca Juniors and Boca River.

The next stop was La Casa Rosada…The Pink House. This is the government building like the White House in the U.S., located near Puerto Madero. The balcony of this historical building is the setting for Eva Peron’s many addresses to the Argentinian masses. From La Casa Rosada, we strolled along until we reached the Obelisk, which is located in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Buenos Aires. With eight lanes of traffic in each direction and billboards filling the sky, this area feels like a cross between Times Square and the Champs-Élysées.

After the Obelisk, we headed to the Eva Peron museum in Recoletta. While I’d love to say that we spent hours pouring through the history of Eva Peron’s life, we actually were starving by the time we arrived, so we ate lunch. Unfortunately, after lunch we decided that since it was so late in the day, we would leave for the next adventure. It pains me now, as I hear how amazing this museum is, so I will need to return someday to properly visit it. However, the artisan pasta we had there was amazing; I highly recommend it for lunch.

After the museum, we stayed in Recoletta and walked through the Japanese gardens. To be quite honest, these were a major disappointment. The Japanese gardens in San Francisco are much better and since we had more places to go…we left after just a few minutes.

Our next destination was the Recoletta Cemetery, where Eva Peron’s body remains. The area of Recoletta where the cemetery is located is very Parisian with its beautiful streets lined with high end boutiques. We first stopped for some ice cream at Freddo’s, which is an Argentinian gelatto store that is amazing! Kyle got the malbec ice cream – another high recommendation from me! After our ice cream, we headed into the cemetery, which is just beautiful. It is, however, a little creepy to be walking through the tombs and to see broken glass and granite blocks that allow perfect viewing of the caskets that are held within. If you are creeped out easily, I would recommend staying on the main, tourist path and not walking through the narrow aisles off the beaten track, as we did. While the cemetery itself was beautiful, the church next door is also quite amazing and actually offers fantastic views of the cemetery next door from the resident chambers.

After a long walk home, we settled in and decided where to eat. Truly, if you find yourself in Buenos Aires someday and you only have the opportunity to eat one dinner – you must go to Cabana Las Lilas. Yes, it is a bit touristy, but it is absolutely the best meal, steak, antipasti platter, dessert, experience ever. That is all I will say.

And so it was my final day in South America. It had been three months of pure adventure and it was perfect.

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!

Last night a few of us went to the theater with a woman that I work with here. It was a production titled “Barro Negro” (Black Mud) and it took place in a bus that drove through Montevideo. Yes, that is correct, the play was set inside a bus as it drove around the city.

In reading about the production beforehand, it seemed that the production was to portray the life and issues that are encountered by the Uruguayan people who ride the bus. I say it “seemed” like this because I was translating the summary from Spanish. I should also mention that the production was performed in Spanish, and while our Spanish has improved, it definitely was not to the point where we could follow anything that was going on. Which was both confusing and fun at the same time. We went into the experience with open minds, and that was definitely for the best.

I really liked the production, it had action, drama, humor and some bizarre moments that made it a great experience. In my mind, the night went like this (I’ll provide some further information later of the plot, but since I did not know the plot for almost the entire production, neither shall you).

Act 1: We board the bus and the ticket man gives us our tickets and we begin to drive. There is a lot of talking between him and a woman who is dressed in a sparkly outfit. The music turns off and they begin to argue. She starts talking about Michael Jackson and then she approaches one of my friends who was with me and points at her (obviously terrifying us that we were going to need to speak at some point). This part goes on for a while with an older woman jumping into the conversation as well. The bus stops and we pick up two soldiers from the side of the street.

Act 2: The two soldiers begin to interact and there appears to be a point when one of them is portraying the need to use the restroom and pretends to start going in the corner of the bus. This is not the case and he pulls a bottle of alcohol from his pants. Everyone laughs…so of course, we do too. Another man enters the scene and the three of them are arguing. I catch the word “professor” and I believe the man was once their teacher or something.

Act 3: The woman in the sparkly outfit gets up again and begins sauntering around and speaking in a loud voice. She gets upset, the bus stops and she gets off the bus. She begins screaming by the side of the bus and one of the soldiers goes out, throws her over his shoulder and carries her back onto the bus. (Mind you – the bus is traveling around the city so everywhere we go, people are staring. When the bus stops, people have no idea what is going on…it’s pretty funny). A man gets up from right next to us, he is portraying a drunk man, and he is staggering around, slurring and being rowdy.

Act 4: The bus stops on a random street and a man comes out of a building. He is dressed in an Elvis-like outfit with a large blonde afro wig. He comes onto the bus, says something and suddenly we are all getting off the bus, onto the dark street, and entering a dark building. Inside, there are colored lights, streamers, a bar (with a nautical theme), plastic chairs surrounding the outside of the room and many pornographic pictures on the wall. Yes, pornographic pictures covering the wall. At this point, we are thoroughly confused (I am still not understanding the plot, but here I am in an abandoned building with 30 strangers and nudey pictures on the walls). We all sit in the chairs around the room and watch as the production continues. People from the production are dancing, they are dancing with us, there is fighting between the performers, we are doing the “locomotion”…it was all quite confusing and interesting and suddenly we are back on the street boarding the bus. We have also picked up one of the dancers from the place who is now riding the bus with us in her wild makeup, tights, hot pants, and stiletto heels.

Act 5: The bus stops and a man boards. He immediately begin speaking very quickly and bee-lines it to the back of the bus, pointing at my friend sitting next to me and saying “Harry Potter.” It was a riot. In his defense, my friend does look a bit like Harry Potter and since this was truly the first thing we understood all night, we cracked up for a long time. The man proceeds to try to sell things in Spanish…mobiles, puppets, all sorts of things. He then packs up and leaves the bus, leaving us to continue cracking up at the Harry Potter comment.

Act 6: The woman in stilettos and one of the army men begin to fight. They are yelling at each other and pushing each other. Suddenly we hear sirens and see a car pull alongside the bus and then we are stopped. Two men board the bus and are showing their badges around…the actors truly looked surprised at this and seemed to fall out of character at this time. So, of course, with us not understanding Spanish, my friends and I honestly think the police have pulled us over…there is what looks like a prostitute on board and a very “drunk man” with an open bottle of wine as well. We definitely think the worst is about to happen. The police take the “drunk man” off the bus and suddenly we are going again. It was part of the play, apparently, which was much a relief to us.

Act 7: This is where it ends. We pulled back up to where we began and the actors came back onboard. We later found out that the plot was all over the board, but it was portraying common stereotypes in Uruguay – a rich woman who doesn’t understand poor people, men who join the army because they don’t have a job and then cannot support their family, women who have second lives to support their families when their husbands are away, the salesmen who earn their living selling odds and ends on the bus, etc. Although we still don’t understand the abandoned building part of the night, it was very interesting, and to say the least, a unique experience.

The night ended with us walking down the pedestrian street in the old city, reflecting on the evening. One of my friends says that while it was fun, “it just could not have been more strange.” At that very moment, a man dressed in orange jumped out of the shadows and yells, “Yah!”, making a karate chopping motion with his hands. We looked at each other, bewildered, and commented, “and the night goes on.” A perfectly strange ending to a perfectly stange evening.

From Colonia, we took a side trip to Carmelo, a small town along the Rio de la Plata which borders Argentina and Uruguay. The trip itself was quite the adventure. Picture this, six foreigners piled into two small rental cars with a set a vague directions and a sketchy map (at best). The trip had its high moments and its “did that really just happen” moments.

The High Moments…
The Uruguayan countryside is beautiful with its rolling green hills and roaming cows, sheep and horses. After the long drive, we stopped for lunch at a small winery/cheese shop/posada (small inn) that had been recommended to us called Narbona. Set on an old farm, it was absolutely beautiful. The restaurant was housed in an old farm building and had a small country kitchen, three small dining rooms with tables dressed in white lace-trimmed linens, a long wooden bar and a room for cheese storage. The cheese they make is a wonderful parmesan cheese that they served with our pasta. Our lunch was a set menu of starters, entree, dessert, coffee or tea. The first course was a platter of parmesan, meats, sliced turkey and olives. For our second course, we had the choice of pastas and then for dessert there were several options of apple tart, banana crepes, flan, or rice pudding. It was a wonderful, peaceful lunch, set in the Uruguayan countryside.

The other side of the story…the “Did That Really Just Happen” Moments…
Our drive to Carmelo itself was fairly uneventful, which would have led us to believe that we would have no further issues. We had directions to the winery which were to follow Route 21 past Carmelo 5 km. Considering we had just driven about 80 km without a problem, this should be easy, right? Not in this case. These 5 km took us one hour total in drive time. It hardly seems believeable, but let me go back to thost vague directions, that sketchy map and the six foreigners. We took wrong turns, went down winding dirt roads and we lost Route 21 for a short period of time. At one point, as I was in a car with 3 other people, we all had a different idea of what we should do – one said left, one said right, one said straight ahead and the other said turn around!!!! We did find it, but as I said those 5 km took one hour.

So, we arrived at the winery and, as I mentioned, lunch was amazing. Since we did not have reservations, the option available to us was the set menu, costing $30/each. No problem. At the beginning of the meal, we asked the waitress (in Spanish), do you take credit cards? She said that they took Visa. Of course, “it’s everywhere you want to be.” We enjoyed our lunch and our wine and prepared to pay the bill and indulge in purchasing additional bottles of wine with our Visas. Six foreigners, six visas. When we approached the woman, she looked at us and said that they did not take credit cards….hmmm…something must have been lost in translation. We asked her what the conversation was about previously and she had no idea but that they did not take credit cards. With a bill of 5,000 pesos (U$S250) and a combined 4,000 pesos (U$S 200) amongst us, we had issues. So, while a few of us stayed behind hostage, a couple of the guys drove back to Carmelo (thankfully it did not take an hour this time) to get more pesos to pay the bill. A lesson learned…Visa is not always where you want to be…

Upon arriving here in Uruguay, I felt somewhat confident in a few areas of language: greetings, introducing myself and my family, some small talk, the alphabet, numbers and a small vocabulary of verbs and nouns…or so I thought…

I quickly found out that in addition to the expected pronunciation difference, influenced by the dialect from Spain (i.e. “v” sounds like “b”…vamos is pronounced bamos), there are other differences that make a big difference in both Argentina and Uruguay.

The first in the pronunciation of “y”. In school, we are taught that this sounds like it does in English “y”. In Argentina and Uruguay, it is pronounced “sh”. So, instead of “yo” it is “sho” and it is not a hard “o” like mow, it is a soft “o” pronounced like “au”. So it would sound like “shau”.

The second is the pronunciation of “ll”. In school, we are taught that this sounds like “y”. In Argentina and Uruguay, it is pronounced “dg” (think of the word judge). So instead of “llamo” it is “dgamo”.

Therefore, to introduce myself instead of saying “yo me llamo”, it sounds like “shau me dgamo”. That changes a lot and definitely makes some words very hard to understand. Estroy aprendiendo. Esta bien!

I decided to go for it and I rode the bus home yesterday from work. It’s great and definitely the way to travel! Why? I will tell you why – there is no consistency in the prices of taxis. I was told you can bargain with the taxis, but that is with one caveat…that you speak Spanish pretty well.

The first day, I was not confident in the commute yet so I decided to take a taxi. I was told to expect about 50 pesos (a little less than $2) but when I got there it was 150 pesos (over $6). While I know this is not right, I did not have the skills to negotiate. I paid it and regretted it immediately. This morning, I overslept and was too late to wait for the bus…on a side note, one might wonder how this can happen since I’m in a culture that starts work no earlier than 9:00am, but what can I say?!?…I’m acclimating, especially to the work hours! Anyway, so this morning, I hopped in a taxi, told them “Voy a la Plaza de Independencia. Esta 50 pesos?” He said no, it was 90 pesos…I tried a little bit to say 70? 80? I lost. I paid 88 pesos (about $3.50). Better than yesterday, but I still have work to do. My lesson learned…wake up early enough to take the bus. It costs $15.50 pesos each way ($.65).

So what is the bus like? It is very good and easy to use. The loop that I use is easy so I am definitely grateful for that. I got a little lost finding the bus stop, but the little Spanish I know did get me around the block to the appropriate bus stop. I was so proud! As expected, given the crazy driving, they do not slow down much for passengers to get on and off, so one piece of advice – just go for it or they’ll leave you behind! One interesting thing is that there are two people working on the bus…one to drive and one to take the money. Another lesson learned…I got on the bus and immediately tried to pay the driver. He looked at me like I was loco, so I sat down. Then an older man sitting down looked at me and reached out his hand for money. Ahhh…that makes sense. So, that was that. I met another very nice woman on the bus and she pointed out all the sights, gave me tips and helped me with other bus routes.

Tomorrow, I will need to wake up early and get to the bus so that I do not have to worry about bargaining for a good price with the taxi driver!

I have arrived! Five weeks from my original blog post and now I am here! The trip went well and I feel I have a lot to tell, but I will attempt to be somewhat brief.

I arrived here safely although delayed by 3 hours. Not bad for a multi-connection, 12 hour trip. The trip to Miami was very good. I managed to sleep 6 hours (thanks to my new travel comforts) and not leave my seat. We landed in Buenos Aires and I experienced my first cultural difference. Upon landing, the passengers all applauded the pilots! It makes perfect sense – we put our lives in their hands and they deliver us safely at our destination. They deserve a round of applause. I like it!

The Buenos Aires airport is very nice, clean and commercial. Although many international terminals are commercial with their duty-free stores, this one is particularly impressive with its lighted promenade of goods ranging from perfume and chocolate to golf clubs, diamonds, crystals and cars. These are all displayed by model-esque women in bright, scant outfits. Of course, I immediately got out my camera and took a picture and then was promptly informed by a uniformed security officer that pictures are not allowed. Cultural lesson numero dos. I did get the one picture, which is below, although it’s not as impressive of a picture as it is in reality.

The next interesting thing that happened was before boarding my flight to Montevideo. They made an announcement at the departure gate and suddenly all the passengers stormed the podium. I knew they had not announced the flight yet, so I was curious as to what the commotion was about. The man had announced that a snack was being served – soda and sandwiches. While this does not seem interesting, what I was intrigued about was the type of sandwiches. Apparently sandwiches are a hot commodity here, and not just any sandwiches, I will describe. They are essentially Wonderbread (without the crust), meat (bologna is my best guess) and a cheese like substance (somewhat like velveeta). I tried one and it was okay, so I did not understand the hype. However, since arriving in Montevideo, I have visited a grocery store and these same sandwiches are displayed in the prepared food section (the specialty food kiosks in the deli area) and apprear to be quite popular. I am still intrigued, although I have no desire to eat anymore.

The 29 minute flight to Montevideo was uneventful and we landed amidst another applause for the pilots. I was greeted by a new coworker and we went to the hotel. I did a little exploring yesterday. I found a mall, some restaurants, the money exchange and some banks. All in all it was a good trip and I am excited to be here!

Today was my first day at work. Everyone is very nice and very helpful, although I know they wish I knew more Spanish. I will need to learn quickly. I met all my coworkers (all 80 or so who were there today) and greeted them in their custom – right hand on their left shoulder and one kiss on the right cheek. This is followed by an “encantada!” or “mucho gusto”!

I will stop there for now, but I will include one quick picture (I apologize as I know it is fuzzy). This is the view from a conference room in the office onto the Plaza de Independencia. I plan to explore this much more this weekend and will include more details. It is truly beautiful and is a center of business, shopping and restaurants. The statue you see is of General Jose Gervasio Artigas, father of Uruguay and the leader of its independence movement.

The last cultural lesson of the day is how they say good-bye…it is not “adios”, as expected, rather it is “chau!” pronounced similar to the Italian “ciao”, as most people are descendents of Italy and Spain.

Buenos noches y chau!

So in this part of the world, they speak Spanish. I hear that I’ll be okay getting around using English and the little Spanish that I remember from three years in high school and having a fluent Spanish speaking father and grandmother….Okay, so maybe I should have paid more attention and maybe that would have paid off BIG TIME in the current case. Maybe.

Anyway, so I’ve using the podcasts called Coffee Break Spanish. I really like them and have been learning Spanish alongside Mark and Kara from Scotland. They’re great 15 minute podcasts that take you through everyday Spanish.

Hola, me llamo Katie. Soy de los Estados Unidos y soy de Morton, Illinois pero vivo en Minneapolis. Tengo dos hermanos, Ben y Tim, y una hermana, Becca. Tengo un marido, se llamo Kyle.

If half of that made sense, I’ll be happy….

I’m also getting some Berlitz Spanish materials sent to me shortly – I’ll let you know how that goes. For now, it’s Coffee Break Spanish for me!