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2. Uruguay [2]

January 12, 2009 (Monday)
On Sunday (1/11) we traveled from Buenos Aires to Montevideo by ferry and bus to arrive at the Herrandura Language School.  We have three rooms on the second floor of the school; really a large house on a relatively quiet street a few blocks up from the city beach. We have all been tested and interviewed so that we could be sorted into the correct level of class.  Zachary has been put into advanced and Alexander into intermediate.  As expected the rest of us will make up the beginner class (even after weeks of study). It is an immersion environment and no one speaks english except the other students.  We have use of a kitchen so we did a big shopping trip today and Scott created a great pasta meal to the delight of the house-mom who watched everything he did and tested his spanish with frequent challenges to the way he was cooking.  I also had the chance to do laundry and filled the clothes-lines on the roof with our things.  Thankfully the wind and sun dried everything by evening.


January 17, 2009 (Saturday)
We just finished up our week at the language school.  We learned so much, but a week barely gets us started.  Each day we took classes for 4 hours in the same house where we were also staying.  It was great to meet the other students, most from the US, but also Europe. Though we all wish we had signed up for at least another week, we were also pretty burned out.  Now we just need to keep practicing.

Montevideo felt much more approachable than Buenos Aires.  There are trees along all the streets and a nice breeze that comes off the water.  Along the water there is a wide walkway (La Rambla) and beaches where the entire city seems to gather on the weekends.     


We walked and rode bikes, but the buses and taxis were also easy and inexpensive. Though we ate most meals at the school, we enjoyed a couple nice restaurants and especially enjoyed the historic section of the city with it’s cobblestone streets and cafes. One night we had a party on the roof of the school and enjoyed food, drinks and some dancing. We had instructor who showed us the tango (way too difficult) and then one of the students with Puerto Rican roots taught us all the salsa and got us all up to dance.

      


Today Scott, Alexander and I have returned to BA after exploring the UNESCO city of Colonia de Sacramento (established in Uruguay in 1680).  The last couple days have peaked in the 90s, but tonight the temperatures eased and we got a bit of rain, a real treat for this draught-hit part of the world.   The older boys left Montevideo on Friday to explore some of the beaches along Uruguay's north coast (Punta del Este and Cabo Palonio)  They will join us in BA in time for our flight on Monday to Iguazu Falls.