Finally an update

Wow, sorry it has taken so long to update. Since we toured Montevideo we have been to the Japanese Gardens here, we've visited about 10 museums, and Earl had his birthday! We all, all 14 of us and Mrs Walker, knocked on his door at midnight and poured confetti all over everything! For his birthday we had a toga party (ACU appropriate of course) and I went to a club for the first time!!

We went by to see the US embassy and I tried to take a picture innocently just to show. A security guard materialized out of no where and said, "They saw you take a picture." and watched as I deleted it before he could chat with us about whether or not we liked the city! We contented ourselves with a photo next to the statue of George Washington, hahaha. There is a statue for everyone here in Montevideo, all gifts. There is one of Confucius (gifted by China) one of Mahatma Ghandi (gifted by India), George Washington, of course, and then several of national heroes, especially Jose Artigas, THE national hero.

As far as the graffiti, it's mostly really cool. I have some great pictures however of George Bush next to Adolf Hitler, who has his hand on George's shoulder. Baghdad graffiti is also prevalent, but for the most part, no one here is hostile toward Americans, it's generally the opposite.

Two weeks ago we went to an Estancia, or Ranch, about 3 hours away from Montevideo and spent the day there. It was a blast and offered an opportunity to see the other side of Uruguay away from the coast. We ate traditional Uruguayan food, I had pork (which still had skin, fat, and hair on it, blech...), potatoes, and bread. We had the opportunity to ride bikes around the orchards, fields, and to the lagoon, where we canoed. Riding horses was definitely my favorite activity though! It's funny to see their stereotypes when we tell them we're Texans, they were like, well, you shouldn't have any trouble with this!

When we came back, our next big adventure was to Colonia del Sacramento, an old Portuguese town on the southwest coast of Uruguay across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. I'll post pictures of Colonia, but it was a wonderful, quiet, peaceful little cute, coastal town that I would love to visit again. We climbed the fort, the lighthouse, saw the Rio de la Plata, and I came this close *holds fingers about a centimeter apart* to renting a moped!

The Dia del Patrimonio (the Day of the Patriots) is a weekend holiday here in Uruguay that was last weekend, and was a rare cultural event here in Uruguay where they honor a different national figure every year. This year they honored a philosopher and posted the picture of the Uruguayan philosopher talking with Albert Einstein all over town. For the weekend we went to the Legislative Palace and other government and private buildings that are open only on this weekend. The Dia del Patrimonio is a day to honor Uruguay's past and it means that everyone in this quiet little country is acting like tourists, the markets and fairs are in full swing, there are actors and street performers everywhere. All buildings are supposed to be open to the public with the exception of people's homes and businesses, although some business are open for tours.

We went to the beach and studied for the first time because it's Spring here now. There are leaves on the trees, green is sprouting up between the cracks in the sidewalk, and it's getting warmer!

That said, we leave for Brazil in 10 min and I'll update when I get back!