Thursday, July 02, 2009
I have seen the Southern Cross for the First time...
He visto la Cruz del Sur por primera vez. :)
My flight from Buenos Aires to Montevideo on Sunday was over an hour late leaving, but only one hour late arriving. I think that’s funny. Anyway, what was NOT funny was that my suitcase was THE last suitcase from my flight to hit the conveyor belt. It took over an hour to get my bag, and at this airport, they don’t allow anyone but passengers in the baggage claim area, so poor Gianella was waiting outside for me for SO long.
The weather was cloudy and cool – apparently typical for the wintertime here. When we left the airport, Gianella took me on a quick driving tour of the coasts of Montevideo. What a beautiful city! There are miles and miles of riverfront property, with a “rambla” (or a lovely walkway along the waterfront) on one side of the riverside road, and many tall buildings (mainly apartments) on the other side of the road. Then we went to her home and had a mid-afternoon snack and watched the news for awhile. There had been a military coup in Honduras, which was of course one of the main stories on the station “CNN en español”. There were also national elections in Argentina and primary elections in Uruguay on that day, all of which was of great interest to Gianella. I was using the opportunity to practice my Spanish listening skills, which are rather lousy. :)
Before dinner, which is often a late-evening affair in many parts of the world, we drove a bit more around the city. Gianella showed me the main public square and some parts of the “old city” and some statues of famous Uruguayans. We had dinner at a wonderful restaurant called “The Famous Grouse” – I had arroz con mariscos (rice with shellfish). Mmmmm… But the BEST part was dessert – panqueques de manzanas, apple pancakes served with the best (literally) ice cream I have ever tasted in my life. (And you know me … I am an ice cream expert, a talent/skill inherited from my father!) Mmmmmmmmmmmm…………..
The next morning it was pouring down rain and there was lots of thunder and lightning. Originally, it had been my intention to rent a car and drive the 5+ hours from Montevideo to Rivera, but eventually changed my mind and allowed Leti to buy me a bus ticket. I was SO glad, because the weather was so bad, and the entire bus ride (which ended up being almost six hours) was through mucho, mucho rain! I planned to read a lot on the bus, but ended up sleeping a lot. I’m not sure why, though, because I wasn’t necessarily tired. Hmmm…
Leti and Gerardo AND both of their children, Micaela (11) and Juan Martín (7) were all at the bus station to pick me up. They drove me around the city of Rivera a little bit before going home. Rivera is a fairly large city on the border of Uruguay and Brazil. There is really no distinction between the parts of the city that are Uruguayan and those that are Brazilian. You wouldn’t necessarily know if you’d crossed from one country into the other, which we have now done several times.
Their home is on a small piece of farm property about 15 minutes outside of the city of Rivera, in a jurisdiction called Curticeiras. Gerardo is a local politician and was running for national parliamentary office in the primary elections the day before (and he won!), so their phones (home and cells) were ringing non-stop. Several days later, they are still getting frequent calls of congratulations. In between phone calls, they started a fire in the fireplace, and Gerardo set up a small grill, called a “parrilla”, over the fire. In Uruguay, there is a style of cooking meat called “asado”, which involves cooking sausage (“chorizo”) and different red meats over the open fire in a barbeque pit or in your fireplace. We sat around drinking DELICIOUS Uruguayan red wine (a shiraz that I wonder if I’ll ever be able to find in the States…) and eating the asado as Gerardo pulled it from the fire. Meanwhile, Mica practiced her English with me (she speaks like a native!) and Juan showed me some of his notebooks from school (which were exceptionally neat and organized … I wonder if I can ever get my own students to keep such wonderful notebooks…) We also drank a Uruguayan drink called “mate”, which is similar to tea, but is served in a special container, you pour hot water over the yerba mate (which is ground to a tea consistency) and drink through a metal straw-like contraption called a “bombilla”. Mate is rather bitter, but of course, because I love black coffee so much, I am no stranger to hot bitter drinks. I really like mate. I’ll need to bring me home some of the necessities and see if I can find yerba mate at a local international grocery store. Dessert was dulce de leche and cookies. I’ve had dulce de leche with almost every meal since then. Also another yummy tasty thing that I’m indulging in while here.
Before going to bed, we noticed that the skies had cleared, and they took me outside to show me the southern constellations, including the Southern Cross. I hadn’t realized that Southern constellations are different than the Northern ones. Quite fascinating. Since we are in the countryside, the lights from the city did not distract from seeing a zillion stars and a bright, bright winter quarter moon. I don’t often get to see such a beautiful night sky when in the DC area.
Breakfasts this week have mostly been “continental” style – breads and jams and cheese and juice and coffee and mate and so on. One kind of jam that they have lots of is quince. “Quince” is the English word (“membrillo” in español) for a fruit of which I have never heard. They happened to have one on the property and Mica went to find it for me. It is a bit bigger than a mango, bright yellow, and very aromatic. Apparently you don’t really want to eat it raw (as it is supposedly quite bitter), but it is great when prepared for jams, etc. I wonder if I can find it in the States… I suppose I’ll be spending lots of time in the international grocery when I get back home. :)
Yesterday morning, instead of the “continental” breakfast, Juan Martín, with really not much help from his mother, prepared panqueques for us. They were not like fluffy American pancakes, but more like flat crepes that you spread things on and roll up. Of course, Mica and I used dulce de leche in ours.
Leti and I have spent the mornings this week just sitting and talking, catching up (I haven’t seen her since she was in DC in October when we met). It is so much fun being here with her, in her home, in her country. I’m having a wonderful time!
Their tradition is to have a large lunch, snacks with mid-afternoon tea, and a late and large dinner. One afternoon, we went to the city and used the computer in Gerardo’s office to check e-mail and Facebook and do other random stuff online (like looking up the Jimmy Buffet song about seeing the Southern Cross for the first time ?). We’ve explored Rivera a little bit, saw some of the sights like a place on the top of a hill where you can look down over the whole city, and we marveled at all of the places where Gerardo’s face, name and political advertisements are painted HUGE on walls around the city. I also had my photo taken on the international border, with one foot in Uruguay and the other in Brazil. Another afternoon, we took a scenic drive in a gorgeous valley called “Valle del Lunarejo” – climbing on rocks with the kids, climbing through a barbed wire fence to get a better view (and better photos) of the valley, and just looking at all of the gorgeous countryside. We have spent only a very little time shopping. I’m not much of a shopper, but will eventually want to stop for a few souvenirs and some gifts before I leave Rivera on Friday afternoon (my flight from Montevideo, Uruguay to Lima, Peru will be on Saturday afternoon).
One evening, after dinner when Leti took Juan Martín to pick up Gerardo from work a bit late, she said something to Mica very quickly in Spanish. I didn’t think anything of it. While they were gone, Mica and I sat eating our manzanas con dulce de leche (apples with dulce de leche) and gabbing (did I mention that her English is excellent?). Suddenly she says to me that her mother told her that she was not supposed to allow me to do the dishes. Well, you should have seen the conversation that ensued. No one (NO ONE) tells me what to do and what not to do … especially a kiddo. She insisted that if I attempted to get into the kitchen, she was going to lock me out. Later she told me that they don’t have a key for the one door that would have let me into the kitchen. Anyway – I gave Leti a hard time for using my ignorance of the Spanish language against me. It was all in good fun … but, again, I MUST work on mi español!!!!! Oh – and Mica just told me that I have to tell you that … she won! I did NOT do the dishes. :)
Obviously, Mica is proofreading this for me. She wants me to add that I think that Juan Martín is a HAM! It’s been interesting trying to explain to her what, exactly, I mean by that description. But he is really, truly a ham. I keep telling Leti & Gerardo that “no necesitan un televisor” (that they don’t need a television set) because Juan Martín is entertainment enough. (They DO have two television sets … but really, the kid is in a constant state of “hilarious”!)
So, with all of this talk about dulce de leche I have to add this little story. As I was pondering whether to bring my “good” camera or not, I got advice from several people that I should NOT bring the camera if I was going to be in Lima. After checking with my homeowners insurance and talking with some more people, I decided to bring it. So this evening, Leti & Gerardo and I were walking along, eating churros filled with dulce de leche, and I looked down to see hot dulce de leche dripping down my entire sweater and ALL OVER my camera. You’re not supposed to get a digital camera wet in any way, so I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to clean it. Ugh! Well, it DID get clean and my sweater is fine. But who thought that the dulce de leche would be the downfall of the camera, and not a pickpocket in Lima…... :)
Leticia is an English teacher at a local high school. She probably knows more about my language than I do. That makes it very easy for me to ask her some very analytical questions about my Spanish learning (you know how my brain works). That has helped a lot. We have tried to converse in Spanish here and there. But it’s difficult to have a deep conversation with a girlfriend in a language that you know very little of. Mica speaks English and wants to practice with me. Juan Martín has started learning English in school, but is rather unsure. When he speaks to me in Spanish, he forgets to speak slowly, and he runs his words together, so I have had difficulty understanding him. But I try to speak to him in Spanish, and he is comfortable correcting me, and is always VERY polite when he does so. Gerardo doesn’t speak much English, and Leti is pressing him to learn a bit more. He has tried to speak English with me a little, and I have tried to speak Spanish with him a little. But our conversations end up turning political or to some other more complicated subject, and Leti ends up translating for us. Some day we’ll both be fluent in the others’ language.
As I said, I will leave Rivera on Friday, we’ll spend the night at Leti’s parents’ house in Montevideo. Saturday morning, I believe that we’re going to do some more shopping and have lunch with Gianella. I’ll need to be at the airport mid-afternoon for my flight to Lima. I’ll connect through Santiago, Chile and arrive in Lima quite late. I will hopefully have time to update again sometime while in Lima. Keep checking back! :)
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love all the cultural descriptions! i love how you embrace it and learn so much. miss ya.
# posted by 
: 7/05/2009 11:44 PM
: 7/05/2009 11:44 PMPost a Comment
