From North America to South: One Gal's Tale of Travel: And That’s the Story About Why My Professor Licked My Ear

Not only do I have a Soccer team here, now I have a basketball team too. On Monday, my classmate took me to a Semi-Finals game. His team, Malvin (Also a barrio which is right next to mine), was competing to go to the championship. It is a 5 games series and the count was 2-1 Malvin. If they won this game, they would be going to the championship.

The game was really fun but not so much because of the actual game. Melvin pulled out to a quick lead and kept it for the whole game. There are 4, 10 minute quarters. Fouls restart every quarter but the team is only allowed 5 fouls per quarter. At the 5^th foul, they automatically shoot 2 free throws. (In case you were wondering, this conversation was sooo hard to have all in Spanish because I know zero vocabulary about basketball such as the word foul).

Melvin ended up winning by a landslide. When I got home, I quickly left to my friend Clament’s house. I don’t know if you remember, but during my tour of Salar de Uyuni, we shared a jeep with 3 people from France who happened to also be studying in Montevideo. Clament was one of them and she was throwing a going away party for Charles, who is leaving after spring break. It was really great to see them again and to eat some authentic crepes (seriously, yum yum yum)

Dulce de Leche (caramel) and apple crepe

Laura’s birthday is on Saturday, the day that almost all of us will be gone for spring break. We decided to surprise her with an early birthday on Tuesday. For the morning, we set up a little breakfast surprise.

After breakfast, I headed to class. Santiago met me for lunch. We sat with my other international friends and it was fun to introduce him to my other friends. After class I went out on a hunt for a birthday cake. I went to Laura’s favorite bakery but unfortunately, they don’t do cakes unless you order in advance.

Side not about the bakeries; they are called panderias and they are on just about every street. They sell delicious, handmade, fresh baked breads super cheap and delicious. I already know I am going to miss them when I come home. You can buy a cresent roll/biscuit/ butterhorn type thing for like 25 cents and they come with ham and cheese in the middle, or dulce de leche, and all sorts of other goodies. AKA amazing and dangerous!

Anyways, the bakery didn’t have it so I headed to two different groceries stores till I found one I liked. It sounds lame, but I like being in groceries stores. It’s something familiar and I like looking at all the different, new food.

We were planning on surprising Laura with the cake and her favorite wine after dinner but unfortunately she went to bed early because she was feeling a little under the weather.

Wednesday morning, I woke up to a glorious surprise! There was a huge package at the bottom of the stairs!!!

After I finished looking through my goodies, we had a fake birthday number 2 for Laura. We entered into her room, singing happy birthday and handed her the giant card we made. Immediately after, I headed to the University to early to meet up with Santiago. We met in the University and then walked to a park nearby. We spent the next hour and a half together, enjoying the weather and the company. We walked back to eat lunch and met Garrett. I was supposed to go to class at 1:30 (Spanish Class) but when the time rolled around, I decided that I was learning more about the language by speaking with a native speaker, than by sitting in a classroom. This may seem like a lame excuse to not go to class, but I honestly learn a lot from my meetings with Santiago. He corrects my vocal sounds, my sentence structure and also teaches me colloquial terms. We parted ways at 2, and I spent the rest of the time I should have been in Spanish class, in the library studying for my Ecoturismo test. So for all of you who were wondering if I even have work to do, the answer is yes, I just don’t do it in the traditional time frame ;).

Got lost trying to find the library and found this really pretty sanctuary!

After studying, I met up with my classmates to head to this week’s museum. We went to the museum of visual art. It had classic art and modern art. I know I am just ignorant of art but the modern art section felt like I walked right into Ikea.

After the museum, I ran back to the University to cram some more for my test.

After my test in Ecoturimso, we hurried home to retry the birthday dinner/dessert. Laura was surprised, we sang happy birthday for the 3^rd time, and it was really nice to do a little something for her because she does so much for us.

We couldn't find a candle, so I held this out for Laura to blow out

When we finished up with the cake, I went to Parque Rodo to catch the tail end of the David Bisbal concert. We didn’t have tickets, but it was in an ampitheater so we sat on the outside of the fence to listen.

My wonderful language partner and friend, Santiago

After the concert, Garrett, Santiago and I walked back to Garrett’s apartment. We spent the next 2 hours talking about culture, politics and other really interesting topics. At 2, Santiago walked me home. It was a lovely evening with great conversation. I am completely enthralled with these types of discussions. It absolutely fascinating to be able to compare cultures so in depth. The perspective of a visitor and the perspective of a native are so different and it is an interesting dynamic.

The next morning I had my 3 hour Recreation class. We were playing a game of telephone. Garrett and I were sitting next to each other but we got separated because they didn’t want the two internationals together. Garrett and I thought this was funny because we knew that were going to accidentally mess it up and they didn’t want it super messed up right in a row. When it was my turn to hear the word, the professor thought the message had been changed so he decided to restart it. I was happy about this because that meant I would be getting a clear message that hopefully I could pass on correctly. I leaned in to receive the message and the professor leaned in, cupped his hand around my ear for secrecy and then licked my ear. I was sooooo startled. He told me to pass on the message but I told him no, I thought he was playing a prank of the foreign kid. He passed the message on instead. At the end of the game, I learned that the message really was an ear lick and that he hadn’t been picking on the new kid. Even if I knew that, I think I still wouldn’t have passed the message along. All of the Uruguayans thought it was pretty funny.

Also, we played this and I felt like I was back in elementary school

From a classmate, I learned that Penarol was playing in Centenario (the stadium of the first world cup, and the site of last week’s museum) at 8. After class ended at 6, Melissa and I hurried to the stadium to buy tickets. Then, we half walked, half ran back to the house to drop off our backpacks and change. We met up with Jonas and shared a taxi back to the stadium to get there in time.

The game was really fun but the team was pretty bad. They were playing for last place which is a little funny because Penarol is one of the two teams in the huge country rivalry.

I spent the rest of the night skyping the wonderful Elizabeth, watching movies and relaxing.

On Friday, I went with Jeremy and Melissa to the bus terminal. They were leaving for Buenos Aires, and I was buying my ticket to go Sunday. Later, I met up with Jonas, who traveled to Bariloche in January, to learn about where to do, what to do and where to stay when we are there.

Also, I had peanut butter for breakfast and it was heaven

And I found these twin bananas

I spent the day getting my life together a bit because as you might have noticed, I don’t leave myself much free time. Not that I’m complaining!

Later that night, my friend Mari came over. We hung out for a while and then were joined by Garrett. We met up with some other classmates at a local restaurant to try chitivos. Chivitos are an Uruguayan food. It is basically thin strips of beef with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and cheese. I only had a little since I already ate at home but it was delicious.