Los otros estudiantes...

This weekend the other exchange students came to visit from Montevideo (Hannah--US, Ian and Julia--Germany). It was SOOO MUCH FUN! They got here Saturday morning around eleven and Julia stayed in my house so we hung out a bit and got to know each other. They all have been here since August so they speak perfect Spanish! It was a little hard/embarrassing for me to speak with Julia because she speaks so well! But she was super nice and cool. I showed her a bunch of pictures and then we had lunch (milanesas--mmm haha). Then after we all got together and drove to Punta Ballena which has AMAZING views and we saw Casa Pueblo (I had already been there, but it was cool to see it again). We tried to see if we could get a free tour but we couldn't so we left and drove up this other hill-thing to see Las Cumbres which is a really nice hotel on the top of a superrr high hill where you can see basically everything. Buuuut there was a wedding going on so we couldn't go in. And Elbio (my liaison) showed us this spot on the way up the hill where you go up a small incline and stop your car at a certain spot, turn it off and put it in neutral and it'll move backwards up the hill on its own! They say it's either a magnetic charge or an optical illusion--I'm still not sure but it was really cool! Then Elbio showed us this mountain called Pan de Azucar (Sugar Loaf) which apparently aligns with two other mountains (one in Africa and one somewhere else) in the world with the same names. It's believed that they were all part of the same chain millions of years ago when all the continents were connected (Pangea or whatever it's called). It was pretty cool. Then we drove around central Maldonado and then to Punta del Este where we were going to get churros but the store was closed (everything was closed haha!). So instead we went to a flea market type thing (but not haha) and there was a ton of cool jewelry and stuff. Then we all went back to our respective houses to rest before we went to my friend Mariana's house (Claire's host sister) for asado. Everyone was there, including some of my other friends (Belen, Gonzalo, Juan and Agusto). It was soo much fun and the asado was SOO good! We stayed until about 12:30 and then went home because we were all exhausted. Then today we drove to La Barra and went to Rosario's house (one of the other liaisons). We walked along the beach a bit and then had lunch and walked some more haha. Then we all drove to Jose Ignacio and climbed up this famous lighthouse. It was SOOO WINDY AND COLD at the top but SOO AMAZING!!! The water was such a dark blue and the waves were so rough and there were a tons of dark and light clouds overhead--so beautiful! I didn't get any pictures because I forgot my camera but Claire is going to send me some :) . Then we drove back to Punta and went to the mall to hang out and get a snack. Hannah (the girl from Maine) had to leave early because she lives in La Paz which is a little north of Montevideo and so she had to get two buses. Then Ian and Julia left around seven. I already miss them! It was so much fun but Claire and I are going to visit them in Montevideo some other weekend! Also, next weekend I'm going to try to go to a concert in Montevideo with Claire, Mari and Belen but I don't think we'll have time to visit them...

To make a veryy long story short: this weekend was AMAZING. Meeting the other students has made me so much more enthusiastic about this whole experience (not to mention it had helped my Spanish a lot!) and now I seriously want to stay for a whole year. I'm going to see if there's some way I can work it out because four and a half months just totally is not enough time!!!

Chauu, Ellen

Oops...

It's been a month....oh well.

Anyways things are still going really well here in Uruguay. I've made a ton of friends and have been hanging out with them a lot. A few weekends ago we went to an outdoor rock festival. There were tons of bands there from both Uruguay and Argentina, and most of them were pretty good. It was crazy though, it started at about 6pm and went until about 2:30 or 3 in the morning! But it was soo much fun! Unfortunately right after I got really sick with a throat infection and had to go to the doctor. They gave me antibiotics and now I'm all better :) haha. Last weekend I slept over my friend Mariana's house (Claire's host sister) and my other friend Belen came too. It was pretty fun but we stayed up wayyy too late. The next day we went to Piriapolis which is this small city about half an hour away. It's sooo pretty there and we walked along the beach and went shopping a bit. We also went to a feria artesenal, or a flea-market type thing (lots of local artists selling their works) and I bought a ring and a bracelet that is made with an old Uruguayan coin...I love them!

I've also been getting closer to my new family and getting used to my new house. I have my own room now which is really nice. My new family is my host mom Moni, my sister Stephi who's thirteen, my little brother Christian who's ten, and my older brother Matias who's twenty-one (I think). I really like them, and I'm really starting to get closer with them. It's still hard to communicate, but that'll get better soon.

School's been going alright, again it's still hard for me to understand my teachers and keep up in class, but it's getting easier. And they don't expect that much from me so it's good. I have to take an english class in the afternoon though, which sucks, but hopefully my AFS advisor will be able to convince the director to let me and Claire to get out of it. If he does I'm going to take guitar lessons and maybe dance and maybe even theatre to help my Spanish. I also just joined the country club that's two blocks from my house, and it's really nice. I've been playing tennis and going to the gym a lot, and it helps fill up more of my afternoons and I'm meeting more people outside of school.

I'd be lying if I said it's all been perfect though. The past couple weeks have also been really difficult in terms of culture shock and homesickness. But now that I'm getting busier and doing more things and communicating more it's gotten better...gotta try and keep it up.

Oh, and in May all the AFS Argentina kids (includes Claire and I) are going on a trip to Las Cataratas (Iguazu Falls) and all over northeastern Argentina for 11 days! It's going to be so amazing and soo much fun! I'm going to get to see all my friends that are in Argentina whom I haven't seen since we got here! So I'm really looking forward to that.

Also this weekend some other exchange students who are living in Montevideo (the capital) are coming to visit! There are two German kids (a guy and a girl) and a girl from the US coming! Claire and I are going to bake some cakes and stuff and I think we're all going to go out to a disco! I'm so excited! It'll be interesting to talk to them to see what their experiences have been like so far, and they've also been here longer so it'll be cool.

Other than that not much else is going on. More when I have more news!