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
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