Today on ómnibus: Saturday Night Fever

That's right. I spent quite a bit of time on the bus today and heard not one, not two, but THREE different songs from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Listening to Stayin' Alive while on the bus makes people watching infinitely more entertaining. Why? Because, well, you can tell by the way they use their walks...

And, by the way, I must be doing something right when I walk down the street because people have started regularly asking me for directions. AND I CAN GIVE THEM...sometimes, depending on whether I can understand what they're asking me and/or I actually know the answer. I can tell by the looks on their faces after I've spoken that they're not 100% confident I know what I'm talking about, but I'll take any sign of progress I can get.

More tourist photos to come, as well as posts featuring my internship with "El Abrojo" and some unfortunate uruguayan branding efforts. Also, Peñarol game this Friday; I am stoked to say the least. 

Martín Fierro!

Why on earth am I so excited about Martín Fierro? Because it's the best thing ever. And because an entire country has claimed one of my favorite odd food combinations as a national dessert. Is it possible to develop a crush on a country? Because if so I am officially enamored. There are many reasons, of course, but this one little thing puts the cherry on top (or, in this case, the dulce de membrillo).

For those of you who need a little more context, I like to eat fruit preserves on pretty much anything (crackers, hot dogs, pizza....) Yep, it's weird. One of my favorite snacks is strawberry preserves on slices of cheese, and I have always been made fun of for it. Dulce de membrillo isn't exactly the same, but the taste is similar (i.e., sooooooo gooood). I had it for dessert tonight--and not one eyebrow was raised.

This post goes to all the haters out there. :p

Mis asignaturas.

Day 2 of classes at Católica is done, and I can already tell I'm going to have difficulties narrowing my selections down to three. Here are the classes I'm trying out this week, if you care to know:

• Evaluación de los Aprendizajes (Evaluation of Learning)
• Educación Psicomotriz (Psychomotor Education)
• Pedagogía Familiar (Family Pedagogy)
• Psicología Educacional (Educational Psychology)
• Entrevista Clínica (Clinical Interview)
• Psicología de la Religión (Yadda Yadda Cognates)

Aside from three courses of those listed above, I will be taking a Spanish class through my program and (hopefully) completing an internship in the city. My interview is on Friday at 2.00pm--that's 1pm EST, I believe, with daylight savings in effect. Wish me luck :D

And here are some pictures I took on the sly while I was wandering around between classes today.

Left: Hanging out next to the lego wall and reading Freakonomics (en español, por supuesto).

Right: Photographic evidence that the entrance to the psych suite at Midd needs a serious overhaul. 

El día internacional del turista.

When I'm walking down the street in Montevideo, I stick out. Mostly it's because of my appearance (i.e. super fair skin and freckles) and my accent, but I can pass as somebody who's been here for more than a week if I hold my head up and stay away from words like "Colorado," "madre," and, sadly enough, "Angela" (a bit tough to avoid, that one). Unfortunately, all progress toward blending in is lost as soon as I pull out my camera or my city map. 

Thus, I am faced with the study abroad student's dilemma. The truth is that I want to take pictures of everything, but it's difficult to do so discretely. It is my opinion that you lose a certain amount of legitimacy as a student seeking immersion when you behave like a tourist (if you like, we can discuss later to what degree, if at all, this it true). 

In a very round about way, I'm trying to explain to you why I've henceforth declared each Friday to be "el día internacional del turista." I'm quite pleased with this solution: one day each week reserved for behaving like a tourist--I get to take as many pictures as I want and have as many unnecessary misunderstandings with clerks and taxi drivers as there are hours in the day. Ahoy!

SO, here are some of the photos I took for the inaugural Día del Turista. Click to enlarge. Enjoy!!

180 panorama of a park a few blocks away from the Facultad de Humanidades para República.

Left: Motorcycles ("motos") are super common here. With so few parking spaces, it's not hard to understand why.
Right: A glimpse of the entrance hall at the Facultad de Humanidades, complete with a welcome board for new students.

Left: A bit of graffiti near my host family's house. "La Blanqueada" is the name of the barrio (neighborhood) where they live.

Right: My host family's house from the outside. :D More pictures of them will appear in the future, I'm sure.

Left: A football/handball stadium on the beach ("Playa Pocitos," specifically) where Mary, Lily, and I took a walk before our tango lesson. Yes, it was cliche and yes I loved every minute of it.

Right: Mary en la playa. This is the view from the opposite side of the 360 panorama I took the other day.

We ate at a small pizzeria called "The Princess" after the tango lesson. There hints of Italian influence everywhere in Uruguayan culture, perhaps most noticeably in the food. Pizza + Patricia + gelato-esque ice cream after dinner = lo mejor. 

Thank you for your patience. These were both marathon posts and I'm sure they weren't made any better by my choppy English. Oddly enough, my English has suffered at the hands of my Spanish; a David-and-Goliath-esque struggle, I imagine.

Spotlight on: el ómnibus

I've never lived in a large city for an extended period of time, so I've never had the opportunity to develop a preference for one form of public transportation over another. However, little more than one week has passed since I arrived in Montevideo, and I do believe I'm developing a soft spot for "el ómnibus."

With no subway system to speak of, you're left with two options in Montevideo--taxi or ómnibus. There are several reasons I prefer the latter:

• Cost. A trip on the bus will be between $18-27 (approx. $1-$2 USD), whereas a cab ride starts at around $27 (again in pesos). There is a bus stop about 2 blocks from my house, so the winner here is clear.
• No directions! On the ómnibus, you need only tell them "una hora" "dos horas" o "común" and your work is done. I imagine this will matter less as I become a better Spanish speaker, but giving directions is awful right now. Me with my strong accent, the driver with theirs, and a plexiglass wall between us to muffle the sound--a recipe for pure confusion.
• People-watching. Lower your eyebrows; we all do it. This one is self-explanatory for the most part, I think. People-watching for me also means people-listening. Some might call it eavesdropping, but I think it's qualitatively different when the goal is to get accustomed to the Uruguayan manner of speaking rather than garner information. 
• The music. Hands down the most entertaining part of the ride. Sometimes there are musicians on the bus who will play a song or two before getting off, which is pretty great, but for me the best is the radio. As far as I can tell, the ómnibus playlist consists of mostly 80s classic rock and disco hits, with a few other top 40 hits from the '90s, '00s, and now mixed in. We're talking a whole lot of Bryan Adams (like this, this, and this (but unfortunately none of this (yet))). There may or may not be a series of "Today on Ómnibus" posts coming your way with particularly enjoyable songs.

The list could go on, but this post is long enough already, yeah? Yeah. By the way, I took this picture on Friday (El día internacional del turista). This bus is about to take me, Mary, and Lily (other students in the Middlebury program) to our first tango lesson. Legit. :D

"¡Como Uruguay no hay!"

I know that my family is itching to see photographs, and I know that it would be nice of me to write some kind of extended blurb about the first few days. However, whenever I think too long in English, it interferes with my (limited) ability to think in Spanish. We can't have that, can we?

Instead, please accept this panoramic photo of "La Rambla" and one of the many beautiful Uruguayan beaches. The guy in the middle is Federico, my tutor estudiantil (o "amigo automático," as my program coordinator is fond of saying). He has graciously volunteered to listen to me speak in broken Spanish on a regular basis. A round of applause for Federico, please (and give yourself a pat on the back if you are reading this).  

"White Person Travel Bingo" OR "Why I was almost too self-conscious to purchase a moleskine notebook"

...from Barnes & Noble, if you care to know.

The context for my indecision? "Stuff White People Like," a book/blog by Christian Lander that defines and catalogs "the unique taste of millions." I have slowly been losing my ability to laugh at the book in a non-ironic way (irony, by the way, is #50 on the list), and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. Just this week I've attended an Oscar party, subscribed to an Onion-like news blog (actually worth a look, btw), and proclaimed aloud that Uruguayans don't wear flip-flops. What kind of crackpot claim is that? I don't even know.

What's next? Study abroad, traveling, delighting in being the only white person around, watching Wes Anderson movies on the plane? And what if, someday soon, I'm able to clear an entire "White Person Travel Bingo" board by simply looking in the mirror? I'm not convinced this is a downward spiral, my friends, but a spiral nonetheless. And I'm dizzy.

So, I spent about 10 minutes (or 5 minutes, but it's safe to say entirely too long) in front of the shelf of "legendary" moleskine notebooks contemplating all of this. Just as I began to ponder the sociological implications of my own internal conflict, I thought "this is stupid," and plucked a pack of three plain notebooks from the shelf.

I've decided to start drawing again. Nothing fancy, just an object/figure study now and then, but enough to get back into the habit. A few weeks ago, somebody suggested that I try to draw something I see in Uruguay each day, and the idea stuck. Here's the inaugural 5-minute sketch I did last night. Seems only too appropriate for a girl heading to such a sunny place.