Today on ómnibus: The British Invasion

Paul McCartney is doing the Estadio Centenario on April 15th. That's right: one fabulous fourth of The Beatles is coming to Montevideo in just a few short days. Why I had to come to Uruguay to have the opportunity to see Sir Paul in concert is still unclear to me, pero estas cosas pasan.

Anyway, as a result of his impending visit, every ómnibus, supermarket, bar, and iPod-toting pedestrian is playing Beatles music. I must have heard "Hey Jude" about eight times this week, but I don't really mind. I like The Beatles. I also enjoy the spontaneous group humming/singing fits that ensue in the supermarket or on the bus when those really iconic tunes play. This one was playing as I got off the bus a few hours ago, and it has been stuck in my head ever since:

Before I mislead you too much, I'm not actually going to see him in concert. Two reasons: first, the price of a good seat was far from reasonable; second, I discovered shortly before the tickets went on sale that I have a friend who lives literally 2 blocks from the open-air stadium. We are going to listen to the musical stylings of Pauly McC from the comfort of his balcony, subsidizing with youtube videos when necessary. Good times.

Semana de Turismo/Concursos y Pascuas

Pretty much everybody in this region of South America is on vacation during "Semana Santa" (Holy Week). From what I can tell, the grand majority of Uruguayans will spend Easter Sunday at some type of family gathering, while the rest of the week is dedicated to traveling, camping, and straight-up laziness. The week is also referred to as the semana de turismo (week of tourism); it follows, then, that I gave myself photo-taking privileges for the entire week. Enjoy!

In the end, I didn't end up traveling anywhere outside of Montevideo, although it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. The few of us on the Midd program tried to plan several trips (Paraguay, Salto, Paysandú, Rosario, and Buenos Aires among them), but after our fifth or sixth attempt fell through (there were no boats/buses available anywhere), we resolved to stay put. The week was a bit of a mixed bag of activities as a result, all of them enjoyable. My trip with Trampolines (see previous post) was earlier in the week, and what follows is a bit of a review of the rest.

Concursos de Comida:
We ended up cooking together quite a bit, spending the money that might have gone toward city tours and souvenirs on artisan cheeses and baking soda (huzzah!). Our meals had themes; these pictures are all from the Uruguayan-American Pizza War, but we also had "cena estadounidense" (a US-themed dinner featuring mac and cheese, apple pie, fondue, and chicken wangs) and "concurso de galletas" (a chocolate-chip cookie bake-off between me and my fellow American, Lily; winner still TBD).

Top: The Uruguayan boys, somewhat candidly, express doubts about putting anything more than mozzarella cheese on a pizza (in this case, broccoli and chicken). We express doubts about putting excessive amounts of mayonnaise in a tomato salad.
Bottom: The US and Uruguayan pizzas, respectively. I think it's pretty clear who won this round, but we'll definitely bring our capital A-game next time. Watch out, Marcelo.

Prado / Semana de Criollo:
On Thursday, the five of us made the trip to Prado, one of the barrios (neighborhoods) of Montevideo. Prado is synonymous with Uruguayan rodeo, which is held en el "Rural del Prado" each year during Semana Santa. This is probably the closest to home I've felt since being here--home home, as in Newport. The whole event was really quite similar to our rodeo week, down to the folk singers and sketchy foodstuffs.

Top: The table set-up: communal salt, toothpicks, napkins, and (of course) mayonnaise–note that closed containers are for pansies. Mary and I decided to try the asado we've heard so much about. It took us about an hour to eat them because our knifes were so dull, but aside from that they were pretty good.
Bottom: Some of the action, some of the folk singers, and a great panorama of the Rural del Prado.

 

 

Felices Pascuas:

To round-out the week, my host family had a big family barbecue. This is a series of photos from the cracking of the chocolate egg. The stars are Constanza (left), Belén (center), and Francisco (right); the latter two are my host niece and nephew, if you will, and Constanza is one of their cousins. They're all at that perfect age for holidays, and they made Easter about 10x more adorable this year. 

In Uruguay, the hollow chocolate egg is the holiday tradition--no deviled eggs, dyes, baskets, hams, or candy comas. There are literally tens of thousands of huevos de Pascuas (chocolate Easter eggs) on sale in the supermarket for about 3-4 weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, and the displays are nothing less than immaculate. I have pictures of those too, but the photos really just don't do them justice. Suffice it to say it's like Uruguay-does-Wonka's-candy-room, and they definitely do it well. The eggs may not be creme-filled, but I think I actually like them more this way–they're simple, more fun to crack, and...well, just look at those faces. 

NOTE: Belén eventually smashed the egg successfully.

Trampolines!

On the Middlebury program, we have the option of either taking four courses at the university or taking three courses and completing an internship; I have chosen the latter. Every Tuesday and Wednesday, I hop on a bus after my classes at Católica are over and make the one-hour trip to Las Piedras, a small city that lays just outside of Montevideo, to work with Trampolines.

Trampolines (pronounced "tram-po-LEE-nes") is one of many projects in the greater metropolitan area of Montevideo run by "El Abrojo," a well-known non-profit organization for social and cultural development in Uruguay. The focus of the project is to provide social and educational support to the children of Las Piedras. The educators on staff take the kids to the pool, the park, etc. to play, as well as provide interactive lessons on topics like personal finance, government, and youth rights. Put simply, it's a really kick-ass before-/after-school program.

I haven't taken on any lessons yet, partially because I'm not sure what to teach, but mostly because my Spanish isn't strong enough to allow me to act as an authority figure. The kids are fantastic, but it's hard for them to understand the delay that comes with operating in a second language. I don't really mind because it's completely understandable for their age and because hardly any of them have experienced anything similar themselves. I love the look on their faces when I speak in English (at their insistence); kind of a dumb-founded/oh-I-guess-she-isn't-slow-minded/wow-do-that-again expression.

For now, I get to take them on trips to the local pool and participate in lessons by other educators. Or, on days like that pictured below, I get to tag-along on their field trips ("paseos," in Spanish). I'm kind of in intern limbo--neither an educator nor an 11-year-old child, resigned to playing games of red-light-green-light whilst mastering the art of imperative commands. 

These pictures are all from a trip we took on Tuesday to visit la Fortaleza de Artigas as well as the ciudad vieja ("old city"), one of the oldest neighborhoods of the city and the political center of Montevideo. Also, gelato; lots and lots of incredible (free) gelato ice cream. [click photos to enlarge]

    

    

A McCafe memoir

Several weeks ago I said I would try to slip the occasional six-word memoir in when inspiration strikes. Today it struck. Like lightning.

This one is dedicated to the workers at Montevideo Shopping's McCafe who fed me after I left the Hunger Games (partially unintentional pun):

Uniform? Canadian tuxedos, complete with arches. 

They had matching denim hats too. 

Spotlight on: Mayonesa

Uruguayan people have an ongoing love affair with mayonnaise. It is almost literally their bread AND butter--and I say almost because they do in fact spread mayonnaise on bread, but I'm not entirely convinced they would even do that if there were a way to make mayonnaise-based bread products. It goes on everything here, from the normal fair (hamburgers, potato salad, etc.) to the truly odd (fruit, potato chips, cookies, corn-on-the-cob). When you eat out at a restaurant, on the table are napkins, menus, silverware, mayonnaise, and (maybe) ketchup. It even has a song, and they know every word. More than sandwich lubricant, it is their number one condiment-dip-topping-drizzle-super-gel. It's excessive, and it's a problem in our relationship.

EDIT: I stand corrected. In fact, there is a way to make mayonnaise-based bread. I will not be introducing this concept to my friends.

"She's exaggerating," you say to yourself, "This is just comical fodder. She's writing a blog entry for its own sake and she has nothing else to talk about." No. I–pardon my English–shit you not, my friends. We (the girls on my program and I) had dinner with a group of our uruguayan friends last night, and we had an entirely-too-long conversation about the merits of mayonnaise followed by a game of let-the-americans-guess-what-you-CAN'T-eat-with-mayonesa. I think ice cream was the only thing I came up with. 

And now I offer you a series of photos of my friend Marcelo eating corn on the cob, con mayonesa, por supuesto. 

EDIT: To be fair, I haven't really tried it yet. If at some point in the coming months I eat mayo on potato chips/fruit/corn/eggs/etc. and love it, I will post a video of myself doing the mayonesa dance to compensate for the overtly caustic nature of this entry.