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.
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.
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.
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