Things I have learned so far

Today marks exactly two weeks since I have arrived here in Montevideo, Uruguay.  Craziness! (To see where my new home is click here) There have been a lot of transitions and waiting and confusion and learning, at times it has been a bit rough, but overall it has been going really well! I figured that I should share some of the things I have learned so far, some silly and some serious. So here goes!

Kari and me on our first full day in Montevideo!

•    Just cause there is an empty bus at the start of the line, waiting to leave, doesn’t mean that it will let you on, it may just drive away and leave you standing there…

•    Smiling and nodding can get you a pretty long way when you don’t understand what is happening…but sometimes smiling and nodding doesn’t work, like when the fruit guy yells at you for touching the apples after he already told you not to and you smiled and nodded in agreement…

•    I never knew how much I appreciated shower drains and their placement in the bathroom until now, when I have to squeegee the bathroom floor after my shower

•    You should probably know more than the general direction of the beach before attempting to walk there, otherwise you may walk for an hour and a half to find one and later discover that there is one a 25 min walk away

But sometimes wandering has its benefits, like finding this place after 1.5 hours of searching.

•    Even though you are purchasing things in a large store, they may not have the right change to give you and may get mad at you for not having closer to exact change

•    That the Spanish words for push me more on the swing and stop pushing me sound very similar, and are especially hard to distinguish when you are standing behind the kid pushing them on the swing

•    Just because you already know 2 or 3 Spanish names for something doesn’t actually mean that you know the name they use here

•    Uruguay has the biggest cows I have ever seen!

Giant cow!

Big momma!

•    That what I really should have been doing these last couple years to build up my forearm strength for pitching is push small or not so small children on swings for hours, it really builds up your muscles

•    Another good workout for your legs is to teeter-totter with kids who weigh a 1/3 or ¼ of what you weigh

•    That mate is so popular here that they need to have signs in the buses saying not to drink it there because of the dangers of the hot water, bombilla, etc

The wikipedia image of mate, a drink to which I am already getting addicted to.

•    That gas ovens cook very differently from ovens in the US, but that chocolate chip cookies taste amazing no matter where you are and what kind of oven you are using

Yum yum!

•    No matter where in the world they are or what language they speak all kids really just want someone to love and care for them

•    It is crazy how fast a place can feel comfortable and like home!