Hmm what to say about Montevideo. It's basically a small extension of Buenos Aires, similar culture, same food and same crazy accent. Every "ll" and "y" they "sh", I actually like it but it's so hard to understand them sometimes. They talk so fast and which such a thick accent.

Upon arriving, Laura (girl I'm staying with) and her friend met me outside the airport. I'm SO happy to be staying with girls, especially these ones. They're funny and so sweet. My first night was Saturday and I wanted to take advantage of a girls night. Laura was down and invited some friends to go out but she explained to me that they don't start until 1 or 2... a.m. Being the grandma that I am (no offense Grandma!) I couldnt believe it. On a normal night I go to bed 10 or 11. She said they eat dinner at that time.... I dont like this lol. Anyway, I took a nap THEN got ready to go out. We got to this place at like 12 30 or so, it was dead. It was a cool place with old rock music (which they love), a lot of Brazilian music, and some Uruguayan (they'd say Urugashan) reggae. At about 2 30am thy opened the dance floor. I was trying to enjoy the moment and the girls are nice but 2 30??? Are you kidding?! Luckily, once we got in the music was good and I had a lot of fun dancing. Except most people look way younger than they are. For the girls, this works out nicely but the guys... Yikes. Most are like my height and look 12. There were a few average American height guys but very few. All the girls I've met so far are like 28 or 30 but look 18! And it's not like heathy, eat a lot of fruit, get a lot of sun young, it's just like childish young. Anyway, we had fun dancing until the place was so full we couldn't move. Literally. Couldn't move. There were too many people and everyone was pushing by trying to get through. I got carried away a few times by the crowd and at about 4 30am I'd had enough. I was hungry. We went to leave and Lauras friends said "But it's so early!" Shut up, I wanted to say. It's an ungodly hour lol. We ended up not sleeping until like 6 by the time we ate and got ready for bed.

Then Sunday was even more interesting. In a central plaza at the port, once a year (for medical students, other degrees are at other times), all the recent graduates go to celebrate. They do this by getting eggs and eggs and flour thrown at them. Covered in broken eggs, flour and sometimes champagne. It's insane, and kind of scary. I took pictures (duh). But it was awesome, different than anything I've seen before and hilarious. They told me that sometimes the friends and family cut your hair... Like in chunks. How on earth that says "congrats" beats me but it's funny...

The cold is indescribable. Forget Chile, this is border line miserable. At least Chile had lots of color and nice cafes. So far in Montevideo it's very gray. Which makes it seem colder. Thank God Laura is so nice and fun because in general, people aren't happy and friendly here. Customer service is a foreign concept. It takes forever just to get a menu and it's as if you're interrupting their job by ... Giving their restaurant service? Funny. Makes it easy not to tip much.

Also thank God for meat. Just like in Argentina, they eat a lot of good meat here on the grill. If not for that I'd starve because just like Chile, corn doesn't exist. I'm basically giving in at least once a day to gluten because I end up hungry with 0 options...

I love that there is so much Portuguese here, they have a lot of music and foods from Brazil and a lot of people here speak Portuguese since it's so close and most Uruguayans travel or move to Brazil. It's making me excited for Brazil. Plus the cold, every day I'm just thinking "Rio, Rio, Rio..." Everyone tells me how much I'll love it. Just the culture, full of healthy happy people, lots of good music and dancing and beach. I've found some forums online about people who teach English and some schools that I could check out to see if I could work or at least exchange English for Portuguese. Thatd be nice. Also, the couple I'm staying with there is helping me look for volunteer work.

So the interesting (and different) things about Uruguay are: free education (like University, for anything! Doctors, lawyers, engineers, study for free), the equality between classes (there is not nearly a large gap such as in Brazil and other Latin American countries), and mate (a very popular cultural drink of herbs in hot water that everyone is always drinking, I'll put up a picture because it's very cultural). It's also interesting how everyone is white. In Chile they have s strong indigenous culture and outside of Santiago there are people of darker skin and of course Brazil has a strong mix from blonde and blue eyes to dark black from African slave heritage. But here in Uruguay and Buenos Aires, they say, it's predominantly white and lighter brown hair and blue and green eyes aren't unusual. Most people only notice I'm foreign when I start talking.

Now I'm off to see Punta del Este (a really nice beach, apparently in the summer it's very touristy) and Piriapolis before I take a bus to Porto Alegre, Brazil!! I'm counting the days to get to Rio de Janeiro, see that couple that used to tutor me and stay in ONE place for more than 3 days. I just hope I pick up Portuguese ok (I have to fall in love temporarily... It's the best way to learn a language!)