Hello! I probably won’t have an update each week, but I wanted to share about this second week in Uruguay because we took a downtown city tour and had a field trip to Sierra de Minas, a pretty area in the country outside of Montevideo.

City Tour 🏙️

On an organized tour of the city center, we learned about Carlos Gardel, a famous tango singer from the early 1900s whose birth country is controversial, some saying he was born in France or Argentina. Uruguayans say he was born here and there is a statue of him outside of the first bar in Montevideo called Bar Facal (along with a bronzed plaque stating that he was born in Uruguay). Next to his statue is a fountain, filled with locks of lovers who’ve pledged forever to one another. 🔒❤️

Plaza Independencia in Montevideo’s main square has a monument to José Artigas with an imposing statue at ground level and a mausoleum below it where his remains rest under protection by a guard of honor. Artigas was a soldier and revolutionary leader, knowns at the father of Uruguayan Independence. 🇺🇾

There is also a well known food truck called Macanudo where a few of us stopped for lunch. They sell huge hamburgers and hotdogs. 🍔🌭 Though I thought I ordered a hotdog, I accidentally ordered an expensive hamburger 😂🤷🏻‍♀️…but it was tasty. 😋

Field Trip! ⛰️

The organizers of this international student program are named Orlando and Sebastian and they are awesome! They are our contacts for any questions about our classes and life in Uruguay. They were super nice to take us on a field trip this week to the Sierras de Minas, an area about an hour and a half away from the city. We visited a wild life preserve that had capybaras, a leopard and some really neat birds. We also had lunch at a park and then hiked to a zip line for some pretty views.

In week 2, my Spanish has not improved 🤣🤦🏻‍♀️ But I have started listening to Spanish podcasts and music and I found a flash card app where I made 300 flashcards in one evening….so hopefully I’ll notice some small gains soon. 😀🤞🏼 I hope everyone had a nice Labor Day this week and thanks for following along!