October 30

Aahh... (that was a refreshed sigh)

Friday night after my dance class I walked to Lauren's house so we could plan our trip to Uruguay for the following day. (apparently Lauren likes to procrastinate like me!) We realized that the boat reservations could only be made online at least two days before so we decided we just had to show up early and buy tickets when we got there. We booked hostels and packed and crashed on my bed for about 5 hours before getting up at 6 to finish packing and leave to catch a taxi to the other side of town and the harbor. When we got to the ticket box... not only were there no tickets left to Punto del Este (the city we were planning on going to first), we were informed that we needed our student visas (which we had left home) because we were about a week past the three month tourist visa date... grrr. So instead of running home and probably missing the boat we paid the 50 peso fine each and bought our tickets. We ate breakfast at the cafe and got on the boat. The ride was only an hour long and then we were in Uruguay! The boat was cool despite the brown river water. Even though we couldn't sit on the deck and drink piña coladas. Basically the entire weekend all I wanted was a Piña Collada served to me in a coconut with a little umbrella... but it never happened. Anyway, when we arrived in Colonia (which was about a 30 second walk from the boat) we went to the hostel to change our reservation to include Saturday night as well as Sunday night. Then we walked around looking for a place to buy lunch. It is such a gorgeous little town. There weren't very many people around. It was sunny. It smelled good. I kept getting whiffs of different flower smells. One thing that really got us was that the drivers in the cars actually stopped for pedestrians... something that never happens in Bs. As. In fact, when I cross the street here... it is almost always a near death experience. It was beautiful. The people were all so nice and happy and relaxed. It was fabulous. After ice cream we walked down to the artisan fair, and they had lots of good, neat stuff that we made mental notes of to buy later. Then we went back to the hostel to change into beach clothes and get directions to the bus that goes to the beach. We found it, and the bus driver not only took paper money, he took Argentine pesos as well as Uruguayan... and he told us when we needed to get off. We got to the beach and basically laid in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. I walked up and down the beach a bit in the waves but didn't swim. We finally went back when it was getting close to dinner time. We watched the sun set into the river and then ate at a place with out door tables that looked over the water. Then we walked back toward the hostel and ran into our hostel roommates (a university teacher and her 6 year old son). They apparently spend a lot of time in Colonia so they walked us around a bit to show us the best places to eat and go out. Later we went to a bar/restaurant that was supposed to have live music. We ordered drinks that turned out to be really strong and listened to a really horrible band that consisted of a guy working the sound board, a guy who played simple keyboard and sang, plus two other guys who just sang. I still don't get it. But it was made funnier by the strong piña coladas! When we got tired around 12:30 we went back to the hostel and fell asleep, content with the knowledge that we didn't have to do anything the next day but hang out. We got up and found breakfast at a super market. Then we went back to the artisan fair to make our purchases. We decided to go to the beach next to the artisan fair instead of the other far away one. It was just as nice, if much smaller. But there still weren't many people around so it was okay. I spent a long time listening to the unintelligible but beautiful German conversation that was spoken by the couple next to us. Lauren and I had an exciting conversation about religion and taking things for granted and the point of academia. We talked about how I should probably change my thesis topic as I don't really have an opinion or passion for it... and that it would be better for me to write about something similar to what we were talking about before because I obviously had a passion for it. The problem was that as soon as she said that I became in capable of remembering exactly what we were talking about, much less make a hypothesis out of it. But we'll see about that later. After the beach we went to take showers before going to get MASSAGES!!!! We'd happened to walk by a hotel that offered a spa and therefore massages. They were 550 pesos each... which is about U$S 23. And they were awesome! I was so relaxed and my skin was soft. It was perfect. Then we went to the restaurant that our roommate had recommended. It was also amazing! We sat outside and the waiter was a hilarious little man with about 1000 buttons pinned to his apron (including one for Kerry & Edwards 2004.. he he). He also had huge ridiculous hats that he would change almost every time he went inside. I think we saw at least 12 hats throughout the night (including a purple wizard hat, a foam frog, and a yellow bonnet with a big red flower on the side). He was adorable! The other waiters... who didn't really seem to be doing anything, offered us some Mate (which we politely refused) and then talked about how Uruguayans drink Mate ALL day long and carry it with them everywhere (which they do). Then he mimed how they wash their faces in between sips of mate. Lol. Anyway, the food was amazing too. We had this typically Uruguayan dish called Chivito which consists of a steak topped with strips of bacon, cheese wrapped in ham, and a perfectly fried egg. It came also with french fries and salad. We shared some really delicious Uruguayan wine and a hot apple bread pudding with vanilla ice cream for dessert. By the time we were done we were ready to just fall asleep. Which we did. We woke up fairly early the next morning because we had gone to bed so early. We leisurely ate breakfast and chatted until it was time to leave. Unfortunately, the clock I was using was on Argentine time which is 1 hour behind Uruguayan so not only did we check out late (thankfully they didn't charge us), but we missed our boat back to Argentina. oops. So Lauren missed her classes on Monday... but we got to hang out in beautiful Colonia another 5 hours. We spent the rest of our accidental time eating more ice cream and doing logic puzzles in Spanish. Then we got on the boat and headed back to Bs. As... which, was sad to me. I went to my dance class and returned to my house to eat dinner with my roommates (who for the most part hadn't noticed that I'd been gone all weekend), and do my Spanish homework before going to bed.

I feel so healthy and beautiful and refreshed. I understand now why people go away for the weekend when they live in the city. It does help. :D

I wish you sunny days and the calm of a cool breeze.