First Day

Marilyn, December 1, 2014



We have arrived!  After a ten-hour overnight flight to Buenos Aires, a three-hour layover (photos will be added when I figure out how to reformat them), and short flight across Río de la Plata to Montevideo (see map below), we were met by a driver sent by our language school, who delivered us to our host family's house.  The driver went to the door which was answered by our host, Perla, who gave him a confused look.  That concerned me briefly, but luckily, it didn't mean she wasn't expecting us.  Instead, she had thought that the bad weather would have prevented any flights from landing.  It was raining a little and was quite windy, but nothing I would have suspected would cancel flights.  Anyway, I was glad we were in a place where we were expected and then made to feel very, very welcomed.

This household where we've landed in is really quite wonderful.  Perla is a widow and lives here with her almost-15 year old daughter, Cecelia, who has dreams of going to the U.S. to work as an actress.  Their cat, Lucas, seemed to really like the mouse toy we brought him, and patiently lets us pet and talk silly cat-talk to him.  (We love that he shares Luke's name, and now we, like Luke, have a cat to become attached to.)  In addition to Lucas, Cecelia and Perla share their house with a number of boarders.  I think I have counted four current ones besides ourselves, but I'm not confident that I've met them all.  If I've got it all straight, two are young French men, one of whom made and shared an unbelievably good apple tart last night; one is a young man from Toronto; and one is a female MBA student from Peru, who chose a university in Montevideo to escape the crowds and hubbub of Lima.  The conversation (and apple tart) around the table last night made me feel that I could be very happy here for much longer than the three weeks we plan to stay.

Our house!

Our street!

Perla also has two grown sons who live nearby.  Both are engaged to women from the U.S. who   previously boarded with Perla.  She took us to visit one of her sons and he immediately set Teo and Javy up on PlayStation in a U.S. vs Uruguay fútbol match.  If we are able to spend much time with him, I think some serious bonding could happen.

In the afternoon, Perla took us with her to pick Cecelia up, then we all went on a driving tour of Montevideo, which seemed especially generous, given the high cost of gas here.  It also made me think that the country needs to invest in a lot more stop signs, and that driving here for the short time we'll be renting a car will be a high-stress experience.  Toward the end of the tour, we stopped at Perla's poling place so she could vote, as required by law, in the presidential runoff.  (If you don't know about Uruguay's current president, who is prevented by the Constitution from serving a second consecutive term, you really should read about him here.)  Teo and Javy, who have accompanied me to vote in the U.S., got to see a different, non-computerized way of holding elections, and we talked about the advantages and disadvantages of a country requiring its citizens to vote.  Failure to vote here results in a fine, so later in the evening, we saw shops closing early so that employees could make it to the polls in time to cast their ballots.

After voting, Perla and Cecelia took us to a large shopping mall that in the 1940s was converted from a prison.  I couldn't help thinking what kind of a mall Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, where I visit often, might make, once we are successful in shutting it down as a prison for immigrants.  Teo and Javy, in spite of their exhaustion and growing boredom with sightseeing, found things of interest in the mall, including fútbol jerseys that Javy has decided would make a great Christmas present.  There were many elaborate Christmas decorations, including snow-dusted trees in spite of the fact that Christmas is a summer holiday here.  An enormous bear was provided by a children's charity for photo opportunities. (We of course took the opportunity, and our photo will be added when I figure out how).  Perla also treated us to dinner at Burger King in the mall's food court, which improved the boys' attitude considerably.

In spite of insisting that they were not tired, sleep came to Teo and Javy pretty easily; in fact, Javy was out before we were very far into our bedtime reading.  I was worried that our open window would allow in a lot of noise from the street in along with the cool breeze, and was pleased to find out that after the election-day fireworks were over, the night was very, very quiet.

Our first day of class was supposed to start this morning at 9 a.m.  Since the boys were still sleeping soundly at 8:45, I asked Perla to text the school and ask if we could start at 10 instead, and that was arranged.  They enjoyed a breakfast of sweet and savory rolls that Perla had bought that morning at the corner bakery, and we headed out the door for our half-block walk to the school.  We were very heartily welcomed by the owner of the school, a Dutch woman named Margo, and our teachers.  Usually we will have three hours of class each day, but because of our rescheduling, today was just two, which was plenty.  I have private classes (today one hour with a Uruguayan woman named Maribel and one hour with a Spanish man named Ignacio, both of whom were great), and the boys had one hour with Maribel and one with another teacher.  They weren't nearly as excited about the opportunity to sit and speak Spanish for two hours as I was, and later Margo explained that from here on out, with my permission, some of their class time would be spent out and about, shopping at the market, going to the park, visiting different offices, etc.  Of course permission was granted, along with an explanation about home schooling and the boys' lack of experience with classroom work.  Margo is also going to look into surfing lessons for Teo, and I am going to work on convincing Javy that he will not be eaten by a shark should he want to learn to surf as well.  We were also invited to go with other students from the school on Thursday afternoon to volunteer with some kids with disabilities.  So I'm feeling pretty hopeful that these three weeks of study are going to turn out to be a great experience for all of us.

We walked from the school to exchange U.S dollars (U$S) for Uruguayan pesos ($).  U$S 80 = $1800.  (Home schooling friends:  I am picturing many of you suggesting to your kids right this moment that they calculate the exchange rate.)  We then spent 100 of our new pesos at the corner market on four apples, one kiwi, something that looked like a plum, about 10 small apricots, and a loaf of French bread, which we took home to Perla's.  We got out the first of the eight jars of Kroger peanut butter that I packed and made a lunch for ourselves.  The afternoon we'll spend relaxing and maybe doing a bit more exploring of the neighborhood.

Challenges so far involve mostly keeping the boys' homesickness at bay, and getting a SIM card for my phone.  I feel fortunate that we have easy, though not perfectly continuous, internet access at Perla's house, and with that, we can Facetime with Gene and friends at home.  Technology has come a long way since our sabbatical in Scotland 15 years ago.