From Montevideo with Love

Time really lfies here and now it´s been already 4 weeks that I´m in beautiful Montevideo, Uruguay and I´m sorry I didn´t post last week but,  when I was talking about the survival of the fittest and twist and turns to spice up lifes in my last post, I didn´t really know that these 2 weeks would have some more of those in store for me …

Morning Run at the Rambla in Montevideo

With the end of the Intensive Spanish course, the actual semester at the Universidad Cátolica de Uruguay began this past Monday, and therewith some really demanding new challenges … The exchange student courses such as Cultura Uruguaya and Advanced Spanish (I somehow passed last week’s test and got admitted to this course) are not even too bad, and are actually understandable regarding my level of Spanish, but not the real classes that I am taking … that´s a different story. As expected, I didn´t understand a whole lot in my first couple of Organizational Behavior, Negotiations or Industrial Psychology (which is my new favorite class, because it´s just really interesting) classes, but in some distant future (hopefully before the exam period) I will be able to understand what´s going on … (As betimes I tend to exaggerate you might be well advised to read between the lines^^). But it is really exciting and I like challenges, so it´s great fun! 

Alfajor con dulce de leche (yes, it´s unhealthy!!!)

 

This week I was also able to observe some more very interesting features of Uruguayan culture (not in my culture class, which is rather a farce, as the professor tells us about how to drink Mate and about the Carnaval^^) for example a more than casual get – to know – circle during a lecture where the professor “mooched off” of another student by drinking probably his entire Mate (Mate is a kind of tea; very common in South America in general, but especially in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay; a little bit like a coffee/tea substitute, drank at almost every occasion (a nice way to socialize because it is normally shared with others) and carried around in typical Mate vessels (the herbs) and the Thermos (the hot water) and some kind of metal straw to drink it). Or that after a couple minutes of chatting you actually kiss your professor on the cheek (I would love to see some of our teachers faces if we did that :P )

Then we were also able to experience Uruguayan football lunacy, first hand, watching the World Championship Qualification Match between Uruguay and Paraguay with the other exchange students, and someone very special, we are going to talk about in a second … Patience, my friends!!! Dressed up according to Uruguayan soccer standards and equipped with flags we entered the stadium, where we got to see a rather middleclass boring football match, that unfortunately for my new beloved home, ended 1:1. But it was very interesting to observe that Uruguayans live and celebrate soccer with all their soul and express joy as well as frustration very explicitly!

URUGUAY!!!

From interesting features of Uruguayan culture to the first challenge that I had and still have to face, hanging over my head like a pending sword of Damocles, inasmuch as I might have to move again and look for another place to stay, due to reasons that exceed my simple level of comprehension. Nevertheless from a first misunderstanding, that I would have to move out immediately, over I could stay until I find another place to stay, to well maybe you might still be able to stay, we went through every notion! Of course a little bit disappointed, because I really like the people here and the place is pretty convenient for me, I started looking for alternative places to stay here in Montevideo. Right now, even I don´t know what´s it gonna be next week, but I will keep you posted!!!

Franca & me at the Rambla by night

And last but definitely not least, by any means, let´s talk about this very special person that not only accompanied me to the Football match, but that I spent quite a lot of time with in these last 2 weeks, and that might be the main reason, why I was a little bit busy and also explaining the rather promising title of this post^^ Well let´s say I met someone, who would have thought of that . . . I have a Uruguayan girlfriend!!! Here name is Franca (18), convert to the church, preparing to become a translator and studying Design, she is a really nice girl and I love her!!! So yeah I know, this has been kind of fast, but it feels very right … So we met for the first time at the Opening Ceremony of the Institute, where we were introduced to each other and started chatting, me making a bunch of stupid jokes and she offering to show me a around here in Montevideo, and as she seemed to be really nice (and cute!!!) I thought, well that sounds like a pretty good offer!!! So we started to hang out and check out some nice places here in Montevideo, and we seemed to like each other’s company and met a little more often, went out to dinner and just had a really great time, chatting, laughing, getting to know each other and  becoming friends. I won´t bore you with all the details such as faux pas, first kiss, or her cuddliness etc^^ and I mean a little privacy might be adequate anyway^^ Together we speak in English and Spanish and we are likewise each other´s private language tutor. And what started as a tourist and  tour guide relationship soon developed into something much deeper and now we love each other and are “officially” together.

 This week I had the treat to, of course spend a lot of time with Franca, but also in particular to meet some of her family members that live a little dispersed all over Montevideo, enabling me to see different parts of, or “the other” Montevideo, reminding me a lot of Mauritius. Her family lives about an hour away from the city center, nevertheless that is still inside of Montevideo, which is obviously a much outspread city, and they were all really nice and welcoming. I also got invited to have lunch with her grandparents, who live in a very nice little house on the outskirts of Montevideo! The food was great, the atmosphere very friendly and these 2 fellows are super fun to be around and we got along with each other really well, especially her grandpa Ruben is a blast, loud, jovial and a womanizer :P

I started my study journal again and would like to share a small lesson that I learned this week: I was studying the events preceding the final and infinite sacrifice of the Savior, the Atonement, and I stumbled over a fact that I never realized before: Right before they made their way to Gethsemane Jesus and his apostles sang a hymn! That really surprised me, but in second thought not at all, because through music and especially hymns God can be praised and worshipped, and many feelings and different moods can be conveyed and caused by different types of music. I was able to experience that first hand in my life. I really love music and the power that music has, in a workshop I once attended, it has been said, that a person that is singing cannot feel fear at the same time! I wasn´t able to prove this and I´ll let you be the judge thereof. Let it just be said, that music is something very beautiful and can be used to lift up, to rejoice and to beautify, so let´s all think about how we use music, and what kind of music we listen to and what influence this music has on us … adjustments might be necessary^^

My little "indigena" ice-monster

So yeah, that´s quite some news, and might come kind of unexpected, but as a good friend once said, wherever life may take me and I really like where it takes me right now. For right now the next destination of the wayfarer is Argentina, wish me luck & love you all!!!

Montevideo – Survival of the fittest!
 

And there goes my second week here in beautiful Montevideo, hardly leaving me any time to fully recover from last week´s experiences and adventures, pacing on as if nothing had happened and always awaiting me with new and sometimes bigger challenges. So after having tasted to a very small extent of Uruguay´s diversity, I was able to take some bigger bites of it´s beauty and distinctiveness this week, savoring it step by step and one day at a time =)

El parque Rodo

At first, my quest has come to and, although not the one for the Holy Grail, but nevertheless very important to me, the quest for housing, living or simply a place to stay! After many days of searching and waiting, much effort and a lot of weird feelings (it does feel weird not having a place to stay, and not knowing where you are gonna sleep tonight^^), I finally found a place to stay with a new friend I made named Gonzalo and 6 other guys form the church, that share a flat together. They are all very nice and patient with my Spanish, but it´s getting better (that´s at least what they say …), but of course it´s not the same standard that I was used to in Germany, what a surprise^^, but it is decent, not too expensive and already is and will be very performance enhancing for my Spanish. Only inconvenience is the weak Wi-Fi-connection and the cleanliness at the apartment, other than that a great place with a bunch of pretty great guys!



La Ciudad Vieja por la noche (Towncenter at night)

My Spanish intensive course came to an end last Friday and we all had our final test, which was okay, but will be of no relevance for us anyway, it´s mostly for all the other foreign students, who haven´t taken the course, in order to evaluate their Spanish. I will definitely miss my funny, crazy Grandma like Spanish Professor with her great stories, e.g. her car got stolen and dumped in a jungle like swamp somewhere in el interior (entire Uruguay, except Montevideo) completely stripped down to the bones and even the police where afraid to go there, plus she didn´t even have insurance!!! Another crazy story happened (without intending to scare anyone): one of our exchange student friends woke up one morning and there were two guys with knifes standing in her room, stealing money, laptop, camera, iPod … but after begging them to leave the hard-drive, they were nice and did so. . . Just to let you know, I personally feel very safe here and never encountered any problems … so far!

Horse Carrige for waste disposal/collecting purposes

So besides the language classes and studying this week’s main focus was … partying!!! I seriously got invited to 4 birthday and 1 bachelor party! Hahaha pretty good for one week … I couldn´t attend all of them, but here are some of the pictures: and yeah, one birthday was Felix, el gato and some other friends down here. The bachelor party was of one the guys I live with as he´s gonna get married in 2 weeks!!! It was really great fun and people down here are very nice and accommodating!

Chivitos with my room mate Gonzalo

 

So yeah maybe some explanations regarding food down here: I mentioned that Uruguay will probably never be renowned for its haute cuisine, nevertheless they have some pretty tasty dishes here (and I hope I will discover some more!!!). But generally speaking food is not only really expensive in comparison to their incomes, but also quite unhealthy: Burgers, Fries, Hotdogs, meat … or variations thereof. The first picture shows a meal called Chivitos, basically a thin steak (Schnitzel) with ham and cheese, on a pile of fries and often some kind of potato salad, topped with some veggies, either as sandwich or al plato and an egg sunny side up. As I said, pretty tasty, but rather unhealthy! The next picture probably shows my favorite meal so far: Uruguayan Barbecue Plate for 2!!! Lots of different kind of meat and a great variety of baked or grilled veggie were a real treat and portions here (as you may see) are rather huge!!!

The Huge Barbecue Plate

 

Enough of food! We also had our first almost real University experience (the real real one will be next week, as lectures start tomorrow!) as we had all our info meetings for exchange students and the different faculty presentations, of course all in Spanish! But it was very informative and now we have to choose our classes and that´s gonna be very exciting. So far I will probably take 6 classes, 3 exchange student classes, namely Advanced Spanish, Uruguayan Culture, and Community Service (I´m very excited for that one, because we will also get to know the other parts of Uruguay, that we normally wouldn´t) and 3 normal classes, Industrial Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Negotiation Techniques. So I am really excited for next week, although I know that it´s gonna be more than super tough probably for the entire first month, because I wouldn´t understand 10 % of the words, if it all was in German, well and it´s gonna be in Spanish, so I will have to live of the 10 % that I do understand … :P

Kids playing in "some kind" of sand pit

I´ve been to the temple again this week, and it was beautiful and inspiring as every time, I´ve seen a street rock concert right on main street and a street basketball tournament and we all started to make plans for our trips around here, as we will have an entire week of for Easter! So I still love it here, although sometimes (yesterday) felt like 100% humidity!!!, but at least it´s nice and warm, although we just entered in the winter time! And I really enjoyed skyping with a part of my family!

My University from the sun deck

 

Inspirational thought of the week: I can´t remember how we started talking about it, but we were talking about the purpose and sense in life with some fellow students, and as so often it is not easy to find an answer to that question, but my fellow student didn´t know why she was here, so I asked if she was looking for the answer or the purpose … Well, at least, if I didn´t know the why to (my) life, I would start looking for that answer, because I know that there is an answer . . . maybe you should start searching too . . .

My new address (as I would be more than delighted to receive postcards, letters, or packages^^) is:

Sebastian Zacherl

Mercedes 1188, Apt. 101

Montevideo 11100, Uruguay

I love and miss all of you, be safe and see you again next week!

 

The Arrival in Uruguay

Sometimes life has really interesting twists and turns in store to spice up your life, to put everything upside down or just to over roll you with a wave of new impressions and experiences. And sometimes travel and living in a foreign country brings so much change at once, that it just feels like a giant flabbergasting slap in the face, that leaves you quite far outside of your nice and cozy comfort zone, pondering the motives and reasons behind such adventure, until you stand up and actually start embracing the new world . . .

Tres Cruses - Uruguayan Flag

 

Well I guess that´s kind of how I felt at least to some extent when I landed here in Montevideo after almost a day of travel (Salt Lake – Dallas – Miami – Montevideo) being at the airport all on my own, without anybody, not knowing where I am, where I would go and why I am here. That was actually the main challenge to find a place to stay, and not only temporarily, but a permanent place! Kind enough that my friend Basti from the Uni in Deg, let me stay at his place for the first couple days until I would be able to find something on my own, however that took a little bit longer than I expected.

Beside the overshadowing search for a place to stay (and feeling like a bum^^) it was really amazing and I love it so much down here. But the first days were really interesting and equally challenging … Just trying to figure out which bus to take and especially where to with my more than poor Spanish, was quite crazy, but I didn´t want to pay 930 Pesos (for the taxi as did my friend) but rather 36 Pesos and risk a little adventure by bus fully loaded with luggage. But I did make it on the right bus, nevertheless I did not at all recognize the place where to get off (supposedly a huge traffic station, but no sign, nada) and so I went way too far and had to take the bus back and forth … Well after quite some time and an exhausting 30 min uphill walk (with luggage) I arrived at my destination.

The place was really nice, but not available for long-term, and for South-America really expensive (400$/room), but that´s Uruguayan standard. Living costs are almost as high as they are in Germany, especially food and gas, it´s really crazy down here, but I love it. Even only after a week one is already able to feel the flair and the ambience of Montevideo sneak its way into our lives: Punctuality, being on time, traffic rules, waste disposal and logic don´t seem to exist down here, instead they have village like tranquility paired with frantic city life, beautiful trees and fine beaches, skyscrapers and old bourgeois houses. It´s a very interesting and divers place and with its almost 1, 5 million inhabitants about as big as Munich, nevertheless it feels like a cosmopolitan village. Trees and green everywhere you go, as well as dirt and torn up, broken sidewalks, new meets old, green meets asphalt and South America meets Europe, as almost 95% of the population is of European (Spanish, Italian) decent.
 

But enough of this and back to my story … So basically what I tried to do, was finding a housing accommodation with some members down here in Montevideo, and so I started looking up addresses of churches, institute buildings and the temple, in order to meet someone who could help me, well and of course then I started looking for these places in a completely unknown city! I can tell you that was quite fun and after an entire day going back and forth through almost entire Montevideo, I had gathered some contacts and of course prayers were answered and I met a nice YSA and my future bishop at the temple (and they even allowed me to do a session!) So first success!!! And my first Sunday also was just a blast, members were welcoming and friendly, and although I didn´t understand a whole lot, I felt that I belong here … And I met so many great young people and got invited right away to attend choir, an evening program, institute and activities: that felt really great and was actually what I missed most living in Deggendorf … I met Matias and his wife that invited me to dinner and who helped me communicate, when my Spanish wasn´t good enough and we became friends really quickly and then I met some more YSAs at the choir and they took me down to the Rambla (the street parallel to the beach) and later on a house – cake party!!! Pretty good start =)

Los estudiantes de Intercambio

And of course as I´m gonna have all my classes in Spanish, I better brush up on my Spanish and so I started taking intensive Spanish classes at the University with some other dozen people from the States, good old G. and the Netherlands. We all try to get our head around the Spanish language and have 4 hours with a Uruguayan teacher every day to accomplish that. Progress is slow, but I start feeling something^^ And I mean, they really do speak very fast and mumbled here and have a very distinct way of pronouncing several letters, that makes it sometimes quite hard to understand them …  But I start to understand people and even already had several hour-long discussions in Spanish Wooohoooo!!! People tell me my Spanish is great, but I know that my grammar sucks!!! Anyway, I´m gonna get there!!!

Beside that we went out to have dinner a couple times, they eat really unhealthy here special burgers, special hot dogs, interesting pizza (also available in meters!!!), of course steaks (super expensive) and Italian pasta, we visited parts of the town, a couple museums, marveled about the beautiful architecture, I´ve been to a Volleyball activity, and at the institute and we tried to get set up (oh, I forgot the initial struggle to get a sim-card … let´s just say, it took forever and we walked 5 miles back and forth, and ended up finding what we wanted right next to our house :P ).
 

The weather is also very particular, very nice warm and sunny and then a couple hours later it might be the biggest rain storm ever, or it just gets chilly almost unexplainable … very interesting, in general it´s really warm and nice, but we are approaching the end of summer and it´s supposed to get colder and colder (people act as if an ice age was approaching), and of course the Uruguayos love talking about the weather … as well as about soccer and politics! It´s been a very exciting first week, in an amazing city, with a very peculiar people and an interesting culture that I am going to explore …