Great Expectations

The View of Montivideo from the Beach
My room at the school


The Trash in raised Dumpsters because of Wild Dogs
You Gotta love Milk in a Bag
The Famous Rambla (sadly upside down)
The View of the City from the Rambla

Prado Park
The Uruguay Government Building

A beautiful Gothic church near Prado
A Beautifully Random Statue

Our Church 2 blocks away
A Montivideo Park
Well dear readers,
I am so sorry I have not blogged, for what feels like ages. I have been so busy here in Uruguay. We have now started up Spanish school and that takes up 4 hrs of my day not including homework. I am really enjoying studying in my class of 3 sisters and one man,(who is a farmer from New Zealand); and I really like my two teachers and am learning a tremendous amount from them, but my classes and various other high school work I can fit in to my day, are very time consuming. It has been especially hard because I have a nasty head cold, and trying to fight that, when it is 100% humidity and rain and thunder all day is not particularly easy. So I am afraid I will only be able to blog only on the weekend, but I will make them longer. Unfortunately I also forgot my camera cord so I won't post pictures until Oct. But other than that I am having a great time here in Montevideo. Actually I am lovin' it. Now this is a city of two million, and I am no city girl, but if I had to live in a city I could live here. I say this because it feels less like a "city" then San Luis Obispo. People walk everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE.It's amazing! People air-dry their clothes on their rooftops,there are adorable little shoppes and beautiful buildings everywhere, intermixed in residential areas,and there are little fruit stands all over the place. Some people may call it haphazard, but I call it charming. The family we were staying with for the first 3 days, had no car. If they needed anything they would walk there. For example, Emily C. - the mom, needed an eraser for something, so she put her baby on her hip, took her toddler's hand and called all the other kids and walked a block to get them from a craft store. It is just so much better than hopping in your car and driving 10 miles to get it at Target or something. Much more efficient. However every good place has it's disadvantages,(except of course heaven :) 1. There are bars on all the windows,in case of theft. 2. There are some not so nice advertisements and magazines as the main feature on some building and magazine stands. 3. People stare, stare, stare and don't even smile. It is the one thing that really gets on my nerves. But I guess it is just something I am going to have to get used to. There are a couple of other kinda quirky things here such as: bagged milk, cream and yogurt, non-refrigerated eggs, and the eighties hair styles- mullets, etc.
But it would probably be scary to name all the strange things in the US. Well I am really loving it here, and I thank God for the great opportunities He has and is giving me. My experiences so far have perfectly fulfilled my great expectations of what I wanted it to be like here in Uruguay and I am sure it will continue to do so as I see more of this beautiful country. Until I write again... and in God's perfect plan for our trip,
Julia