There and Caught Up Again...

Sooooo the trip to Uruguay was a little shifty. Here, “shifty” means, “literally full on sprint runningfrom flight to flight after having our first flight delayed an hour and a half and somehow having the airline hold each of our consecutive flights for us, allowing us to make it on the plane with five minutes to spare and with no oxygen left in our lungs.”

If you’re thinking, “Whoa,” you are correct in that sentiment. Exactly. One good thing did come of our Dallas~Houston flight though: I made a new friend! Love making new friends. I sat next to one of my fellow students and next to a stranger. Usually I hate sitting in the middle of seats, but that day it was great. Anywhoo, on this trip, I met Ellie. She is awesome. We literally talked the entire three-hour flight. She is an artist and works in PR!! We talked about things I should do in Uruguay, her kids, how her daughter is an author (I plan to read her book, you should too. It’s called Gibbon House) my favorite kids that aren’t related to me by blood, my niece, my family, my major, places she’s been, what my major actually is, what I’d like to do with my major, the fact that she lived in Germany for a while, the fact that I am German, about Oma, about her Oma, she talked to the flight attendant about what our group was going to do about possibly not making our next flight due to the delay, literally everything and anything that connected together in any way or fashion. It was great. 

By the end of the plane ride we exchanged Facebook names, I gave her my blog address, and she gave me her card. We are now friends of Facebook! (If you’re reading this Ellie, hello! J) Once the plane landed, we said our farewells with a Latin American kiss (fun fact: everyone greets/says goodbye by touching cheeks and making the kissing sound next to their ear, if you do not, it is considered rude and extremely personally offensive) with the promise of looking each other up on Facebook. So crazy, so fun.

The next few hours were a blur because I literally slept the whole rest of the way to Uruguay. Thanks to my loving parents who drugged my sisters and I as children with benadryl before flights to make us sleepy, I could not stay awake to even watch movies or read a book. That’s a big deal. I was barely awake to eat food and had to ask my fellow classmate Rebecca to wake me up when they were feeding us. But, we finally arrived in Uruguay a little worse for wear, but mostly just worn out. Mr. and Mrs. Walker picked us up from the airport and upon meeting Mrs. Walker, she said, “Oh, I know you,” to which my response of course was, “Uh, come again?” Turns out Mrs. Walker knows my whole family because she taught Breanna (oldest sister) Spanish in high school at ACHS ages ago and remembers my awkward elementary kid self! I then showed her a picture of my beautiful new niece and all the fam to which she appropriately fawned over. 

After that joyous occasion, we all climbed into the bus and went on a short little tour before heading back to the house. We stopped at a place called the Rambla, which is a trail that goes along the coast.

 Then we headed to Casa ACU! When we arrived we were told we had a scavenger hunt waiting for us. At first we were a little miffed we had a scavenger hunt because we were so exhausted, but we went with the flow and it ended up being a blast. We were split up into groups with people we did not know (yet) and set off into the city armed with a map and mediocre Spanish skills. For once in my life, we did not get lost. My group made friends with Gastón, a shop owner just a few doors down from Casa ACU because we always stopped in and asked him where things were (work smarter, not harder ;) ) The next person we asked on the street was a random guy and our good friend Megan tried talking to him in Spanish, but he stopped us and said, “Maybe English would be better…” So embarrassing, but super funny hahaha After our scavenger hunt, we went back to Casa and had a wonderful dinner out in celebration of our arriving. 

The next few days were filled with orientation, tours around the city, and bus tours. On Saturday’s bus tour we toured Ciudad Vieja which was pretty awesome, I must say. We of course took silly pictures because what else would you do? This fortress showed all of Montevideo at a panoramic view and it was beautiful. 

Also, in this trip’s first week, I have more group photos than I had in my entire three-four months in the UK. It’s awesome! We also went to some markets on Saturday that was really cool to see. People had booths at which they were selling so many different souvenirs and knick-knacks. SO COOL. Abilene is so lame in that department. We also went to this meat market place, which is kind of similar of the one we went to in Barcelona (after Spiderman). Kelsie, Megan, Lauren, Ashley, and I walked around looking at the different options of restaurants and ended up just choosing one that was empty. We ate so much meat. We all shared a platter that was for four people. Naturally I played with my share. The bit that looks like an ear at the top was the horrid intestine... never again.

We definitely ate some things we are not really sure of, definitely had some super yummy grilled intestine (No.), and definitely did not need a translator to tell us not to try the blood sausage. Such an experience and so so full afterwards. The city in that area had some really awesome graffiti so I defiantly took advantage of that!

 

Once we got home, we decided we didn’t really want any meat in anything for a few days (just that night, let’s be real) and I made butternut squash lasagna! Always yummy.

 Sunday we went to church! We got to go to the church that is in the same building as our house. It was all in Spanish. And after our entire group had kissed literally every single person there and my name being mixed up from “Mallory” to “Margarita” (yes actually, I can totally live with that), we listened to the sermon and sang in Spanish. It was really cool. Awesome to see how that no matter where Abba’s people are, their background, culture, or language, we can still meet together to worship Him. So great. After church we had lunch and then headed to the Feria where we bought some veggies and looked at all the random booths people had up selling anything from old books to new (hopefully) underware. I bought a couple of things, but am not at liberty to say what because they are surprise gifts.

Now Monday, Monday was awesome. We went and toured the Hospital de Clinicas, which is the public sector hospital and the only place in all of Uruguay to get a transplant. 

Interesting fact, Uruguay just revamped their entire healthcare system like five or six years ago. Part of their revamping was about donors. In the past and pretty much everywhere else, a person has to register to be a donor. Well, now, everyone in Uruguay is a donor unless they register to NOT be one. After our awesome tour, we headed back home for class and later that evening…for our tango class. Yes, you heard me, T-A-N-G-O C-L-A-S-S. 

 

So much fun. Lauren was the only good one hahaha I can whole-heartedly say I will not be dancing the tango at my wedding. Sorry future husband. I’m just really bad hahaha

The next day we just had a full day of class for the first time, nothing special. EXCEPT WE TRIED LUCAS’S. So good. Lucas’s is like a hamburger food truck except they put the weirdest things on their burgers like corn, artichoke, pico, banana and bell peppers, cheese cubes, and lots of other weird things. Naturally we ate it all.

 

 Wednesday was so awesome. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures because if a client had happened to be in any it would have broken HIPAA and that’s a big no-no in my world. It was our first observation day. Not only did we get to wear a scrub top (holla), we got to observe SLPs there in Uruguay at a clinic called Teletón. It is a state of the art therapy center that literally everyone in Uruguay knows about because they are so proud of it. And it is an amazing facility. Anyways, we arrived there early, about 8:00am and stayed till around 2:30pm or so. Also with these observations, Dr. Austin got the okay from Dr. Barnett so we get to use these as observation hours that we need before we can graduate! How neat is that. Super neat.

Anyways, that day was awesome. Lauren and I got placed with a SLP named Mariana. At first we were a little intimidated because of the language barrier, but she spoke great English and I knew a little bit to help fill in the blanks. First off we went to a team meeting with her to discuss her patients. It was so cool sitting in that room with another seven or eight people and listening to them jabber about their patients in every aspect and joke with one another. The comradeship was so cool to witness. Apparently friendship is a very big deal in Uruguay. I think that is so awesome. And it would be so much fun to work with all of your friends, doing what you love.

After the meeting we started observing Mariana’s patients. Lots of things were different than a session would have been in the US. Not bad different, or wrong different, just different. Very interesting. For instances, in America it is very much encouraged and pushed for SLPs to document everything they do with the child and write down any and all data during the session. Here, the SLP hardly writes anything down during the session except if they were giving a standardized test. They still knew exactly what their patient needed and how to help them, so that’s great, but it was just so interesting to see a different way to do the same thing I will hopefully get to do one day!

During the first session, I did not really understand a whole lot verbally, but understood a lot from observations. Lauren and I did get to talk to that first client for a second though, he was adorable and five. The second observation I understood a lot more than I thought I would or could. For the most part I followed along with Mariana and her client, which was a huge encouragement to me! Mariana was extremely nice and helpful. Spanish lesson for the day: Yo estudio fonoaudiolohia. I study speech pathology. It’s really fun to say in a Russian accent.  (Side note, Megan and I talk in a Russian accent all the time. It is so funny and is spreading fast through our fellow ACU Uruguayan amigos. Try saying “chinchilla.” Your life will be changed.

After observations we went to the Palacio Legislativo (Legislative Palace) for a tour with everyone else.  The palace was beautiful and we got to see where the two houses meet and argue. It looked a lot like ours here in America. Once we got outside we decided it was super model documentary hour. MOTHER RUSSIA FOR THE WIN. 

 

  

  

  

 

 

 

Thursday we had regular class except this day we had our first Spanish lab! It was great. I am with Rosalinda, Ash, Miranda, and Paul. At first I was scared out of my mind because each lab was going to be solely in Spanish, no English whatsoever and I was not so confident in my abilities. But, it turned out great. After listening so much to Spanish, I think lots of things are coming back to me now that I am around it again. Rosalinda and we talked for a good long while about Uruguay, our favorite things, and going over phrases she had told us all to memorize. There were a few places I got lost and at least a couple times I couldn’t say what she wanted as fast as she wanted, but the important thing here is that I SURVIVED.

After Spanish lab, Ash, Lauren, Meagan, Megan, and I went to Cofa’s (supermarket) to get food for supper. We had decided we were (I was) going to cook Meatza and try it for the first time. I ended up making carrot friends, salad, and meatza, but it was all super good and healthy and for the most part PALEO! We pretended it was my birthday cake/pizza. So yummy.  And cheap when split up between a lot of people!

 

 

Side note: everyone here is so great. I've made friends with everyone here (I hope haha) and we all get along really well. My classes are so interesting and it's so fun having a small class of like six with Dr. Austin. Shout out to Megan and Kelsie, you two are a hoot and a half.

Well, that’s all for right now. I’m terribly sorry it has been such a long time since I’ve posted and so sorry it was very dry and to the point. Also, I apologize for my grammar.  And also for my pictures. My camera decided not to work so all my pictures will be stolen from others or from my phone haha I will be better at juggling school work and blogging, time just got away from me after we got here and started working! I promise next time’s post will be great :)

Ciao desde el Sur!

Margarita

Random pics of days I don't remember...

Matching shirt day for the SENIORS. Weird.

 

Serious pics at a museum...