The Eagle and John

I Love visitors! I appreciate them coming to visit because it forces me into high gear. First there is the mad scramble to do an extra "super duper" house cleaning job. I mean, you never know when a visitor might faint in your bathroom, and wake up staring at the under side of your sink! Of course you have to clean that back bolt!  I always feel like everyone will want the grand tour of my house and be scrutinizing everything like a state side restaurant health inspector. Still I am coming to the conclusion that guy visitors just don't really care or don't even see the difference in dirt and household wear and tear, whew! Now I do the extra bit of cleaning just for myself. The second benefit from visitors coming is we get to play tour guide and that forces us to visit places and view them thru new appreciative eyes. How many of you have lived your whole lives in a place and said Wow! I never knew that place existed, or I never got around to see that?

So it is with pleasure that I am finally and belatedly am sharing John's visit, last month. All the photos used in today's blog are his. That's John on the left standing with Wally. (Yeah we still have to finish our fireplace surround). John K. is from our old stomping grounds of Hollywood, California USA. John was wanting to check out Uruguay because of the ease in obtaining residency and acquiring property here. Many people are trying to keep a plan B in their back pocket just in case they want to retire to a place other than in the US. John came to visit in our winter so of course it rained for days! Next our "Krispy Kreme" was under repair so we thought we couldn't show him anything. Finally we had a dry day. John was good enough, to come to us by bus about an hours ride from MVD. I met him wandering down the lane and walked him first to our nearby beach.

Our "Krispy Kreme" finally had a little life in her so we said we could go on a short trip. Atlantida is about 5 Kms away but right before that city is the little suburb of Villa Argentina. It is famous for it's landmark El Águila (The Eagle)

Built in 1945 for the Italian millionaire, Natalio Michelizza. It was first going to be built as a shrine to the Virgin Mary but it's Contractor, Juan Torres overbuilt it and seeing the possibilities of using it as a painting and reading spot with it's cliff views overlooking the playa, Mr. Michelizza decided to use it for his own pursuits. On a whim the top was built resembling an eagles head. It is covered in stone to look like feathers. Up a steep flight of stairs is a tiny room in the head. It has a small window on each side of the head representing eyes. The view from each tiny square window is lovely. The beak is a tiny outside balcony. Downstairs there are two little rooms with some paintings on the walls. It's open from 9am - 6pm. Entrance is free.

We next drove along the Rambla, a road that fronts the water and dunes, to Parque del Plata. It was Saturday so that town had its Feria (Farmers market) going on. Wally was excited to see a few extra stalls there beside our known ones from Salinas. The ferias go to different towns on different days so if we miss our Thursday one we can go to one on Friday or Saturday in the next few towns either up or below us depending on the day.

 Parque del Plata is not as polished a place as Atlantida but is a real community with day to day living going on. There is a nice beach town feel to it. We have a favorite (read bargain) restaurant with good food that we go to there. So when John said he would treat us to lunch we suggested it. It was right across from the feria.  As a side note, Uruguay doesn't have junk mail! Too expensive to waste paper. Instead, they have sound cars or in this case motorcycles with electric megaphones blasting messages at you. So here is a picture courtesy of John showing one of those sound bikes in front of the restaurant we ate in.

We had a great time with John and I believe he will be back for further exploratory trips. We hope to see him again. He was nice enough to bring me a state quarter that I was missing from the picture series. My Denver mint collection is complete. I'm still in need of a few Philadelphia minted state quarters (hint, hint). So any other visitors, especially from the East coast are welcome. In about another month, I'll need my house cleaned and sparkly again!

BBQ

A few years ago I bought a used gas BBQ from a Canadian expat. I probably paid 3 times what I would have paid for it at a Stateside garage sale. It is probably lower quality than I ever would have bought (it is a Sears model). But, those complaints aside, it is a gas BBQ and it has worked for a couple of years. And the alternative is to buy a gas BBQ locally for as much as $1200 (that is US dollars, my friends). And the quality of that expensive BBQ is less than the one I have.

Just recently, however, the burners have begun to rust so badly, that I made arrangements to buy new ones, have them shipped to my sister and thence to my Uruguayan address. All in all, the $25 replacement burners cost $80 (the balance being shipping to my sisters and then $35 to ship the box here). Not bad, when you consider the alternative- not having a BBQ.

The way I received the box was interesting. Yesterday, a postal worker stopped by the house in the morning and told me I had a box at the post office. Later that day I went in, and the box was sitting right on the counter. It seems that there are just not that many shipments received in the Salinas post office. I signed the few papers, when home and installed the new burners and we are up and running for another couple of years.

Now I know that Uruguayan purists will argue that I need to learn how how to use my parrilla (the large brick BBQ I have off my patio). I will have to admit that when my neighbors fire up the parrilla and put meat on the grill- it smells heavenly. But, I lack the patience, at least for now. So despite paying $80 for a $25 dollar part, I am happy.

Road to Minas

No, this is not an old Bob Hope movie. This is where we found ourselves this past Wednesday, when we celebrated our 37th anniversary. Denise had mentioned some weeks ago that she would like to take a little day trip up to Minas (some 80 K's away). However, the weather was not being very cooperative, and it wasn't until Tuesday that we could see a good weather report for the next day. The day turned out to be gorgeous, with lots of sun and warm.

We fired up the "Krispy Kreme" and hoped it would make the trip. We had been having some troubles, and weren't sure it would be OK. Ran like a top, once we got on the road and it was warmed up- so we got under way. On the way out of Atlántida, we saw a house with this antique car used as a decoration and a little later we saw a house with rows and rows of antique cars.

We travel up the ruta, entered into another county (Lavalleja) and traveled through the little town of Solis. In no time, we arrived at Parque Salus- one of the things we wanted to see. Salus is a bottled water from a natural spring and they also have a Patricia brewery (a popular Uruguayan beer), that uses the water, as well.

The park is quite extensive. They have a section for families and a nice display of local plants and trees in the area leading up to the "Fuente del Puma" (the fountain at the source of the spring). Salus claims that this natural spring is one of the major springs in the world. Just next to the spring is the bottling plant. While at this park, I spotted portable toilets that were called "POLYJOHNS". I just thought this was worth mentioning. Denise, of course, thought this was irrelevant.

As we drove back down to the entrance we stopped by the little hotel, with it's restaurant and decided to look in. We had planned to find something in Minas, but the hotel was so inviting that we decided to eat there. We didn't make a mistake.

The restaurant was beautiful. There were only 2 other diners, there, since this was Wednesday and the middle of winter. Denise ordered a fish with spinach and roquefort cheese sauce and I had a chicken breast with a hollandaise sauce. We ordered Patricia, naturally, and noted that these bottles had "SALUS" raised on the bottle. It was a very nice meal, actually one of the best we have had in Uruguay. I would highly recommend stopping here if you are in the neighborhood.

Next, we headed on into Minas. We didn't know what to expect, but we were a little disappointed. There was a nice park, running along a river, as you enter town, and a large open plaza at the center of town (naturally), and there was one picturesque street, but overall, Minas was not that noteworthy. We started to head back home after walking around the city and almost forgot one of the attractions that we came for- the statue of Artigas that lays claim to being the largest concrete equestrian sculpture in the world.

We asked about 4 different groups of people where the statue was. I am pretty sure we were clear, in our limited Spanish, but we got very vague directions. The people, however, were very friendly and tried to be helpful. Eventually Denise found a group of women (men were no help) who directed us to Cerro Artigas, on a back road that I was sure would lead to nothing.

It turned out to be a lovely park overlooking the valley, where Minas is located, as well as the rest of the countryside. And the statue was impressive. Is it the biggest in the world? Well, Wikipedia says it is, so it must be true, no?

As the sun was going down, we headed back home. Denise noted the speed bumps in all of the little towns, "Lomadas" and took a picture. I thought lomada sounded like a special cut of meat, and was glad I didn't order it at the restaurant.

We were happy that we got to do something on our anniversary and also see some sights at the same time.

It's Raining Again!

Today is Sunday and it's raining! 

I thought I would use today's post as a way to clean up loose ends.
A friend named Carolina, enjoyed my Spanish phrases post and mentioned one more saying I should add to my list. She lives here in Uruguay and often helps me out with my translation needs. When it's a particularly rainy day in English we say that, "It's raining cats and dogs!" Well, you probably guessed it but here in Uruguay they say, "Caen pinguinos de punta" or roughly that it is raining/falling penguins! The Antarctic and nearby Pantagonia in Argentina no doubt influencing that thought.

For those of you curious about the weather here, It is winter! The high was supposedly 55 degrees F. today, lows were 49 degrees F. We had 1 inch of rain in the day and another 1/4 inch added this evening! Monday will be an expected high of 49F dropping to a low of 43. Tuesday night a low of 41 degrees F. It feels colder to me! It might be my imagination but I seem to feel a cold Arctic type of wind. The water is at our south. The South is the cold region down here and the north side of properties are the warm spots, unlike Washington State where moss grew on the north side of trees, I still have to remind myself that I'm living in a reverse situation as evidenced by the seasons here.

To clean up/clear up another post entry, "Anonymous from Montevideo" says that, the phrase "La Celeste" in reference to the Uruguay soccer team comes from the color of the National Soccer teams' sport shirt. Remember that Celeste means sky-blue, in addition to some kind of heavenly body. They wore that color and won a world cup so decided it was going to stay the teams shirt color!

By the way, number 10 is Diego Forlans' jersey number. He is a popular, rather famous soccer player, a blond cutie, from Uruguay who now plays with Madrid, Spain. They borrowed him back to play forward on the Uruguayo team during the World Cup.





Well, that about wraps up my loose end list. We almost went to Montevideo today to attend an Expat Luncheon. They have them every Sunday in a local restaurant. In the Atlantida area they have a similar luncheon a couple of Thursdays a month. People who have moved here or are thinking about moving here can meet English speaking people and ask questions about living in Uruguay from a foreign perspective. Wally and I would have gone to the gathering but decided to stay home today because as you heard it was raining Penguins today.

Field Service

Witnesses call going door to door, "field service". The "field" being our territory. However, this past weekend, we enjoyed field service in a real field. We went with the group to work outlying territory in the campos, or rurals. Is there any difference between field service in the US and that in Uruguay?

There are a just a few differences, really. One is very interesting. When you meet together before field service, you kiss (on the cheek) each one of the participants (hermanos y hermanas). This, of course, is not limited to Witnesses. The common greeting here is a kiss on the cheek (men shake hands, unless they are good friends or workmates). Then, after several hours of working, and before you go home, you kiss each and everyone goodbye. I don't remember doing that in the US- a handshake was the best you got, or just a brief wave "hello". So that is a positive difference.

The other difference is that you never approach a door and just knock. Uruguayans are very territorial, so the best you can do is get as close to a house as is reasonable and clap your hands. This makes is very easy to be "not home" even if you "are home". I much prefer being able to walk up to the door and knock, but we will get used to clapping.

Overall, we had a wonderful day. Denise actually spoke with a few people (she has no fear) while I found nobody at home. But it was fun working with the group. Since few have cars, and rely mostly on bicycles or motorcycles, we crowded 3 in the back seat of the "bug". Too bad the camera chose that moment to die, or you would have seen the answer to the riddle, "How are Jehovah's Witnesses like a can of sardines?

Arriba La Celeste!

Well, there is not a doubt (sin duda) that the whole country of Uruguay has but one subject on their minds and that is the World Cup (La Copa del Mundo) and Uruguay's possibility of winning in the quarter finals this Tuesday against the Netherlands.

Today, I am focusing on the Spanish language itself and why I'm having such difficulty in learning it!

I have my reasons! In English there are 6 tenses; Present, Past, Future (these are simple tenses) and Present perfect, Past perfect, and Future perfect. (these are compound tenses). In other words, 3 simple and 3 based on the simple ones. In Spanish there are 14 tenses!  Each tense in Spanish has 6 separate words to learn for the same idea. let's take the future tense in English, just learn the word will or shall stick that word in front of your verb and voila! you have the future! for example: I will eat, you will eat, she will eat, he will eat, it/one/people/ they will eat. See how simple! In Spanish, the word EAT would change 6 different ways. "I will eat", becomes, "Comeré". Okay, so the 3 English words become just 1 word in Spanish. However, then, you have to turn around and learn 5 more Spanish words for EAT, just in this one tense alone, the future. You will eat, Comerás, he will eat, Comerá etc....You get the idea! for the present tense learn 6 more words for eat! For the past, learn 6 different words just for the one word EAT.  etc... All in all be prepared to learn 96-100 separate words for the word eat!

To give my brain a rest, I decided to look at a few Spanish sayings instead, like "Arriba La Celeste". My grandmother's name was Celeste. She passed away many years ago at a ripe old age. I always knew her name was heavenly, like "un cuerpo celeste" (a heavenly body). When I saw "Arriba la Celeste" in connection with the World cup and Uruguay I looked it up. Arriba means "above" but also "Come on", or "hurray for!" Celeste besides meaning "heavenly" is an adjective also meaning "sky-blue". That's the stripe color of the Uruguay Flag. It is also the Uruguayan sports team shirt color. So Arriba La Celeste is similar to hurray for the blue, or "Come on sky-blue" Encouraging the team and the country of Uruguay to win.

Another saying in Spanish, is similar to our, "When the cat's away the mice will play" but in Spanish, they "Dance!" "Cuando el gato va a sus devociones, bailan los ratones" The mice dance and the reason the cat is away is because he's off praying (being pious).

The next Spanish proverb, is very practical! "Antes que te cases, mira lo que haces." Before you get married, look at what you are doing." Our English equivalent is "Look before you leap" The Spanish one tells you "what" you are leaping into, marriage. In English, I guess, we just go around leaping in general!

I have no idea what this next Spanish proverb is about. "Depues de comer, ni un sobre escrito leer" "After eating, don't even read an envelope." My husband loves cooking and food so maybe just concentrating on the good things in life (like your meal) for awhile, giving them their moment is good advice. Problems will come soon enough (put off reading about them). That's my take on that saying but any Spanish speaking readers who have actually heard this one before by all means, clue me in.

Lastly, my all time new favorite Spanish saying, is suppose to stand in for "Beat it!" If you are being bothered, you can say, drum roll please, "¡Cómprate un calvo y péinalo!" Literally: 'Buy a bald man and comb his hair!"

I can see, it's going to be awhile before I, Hablo español!

PS. Wally, is too sad to post that Uruguay lost to the Netherlands today in the play-offs. It was a respectable loss. Uruguay came away with 2 goals, the Dutch having 3. It was a close match and the Uruguayos know we played well as a country. Still, Uruguay is among the worlds' top four!

Just In Case

Just in case you don't follow soccer (futbol), Uruguay, just clinched their entry into the semi-finals. Winning in penalty shots, after 2 overtimes, brought everyone to the edge of their seats. The country goes wild tonight. Fireworks, horn tooting and shouting can be heard, even in this little quiet community. Next Tuesday's match will decide whether we make the finals. Banks (and most businesses) adjusted their hours to allow time off during game time. Next week, the game is in the evening. I can't imagine anyone missing it.