November 22-25, 2018: A relaxed trip to Uruguay... and food poisoning!!

Despite one third of the kids in our program getting food poisoning Friday morning (not me though, hehe) our program trip to Uruguay was a pretty nice time!

November 22:

I woke up at 5:55am, ate a sad and lonely breakfast, and then Ubered to the ferry that would take us to Uruguay with Cassie. A nice Venezuelan man drove us there. IFSA got to sit in the business section of the boat which was kind of fancy but not really at all.

The biggest benefit was that they kept putting out trays of cookies and Cassie and I kept going back to eat more as if it wasn't our 8th time getting up to go eat them. When we arrived to Colonia, Uruguay, it was blazing hot outside. We walked to our hotel to drop our stuff off and then did a brief walking tour through the town.

Colonia is pretty fricking small and not gonna lie there is really so very little to do there. But it's very cute! The Portuguese and Spanish designs from years ago still exist and everything from the past is pretty well-kept. For this reason it's really just a tourist destination.

It was SOOOOO hot during the tour, everyone was cramming into the little areas with shade cuz the heat was unbearable. However, we all took a bus to Mario's (our program director) house for about 30 minutes and when we got off it was suddenly much colder outside. This was kind of tragic because Mario has a pool but oh well.

He lives on a lemon farm in a mansion and it is incredible. Some students slept there for the night, but I apparently am not one of the chosen ones. Upon arriving, they gave us all a snack. It was sausage and I don't eat pork (or really meat anymore) and the vegetarian option tasted so nasty lol but it's okay cuz I ate so much pie later to make up for it.

For the next couple of hours we hung out at his pool (I just dipped my feet in cuz by now it was cold out). I realized how little I've interacted with the large majority of kids on my program throughout the semester. Wasn't really sad about it though.

Cassie and I also juggled a soccer ball around with a few other kids and that was fun. A nice little way of burning some calories before ripping into our Thanksgiving meal...

The meal itself was very nice and at my table we all went around and said what we are grateful for, which sounds cheesy but is important to do. I said I'm primarily grateful for the blueberry jam that came with our meal.

We went back to the pool area after eating and waited an hour - the longest hour of my life - for them to bring out dessert. I can't even count the number of pie slices I ate. Pumpkin, pecan, apple... all of it.

We headed back to the hotel at 5:15pm and Cassie and I took a nap cuz we were #ded. When we woke up around 7:00pm, we went for a run. It was very brief for two reasons. The first is that it was so so so windy out and it seemed like a massive storm was gonna roll in at any moment. The second reason is because Colonia is super hilly and we were not about that. After our run, we continued to lay around for a while and then eventually decided to walk around the town. I had low expectations but wow they were not even close to being met. Colonia is a GHOST town. There was no one out and so few restaurants. We didn't even eat dinner anyway because we were so full from the Thanksgiving meal... We came back to the hotel and went to sleep!

November 23:

Interesting day. We woke up to about 50 messages in our program groupchat from people saying they feel sick / have the runs / think they have food poisoning. Lucky me (and Cassie) felt just fine cuz we didn't eat the turkey. IFSA tried to justify the stomach aches saying it was from drinking the tap water (although they told us it's safe to drink, plus I drank it and was fine) but it was obviously from the turkey. Everyone who didn't eat the turkey was fine. Pobrecitos...

So we sadly had to wait 3 hours for everyone's stomachs to chill before we hit the road to Montevideo. We finally left around 10:30am. Our stay in Montevideo was very brief. We ate a very subpar lunch and then "explored" the tiny little city for about 30 minutes and then headed back on the bus towards Punta del Este.

While in Montevideo, I tried to recreate one of the graffitis. Let me know how I did.

About 5 minutes into the trip, our bus driver pulled over and we made a surprise stop at the Montevideo sign and took some beautiful photos as you can see.

We finally got to the hotel in Punta del Este and it was LIT. Our room was massive and there was a hot tub and mini work out center and it was clean and wholesome. #welcometoourcrib

Cassie and I went to the fitness center and I ran on the only treadmill while she biked. Our program then went out to dinner and oh boi was this an incredible time. It was like a 15 course meal, they just never stopped bringing out appetizers... and we never stopped eating them.

We played games the whole dinner like "Perfect in every way except..." where you describe a person who is perfect except for one fatal flaw (for example, sleeps standing up in the corner of the room LOL). We were laughing the whole night and it was a great time.

When we got back, Cassie and I told people we were doing 10 minute abs and shockingly 7 people showed up to do them with us. Then Alona led us in yoga and it was surprisingly incredibly fun. We ended up all hanging out in our room for the rest of the night reflecting on study abroad and later playing a really fun game called Spyfall.

I'd like to note that Cassie slept talk excessively in her sleep this night and we had a conversation about food at 4:04am. She doesn't remember it... but I do.

November 24:

We woke up and ate the hotel breakfast which was about average. Then about half of our program did a walk around the peninsula which took just over 2 hours and was rather tiring. It was a great way to see the Atlantic Ocean / el río and later along the way we saw some very cool looking houses along the coast.

At one point, we passed this rocky area with 3 planks leading out to a table kind of in the middle of the water and we walked out to it. I was terrified cuz I realized that if a big wave came we would all be doomed so I turned around right away lol.

Here are some pics of the neat stuff we passed by...

The end destination was "los dedos" (the fingers) and you will see why it is called that in 3... 2... 1...

We got back to the hotel and ate some leftovers from the previous night's dinner that we snuck into the hotel hehehe. Turns out the eggplant / cheese/ tomato sauce things ARE good even when they're cold.

We worked out in the fitness center and then took a nap for a bit because the walk tired us out. We planned to wake up to watch the Boca vs. River soccer game but some mafia members threw rocks at the Boca bus and injured some players so the game was postponed and has yet to be played. Cassie and I napped for a long time since there was no game to watch and then eventually went out to dinner.

This dinner was also with the program and was very nice. We snagged a table with couches to sit on and it was so comfy. Our group of 6 had a nice conversation and the food was great!

When we got back, I ran one more mile... didn't want to but I had to... and then I was ready to socialize! We all hung out in our one friend's room and there were a ton of people there. I was worried we would get a noise complaint but then everyone split off into groups in other rooms and it was all gucci. We played games and it was a good time and then Duncan, Cassie, and I left to go play Spyfall again. You can't really play with only 3 people so it was hilarious and super fun. We were gonna go to the beach but everyone left without us and then we realized it's actually freezing outside and we don't wanna be covered in sand anyway lol so we went to bed! Super fun night all around though.

Moments before deciding to stay in for the night.

November 25:

Today was the first day of the entire trip in which the sun came out and we had to take advantage of it! I woke up early and ran and it was nice to explore Punta del Este just a little bit. I made it to the coast and that got me excited to go spend the day at the beach.

When I got back, I ate breakfast in the hotel and then went to the beach with Cassie. We played catch with a rugby ball with Goyo, one of the IFSA staff members, and his assistant girl that no one really knows but is cool and then we kicked a soccer ball around for a while. They then decided to play a game of soccer but I sat out and just watched Cassie kick a**. She is so good at soccer!!

After that we just laid there for a bit and then headed back to the hotel around 12:30pm because we had to check out at 1:30pm. We crammed 15 people into a van that holds 9 on the short drive from the beach to the hotel and Goyo randomly put a wig on and started singing 2 minutes into the drive and I thoroughly enjoyed that. It was a lit van ride.

We ate some bagels back in our room, packed up, and then checked out. We got on the bus to Colonia and that ended up being just over 4 hours long.

We got to the port way too early, went through migrations and all that, and then waited forever to board the ferry. Of course it was running 45 minutes late and I was hungryyyyy. When we finally got on the boat, we couldn't even tell if we were moving or not because the sky was pitch black... that is until the boat got rocked by a thicc wave.

I got home just after 10:00pm and Clarisa left me out a yummy dinner. She sat with me while I ate and we caught up with one another and I started to get really sad thinking that I'll be leaving soon. Just trying to enjoy each day though.

After dinner, I went up to my room and unpacked and got ready for bed. Since then, I've been writing this post! My brother lands in Buenos Aires tomorrow morning and I'm so excited!!!! Actually he lands in like 5 hours! I wish both of my brothers could come but I'm grateful at least that Adam can.

I'm also grateful for this trip to Uruguay and the opportunity to see, experience, and learn about a new South American culture. They say Uruguay is quite different from the rest of South America... cool that I got to go there!

Peace out and sweet dreams.

Song Recommendation of the Day: "Teléfono" by Aitana & Lele Pons

P.S. -

"Look. I'm from Chicago." - Cassie