So today I'm home sick from school, mostly by force. After 3 days in bed I'm definitely starting to feel the boredom. I feel like it's my body's way of telling me to write another blog post.
So by popular demand I have a few topics to discuss in this post, starting with more information about carnaval. I'm pretty sure this was only popular among my friends because of the parties, but we shall discuss it anyway! To go into more detail on the topic, my sister and I spent to week of carnaval home alone while the rest of the family remained at the beach. This may sound like a horrible idea to most of my readers, but being home alone really allowed me time to get used to the house and feel more comfortable living here. We went to one party a night with a big group of my sister's friends. These never failed to shock me. Not only were there cultural differences (aka the music, the language, etc.) but also I had just never been exposed to parties of this magnitude. Another interesting fact, not only is it completely legal to drink alcohol at any age here, but also to smoke Marijuana (obviously AFS does not allow the second one). It's unavoidable not only at parties but also in the plazas and streets from time to time.
After clearing this story with my mother, I will now to posting my most shocking party story. It was the third party I went to on my second week in Uruguay. It was raining but the outdoor party continued nonetheless. I assume due to the rain the police decided to shut the party down pretty early (around 6am) and began coraling everyone off the premisis. When people were walking too slow they would push them, it was incredibly rude. Eventually some guys decided they had had enough and began yelling at the officers. It was only my second week so I didn't know enough Spanish to decifer the shouting but the reason was pretty obvious. The arguement quickly turned physical and I stood, dumbfounded, while the police beat several men to the ground. I try not to say this too often because "things are neither better nor worse, only different" but God bless America.
Now on to the hot topic of school. Every time someone asks how school is here I reply "different" and this is no lie. It's honestly not any better or worse than school in Marietta, just really different. Maybe little better because my grades don't matter so much! Anyway, the school hours range from 7:20-1:20 with 8 40 minute classes that change each day. There is no period for lunch as we eat around 2 when we arrive home. I wear a uniform everyday that consists of: a grey skirt, white button up, green tie, and green socks. Black uniform shoes are supposed to be worn with this but as they are expensive and I get away with a lot more, I wear my black Vans. After almost every class there is a 5 or 10 minute break where students eat, talk, or play soccer in the courtyard. There are about 13 students in my entire grade and about 6 in each of my classes. Each morning we meet in the school church for a speech and a prayer (I attend a private Catholic school) and on occation the singing of the nathional anthem. The teaching style here tends to seem a lot more like college in the US than high school. Class begins when and if the teacher shows up and notes are only taken if desired. The teachers and the students change classrooms. I will post a picture of my schedule below but for those of you who are interested, I go to Instituto Salesiano Monsenor Lasagna and I am a 6to engineering student.
Birthdays are a much bigger deal here. I have been to about 8 birthday parties already and I've only been here a month. I generally don't even know the person, I just get dragged along with my sister or a friend. The 15th birthday is the most important and a lot of the preparations remind me of stuff you would do to prepare for a wedding. The decorations are beautiful, the birthday girl wears a white gown, videos and photo albums are made, and of course there's a huge cake. Other birthday parties usually consist of inviting a lot of people over and eating pizza or sandwiches. Alcohol is common at these parties and they generally last most of the night, even on school nights. Cakes are almost always made by the mother and include dulce de leche (caramel).
Now to include a mini segment on the Spanish language of Uruguay. This is mostly aimed at my Spanish classes in the US but feel free to read if you are just interested as well. I already mentioned the accent a bit but to build on that, the letter "d" makes the "th" sound. Try saying my name like that, I couldn't even recognize it at first. Also, the letter "s" is almost always dropped of of the end of words. The usted form is extremely uncommon and only used by teachers to students. The word eres is sos or tas here and vos is used in the place of tu. Vallan is the same thing as ir, chau is adios, and besos is a common goodbye as well. Slang is extremely common and I think my friends find it funny to speak with as much as possible so I don't understand. I often find slang words here that don't even exist in the english language that I know of. Cursing is extremely common here, not only in Spanish but English as well. Everyone does, even my grandmother will curse on occasion. I would include the popular ones but I feel like this is inappropriate for a public blog post. On another note, forget all of the grammer rules you've learned about aqui vs. aca and alla vs. ahi, it's only aca and alla here. Finally, for everyone who asked how people answer the phone here (because it won't be hola), I'm sorry to disappoint but it is in fact only hola.
Overall, I have really enjoyed my first month here. My Spanish is improving a little bit everyday. Even though the way of life seems really crazy at times, I find it really enjoyable and I love being a part of it.
First day of school.
