“It isn’t a science, Chris” (but, yes it is).

8 months after moving to Uruguay, I sat in my room tonight and drank my first solo mate–prepared by a team effort between my roommate Oriana and me. She assured me that the there was no science to the preparation, but watching her deliberate movements as she shook and leveled the mate, adding cold and [...]

Sometimes you wake up at 5:56am and you look like this:

Needless to say, I didn’t go to class. Instead I slept and took antihistamines. And to respond to Nick’s initial question: no it’s not permanent. It was mosquito induced. Clearly, I’m getting a bed net for the summer.

The night that started with a strike and ended with a crash.

It had been a great night: I discovered a bowling alley in MVD. My first roll of my cosmic pink 10-lb ball was a strike. We played two games and I won both. I then celebrated the 25th birthday of Teresa, my professor friend, on the top floor of her apartment building. And so it [...]

NWM

Nick Moore recently came for a visit. On foot, on bike, on train, and by sea we explored. Hitchhiking happened. Twice. He is of the ever-curious breed, meandering down streets to get a better view of a door frame (a window, a chimney, a…) of a house he’d peep from two alleys away. He will [...]

Wet shoes make a day long.

This past week my dear friends (Becca, Elise, Thyra, NWM) and I took a trip to Bariloche, Argentina (to be read: Patagonia). We got to Buenos Aires by ferry, to Viedma by bus, and then trained it to Bariloche–in total, a 36 hour and 1,000 mile journey. Bariloche was part Switzerland, part tourist trap. [...]

Things I see, 2

On Friday I saw my second concert with Pata, who knows the best of Uruguayan musicians. I ate raviolis in the taxi, having not eaten dinner yet at 10:30. Martin Buscaglia, the singer, used children’s toys ingeniously as instruments. After his show he spun the best (and only) hip-hop music I have danced to here. [...]

Things I see

Today in the shower I conceived of a new section for my blog: Things I see. I will initiate it today. Its title is self-explanatory. It will be about the moments that somehow slip beyond the monotony to become standout. And as an extra special bonus I will post a picture of me alongside [...]

Asamblea Bi-Distrital—Colonia, Uruguay 3-4 Mayo

A wonderful weekend was had recently with my Rotaract Club (Paso Molino) at the country’s bi-district Rotaract assembly. It was a weekend of workshops and camaraderie, homemade cheeses and out-of-control night games. The nights were cold, but the conversation was passionate, as we discussed how Uruguayan Rotaract clubs could unite to create better “brand recognition” [...]

Mate (the beverage. A way of life.)

Never caught without a mate and thermos, Uruguayans are famous for their consumption of this highly caffeinated tea. Mate is ironically not cultivated within Uruguay, rather it is imported from Brazil and Paraguay. I have been told that in Buenos Aires when someone carries mate on the street they are said to be acting “as [...]

“Rio is a city of paradox, a city of contradictions.” (A visual).

“Top of Latin America´s inequality league table comes Brazil, one of the most unequal nations on earth, where the richest 10% of the population earns 49 times the income of the poorest 10%…Brazil has been scathingly rechristened “Belindia”–a hybrid where the middle class enjoy the European lifestyle of a Belgium, surrounded by the impoverished masses [...]