Well, internet friends, it´s been a long couple of days. I said goodbye to many of you in Boston and since I don´t want to start crying again I will leave it at that. My big adventure started on Thursday morning when I showed up at JFK airport to catch a flight to Montevideo, Uruguay, where I planned to stay for the whole summer. My goal is to learn the language by the time I leave.

 

I will be in Montevideo for four weeks, after which point I have nothing but free time. However, there are several things on my travel to-do list. For instance, I think I´m going to spend my birthday in Buenos Aires. Other than that, I´m just going to explore this part of the world and talk to as many people as possible. And since I planned to be on the move for the whole summer I decided to pack only one carry-on worth of luggage. I actually managed to narrow down my clothing choices and shove everything into my pretty pink bag that my roommates got me last year for my trip to Costa Rica.

 

However, when I got to the airport and checked-in, I was informed that there was a 22 pound weight limit. My bad weighed in at 37 pounds. Instead of throwing away about 1/3 of my stuff, I had no choice but to check my bag. I was flying an unknown airline called Taca International which, for all I knew, could have been the American Airlines of South America. Luckily, it was not. The seats were comfortable considering that I was in ¨monkey class¨, the flight attendants were alway friendly even when I stumbled over my Spanish, and they even managed to NOT loose my luggage even though I had two layovers on the way down.

 

I arrived in Montevideo around 4:00 in the morning local time and had to wait around for a bus to take me into the city. The hostel where I´m staying had instructions about how to get from the airport to the city but here´s the thing -- even in English I suck at reading the bus schedule. And here I was -- tired, stressed, and trying to read the schedule in Spanish. Of course I got on the wrong bus.

 

Instead of taking me to Montevideo it took me to the outskirts of the city, to a train station, at which point the driver kicked everyone off. So I sat around for a while lamenting the fact that there was not a Dunkin Donuts in sight until I finally walked down the street to the bus station and tried again. Of course the bus I needed wasn´t going to come to this bus station. So I had two choices. I could catch a bus back to the airport and try again, or I could hop on a bus who´s destination read ¨Montevideo¨and hope for the best. Guess which one I chose?

 

About half an hour later the bus dumped me off in the middle of Montevideo. I had no idea where I was or how close I was to the hostel. So I popped into the nearest hotel and asked for a map. The consierge was nice enough to tell me which bus I could take to get to my hostel but I had had enough of buses for the day. Map in hand, I did what any true AG Traveler would do, I walked. For an hour. Clear across town.

 

I finally showed up at the hostel at 10:30 only to be informed that check-in time was at 1:00. So I left my suitcase at the hostel and promised them that I would be back. Then I walked (getting slightly lost along the way) to my language school so that I could pick up my paperwork. The secretary was kind enough to walk me over to meet my host mother, a lovely women named Adele who has students in her house all the time. I´m sure I´ll write a longer note about her once I get to know her better, but for now it´s sufficient to say that she´s my ner favorite person.

 

After I was finished there I headed back to my hostel. But now it was later in the afternoon and I was starving. Plus I was tired and my brain was fuzzy so I wasn´t in any shape to try to order food from a restaurant. I walked into a neighborhood fast food joint and ordered a serving of fries. And then I went back to my hostel where I was FINALLY able to check in. Up in my room I discovered a group of American college students who where taking an art class over the summer. As an added bonus, they were Doctor Who fans. It was like fate.

 

I was so tired that at 3:00 I took a nap and only woke up at 6:00 when one of the girls came into the room and turned on the light without realizing I was sleeping. So I decided to get out of bed and try to do something productive, like charge my i-pod.

 

That´s it so far. I´m sure there will be many more adventures to come.

 

Love to you all,