Below the Equator for the First Time

Day 1: 3/19-3/20/11

Good evening from Uruguay!

We departed JFK a little after 8pm on TAM Airlines. Sitting in seat 23C, I was located in the window seat (window closed, of course). The flight was pretty smooth (we hit some pockets of turbulence) and they served dinner (chicken and rice) and breakfast (egg and bread). Even though I was tired, I watched The King’s Speech after dinner. Colin Firth plays King George VI and Geoffrey Rush plays Lionel Logue, a speech therapist. I must say, it was with good reason that this movie won so many awards, specifically the Academy Award for Best Picture. I really loved this movie; it was historical, funny, and serious. It was interesting to watch the struggles of King George VI, as well as his older brother, grapple with the duties of being the King of England:

“If I'm King, where's my power? Can I form a government? Can I levy a tax, declare a war? No! And yet I am the seat of all authority. Why? Because the nation believes that when I speak, I speak for them. But I can't speak,” King George VI.

Anyway, I digress. After the movie, I started watching Jerry Maguire and fell asleep towards the end. We landed in Sao Paulo, Brazil at around 6:30am (local time) and waited around for our connecting flight to Montevideo, Uruguay. Once again, it was a TAM flight; I had a window seat (and briefly looked out the window), and fell asleep. They served a brunch (that’s my name for whatever the meal was), which contained jamon e queso (ham and cheese). I took off the cheese and was content. We then arrived in Montevideo at around noon. Sunny and 22 ° C (~72° F)! Nice. When we landed, a bunch of us saw a plane with the “United States of America” paint scheme…maybe a backup for Obama, or maybe he is here. He was talking in Brazil on Saturday (and is apparently touring that country today as well).

Two young girls from the local Uruguay Hillel met us at the airport and took us to our hostel. I asked some questions, but they didn’t really know the answers…so right not, I can’t tell you how much gas costs, but I will find out.

The ride from the airport to the hostel was not long at all. Melanie and I agreed that we felt we were back in Alexandria, Egypt. Here in Montevideo, the river was on the left side of the road and high-rises were on the right. Here is the comparison! It is a really nice city, as far as I can tell. Not run down at all.

Montevideo

Alexandria

The outside of the hostel (from their website)

The hostel, overall, is a hostel. It seems to cater to young people. I am sharing a room with Alex Block ’14. We are the only guys on the trip (or only American boys in the country???). As for the girls—well, they are all in 1 room—all 8 of them (their website says it should only be for 6). They will be on top of each other; I feel really bad for them…I’m sure Melanie will share her experiences on her blog.

Tonight, we took a bus to Hillel Uruguay. They have a modern setup with a yoga studio (they call it a gym, I call it a Yoga studio), classrooms, and a library. They also have a café (wont be functional again until next week), a game room area, and a larger social space. In the social space, we played icebreakers with girls from the University of Oregon (go Ducks). I’m not sure how much I got out of the icebreakers; there was a somewhat awkward interaction between the two groups. We had a BBQ for dinner at Hillel (kosher burger). I had 1 burger, though I was still a little hungry. The ketchup and mayo came in plastic “caprisun” pouches. Now, seeing mayo coming out of that was gross. People sat and mingled for a while, and I observed the conversations from afar. There were people just sitting there listening to each other, but had no idea what was going on.

We walked back to the Hostel—an Egyptian 20 min (which means it took 30 min)—and then went to the supermercado. I exchanged forty USD…and didn’t buy anything. It’s kinda funny seeing school supplies for sale—summer is coming to an end here.
That’s all for now...see ya tomorrow.