Muchas clases, mariscos, Montevideo and McCartney

(Posted on Tuesday, 17 April 2012 in Uruguay)
Note: I originally wrote this blog entry for my old Spanish school in Australia (The Spanish Cat), hence the error in the date above. 

Hello everyone!

My apologies for the Spanglish title, I promise I am not speaking to people like this!

View out the window of my apartment

Muchas clases

Seafood restaurant, another tough day at the office

So on last count I am taking 18 classes a week now, which is around 3 or 4 a day and even on Saturdays. It´s nice to have so many students and so many people keen to learn. My hours per week have sure escalated quickly, however the good thing is I enjoy each class and it never really feels like work! The only slight frustration is catching public transport around all the time, however even this can be enjoyable with the wide range of buskers that frequent the trains and buses here and also I am getting to see many different parts of the city.

Mariscos

Traditional Chilean food

Last weekend one of my students invited me to a BBQ at his house, as you can see from the picture above it wasn´t your ordinary ´couple of steaks and sausages´ on a grill type of BBQ. This style of Chilean food originates from the island of Chiloe and firstly involves chicken, then seafood on top and a couple of litres of white wine, then it is all covered over and left to stew for an hour. Incredibly tasty! The night then progressed to drinking vino, playing guitar and singing karaoke.

McCartney

One of the highlights of the concert for me

Anyone who knows me personally also knows that I spend about 80% of my life listening to The Beatles. So when I heard that Paul McCartney was playing in Uruguay I also knew I would spend the rest of my life regretting it if I didn´t go.  So last Friday I flew to Uruguay to see the maestro himself play on Sunday night in Montevideo, as this blog is not a concert review I won´t go into it to much, but safe to say the concert will live in my memory the rest of my life and I can now die in peace having seen one of The Beatles play live.

My time in Montevideo

My initial thoughts on Montevideo were that it is like the little and more chilled out brother of Buenos Aires, but I quickly realised that the vibe of the city is completely different and despite having a similar accent (at least to my ear) to Argentina the people are also very different and have a beautiful and unique culture. I stayed with couchsurfers and was taken out both Friday and Saturday nights until around 6am, which is very normal in Montevideo. The people I met were amazing and I loved my short time in the city.

Drinking mate

Traditional Uruguayan dance/drums

Still dancing

Sara and I (couchsurfing(

Montevideo street art, this one was done by local artists as a memorial for the man on the right who died in a car crash.

Mi nombre es Paul y yo soy vegetariano.

Lucia and I (couchsurfing), the photo is a bit blurry as the photographer had a bit of trouble with the iPhone

Alex´s Note: Just as I was writing this there was an earthquake which felt quite strong (I´m told 6.5) and certainly rocked me around a bit on the 21st floor of my apartment which was kind of exciting. All fine here and seems like the city is still going as normal! However I hope there was no damage in other parts of the country.