Yes we know

He doesn't speak a lick of English!

What´s the Password? Mattress? Come on up! Well played sir!

I CAN NOT TELL YOU HOW GORGEOUS MONTEVIDEO IS. Tucker wasn´t kidding when he told me he thought I was a flight risk because I might not actually leave. And he was right, I might not actually leave...:)

Our hostel has become one giant family or at least it feels that way. We stayed our first night in a room with two Australians and two Argentines. How funny, 2, 2, and 2. It was kind of incredible to sit in the room and discuss how different the three countries were with one another.

 Oh and our Hostel: beautiful. The people running the place are all younger except for the house keeper, I would say he´s middle aged. He speaks very limited English and we´ve had many moments of pointing and smiling as our best form of communication. For breakfast they bring you coffee, toast, and the moistest watermelon you´ve ever tasted. Everyone sits around like family and discusses their home countries

Every night here is a ¨late night¨. You don´t go to sleep until two or three in the morning and it is very, very normal. If you eat before 10pm, you look like a crazy. Last night I was up rather late trying to get ahold of Tucker and an older gentleman came and joined me at the table. You have to realize if you are sitting at ¨the table¨ it basically becomes an invitation to talk. So the gentleman sits with me, tells me his name is Edward and that he´s been travelling around South America for something like three months now....and he´s Irish. I guess my face must´ve lit up when he said he lived out side of Galway because he asked if I had been there and so launched another hour long discussion about the glory of Ireland and the wonderful people there.

Zach ate everything we made for dinner last night. Which was a lot. But at 1 in the morning we were hungry again an Edward offered us his food. So we are including him in our dinner tonight. It is much cheaper here to just cook in your hostel with groceries than it is to go out and have dinner. Not saying that dinner is exactly expensive. The first night out we found a relatively close restaurant and just walked in. As custom, we ask everyone if they speak English or not (which makes you feel awful by the way and is incredibly embarrassing). Well, no on in the restuarant spoke Spanish. Once again, a lot of pointing, head nodding, smiling and laughter between us and our waitress. In the end my check leveled out at maybe $8, but the portion they gave me was gargantuan.

We spent a large portion of yesterday laying on the beach. I wish I could describe what Montevideon beaches are like, it will be hard, but I will do the best I can. Basically everyone here is beautiful. Particularly the women, they are just gorgeous. Granted there are still ¨bigger¨ women or older, but in general they are all very pretty. When you get to the beach there are hundreds of people lounging and absolutely NOBODY CARES WHAT THEY WEAR OR LOOK LIKE WEARING IT. I´ve never seen so many G'string bikinis and speedos in my life. IN MY LIFE. There is no open bottle law here so while on the beach I drank a bottle of cheap, but freaking delicious wine made in Uruguay without any one giving us a second look.

We did have a bit of a wake up call yesterday when an older gentleman who, randomly, studied anthropologique biologique (forgive me if this is entirely wrong) approached us and began speaking to us. He was very nice, but later one of his friends approached us and engaged in a conversation with the man. The man became very stone faced and told Zach that three ¨banditos¨ had been watching us hang out on the beach for about an hour and they most likely had a gun. We left and went up to the little beach side bar for a while and then just went to another part of the beach. It was just too beautiful to be scared away from a beach like that.

I truly wish my words seemed more expressive than they do robotic right now. I think I am just reeling from the horrid 7 hour delay in LAX, the almost missed flight from Santiago, and the most horrifying plane take off in my life. But so far it´s all been worth it. It is our last night in Montevideo. I am kind of sad to leave it behind. It actually feels a little like home, just a lot more warm and a little nicer people. There was freak thunder and lightening storm last night and we were told this was the first rain here in forever. We explained to everyone not to worry about it, we come from Oregon and probably brought the rain with us....

Until then-

Jlau

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Montevideo like no one has seen it.

So here I sit, nearly one in the morning after my first day technically in South America. Our first stop-Montevideo, Uruguay. The beaches here are phenomenal. Blue and stretch for miles. I will write more later about the Aussie, Argentine, Anerican debacle. hahahahah.

But until then, I leave you with this: Take nothing you have in the states for granted. We are so lucky it´s disgusting and now I can see that play out almost every minute of my life here. Stop bitching and complaining because there is always a worse  option.

Much more on our first dinner and the driver who we thought may kills us on our way to the hostel....<promise-. but this lack of sleep is murdering me.

The horrors of LAX

So, already apologizing for this post. I'm on my phone on the floor of LAX, which by the way, had the most inconvenient electrical outlets ever.

Zach and I board at 1:35. This is his first international flight and he to say the absolute least, is in a mild panic.. Our flight is something like 11 hours and 20 minutes or something along those lines. Pray to the airline gods that beverage service is free. Ima need one hell of a bottle of wine for this.

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED SO FAST!! AH! It felt like just last week Zach and I made a "pact" to do this program and now here we are waiting for flight 603 to take off at 2pm. Such an adventure lies ahead after this flight!! Including a layover in Santiago,Chile that I have a feeling is going to turn into Home Alone status and having us sprinting through the airport...

Until then.
-Jlau

Sharks lose, I ponder life, and Mexicooooooo PUMAS!

Eclectic right?!?!

I have a labrador retriever. She is yellow. she is going to be one in April. She is absolutely nuts and has this really bizarre obsession with socks. Nothing else form our house, just socks. Tucker and I have a theory that he tag line is "I like sock". Right now she is at my feet, digging through a pile of clean clothes, doing what I am convinced is searching for her next victim.

Alas, not the point of writing at this moment, but something funny that I thought I would note. Tucker and I just left the Sharks/ Flames (for those who don't know, it's National Hockey League Hockey and only the best sport in the world to watch live) game. Sadly our beloved Sharks lost 4-3, but we had a blast nonetheless.

Oh another small disclaimer I should add: My husband, and if you haven't already figured out his name  yet it is Tucker, is posting on the blog with me. I will have my posts from abroad and his lovely, humorous, and insightful posts will pepper the page from back in the U.S.

But in actuality I am writing (blogging?) to ponder my trips in their entirety. What a two months I have ahead of myself. Adventuring around multiple countries I don't even speak the language in and something like nine flights in less than 50 days? Sign me up for the next!

You may know me from the friskings

You're welcome

If there's a fire, put it out.

Thanks to Jess for allowing me to throw in meaningless tidbits of information.  Don't mind me.

Jesus, Vodka,.....Revenge.

This is my blog. If you are reading this, you already know that. 
Props.


A few rules: 


1. Sometimes this blog won't make sense and for that I lightweight apologize. Mainly, I am using it to talk about my adventures in South and Central America. Obviously not everything is going to make sense. I will try to explain as best as I can. Promise. 


2.If I reference a quote or a conversation or an awkward situation even just go with it.*
(*at times I will quote various things from my life even before I left for South America, if you have no idea what I am talking about reference Facebook or Google it. That is what they are there for. I left a link to my Facebook and already updated it to the new Facebook so you can now stalk me until birth, but since birth is now considered the creation of your Facebook you can only stalk back into my life to about 2006. Figure it out.)


3. I will whine about missing my husband or at least give him a shout out. This is unavoidable. If you do not want to hear it, don't read it. Simple. I am living really far away for a while....so far away that Google maps does not even give me a route. Sorry, but that is how I gauge far because Google maps has saved my ass more than once. Plus Hubs is the person I spend the most time with and talk to the most and I've already spent more than half a month away. Sucks, but such is life.


4. I enjoy really little things about life, minuscule things actually. Prepare yourself for a whole lot of little bizarre posts that seem ridiculous. To me these things are what make the real difference to my experience in the long run. 


5. I may and most likely will change the topic of a post in the same paragraph. Call it blogging A.D.D if you want. 


6. My writing will not always be the best. I am not writing a damn paper or a book, just how I feel. Or what I see. Or smell. Or experience. Or whatever. 


7. This just goes for everyone in general: Have fun. Life is too short and the world is too beautiful to pass up. And if you don't get into an awkward situation at least once or ten times you're not doing something right. 


8. I will add rules at my own discretion. 


Travel Log 1: I haven't even left the comforts of the U.S. I am pretty sure it is almost 70 degrees right now in San Martin and life is just peachy and blissful. Husband is being an awesome Baseball coach and Teacher's Aide and I am really really really (I would put more, but you get the point) proud of him.  
I got lucky and talked my parents in to buying me a plane ticket so I could spend time with Tucker before I disappeared to Central and South America for a couple of months. February 12th-April 7th actually.... So just five days shy of two months and quite a long time for a couple that has not even been married for an entire year. 


I extended my stay in Central America last night when I got a ticket for a two week stint in Mexico, mainly Mexico City. I will be staying with the family that hosted my mom as an exchange student when she was in High School. The daughter, Paulina, and I were pen pals growing up. Now, of course, we are Facebook friends because Facebook is law.


Anyways, the family knew that I was traveling to South America for an extended period and my original flight had quite the layover in Mexico City. My flight got changed and Mexico City was removed from my itinerary until last week when I got an email from Bertha (Paulina's mom) asking if I was still planning on coming... (note rule #5). 


If you know me at all really you know that I live by the ass of my pants. No problems admitting that and it has made my life pretty fun and adventurous thus far. Actually, really fun now that I reflect on it. I like to have a very broad and general idea of what I am doing or where I am going, but what is the fun of life if you have everything planned down to the minute?  My week in Ireland last year was conceptualized while drunk with my best friend in the middle of January followed by a drunk dial to a roommate who had studied abroad there. Suddenly tickets were only $600 and we could fly in on Paddy's at 8 in the morning and we had a free place to stay... then all of a sudden BOOM! BEST $600 DECISION OF MY LIFE! Small shout out to Aeriel W. for buying my ticket and telling me to just, "pay her back whenever I could".


But I digest (Note rule #2. As a hint, look up Bobby Bottleservice), the email from Bertha sparred me to look for flights that went straight from Montevideo to Mexico City. Yeaaaaaah, that wasn't happening. So I looked for other flights and there it was, March 24th 5:31PM out of LAX to Mexico City for disgustingly cheap.
Do you ever have one of those feelings where something speaks to you? Well, when I found that flight I had one of those feelings and so began the second portion of my stay.....what I didn't mention was that I fly in to LAX on March 24th from Montevideo at something like 8 in the morning. So here I go, flying in to Montevideo, Uruguay at 11 in the morning next Tuesday knowing important Spanish words like "Cerveza".


I will tell more of why I am going to South America in the first place later. That is a whole blog of it's own. At least it should be. 


Until then-
Jlau.