It’s a well known fact that fútbol is a popular sport in Latin America and so I made a promise to myself that I would go to a game while I was living here. I got the chance to go a couple of weeks ago to see Uruguay’s team, Nacional , play a Brazilian team, it was so exciting! The enthusiasm of the fans is incredible. You are surrounded by constant cheering from the start of the game until the end.
You know the game is going to start when the noise level of the crowd surges and paper, toilet paper and other items are thrown into the air. Once the game is in progress, curse words fly around you like crazy and songs filled with fighting words ring in the air.
It’s not quite that intense at the basketball games though. Thanks to a visiting Rotarian, Gary Chamberlain, from my district 5510, I got the chance to attend the basketball championship in Uruguay. He and his wife were so wonderful! I took a taxi out to meet them at their apartment and from there we went and watched Bigua win it all.
Although it’s not as intense as a soccer game, toilet paper is still thrown on the court and people jump up and down while cheering their team on. At the end the crowd rushed the gym floor and the players climbed up on top of the basketball rims to cut down the net and pop open a champagne bottle to spray on the fans. It was such a sight to see!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
First Rotary Meeting in Uruguay
About a year and a half ago, I found out that I received the Ambassadorial Scholarship for Rotary and was going to be studying in Uruguay. Coincidentally, the year I found out was the year that another district in the Tucson area of Arizona was hosting Rotarians from Uruguay on a Group Study Exchange. Through connections with the Rotarians in that district of Arizona I was able to obtain the contact information of one of the visiting Rotarians from Uruguay, Daniel Pagliano, who helped me tremendously with information about the Universities here and much more.
After two years of emailing back and forth with Daniel, I finally got the opportunity to meet him in person! He contacted me early last week to welcome me to the country and offer his help any time I needed it. He invited me to my first Rotary meeting last night and sent Walter, another Rotarian from his club, to come pick me up. Walter gave me a tour of Montevideo along the Ramblas which lines the beach of Montevideo and then we picked up his wife and headed over to the meeting.
At the meeting I was greeted with such a warm welcome and surprised faces because I could speak Spanish---Spanish that still gives me a way as a foreigner (even more than the red hair) because here they pronounce the LL words and words that begin with y differently than other Latin American countries. We ate a lot of meat cooked on a Parilla. There was blood sausage, chorizo and steak, and believe it or not, the once almost vegetarian Erin, is adapting to the carnivorous habits of Uruguayans.
After two years of emailing back and forth with Daniel, I finally got the opportunity to meet him in person! He contacted me early last week to welcome me to the country and offer his help any time I needed it. He invited me to my first Rotary meeting last night and sent Walter, another Rotarian from his club, to come pick me up. Walter gave me a tour of Montevideo along the Ramblas which lines the beach of Montevideo and then we picked up his wife and headed over to the meeting.
At the meeting I was greeted with such a warm welcome and surprised faces because I could speak Spanish---Spanish that still gives me a way as a foreigner (even more than the red hair) because here they pronounce the LL words and words that begin with y differently than other Latin American countries. We ate a lot of meat cooked on a Parilla. There was blood sausage, chorizo and steak, and believe it or not, the once almost vegetarian Erin, is adapting to the carnivorous habits of Uruguayans.
Friday, March 7, 2008
La llegada
It has been almost two weeks since I arrived in Uruguay and already I have come to love and appreciate all of the people and their rich traditions.
Arriving here was quite the experience though! There where complications with my paper work and I was not allowed to board my connecting flight from Houston to Buenos Aires. Thus, I had to stay in Houston for a while and I got to know the airport quite well until I finally departed the next day at 9pm. When I finally arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, I was so fearful there would be no one there to meet me as the language school had sent someone the day before to pick me up and I was still in Houston. But thanks to the Rotary family and its strong connections worldwide, I was able to call Rotarians in Tucson who then used their connections and got the District governor of Rotary in Montevideo as well as the District governor elect to greet me with a big Uruguayan welcome and help me cart all of my luggage to my host family’s house.
At first, their way of welcoming caught me off guard. In the United States we usually extend a hand to shake and there seems to be, as a Uruguayan rotaractor put it, “una distancia” (a distance) between strangers. In Uruguay though, the custom is much different: men usually shake hands upon first meeting and then from there, once they have developed the friendship, they greet each other with a cheek to cheek kiss. The women always greet strangers, men or women, with the cheek to cheek kiss and I wasn't expecting that from people I had never met. The way they greet each other says a lot though about how warm and inviting the culture is here, it's easy to feel at home.
Arriving here was quite the experience though! There where complications with my paper work and I was not allowed to board my connecting flight from Houston to Buenos Aires. Thus, I had to stay in Houston for a while and I got to know the airport quite well until I finally departed the next day at 9pm. When I finally arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, I was so fearful there would be no one there to meet me as the language school had sent someone the day before to pick me up and I was still in Houston. But thanks to the Rotary family and its strong connections worldwide, I was able to call Rotarians in Tucson who then used their connections and got the District governor of Rotary in Montevideo as well as the District governor elect to greet me with a big Uruguayan welcome and help me cart all of my luggage to my host family’s house.
At first, their way of welcoming caught me off guard. In the United States we usually extend a hand to shake and there seems to be, as a Uruguayan rotaractor put it, “una distancia” (a distance) between strangers. In Uruguay though, the custom is much different: men usually shake hands upon first meeting and then from there, once they have developed the friendship, they greet each other with a cheek to cheek kiss. The women always greet strangers, men or women, with the cheek to cheek kiss and I wasn't expecting that from people I had never met. The way they greet each other says a lot though about how warm and inviting the culture is here, it's easy to feel at home.
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