Day 7

Today started around 5:00 a.m. with a bit of a, uh, digestion issue. Fortunately, I listened to a few key friends before I left and brought something to take care of it 👍🏼 By the time class ended at 1:30 p.m. I was good. Pro tip for eating when in Montevideo: avoid the onion rings at La Pasiva 😉

Before class started my confidence slipped a bit. Not exactly sure why but it may have been because no one was speaking to me. They were  speaking Spanish or German or Dutch or Russian. I decided to do something about it and I introduced myself to Warren, simply, "Hola Warren! Soy Miguel 😃".

Warren is my age! He's American! He's quiet! And  he appreciated my reaching out. So after talking to Warren I reached out to Patrick. Patrick is also an American although he is not my age. Some people in the group said we looked like twins because we both have a "barba de chivo" (goatee) or in Patrick's case "barba larga de mentón" (long chin beard) also called a "barba puntiaguda" (pointed beard). I hope to get a twins photo next week.

I did it again by reaching out to a Young Russian woman I did not catch her name and she could not speak English; only Spanish and Russian. I was able to awkwardly say that my son Finghín is studying Russian as part of his course at UWM. She said, in Spanish, "Él es un masoquista" 😂

Side note: there are two words in Spanish I say most often. The first is "no". The second is "entiendo". Most often I say them together as a two-word explanation as to why I seem dumbfounded most of the time 😂

After school I was a bit tired after getting up so early and I came back to the flat and slept for an hour or so. I got up around 4:30 and Sylvie was here and we decided to go have something to eat before our school group excursion to a parade called the Las Llamadas and is linked into the 40 day period period known as Uruguayan Carnival:

"The Llamadas, are one of the most representative manifestations of Afro-descendant culture in Uruguay, especially in the Sur and Palermo neighborhoods of Montevideo. La fiesta de llamada are parades of candombe groups, where drums called chico, repique, and piano are played, following a very distinctive rhythm." https://montevideo.gub.uy/carnaval-y-llamadas

I have a lot of video but Blogger doesn't play so here's a couple of photos:

I have never before witnessed a parade like this and I'll put a link up for the videos. They are most apprecated when hearing the cheering crowds. So fun and engaging. I left around 11:30pm but the parade was only about halfway through. Silvie stayed because she's young 😂😂😂

So one week done and it was a good week👍🏼 I hope you are all well ❤️