I haven’t written in a while because this past week was pretty busy for me. I’ve been trying to plan spring break, finish papers, projects and midterms, and while all of this was going on, my friend Eric came back to the city for a week.

Eric spent the past two months working in the country. Part of this time he was on an estancia or ranch, but the majority of the time, he was building fences with an old man and living in a tent. He has an apartment above the church near our house for his time in the city. One night he invited a few of us up for a traditional asado. An asado is barbecue that is an important part of any Uruguayan home. Starting at about 10 o’clock, he started a fire in a grate to the right side in the brick structure. While the wood turned to coals, we passed around a mate, and I learned all the lingo. The gourd is always passed clockwise, and you drink all the water from the infusion when it is passed to you. The straw slurp noise is polite to show you drank to the bottom. You only say gracias when you no longer want the mate gourd passed in your direction.

When Eric decided the coals were just right, he threw on chorizo, lamb ribs, red bell pepper, a whole onion, and a pie tin filled with salty provolone. My mouth is watering even now. I made chimichurri, a meat topping made from cilantro, oil, lots of garlic and salt, while he finished the art of the grill, and we all sat down to stuff our faces at midnight. Ribs are cut in the opposite direction, though I’m not sure why. You get a strip with 4 or 5 bones separating big chunks of meat so tender from the slow firing. Put it on your plate next to a gooey blob of cheese and a little bell pepper and yumm. I should get myself invited to more asados for sure.

During the daytime, I was frantically trying to organize my spring break. I’m going to Patagonia with my friend Nobuki, but we almost didn’t get the tickets because of a rejected debit card. This wouldn’t have been an issue if we hadn’t waited until the last possible moment to reserve our plane tickets, but lesson learned…for now. The planning stops pretty much at those tickets as well. We ferry into Buenos Aires tomorrow afternoon and will stay somewhere that night. Hmmm. Friday we Fly into Calafate, a beautiful city in Argentina’s deep south. We actually have hostel reservations for two nights there. Eventually, we will bus to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, and stay somewhere. Maybe we’ll camp. Finally, we fly back in to Buenos Aires Saturday and return to Montevideo Sunday. There you have it. You know as much as I do. I’m so excited to see the glaciers and the Andes and the beautiful lakes. I packed for ten days in my 35 liter backpack, so this will be disgusting. Cleanliness and fresh clothes are completely overrated. I am bringing a small bottle of Woolite for emergencies, and I know I have at least two nights worth of showers anyway.

I’ll tell you about it in a couple weeks I suppose.