My program, IFSA, took everyone on the program to Uruguay for Thanksgiving weekend. It was nice, because it was just around when I started to get really homesick and ready to go home that I got to go on this awesome trip.
On Thursday, we got up early to take a 3 hour ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia, Uruguay. From there, we went to the house of Mario, our program director. It was so beautiful! It's a bed and breakfast type building on a lemon farm, with lemon trees, a little pond, a quaint house, a pool, and an outdoor dining patio. The weather was also perfect - warm, sunny, hardly a cloud in the sky. Mario served us a real Thanksgiving meal, too, complete with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and even pecan and pumpkin pie! It was a nice taste of home, and super delicious. We spent the afternoon at his house in Colonia, chilling by the pool, drinking mate with friends, eating chorizo, and playing cards. Super relaxing, and a wonderful Thanksgiving.
In the evening we went to the different hostels we were staying in, and got a tour of the old part of the city. It's a very quaint and old city, with lots of Spanish and Portuguese influence. The tour happened during sunset, so we got a lot of beautiful views of the sunset over the beach.
The next day we got up bright and early to hop on a bus to go to Punta del Este. After about 3.5 hours, we arrived to our apartments that we were staying in. That's right, apartments - IFSA put us in super nice, beautiful apartments, which none of us were expecting. We got there, got rooms figured out, and then some friends and I spent the afternoon at the beach. After the beach, we had an asado for dinner at the pool area of the building. I learned that nothing brings out people's true colors like a buffet. Some people acted like this was their last meal and stampeded the tables as soon as the food came out, sitting there so they could get each new course before anyone else while others were waiting patiently in line. There was plenty of food to go around though, so there efforts to consume all of the food were in vain. After dinner, some friends came to the apartment I was staying in with Natalie and Rachel to celebrate Hanukkah and to light the menorah. After that, we took a walk to the beach to look at the stars and just hang out. It was nice to be able to see the stars again after being in the city for so long - that's actually one of the things I really miss.
The next day was spent all at the beach. We walked to go see La Mano, which is a giant hand that is reaching out of the sand (you may remember from my last blog post that I went and saw it the weekend before with some NU friends). It was very nice and relaxing, especially after the hectic chaos that is life in Buenos Aires. For dinner, IFSA took us to a restaurant that really loved their karaoke. They would play random songs that no one knew, and ask people to sing them. Several people got up and rocked out, though, which was fun to watch.
On Sunday we left to go back to Buenos Aires. We hopped on buses to go back to Colonia to take the ferry, and from there concluded an awesome Thanksgiving weekend. It was definitely a very relaxing and fun weekend. If I couldn't spend Thanksgiving at home, I would choose to spend it this way. We made in back to Buenos Aires, and I had one day in the city before leaving for my epic, week-long Patagonia trip (blog post about that to be posted soon). So much traveling in the last few weeks, but I wouldn't have it any other way!
Pictures from Thanksgiving in Uruguay:
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