I haven't been writing on the blog recently because I have been taking care of my Godmother. She had some heart problems two weeks ago and I have been trying to be there helping her in her store everyday. If I wasn't with her I was with Andi, spending some needed time with him. My Godmother, Ana Maria a.k.a. Aia, as I've been calling her since I could speak, runs a small store with her son. Until Aia had to go to the hospital, it was mostly her running the store from 7 a.m. til 10 p.m. She got really sick because she is of course not in the right age to be working these crazy hours. So I volunteered to help her out as much as I could. The positive things of her sickness: her son learned how to manage the store without her and Aia can take longer brakes now. The positive thing I am learning from this, is how to cook without salt. Anyone who knows my eating habits, knows that I am a salt fanatic. Yes, I have been caught salting my food before even tasting it! Now I am learning that you can take spices to replace salt, but there are some dishes you might as well not even make... (like noodle salad for example). Yesterday I went to the store and spent 150 pesos/ 6 Euros/ 8 Dollars on groceries to make soup. Yesterday I made my first ever salt free soup.
Ingredients: Onion, Carrots, Celery, Baby onion and parsley.
I let it boiling for about two hours and took out the ingredients.
I thought it needed salt of course, but Aia seemed to be pretty impressed. I can't imagine a life without soup! Especially my favorite soups like pumpkin soup and zucchini soup!! Now the winter is coming, so we will get to eat that yummy stuff.
On Tuesday I went to a public psychiatric hospital in Montevideo. I went and spoke to the psychologist about having an internship there. He was totally nice and said he doesn't have a problem with it. In Uruguay the resources for rehabilitating patients are really slim. Think of a shabby room in a shabby hospital with some thrown together furniture and Art Brut paintings on the wall and all over the place, and you will have an idea of what this place looks like. The chairs are plastic chairs and the materials available have been either donated or found on the street.
Most of the patients in the hospital which I am going to spend time with have problems with drugs or alcohol. They all receive electroshocks everyday it seems. I am quite surprised they have any memory at all. :p
Well I am not allowed to say too much, but I will tell you this: in any hospital or in any public center around the world, you have to learn to work with what you have. This is going to be my biggest lesson here in Uruguay... and I don't just mean things, I mean rooms and people and colleagues and everything included.
Good fight and good night.
Donnerstag, 15. April 2010
Freitag, 2. April 2010
Bread of Sugar
Finally Andi and I get to do some traveling around Uruguay.
We have been hanging out with my mom, Sofia and Gustavo for the last couple of days and it has been really fun! Once I finally got over criticizing Mom about everything I don't agree with... it seems we are able to have a much better time. I think I am growing up! I see things I don't agree with and think... "well she is an Adult... she knows what she is doing" instead of "ahh! Mom you are driving me crazy!".
The past couple of days have been exciting. On Wednesday evening we left pretty late to Punta del Este, the fanciest place to go to the beach in Uruguay. Sofia, Andi and I stayed in a hostel. We took the bus from Tres Cruces to Punta del Este, a two hour trip. After dropping off our stuff at the hostel we dashed for the giant fingers coming out of the beach to have a photo shoot. I love Sofia's tripod! It is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I think it's great that my little photographer has one.
I climbed the pinkie finger as did Andi. Sofia and Andi climbed the thumb as well.
The next day, we woke up and went to the beach nice and early. It was so much fun. The water was a great temperature. The sun was shining. We had a fabulous time. Sofia took pictures of us in the water. I will have to post some at some point. Around 12:30 Gustavo came with his car. We walked around Punta del Este a bit and then went to Minas, which was about a 2 hour ride. In Minas we went to the town center and then to the "Parque Salus" which is where the fountain of the puma is.
According to legend, the puma used to sit by that fountain until some people spotted him. The puma seemed to be guarding the fountain. Eventually the puma realized that the people would guard the fountain for him and he left and never came back. Supposedly people saw the ghost of the puma around the park. The Salus water we drink here in Uruguay comes from Minas. The fountain of the puma was totally dry when saw it... pretty sad actually... but kinda funny, too.
Anyway that night we checked into a hostel in Piriapolis. We went to have dinner with mom at a pizzeria that night because she took the bus to Piriapolis. The next day we traveled around Piriapolis. We went to pan de azucar, sugarbread, and saw a lot of Uruguayan animals. The carpinchos were really cute! In the evening we went up to a mountain with the chair lift. It didn't look like the safest system, the chair lift... but we survived! We had dinner in a fish restaurant and the next day we went back to Montevideo.
It was nice to spend some time with this part of the family. It is a truly rare dynamic: Maria, Gustavo, Andi, Ana and Sofia. Gustavo made us all crack up pretty often. Especially Sofia and I enjoyed spending time with him :)
We have been hanging out with my mom, Sofia and Gustavo for the last couple of days and it has been really fun! Once I finally got over criticizing Mom about everything I don't agree with... it seems we are able to have a much better time. I think I am growing up! I see things I don't agree with and think... "well she is an Adult... she knows what she is doing" instead of "ahh! Mom you are driving me crazy!".
The past couple of days have been exciting. On Wednesday evening we left pretty late to Punta del Este, the fanciest place to go to the beach in Uruguay. Sofia, Andi and I stayed in a hostel. We took the bus from Tres Cruces to Punta del Este, a two hour trip. After dropping off our stuff at the hostel we dashed for the giant fingers coming out of the beach to have a photo shoot. I love Sofia's tripod! It is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I think it's great that my little photographer has one.
I climbed the pinkie finger as did Andi. Sofia and Andi climbed the thumb as well.
The next day, we woke up and went to the beach nice and early. It was so much fun. The water was a great temperature. The sun was shining. We had a fabulous time. Sofia took pictures of us in the water. I will have to post some at some point. Around 12:30 Gustavo came with his car. We walked around Punta del Este a bit and then went to Minas, which was about a 2 hour ride. In Minas we went to the town center and then to the "Parque Salus" which is where the fountain of the puma is.
According to legend, the puma used to sit by that fountain until some people spotted him. The puma seemed to be guarding the fountain. Eventually the puma realized that the people would guard the fountain for him and he left and never came back. Supposedly people saw the ghost of the puma around the park. The Salus water we drink here in Uruguay comes from Minas. The fountain of the puma was totally dry when saw it... pretty sad actually... but kinda funny, too.
Anyway that night we checked into a hostel in Piriapolis. We went to have dinner with mom at a pizzeria that night because she took the bus to Piriapolis. The next day we traveled around Piriapolis. We went to pan de azucar, sugarbread, and saw a lot of Uruguayan animals. The carpinchos were really cute! In the evening we went up to a mountain with the chair lift. It didn't look like the safest system, the chair lift... but we survived! We had dinner in a fish restaurant and the next day we went back to Montevideo.
It was nice to spend some time with this part of the family. It is a truly rare dynamic: Maria, Gustavo, Andi, Ana and Sofia. Gustavo made us all crack up pretty often. Especially Sofia and I enjoyed spending time with him :)
Donnerstag, 25. März 2010
Alzheimer's
Is a fascinating disease.
It has affected my grandpa and to be honest I am afraid it will get my dad too at some point. I went to visit my grandpa today. He doens't know what day of the week it is, nor who I am. I told him that I am his granddaughter. 10 minutes later he was asking me who I am. In the course of the two hours we were there... I think he said about 13 times where he comes from, his age when he arrived in Uruguay (3 years old) and that Uruguay is a small country. He repeats himself very much. My grandpa is such a sweet man. He was an architect and an artist. He built around 100+ buildings in Montevideo and Punta del Este. They say with age you become like a child again, and that's exactly how my grandpa is. I am glad that for his 84 years he seems to be in good health, apart from having moderate dementia (stage 3 of 4). I never had the chance to really be a part of my grandpa's life since, we always lived in Austria. If I get the chance to visit him more frequently, maybe he will recognize me eventually. I wish I could play cards with him or find out more about his history, but he seems to be confunsed about a lot of facts. For example he said that he finished studying architecture at 14. I find that hard to believe hehe. He gets sad when he realizes he forgot something. He wasn't sure about his age even... he knows he is in his 80's.
It would be great if someone could find a cure for Alzheimer's, but I can't imagine anyone will ever be able to stop a brain from deteriorating... the medicine can only help to slow down the process. The most comforting thing about all this is that my grandpa isn't suffering from depression. He is always in a great mood and it seems like he is the one suffering the least from the illness.
Andi went to take the written Spanish test yesterday and the oral exam today. He got 4/8 points, which means he is an intermediate Spanish speaker. I am so proud! I hope I learn Italian as quickly as Andi is learning Spanish. I wish I had some interest like Andi's soccer fascination. He reads the sports section in the El Pais newspaper whenever he can.
It has affected my grandpa and to be honest I am afraid it will get my dad too at some point. I went to visit my grandpa today. He doens't know what day of the week it is, nor who I am. I told him that I am his granddaughter. 10 minutes later he was asking me who I am. In the course of the two hours we were there... I think he said about 13 times where he comes from, his age when he arrived in Uruguay (3 years old) and that Uruguay is a small country. He repeats himself very much. My grandpa is such a sweet man. He was an architect and an artist. He built around 100+ buildings in Montevideo and Punta del Este. They say with age you become like a child again, and that's exactly how my grandpa is. I am glad that for his 84 years he seems to be in good health, apart from having moderate dementia (stage 3 of 4). I never had the chance to really be a part of my grandpa's life since, we always lived in Austria. If I get the chance to visit him more frequently, maybe he will recognize me eventually. I wish I could play cards with him or find out more about his history, but he seems to be confunsed about a lot of facts. For example he said that he finished studying architecture at 14. I find that hard to believe hehe. He gets sad when he realizes he forgot something. He wasn't sure about his age even... he knows he is in his 80's.
It would be great if someone could find a cure for Alzheimer's, but I can't imagine anyone will ever be able to stop a brain from deteriorating... the medicine can only help to slow down the process. The most comforting thing about all this is that my grandpa isn't suffering from depression. He is always in a great mood and it seems like he is the one suffering the least from the illness.
Andi went to take the written Spanish test yesterday and the oral exam today. He got 4/8 points, which means he is an intermediate Spanish speaker. I am so proud! I hope I learn Italian as quickly as Andi is learning Spanish. I wish I had some interest like Andi's soccer fascination. He reads the sports section in the El Pais newspaper whenever he can.
Dienstag, 23. März 2010
Die Bicho! Die!
We started cleaning the apartment... and we had noticed before that they exist,
but wtf... I think we killed 6 cockroaches today. They appear out of nowhere like
little toy cars. Andi managed to step on a crunchy one and we saw it's white internals... Gross! Hahaha. I found out that Julio has a cleaning lady supposedly... To think the heart attack my old landlord would've gotten if she had seen this place ^^
(Don't worry mom and Sofia, we are doing our best to make this place more inviting).
There is a mosquito epidemic right now in Montevideo. The military gets together and they fumigate the city getting all into white suits and spraying some insect repellent. Everyone's biggest fear is the Dengue. Andi and I went for a walk today after spraying the apartment and we were constantly attacked by mosquitos so we had to go back home :(
I think there is almost nothing worse than mosquitos. Well, maybe rotting food in the fridge, which we also had a nice amount of :D
The nicest part of living here is probably the couch, the bed and the soundsystem. The couch and the bed were made by Julio personally. The bed is fully iron except the mattress of course.
I would love to have money and decorate our future apartment with all sorts of craftsmanships from La Compania del Oriente. I like stuff from the sea and a lot of wood, especially darker wood. That stuff is a lot cheaper here than in Austria. I don't want to have an Ikea apartment anymore... Thankfully Andi and I have the same taste in furniture :)
but wtf... I think we killed 6 cockroaches today. They appear out of nowhere like
little toy cars. Andi managed to step on a crunchy one and we saw it's white internals... Gross! Hahaha. I found out that Julio has a cleaning lady supposedly... To think the heart attack my old landlord would've gotten if she had seen this place ^^
(Don't worry mom and Sofia, we are doing our best to make this place more inviting).
There is a mosquito epidemic right now in Montevideo. The military gets together and they fumigate the city getting all into white suits and spraying some insect repellent. Everyone's biggest fear is the Dengue. Andi and I went for a walk today after spraying the apartment and we were constantly attacked by mosquitos so we had to go back home :(
I think there is almost nothing worse than mosquitos. Well, maybe rotting food in the fridge, which we also had a nice amount of :D
The nicest part of living here is probably the couch, the bed and the soundsystem. The couch and the bed were made by Julio personally. The bed is fully iron except the mattress of course.
I would love to have money and decorate our future apartment with all sorts of craftsmanships from La Compania del Oriente. I like stuff from the sea and a lot of wood, especially darker wood. That stuff is a lot cheaper here than in Austria. I don't want to have an Ikea apartment anymore... Thankfully Andi and I have the same taste in furniture :)
Montag, 22. März 2010
Big Momma is coming to town
Hey there my favorite Blog readers!
How is everyone out there?
Yesterday was Andi's birthday. We celebrated the best way you can having a birthday during the summer-time in Uruguay... we made a Bbq! Aia (my godmother) made some "ensalada rusa" which is russian salad... you know potatoes, carrots, peas and a whole lot of a mayo? Yeah. yum! It meant a lot to Andi.
Then there wasn't just one cake... but two dulce de leche godesses! (Stefan... du waerst gestorben!) They were from tienda inglesa which makes the best cakes you can buy... (you can't buy Mariana's cakes yet). Then we went to a kids soccer game which was canceled because of the rain :( Nacional played and Andi watched the game with the guys. Then we went home and sleeeeept.
So I posted some pictures on the blog. It is impossible on Facebook when your
internet is this slow. Andi and I have slowly been settling into our new apartment.
Tomorrow we are going to spend the day cleaning. A couple of days ago we went to the academy where Andi will go to practice Spanish. They have a nice fancy schmanzy getup going on. You wanna hear the best part? Well... I picked the Academy the day we met with Julio, which was Friday the 5th. Coincidentially the academy is on the exact same street where we live! It is just 3 Blocks away! Cool huh? For 200 Dollars a week Andi can have 20 hrs of group lessons. That's a pretty good price if you think about the fact that it's 10 Dollars an hour. The "groups" are tiny even. We also found out when we there that they work together with NGOs, which is also where Andi would like to work for an internship. Things are looking good for Andi. Now I just have to get myself settled into some internship.
I have been thinking about my Master's paper recently. I think it might not be a bad idea to write a comparison about the social care systems Austria and Uruguay. Focusing primarily on psychiatries. I am pretty sure that no such paper exists, although I haven't done any research on the subject yet. Who knows... I could be surprised :)
Sofia and Maria Pelufo a.k.a. big Momma are coming to town. Hopefully big momma won't be working ALL the time and we can do some touring and fun stuff! I still have a whole part of the family I haven't seen. My aunt and her 5 grown up children.
Why am I calling my mom big momma? To be honest I don't know. It sounds funny. It could be because she was chatting with Andi yesterday and told him he isn't the only one who needs a spanish course... so maybe this is my way of getting back at BIG MOMMA! :D
I will have to take some pictures of the apartment when it is *hopefully* nice and shiny tomorrow. There are a lot of cockroaches in Uruguay who like to come out from no where... Let's hope to find them all tomorrow and kill kill kill! Especially those stinking mosquitos. They bit me twice on the face yesterday, once and today as well.
How is everyone out there?
Yesterday was Andi's birthday. We celebrated the best way you can having a birthday during the summer-time in Uruguay... we made a Bbq! Aia (my godmother) made some "ensalada rusa" which is russian salad... you know potatoes, carrots, peas and a whole lot of a mayo? Yeah. yum! It meant a lot to Andi.
Then there wasn't just one cake... but two dulce de leche godesses! (Stefan... du waerst gestorben!) They were from tienda inglesa which makes the best cakes you can buy... (you can't buy Mariana's cakes yet). Then we went to a kids soccer game which was canceled because of the rain :( Nacional played and Andi watched the game with the guys. Then we went home and sleeeeept.
So I posted some pictures on the blog. It is impossible on Facebook when your
internet is this slow. Andi and I have slowly been settling into our new apartment.
Tomorrow we are going to spend the day cleaning. A couple of days ago we went to the academy where Andi will go to practice Spanish. They have a nice fancy schmanzy getup going on. You wanna hear the best part? Well... I picked the Academy the day we met with Julio, which was Friday the 5th. Coincidentially the academy is on the exact same street where we live! It is just 3 Blocks away! Cool huh? For 200 Dollars a week Andi can have 20 hrs of group lessons. That's a pretty good price if you think about the fact that it's 10 Dollars an hour. The "groups" are tiny even. We also found out when we there that they work together with NGOs, which is also where Andi would like to work for an internship. Things are looking good for Andi. Now I just have to get myself settled into some internship.
I have been thinking about my Master's paper recently. I think it might not be a bad idea to write a comparison about the social care systems Austria and Uruguay. Focusing primarily on psychiatries. I am pretty sure that no such paper exists, although I haven't done any research on the subject yet. Who knows... I could be surprised :)
Sofia and Maria Pelufo a.k.a. big Momma are coming to town. Hopefully big momma won't be working ALL the time and we can do some touring and fun stuff! I still have a whole part of the family I haven't seen. My aunt and her 5 grown up children.
Why am I calling my mom big momma? To be honest I don't know. It sounds funny. It could be because she was chatting with Andi yesterday and told him he isn't the only one who needs a spanish course... so maybe this is my way of getting back at BIG MOMMA! :D
I will have to take some pictures of the apartment when it is *hopefully* nice and shiny tomorrow. There are a lot of cockroaches in Uruguay who like to come out from no where... Let's hope to find them all tomorrow and kill kill kill! Especially those stinking mosquitos. They bit me twice on the face yesterday, once and today as well.
Mittwoch, 17. März 2010
The Apartment
I haven’t written in a couple of days. On Friday we met with the guy about the apartment. We went to see the apartment, eat some “biscochos” (Uruguayan pastries) and drink some “mate” (traditional tea). We really liked the guy even though he who seemed a bit nervous about the whole meeting. He was speaking really fast and switching from theme to theme. We ended up going for some pizza with him and got to know him a little better. We agreed on everything about the apartment (which really does have a beautiful view!) and Andi and I pretty much told him we want to move in right away. We moved in on Sunday afternoon. The apartment reminds me of a bachelor pad. The only thing missing is heating. You would think it doesn’t get cold in Uruguay… but believe me… IT DOES! Brrrrr. It is so windy around here because we are right by the Atlantic ocean that no matter if it is 10 degrees C it still feels like a lot less. I know everyone in Canada is laughing… but hey… no one is forcing to live in that cold version of gringolandia! :P
About the apartment: Andi and I have a room with a view of the Ramblas which is right by the coast and we can see the beach. The water right now looks pretty brown, so I would not suggest going for a splash. The apartment is located in the Cuidad Vieja which is right by the main street. To me it feels like living right near Mariahilferstrasse except with a beach too… weird thought. There is a room next to us with a bunk bed. The living room has a supposedly kick ass sound and I am too naïve to really appreciate it. The couch is comfy and there is no T.V. Andi will have to go watch soccer somewhere else on Saturdays. The bathroom needs some fixing… as I am writing this I can hear the water dripping from somewhere into somewhere. It is slowly making me crazy. The kitchen is nice in its bachelor pad way. There is linoleum on the counter and I think it doesn’t meet hygiene standard (hihi) but, I am working on that!
The guy: Julio is a character! He is 35 and really nice! He is into Buddhism and has a looooot of interests. Practically everything in the apartment has some sort of history. He doesn’t buy new mostly because he likes stuff from the 50’s, 80’s… whatever! The toaster which I haven’t tried out yet is from the 50’s. The sofa and bed he made himself years ago. The cutlery in the kitchen is oooold and it grosses me out . Andi and I already bought some new cutlery. Overally it is pretty cool living here. Julio seems like a nice part time roomy because, most of the time he is in Buenos Aires.
I must admit though I do miss seeing Aia everyday but, I am sure my grandma is glad that I am 4 blocks away. :)
Saturday: On Saturday we actually went to a couch surfer meeting. Mom would be proud. We met some nice Uruguayans and some nice Germans, a French girl and her Mexican bf. It was fun getting to know some people finally. Andi and I have been isolating ourselves a little… not so much on purpose because I think it happens when you are new anywhere and have a friend or partner around to keep you company. You end up being almost everything for eachother. So we are working on getting things back to normal. Andi needs a soccer friend to accompany him to all the soccer games and he will be good to go! I do enjoy the games somehow I just don't want to go ALL the time. I do like our Uruguayan team Nacional a lot.
Andi and I are doing good. I feel like we can get through everything if we stay open and honest and are kind to each other. We like living with new people because there is so much to learn from others. Let's take Julio for example... he gave us like 50 GB of documentaries and movies. From Verena we learned to cook! From Stefan we learned to fix the floor :) Take things as they come.
About the apartment: Andi and I have a room with a view of the Ramblas which is right by the coast and we can see the beach. The water right now looks pretty brown, so I would not suggest going for a splash. The apartment is located in the Cuidad Vieja which is right by the main street. To me it feels like living right near Mariahilferstrasse except with a beach too… weird thought. There is a room next to us with a bunk bed. The living room has a supposedly kick ass sound and I am too naïve to really appreciate it. The couch is comfy and there is no T.V. Andi will have to go watch soccer somewhere else on Saturdays. The bathroom needs some fixing… as I am writing this I can hear the water dripping from somewhere into somewhere. It is slowly making me crazy. The kitchen is nice in its bachelor pad way. There is linoleum on the counter and I think it doesn’t meet hygiene standard (hihi) but, I am working on that!
The guy: Julio is a character! He is 35 and really nice! He is into Buddhism and has a looooot of interests. Practically everything in the apartment has some sort of history. He doesn’t buy new mostly because he likes stuff from the 50’s, 80’s… whatever! The toaster which I haven’t tried out yet is from the 50’s. The sofa and bed he made himself years ago. The cutlery in the kitchen is oooold and it grosses me out . Andi and I already bought some new cutlery. Overally it is pretty cool living here. Julio seems like a nice part time roomy because, most of the time he is in Buenos Aires.
I must admit though I do miss seeing Aia everyday but, I am sure my grandma is glad that I am 4 blocks away. :)
Saturday: On Saturday we actually went to a couch surfer meeting. Mom would be proud. We met some nice Uruguayans and some nice Germans, a French girl and her Mexican bf. It was fun getting to know some people finally. Andi and I have been isolating ourselves a little… not so much on purpose because I think it happens when you are new anywhere and have a friend or partner around to keep you company. You end up being almost everything for eachother. So we are working on getting things back to normal. Andi needs a soccer friend to accompany him to all the soccer games and he will be good to go! I do enjoy the games somehow I just don't want to go ALL the time. I do like our Uruguayan team Nacional a lot.
Andi and I are doing good. I feel like we can get through everything if we stay open and honest and are kind to each other. We like living with new people because there is so much to learn from others. Let's take Julio for example... he gave us like 50 GB of documentaries and movies. From Verena we learned to cook! From Stefan we learned to fix the floor :) Take things as they come.
Abonnieren
Posts (Atom)