From the beginning.

Okay so i'm a few days late getting this started but hey at least it is finally up now. I will do my best to catch y'all up to what has happened in the past few days though most of it was just getting to and getting accustomed to the city. We have already had a number of adventures thought, pretty much everything they warned us of but said wouldn't happen, yeah those things happened to us..naturally. It's okay though we have each other and we all get along really good so far. I am enjoying everyone's company that is here.

So here goes..we gathered by the teague center to load buses, we took group pictures, said our last goodbyes and loaded the buses, oxford on the first bus and montevideo on the second and started our journey abroad. It was the slowest bus ride i think i have ever been one, it felt like it was barely creeping by, we sat and talked for awhile then to pass the time a little quicker dara, abel, and i played some farkle. Finally we arrived at DFW unloaded and went and got in line to check in and check our baggage..this is where our problems began. We had two people get their baggage checked by using the self check-in. Because we had a big group they had us split between the lines, some in the self and other in the regular check in, well if you are going to be in montevideo for more than 90 days you need a visa. We are leaving montevideo at the end of september to spend 5 days in buenos aires, therefore we do not need a visa. Well the airline did not accept our normal proof of leaving the country, which is our itenaries, they wanted actual proof of ticket confirmations that we were leaving the country. We sat with our luggage for about two hours waiting for our travel agent to get a fax of our bus tickets to BA and send them to the airport. Obviously we did get on our plane but the point is exactly what they said wouldn't happen to us of course did.

Okay so we fly 3 hours to miami spend about 3 hours in the miami airport. We ate dinner at Las Carretas, which is a cuban restaurant which gary green recommended to us, and got ready to spend the night on a plane. In boarding the plane which is scheduled to fly to BA, have a layover, and then same flight number fly the 45 minutes to mont., they tell me that my carry-on bag is too big and it needs to be checked, so they grab my bag and hand me a ticket, not asking my name or where i am going and shove me onto the crowded plane. At this point i am beggining to worry that i will not see my bag again, afraid that my bag will end up in BA. With this already worrying me i find that a woman is in my seat, so i am standing in the aisle not sure what to do, waiting to ask an attendent what to do, people are pushing by me, a baby is crying and we are all exhausted and can already tell that this is going to be a long night. Well it turns out the woman was in my seat because the seat next to mine had her husband in it so i traded seats with her to instead of being with the rest of my group i am in the back of the plane next to a latin man i do not know. This worried me even more. We eventually left, were served dinner which i could barely eat, and then i tried to sleep.

Well as it turned out they changed the course of the plane and we actually landed in mont first which was awesome cause we got there several hours early, hallelujah. Well so now i was really worried that i would not find my bag, it didn't come on the belt but finally autumn asked one of the workers and she radiod to the plane and they found it and sent it in. That was truely a God thing and i was so relieved. Dara however could not find her second bag so they reported it and it made an extra trip to BA but finally made it back to mont the next day so all is well now. She did have to wear my clothes for a day and a half but i am more than happy to help my roomie! This was yet another thing they said had never happened, and yet again it was us that it happened to. So we drove through the city, stopped by the beach took some pics and then loaded back up and headed to the casa!

The casa was not exactly what we expected but we love it none the less. Mont is awesome though i wasn't really sure what to expect. As americans we stick out so bad, oops i am suppose to be getting myself into the habit of not calling us americans cause we are in south america but oh well. Hmm i am trying to think of what else we did on the first day but all of our days are running together. This is why i need to get on everyday and tell of the adventures so that i do not forget but there was just so much to do to get ready! Oh i remeber thanks to our handy dandy schedule. We did a scavenger hunt around the area that is right around our street which by the way is colonia just in case i ever bring that back up. There is a main street that runs parallel to us called diez y ocho. Little geography lesson there. So that was kind of fun, we got put into groups of four, my group included rachel, amber, matt, and of course me. We had to go around colonia, diez y ocho, and Tres Cruces, which is the big bus station which is close to the casa. My group did not win so we only got little alfajores but they were still good.

But speaking of food that reminds me that everything here is so rich it is crazy, i guess it needs to be because of all of the walking that we do but it is definately not what we are used to. But back to the first day, we had a little free time so we unpacked and got our room set up, oh i am in the three person room with dara and kate which we are loving and having so much fun, well at least me and dara are, kate may not be. :P We also showered during this time to get rid of the nasty plane ride. Then we went to dinner but it is definately bed time here and we have our first day of classes in the morning so we will pick up with dinner tomorrow! Buenos Noches!