Remember that one time I lived in Uruguay for 4 months?

Me Gusta Sing Song

2009-02-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

SingSong LatinAmerica from Kara DuBose on Vimeo.

Who Said ACU Doesn't Dance?

2009-02-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

So I'm a little behind in my videos. Sorry about that. But here is one of our dance lessons. We learned Candombe, which is a major part of Carnaval. Basically it is a dance that African slaves brought to Uruguay and Brazil in the 1500s. Then today we learned Tango... which is harder than it looks. I hope you enjoy it.

Me Encanta Punta... Y Carnaval

2009-02-06T17:47:00.000-08:00

So its been a while since I wrote anything. sorry about that. I am usually busy... or I just forget. So whats new... um Spanish class is still a pain in the butt. Its definitely challenging. Last weekend a group of us took our first trip by ourselves to Punta Del Este. It was legit. ACU should have a house there. There is a store called Rachel... the clothes in it were actually kind of lame, but thats not the point. The only down side to our weekend was the weather. It was not the best. We definitely got rained on... alot. and it was too windy and cold to really enjoy the beach for very long. But no worries, we are going back tomorrow and it will be sunny.

Last week Carnaval began. Carnaval is basically Mardi Gras minus the beads. From what I understand, its like a month long celebration up until lent. It began with the parade, with Candombe(drums) and lots of dancers. The women are scantily clad and have big feathers on their heads... its definitely an experience. Then, on Monday we got to go to the celebration of Yemanja. Yemanja is a goddess like figure in the religion of Candomble. On February 2, thousands of people go to her statue on the to offer gifts and light candles. They also wade out into the water and send out little boats filled with offerings. This ritual was something I have never seen before but I really enjoyed watching it. even though it was weird.

A glimpse of Montevideo!

2009-01-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is just a few things we saw and did the past week. I hope you enjoy it!

My new and Improved Blog

2009-01-25T08:28:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Jessalyn making fun of it, I have decided to improve my blog. It now has a new layout, title and I have added pictures.

I hope you like my video. It is the first of many to come. We went to a cemetery- which was like my favorite thing so far. I know that is creepy but it was soo cool! And it was really pretty. I was kind of mad when they made us leave because I wanted to keep looking at everything.

Also, this awesome cemetery is right on the coast so we got to see a cool view of the ocean.
Then our tour bus took us to the "mountain" that Montevideo is named after. But its not really a mountain. its not even that big of a hill... but there was a military fort on top of it so that was cool. and these precious Uruguayan boys were there.Later that night we got to go to a "football" game with the youth group. i love them! its kind of funny because they don't speak english and I dont speak spanish, but somehow we had a lot of fun. I sat next to Mathias, who is a precious lamb. The game was Nacional(Uruguay) vs. some Brazil team. Brazil totally creamed Uruguay- it was funny. And the fans were crazy!
So I actually spent most of this weekend doing my homework. On friday, Steph and I went to the beach and brought our books to read while we laid out. Funny story- I kind of missed part of my leg when I was putting sunscreen on so I got an awkward burn on part of my leg. But sunday was fun. After church I went back to the market and I bought some more movies... including Defiance- which I haven't watched yet but it is in English so im excited.

We had an "asado" with out Uruguayan youth group friends on the roof of casa ACU. It was really cool.

La playa y la escuela

2009-01-20T11:53:00.000-08:00

so its been a few days since I have written. Well we went to the beach on saturday! it was really nice... but it was hot. I'm not going to lie. its very warm down here. Since I burned on Friday I put spf 70 on 3 times which is weird because i never usually where sunscreen. so basically I gained no color from the whole day that I spent in the sun. I was pretty bummed. but ave no fear though... next time I will get a beautiful golden tan. I also saw my first jellyfish. I didn't know what it was and then I felt stupid.

I also have now attended all of my classes that I will have this semester. Its going to be hard. Probably the hardest semester I have ever had. Thank you espanol. and world literature. and latin american studies. and bible. but most of all thank you espanol. I have to audit advanced spanish conversation. that in itself is not bad. it is actually beneficial because I dont speak spanish that well and it will help me around town. The hard part is intermediate spanish 1 and 2 and the Catholic University downtown. Yes, I am an official international student. My class will be entirely in spanish. I had 2 hours of it today and my brain hurts.

Even though my classes are hard I think I will really enjoy them. Except I have alot of reading to do. We also got our calender of events for the semester today and I am pumped. Tomorrow we are going to a soccer game between a Uruguayan club team and a Brazilian club team. Its going to be awesome!

this is unusual.

2009-01-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

so this will be a continuous note of things that i was surprised by/ didnt expect. i will add to it all semester

1) when i walked off the plane, the airport was playing "If i were a boy" in espanol. way to go beyonce. i did not know you sang in spanish. i already knew you were amazing but you elevated your own diva status.

2) i got sun burned. already.

3) we went to a local market today. I bought a boot-legged copy of Twilight.... turns out it is in spanish. serves me right.

Day 1

2009-01-15T18:38:00.000-08:00

So I'm here! yay! it has been an interesting 30 something hours though. i already had a stupid blonde moment. i was in DFW and went to take a picture and realized my camera wouldnt turn on. thats because i am an idiot. haha. i left my battery pack and charger plugged into the wall in my room. basically that was not cool. luckily, whitney came and picked me up from the airport and took me to best buy (where i spent $90 to replace my batteries.)

after that, traveling wasn't bad. we flew to miami and then on to montevideo without any problems. i also slept most of the time so that was nice. we arrived at 11 something this morning and the first thing i noticed when i walked off the plane was how perfect the weather was. WARM! it actually did get to be hot later in the day but late in the morning it was wonderful.

I got to see alot of the area around casa acu and its pretty legit. i think i'm going to like it here. For dinner I got to experience a common/traditional food- a chivito. now let me just explain it... and by the way i had no idea what it was when i ordered it. on the bottom of the plate is a huge pile of french fries and lettuce. on top of that is a piece of steak/ hamburger. on top of that is a slice of ham. on top of that is a fried egg. and finally on top of that was some bacon. im not going to lie... it was pretty yummy. but different. by the way im awful at spanish. and orderign is not easy. this will take some getting used to.

My first blog

2009-01-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

ok. I have never done this before so it will probably be a little rough. I have never been the type of person to keep a diary or write down the happenings of my life or my feelings. But, since I will be living in Montevideo for 4 months I decided to do this blog thing. That way, if you care, you are more than welcome to see what I am up to. I will try to keep it up to date on all the exciting adventures I will go on, as well as post pictures for you to look at. Well thats about all I have to say right now.