Almost 3 Weeks in Uruguay

We arrived safely in Uruguay after having the problem of getting stuck because of canceled flights and mechanical problems. Everything is going great here. I've been studying Spanish for the past two weeks, although I haven't learned very much. I haven't encountered anyone on the streets who speaks English. They all talk very fast in Spanish and I've had a hard time picking up anything they're saying.

On the streets we've seen lots of horses with carts because that's how they recycle here. (Here is a picture we took out our window of a horse and cart.) I'm looking for a gaucho knife, but haven't found one yet. I also haven't been able to find any baseballs. It has been extremely cold for the past week.

I've made a new friend. It's the dog next door. He's a small white dog with a green collar and I think that he's a rat terrier. I also have a different new friend named Tori. She lives about 15 blocks away, she speaks English and comes from Utah and West Virginia, but lives here now. I haven't been able to play outside much, because we are in the city right now, but the roof makes a great climbing course. There's a great view from there. I've discovered a tree with balls that are great for target practice. It's hard to get enough exercise here, although we do walk everywhere except when we catch a taxi. Taxi's are very common here.

It's very interesting here because there aren't big stores like Target, but there are a lot of small stores around where you can buy just about anything (except baseballs). The biggest store I've seen is the local supermercado called Disco, but it's a lot smaller than stores like Albertsons and Food-4-Less. They sell a lot of penny candy here. A lot of stores have candy in the front. They cost about 1 peso each but they don't have the same candies we have in the U.S., like laffytaffy. My mom has lots more pictures on our family blog if you want to see them. I've got to go. I'll blog more later. Chris.