I knew it would be on it’s way, but not quite so soon. Last year this time was still warm and mild, a late summer after we’d first arrived here.  It was glorious.

Today, after two full days of rain, the winds really picked up.  I do love the leaves blowing about and the amazing pink-flowering trees that have been all aglow in blossoms.  I’ve intended to get photos- but alas, the high winds today have probably stolen my opportunity.  Much the same thing happened with some glorious purple-flowering trees last spring. We shall see them again, I am sure.

I really look forward to this winter with roaring fires in our fireplace (note to self: order more firewood), knitting in earnest again, crisp sunny days when I walk G to the jardín, and a plethora of warm beverages. After a year here, I am finally ready to take up the habit of drinking mate.  It makes complete sense to me now. Cool, damp, blustery days were made for mate.  Just to refresh your memories: Mate is the drink typical of Uruguay and Argentina that is served in a hollowed out gourd and carried with a thermos of hot water, ready for the refill.  It is a perfect way to maintain a toasty drink at the ready all day long and with minimal effort.  I’ve got a feeling that my winter will be much more comfortable!

Looking back on it, I am so thankful for our amazing getaway on one of the last perfect beach weekends this summer. Yes, I know, I still have two more parts to write about that saga, but hey, now that it’s cold, I’ll definitely spend more time indoors writing.  There’s just so much LIVING to do, it’s hard for me to sit and journal everything.

It all boils down to this: Another season, another change, another side of Montevideo.  We learned from last year.  We’ll do a few things differently this fall and winter.  Just try to avoid falling branches in this wind…

We are migrating the Urmovingwhere site to a different format- one that should be more reader-friendly as well as functional on our end.  Please bear with us for a few days as we get the new site set up and running.  It’s going to be fabulous!

Of course I have a list of potential posts that I need to write, including a new series that is in the works.  I’ve also been editing some of our previous posts with updated information.  Life in a new country is a constant learning experience! If you haven’t looked back in our archives for a while,  now is the time to do it. Check out our information, observations and rantings.

We’re excited to see spring right around the corner in our part of the southern hemisphere. Energy is high and we can’t wait to get out to the beaches in another month or two. October and November are going to be great months here and I already know of a few families planning to arrive then. When are YOU going to join us in Uruguay???

All Our Best,

Lisa, Brad and G

Brian and Chrystal Johnson, along with daughter Zoë, currently live close to us in Montevideo. Zoë is just 5 months younger than Geneva and the two girls love to play together whenever given the chance. The Johnson’s experiences in Uruguay are a little different than ours and you might want to check out exploringuruguay.com to see Uruguay through their eyes.

Some of the more notable differences about us/our blogs are:

1. They live in an apartment, we live in a house.
2. They are ultimately moving to the country, we’re staying in the city.
3. They are from San Diego, we’re from Minneapolis.
4. They’re foodies and meat eaters and report on the wonderful grass-fed beef in UY, we’re vegetarian (Brad) /semi-vegetarian (me).
5. And the most exciting part….They are having a baby in Uruguay!

Brian and Chrystal also have some great photo and video links on their site about Uruguay. Enjoy!

BTW: Thanks Brian and Chrystal for the write-up about us…and a good format, too!

During our visit in 2008, we spent a lot of time just wandering the neighborhoods.  We explored Ciudad Vieja and areas around Pocitos, Punta Carretas, Parque Rodo and Palermo.  We also spent two Sunday afternoons at the English Speaking Meetup at Old Maz.  This was a great group to share tips and experiences, and just hear a familiar language.   On that visit, we stayed at the Punta Trouville Aparthotel, which has an excellent location and amenities, but we found their rooms a bit small with baby and their wireless Internet was unreliable at that time. We stayed at Marti Aparthotel this year and loved everything about it.

Back in MN, our research continued with the help of all the great people we met during our visit and one websites in particular: Uruguay Connection.  Uruguay Connection includes a blog, forum and Uruguay news in English.  David Finzer, the blogger and mastermind behind the Uruguay Connection site (among many other ventures) also has an ebook about everything Uruguay which I found invaluable, The Southron’s Guide to Living In Uruguay.  We also visited their Thursday Expat meeting, which was an eclectic mix of people in a comfortable scene.  This meeting has changed locations since our visit but we have not been able to attend at the new location yet.   Since coming back this year, we have also found Total Uruguay, which is an excellent Uruguay compilation website.

On a side note regarding prep: We also urge everyone that is bringing an extreme amount of luggage  and pets with them on an airplane to visit the airport ahead of time for a dry run.  We’ll give more details of why, who we talked to and what we accomplished in a later post.

It all boils down to this: Do your research, check your options, ask lots of questions (to us or others). There is always the good, bad and ugly with any place in the world.

The next day I thought it would be nice to see who designed the theme. I went to the website and saw an Uruguayan flag and phone number in the corner immediately. Are you kidding me!?  So I shot off an email.  Below is the story from the developer Daiver on the Ahlera blog. Daiver and I will be grabbing drinks very soon. I might even line up a tennis match on the clay courts.

15 APR 09 Minimahl’s most impressive story yet Posted by Daiver Pedemonte

Last week we released Minimahl, our free WordPress theme. We thought it was bound to bring interesting stories to our studio, mostly because of the wide variety of themes of blogs. We were curious to see who would adopt it and what modifications people would make.

Without a question, the weirdest story came via email from a guy named Brad.

Here’s an excerpt of the email we got from him:

My wife and I just chose your Minimahl theme for the first version of our new blog — urmovingwhere.com. The blog is about our recent move to Montevideo, Uruguay! We just checked out your profile to find that you’re in Uruguay! Of all the themes that we could have chosen–we chose one by a developer in MVD/BsAs area!

This coincidence is really weird, especially considering that the theme had just been released after several delays, they had just arrived at Montevideo, and they had just started the blog. Seriously, what are the odds that they pick out a first theme that shared so much with them?

Anyway, Brad and I have become good e-buddies as we share several interests regarding the Internet. I would have never expected something like this from a free WordPress theme, and certainly not so soon after the initial release.

As I write this, I’m sitting down in front of a developer (we’re working late) and he just commented, without knowing that I was blogging this, about the whole situation and how strange it was.

Anyway, we’re happy to have Brad using Minimahl and very satisfied to see that so many people have adopted it as their theme.

As of right now, Minimahl has been downloaded over 900 times from WordPress’ official site. If you want to take it for a spin, you may download the latest version here: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/minimahl

We’re already working on version 0.9.8, so expect that soon.

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