What a year!! We’ve had the opportunity to explore so many corners of this great city.  We’ve learned more Spanish and met lots of wonderful people- both Uruguayos and extranjeros.  As many Uruguayos don’t seem to understand, we like it here.  We have chosen to come here.  It was not a mandated move due to work or education, we chose Uruguay as our home and we really love this little country.

We’ve grown as a family over this past year and while we don’t have a baby on our hands anymore, she has grown into a very capable toddler. We still adore Jardín Caminito, our daycare, and how loving and supportive they have been for us.

The lease in our current house has been extended for another few months (was set to expire on April 20th).  So it is another winter in our cute but drafty home!  This time we won’t be so thrifty (jaja!) and we’ll be using our grocery store loyalty points to get a space heater.  This is a supplement the fireplace and bedroom electric units.

Come spring, who knows what we will do.  It’ll be a perfect time to travel a bit without the expense of an empty house. Maybe an extended stay travel with 3-6 months somewhere?  Maybe Bariloche, Argentina?  The world is our oyster and we are going to treasure every moment here!!

Artwork by Uruguayo Joaquin Torres-Garcia; Upside Down Map (1943).  Uruguay is located at the coordinates, near the top line.

Dia del Patrimonio was a great family day. We went to Ciudad Vieja’s Plaza Matriz and toured Club Uruguayo (Uruguay’s most prestigious private social club, founded in 1878), the Cathedral of Montevideo and the Spanish Embassy on Sunday. All were very beautiful old buildings, with the Embassy being an eclectic mix of traditional and austere contemporary architecture. We wanted to get out and see more places on Saturday, but we had a spring festival on the farm with Geneva’s jardín, so we were otherwise occupied with kids, animals and lots of food. Saturday was the nicer of the two days so I was happy that was our day outside. Sunday was cold and rainy and a perfect day to dash from one building to another, which is exactly what we did.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9pXFN_MTVQ

We’re busy planing our trip back to Minnesota in December and all of the festivities there. Early December brings us Geneva’s second birthday and a baby shower for G’s Auntie and first cousin. Later in the month we celebrate Christmas with multiple families and try to equally split our time, which is not always easy. We fly back to MVD on the 28th, which happens to be on the same flight as another family we know who is moving here!  We are so excited and can’t wait to have them join us in this fair city.

This past Saturday we went to our first wedding in Uruguay!! It was a beautiful church ceremony- very formal and very late. The invitation stated a start time of 8:30 PM. We were advised not to get there before 9 PM, and the ceremony started at about 9:15. A few differences: there were no attendants, no ushers, no programs. We also learned that it’s customary for there to be two or even three sets of invitations sent out: one to the ceremony only, one to the reception and sometimes one to the after-reception. Receptions usually last until dawn or later. We went to the ceremony only- but had a great dinner out afterwards by ourselves at a funky little restaurant/interior design studio called Innove.

As if we don’t have enough going on, we’ve been in our house for 6 months and are already thinking of the lease end. A unique opportunity has presented itself and we are weighing our options. A family that we know and love is moving to the USA for a year, and renting out their house here in Montevideo. It’s in the Cordon neighborhood, and is close to the jardín, hospital we belong to and many other services. This is an area we have been considering for our next house here, but since it is not the “normal” expat/tourist areas of Pocitos or Punta Carretas, the furnished rentals are very limited. This house is furnished and quite a bit larger than our current house for hopefully about the same monthly rent. Brad and I could each have private offices within the house! The lease terms don’t quite match up so we all need to talk more- but it’s an exciting prospect!

I’m definitely feeling some of the ups and downs of life in Uruguay. The longer we are here and the more we learn, the more we like some aspects of life here and dislike others. That’s true with any place I suppose.  Some days I am really homesick (mostly for how “easy” it is to exist in a place you know well) but I do like Montevideo. This is a unique place with unique people that can’t seem to understand why we would want to come to tiny Uruguay “just because”.

It is common for many homes in Uruguay to rely on wood burning fireplaces as a source of heat. The cool, damp air is penetrating and like ours, many homes do not have central heating. It is time for us to master the fireplace. Our fireplace is open with no damper and no doors, so the learning curve has been high. There’s been adventure with not-so-dry wood from the supermercado and the fireplace not venting. Besides filling the room with smoke a few times and smoke detectors beeping frequently, it’s been fun and we are now semi-skilled at the art of fire making.

After getting our fireplace cleaned, purchasing a screen and some tools (all courtesy of our landlord), we were set to order our first load of firewood. We planned to order quite a bit so we’d have some left over after heating season to use in our outdoor parilla. We ordered 1/2 ton of mixed wood for delivery. That is a whopping 500 kilos for the low, low price of $1450 (approx U$S 60) which included an extra $100 pesos to bring it to the back of the house. It was delivered yesterday and neatly stacked for us, but there was a mix-up. The delivery was all large split logs of astilla and none of the other types of wood we had requested. After calling back, we opted to get another 1/2 ton of the additional kinds of wood, and they would still deliver the same day: leña de monte, rolos secos and atados for an additional $1250 pesos (approx U$S 52). Now we know exactly what a ton of wood looks like!

There is something very comforting about not only a real wood fireplace, but the stacks of beautiful wood ready to give us heat in the cold evenings.  We’ll continue to hone our fire making skills and hopefully Geneva won’t have to say “Beep, beep, beep!” anymore to mimic to the smoke detectors.

Our wood came from La Costanera. They were excellent.  We worked out the mix-up in wood types quickly and they came back the same day with the additional order.  The young delivery guys were very fast and courteous.

Firewood delivery :

La Costanera

tel: 601 4074     lacostanera@hotmail.com

When we started hearing of the Palermo barrio of Montevideo, it was simply in passing. Then I learned of the Ecotiendas store and mentioned it here on May 16th, not even knowing where it was located at the time.

Brad and I talked that the next place we should live in Montevideo should be a bit closer to the water, still very walkable as we have no intention of having a car, and not as “uptown” as the typical expat barrios of Pocitos or Punta Carretas.  But where? Palermo looks really nice on the map…  With borders of  ’18 de Julio’, the Rambla, Parque Rodo and Santiago de Chile/Ejido, Palermo is nicely tucked between the park and Centro.

Then an article came out about Palermo on the Total Uruguay Guide and Brad and I started to talk about it some more.

This past Thursday, my Spanish tutor told me about a small Asian grocery called Bambu. Where else? Palermo. Okay Bambu is right outside of the border of the Palermo neighborhood, but within a block or two.

On Saturday, we couldn’t avoid the signs any longer and decided to use Ecotiendas and Bambu as our excuse to check out Palermo and Centro.  We visited each store and were impressed by both.  The 116 bus was a straight shot into Palermo from ’21 de Setiembre’ and we walked back through Parque Rodo.

Ecotiendas, while large in size, is somewhat small in offerings. It is similar to a small co op that you would find in the USA. We went there specifically for more ecologically friendly cleaning products and found a few nice options.  They also have organic meat, cheese and produce. Located at Maldonado 1390, esq. Santiago de Chile, Montevideo.  Telephone 900 6560

Bambu was amazing, with a collection of asian noodles, sauces, spices, and foods that I haven’t seen anywhere else in the city. We picked up tahini, rice and soba noodles, oyster sauce and several other items. Located at San Jose 1290 esq. Yaguarón, Montevideo. Telephone 902 7720

Our impressions of Palermo were excellent.  The buildings are generally lower than in Pocitos, which means more sun.  There are many of the old colonial houses that I adore along tree lined streets.  Some parts were grittier than Pocitos or Punta Carretas, but that is okay with us.  Taking into account it was a Saturday in the middle of winter when a lot of people are on vacation, the area was quiet.

Palermo is not a typical expat area and as Elaine addressed in the Total Uruguay Guide, this may make it harder for an expat to integrate into the community.  I anticipate speaking fluent Spanish will be much more important here than in Pocitos. Costs in Palermo are also generally lower than Pocitos or Punta Carretas.

This is an area that I think we will return to often to consider whether it is a place we would like to live.  Our current lease is for nine more months, so we have some time to look, explore and dream.

We’re settling in to life here and here’s another update on stuff that’s been pending in our world:

Alejandra finished her first week here and we love her already.  Cleaning this whole house top to bottom in the course of two days, including purchasing many of the cleaning supplies, doing dishes and some laundry.  Total cost:  510 pesos for 6 hours on Tuesday and 350  for 4 hours on Thursday = 860 pesos or $36.00.  She even arranged Geneva’s sock bin in color order!  Wow~

Looks like Caminito (daycare)  is a go for June 1.  There is a picnic next Saturday to welcome the morning class into the afternoon and we are invited.  We also dropped by today to get Geneva measured for her “uniform” (light green velour hoodie, grey velour pants and white t-shirt).  We’re excited to get started!  Now to just translate all the paperwork needed and get it filled out correctly.

 The water issue in our bathroom is still on-going and we continue to turn off the main every night.  The plumbers keep working on it and took out a little of the back of the kitchen sink cabinet today to try to learn more about where the water is coming from (there are 4 plumbing fixtures on the shared plumbing wall).  After removing the rotted cabinet base under the kitchen sink two weeks ago, we don;t have too much of that cabinet left! Good thing it’s on concrete and they think they found something although we have yet to learn what they are going to do about it.  

I took a few photos of our sink demo, but had a moment of clarity before posting.  Who on earth wants to see a sock bin and under a sink in a post.  I’ve gotta get better photos.  

On a different note:

I was returning yesterday from a great playdate in the park when it started to rain.  Geneva and I made it the 6 blocks or so dodging downpours and as I turned the stroller onto our street, I got a really strange feeling: We are living here.  We’ve signed a lease.  We’re no longer just tourists.  We are interacting with the plumbers, the store clerks, the Jardin, the locals.  We are committed.  It was a really odd feeling of familiarity and comfort and at the same time a little apprehension.  My heart began to race.  In all my travels, I’ve never been anywhere this long before.  I love it and it freaks me out.  I blame the mood on ‘winter’ coming.  I’ve never done well with winter. Luckily today is 80 degrees and winters here aren’t so bad.  Bring it on!

Jules: ”What?”

Vincent: ”It’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same sh*t over there that we got here, but it’s just, just, there it’s a little different.

Pulp Fiction, 1994. 

Well, that goes for just about anywhere in the world that you visit, whether it is Europe, or Asia, or South America. And it’s not that things are different as in “weird”, just different than what we are used to. 

1.) Bugs.  We come from a cold weather climate of MN.  Sure, there are bugs there like mosquitoes, ticks, flies and spiders, but this is a little different.  It is not like when we were in the Amazon in Peru, but here the creepy crawlies are still a lot bigger and scarier than MN.  I’m generally not squeamish, but when I turn the light on and two “things” that are about an inch-and-a-half long go scurrying for the cover of darkness, I get a little freaked.  Ewww.  

2.) Other warm weather differences: There are indoor/outdoor spaces here. Our back courtyard is nearly an indoor space, except it is open above.  Perfect for entertaining, for cooking on the large brick parilla, for the dogs and G to play in and for doing laundry.  Our washer is out there (no frozen pipes!) and there is no clothes dryer so everything gets hung up on the line.  Single pane glass on the windows is also different.  Not wild about this because it lets in more noise, but hey, we’re used to noise.  No window screens.  I could go on…

3.) Food in bags.  I’ve talked about the BioBolsa shopping bags from Disco grocery store, but food is also packaged in bags.  Milk is in liter bags, mayonnaise is in bags and olives also come in little bags. Plastic and glass recycling is limited here, and food packaging bags take up a lot less space in the landfill than the alternative of glass or plastic containers, I suppose.  Plus it would be less weight to transport.  I still don’t like plastic bags one bit and I’m working on finding other options. 

4.) “Industria Uruguaya” on almost everything.  How can a country about the size  and population of Oklahoma make so much of its own food/products?  It is incredible that so many items display these two key words so prominently. It’s the full gamut of foods and products, too, including but not limited to: flour, fruit, coffee, beef, wine, beer.  There are some imports as well and not surprisingly most are from from Argentina or Brazil.  

5.)  We really don’t need a car at all.  We only had one car for the past several years in MN (the beloved MINI), but here we really have everything we need within walking distance so a car is completely unnecessary.  I love that.  If we need to go further, taxis are everywhere and the bus system is extensive. We can also rent a car if we need a weekend away. 

6.) Smaller sizes of most products.  The US is a bigger-is-better, bulk society. Here, you buy 4 rolls of TP at a time  and 2 or 4 rolls of paper towels instead of 12 or more.  I have not seen 24-packs of soda (although there are 1.5 and 2-liter bottles of the big brands).  The only big sizes I have seen are beer (1 liter bottles are standard, at grocery stores and restaurants) and restaurant serving sizes are gigantic for nearly everything.  

7.) Vets making house calls and most everything can be delivered.  We had a vet visit Paloma when she was being boarded and Pablo’s medication dropped off for us once we got into the house.  SO nice.  Grocery stores also deliver, as do many restaurants, storefront fruit stands and food shops.  We have yet to employ those services, though.   

8.) Our microwave freakin talks to us!  In Spanish or English.  It is really cool and I’ll have to post a video sometime. 

9.) Bidets.  This is a bidet culture much like many parts of Europe and areas of the world. The US is not a bidet culture and in fact, in my years in the Interior Design industry, I have  had only one request for a bidet and at the time had a giggle about it (This was 10 years ago, give me a break!)  The bidet is an integral part of any main bathroom in UY and I am sure it would be viewed as odd here to not have a bidet as it is in the US to have one. 

10.) Other things we’ve explained before: the late dinner hour, rental process, etc.  

Really, though, these are all the things that make exploring a new country so much fun; Taking everything that you know and turning it on its head and finding different ways to accomplish the same thing.  These are all priceless experiences.

Furnished apartments/houses generally come with everything from furniture to artwork, dishes to brooms.  Ours was no different.   There were things here that I never would have expected in the house we rented: curtains on every window, a vacuum, new kitchen towels, place mats and tablecloths, a bucket, gardening tools just to name a few. I figured that furnished meant just furnished. I did not  think that furnished meant EVERYTHING!  Most of the items in our place are new as well, so I can’t complain. Our landlord keeps asking us if we need anything else.  We purchased a clothes line to string in the back courtyard and then learned that he would have taken care of it. 

On the flip side, UNfurnished means that it includes nothing.  Usually that also means no appliances.  Yep. The previous renters/owners take the appliances when they move out.  All of them.  Range, refrigerator, washer: all gone. Many houses that we’ve seen do not have clothes dryers or dishwasher, so I guess that is a few less appliances that you have to worry about replacing.  

We looked at unfurnished places but the thought of renting (there are a few furniture/appliance rental resources here) or acquiring all of the necessary items to furnish and equip a house was so daunting, we very quickly decided on furnished and I am so happy that we did (yes, I had to say it again).  

As advised by people already living in Uruguay, we brought bedding with us from the USA along with a few towels (have to get a few more) and favorite pieces of cookware/kitchenware.  We’ve been in the house for two weeks and feel that we are nearly completely set up and can focus on other things (like working, setting up daycare, getting health insurance, having long lunches out with new friends.  You know, important stuff!!)

        X  Expat Travel Technology Series, Part 2: “How do I get my mail?”  Brad’s weekly update on our tech tools.

        X  Setting up Daycare:  Two places that we’ve looked at, including our thoughts and prices for 5 half days per week in the post “Daycare Options”

        X  ”Furnished or Unfurnished?” and why we chose what we did for our new home.

        X  Creepy Crawlies: Post took the form of “It’s The Little Differences”  to discuss lots of small things that are different in UY from those which we are accustomed.

1. Firing up the Parilla: Our first attempt at an pseudo-Uruguayan Asado (pseudo because it was vegetariano)
2. Photo/Video gallery via SmugMug

If there is anything you absolutely cannot wait to see, please send us a note.  We can pull some strings.

We will be updating this list to link to the topics after they are posted. 

There are a few areas that do not have keys  though.  The windows in front that face the street front windows have wooden shutters that lock from the inside via a lever, so surprisingly, no key needed there (but there are also metal bars that are between the shutters and windows which is very common in Montevideo) .  The mailbox which is located at our front gate also doesn’t have a key, at least not from the house side.  

Here we also have three locks on the front door, a security system with motion detectors inside and out, and cameras in the front and back courtyards viewable from a special monitor.  Pretty elaborate system and in terms of security, better to over-do it and be a bit excessive than the alternative!  

And all this in a great part of town.  Don’t read the above information wrong, this is a wonderful neighborhood with low crime.  In all of Uruguay, violent crime is extremely rare and the overall crime rate is low but petty theft is viewed as common.  If you leave something out, it may just find a new home.  We don’t want that so we’re using all of our security features available to us!  

When we lived in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis (not known as the best part of town) for 7 years, we had only one key that opened the front, back and garage-to-house door.  The windows “locked” with a standard window latch, not a key. We also had a security system with glass break sensors but we never left windows open and never considered bars on the windows because of fire escape reasons.  Different construction here. Different standards, as I have noted previously, make bars on the windows nearly a non-issue.  

As we’ve seen throughout our travels, the differences between the USA and the rest of the world are interesting.  There is so much to learn in a culture.  We are just taking a fingernail to the surface right now.  Not everything can be judged from our USA eyes, nor should it be.  The best lesson we’ve learned: It is what it is.

Great news that Pablo, our 8 year old male Pug, is on the mend.  We had a vet visit yesterday, along with medication delivered today and all should be better soon.  Brad can write more at some point about his vet adventures.  I also have to mention that Paloma, out female Pug turned 7 today.  Happy Birthday!! As you can tell by the photo above, the days festivities were exhausting and they found a comfy spot on a flattened box to rest. 

This afternoon we had a bittersweet lunch with friends who will be leaving UY today to head back to MN.  While they are planning to return here next year, we probably will not see them before then and miss them already.  Jim and Mariellen had a wonderful experience here and are definitely planning UY as their retirement destination! Yippee!!

At the tail end of our lunch, I had to leave a bit early because Ms. G was in dire need of a nap.  I took her back home (which was about a 1/2 block away) and put her to bed.  I then prepared coffee for everyone to come back and enjoy once they were done with the bill and the last bit of wine at the restaurant.  15 minutes had passed.  30 minutes had passed.  Still no sign of them.   40 minutes after I left the restaurant, they get back here.  Turns out that the bill was paid and then the waitress brought two BIG carafes of wine, on the house.   That was certainly unexpected and I was more than a bit envious that I missed out.  We talked some more and had a quick 20 minute coffee (Record time in UY!) in our back courtyard before the landlord and Jorge were scheduled to arrive.   

Jorge  and the landlord get here.  We say our goodbyes to Jim and Mariellen (who have to get to their hotel and then off to the airport ) and we are off to talk about the water issues.   The landlord lived in this house for 4 years and is familiar with the systems.  He says that the water pressure can build up in the system overnight and that causes leaks where there are not normally leaks.  For the next few days, he is asking us to turn the water off at night until they can get the system repaired.  Not a big deal and we are happy to do so if that will prevent more water.  The kitchen cabinet need to be dried out (we have some stuff to absorb the moisture) and then bleached. I don’t like bleach, but if it can kill the nasties, I’m all for it.  The atmosphere was all very comfortable and they came prepared to hang up a clothes line while here (we already did that a few days ago) and silicone the shower fixture as we had requested.  We  also got the assurance that all was going to be made right and received the landlords phone number and address (he lives right around the corner) and then an invitation to come to his house to pick up a tricycle.    His daughter is 3 and had graduated to training wheels.  He thought that we might like it.  Geneva thinks it’s fun to push it and walk while straddling it, but hasn’t gotten the concept of riding get.  It’ll come.

All in all, a much better day than yesterday.  A vet visit (along with a husband who’s Spanish is good enough to handle a vet visit) great lunch with friends and a responsive and helpful landlord all make for a very happy Lisa!