Mark's Adventures

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Location: Abilene, TX, United States

Sunday, February 3, 2008

La Playa de Punta del Este, Mucha Escuela, y Momentos Divertidos

Hola mis amigos! First of all I want to say I’m sorry that this might be a little long, but this past week has been very busy. Last Saturday the whole group went on an excursion to a beach resort city called Punta del Este. We left around 8:30 in the morning to head towards Punta del Este. After about 2 hours we stopped at Casa Pueblo a house built on the ocean at Punta Ballena by Carlos Páez Vilaró, a famous Uruguayan painter. We stayed here about an hour and looked at some of his artwork and enjoyed the fresh air of the ocean. We then headed over to Punta del Este. When we arrived we took a boat over to Isla Gorriti, an old pirate island now used by many rich yacht owners for an exclusive beach. We had packed our lunches so we ate a sandwich and chips and then took off to explore the island. Sarah Boyd, Rachel, Branson, Kelsey, Nick and I took off towards the less people part of the island and enjoyed exploring and taking a lot of pictures. It was fun just to hang out for the day and enjoy God’s creation on the island. We then headed back towards the beach part of the island and saw probably 100 yachts docked right off the island and lots of people tanning. The whole group left the island around 5 and we went to “Los Dedos,” the fingers in the sand, to take pictures. After a few minutes there we hopped back on the bus and headed towards Piriapolis for dinner. We arrived at the restaurant on a hill overlooking the city right before sunset and it was gorgeous to see the sunset over the ocean as we ate. After dinner we all went to get on the bus and it was gone. The bus driver didn’t tell us anything so some of us were starting to get worried. We had had a problem with a tire on the way there so we thought he went to go fix it and sure enough he came back about 30 minutes later with the tire fixed. It was a great day!
On Monday we had classes, but that night was the Nacional vs. Peñarol fútbol game. Nicole and Rachel bought tickets Colter, Josh, Sarah, Amanda, Tina, Courtney, and I earlier in the day than everyone else so when we got to the game we realized that we had to sit in a different section than the rest of the group. It was still fun because it was a smaller group and we didn’t stand out too much. The game was to start at 9, but there was a pre-game before the real game. When it came time for the players to come out on the field each “team” side started shooting fireworks from in the stands and screaming and chanting. It was crazy and fun to see how much spirit they had for their teams. It was exciting to experience a real fútbol game.
Besides those outings we have hung out around Casa ACU doing lots of homework. The classroom is getting hotter, but at least we have a fan that works now to circulate a little air. Amélia, our Spanish teacher, is getting funnier everyday with her stories and adventures with “imagination.”
One last story. We need to have a yellow fever vaccination before we go to Brazil. So Friday morning most of the group went down to the port to get the shot. After going through security and being starred down by everyone we passed we made our way into a building and up creaky stairs to find the vaccination office. With people smoking in the surrounding offices, we stood in line to go into the little room. After we got our shots we headed back, but now several people have been getting sick so we're kind of worried about the sketchy shots…
Another week down and many more to go. Please pray for our group’s sanity and safety being so far away from family and so close to each other. Love you all!!!