During orientation week, riding horseback before our first asado
During orientation week, our first asado at a fancy restaurant en route to Colonia
The beautiful dessert
Colonia de Sacramento, a charming colonial town a few hours away from Montevideo, and across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires
Colonia de Sacramento
An art gallery / shop I liked in Colonia
Art I liked in Colonia
The view from a tower in Colonia
A concert of musica folklorica (folk music) we saw
During orientation week, the day of the conference between the U.S. and Uruguayan teachers
Giving my presentation on literature circles and readers' theater
Our hotel, Cala di Volpe, right on the Rambla
The bus that took us around during orientation week. Notice my Fulbright bag!
Plan Ceibal is a national initiative to provide every child in the country with a laptop. We visited the laboratories where these are developed and the implementation is monitored.
The U.S. Embassy in Montevideo, where we got a briefing by an economist about the country's economic and political history and reality
We thought it was really funny that everyone uses these kinds of keys for their houses and apartments. To us they looked like castle keys.
Ruben Palomares, a 2nd grade teacher from Phoenix, with whom I visited schools in Montevideo, and one of our wonderful hosts, Manuela del Pino.
I love street graffiti. What does this mean?
En bici mucho mejor. Estoy de acuerdo.
A farmer's market / street fair
I thought their cargo bikes were kind of interesting and practical.
The Plaza de Independencia in Montevideo with a huge statue of Artigas
Valeria took us to a Saturday childcare center for extremely poor children in downtown Montevideo.
Some of the children at this center.
The velodrome in Montevideo. A few guys and their sons were riding on it.
The outside of the velodrome.
A skate park.
Valeria's dad, preparing the asado.
Valeria's parents and her dog, Tomas.
Viviana (her sister) and Valeria, one of our wonderful hosts in Montevideo
A teachers' meeting
The computer lab
A typical classroom. Note the old-fashioned desks.
Some student work on a bulletin board.
Students at every grade level studied and replicated the unique style of Joaquin Torres Garcia, a famous Uruguayan artist
The teachers having lunch together during an all-staff work day
The playground at Escuela 13 (School 13) in Montevideo
Students at Escuela 70 (School 70)
Natalie, our fun-loving chauffeur who would bring us between the two schools we were visiting each day
The principal of School 13, Silvia Itte
Giving the same presentation to the teachers of School 13
We saw the computer teacher give an amazing and informative lesson about the Olympic Games to first graders
Then, the students had to design their own sports symbol using a paint/draw program
Sharing a computer
The assembly to bid us farewell. The music teacher played his guitar...
The students performed traditional dances
more traditional dances
and also candombe, which is a music and dance from Uruguay with lots of African influence
They even let us try our hand at the drumming
School 13. The parents chipped in to provide school buses.
School 70
Marilyn, a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, teaching a lesson
The farewell assembly at School 70
Students mobbed us for autographs before we left. We felt famous.
We also visited a night school (escuela nocturna) for adult and continuing education students. This was the library, well organized, but contained mostly very old books.
The physics lab at the night school
A classroom at the night school. Vandalism was a big problem there.
This was spray-painted on the Rambla (the road along the coast) every 100 yards or so. This person doesn't know how to spell.
A nice lagoon along the Rambla in Montevideo.
I went running quite a few times along the Rambla.
More stenciled graffiti. Who's putting Mary Poppins all over? I love Mary Poppins!
Pocitos Day School, the rich private school we visited the day the public teachers were on strike.
Students at Pocitos Day School
A student who loved soccer and made this amazing illustration of 'el clasico' (the classic rivalry)
On the streets of Montevideo, you still see the horse-drawn carts of the guys who go around collecting recyclables
Valeria's friends, over at her house for her birthday.
A tango club in Montevideo.
Our group at the tango club - me, Leticia (Andrea's hostess), Andrea, Yoselin (who Becca had hosted), and Becca
A family asado with Leticia Franco's family. Meat!
Leticia, her mom, her dad, and her sister, Javiera
I got excited to see Farmacia Arevalo in the little town of Pando, Canelones
The view of part of Montevideo from my hotel window near Tres Cruces bus station.
The Franco family took us on a weekend tour. This was a huge eagle head that had been a residence, and later a hotel, located right on the coast.
Leticia and Becca in Piriapolis.
A huge statue of Jose Artigas atop a hill in Minas.
After climbing up to the altar to the virgin
Students at Escuela 45 (School 45)
3rd graders at School 45 with their plants
All the rural schools had greenhouses, where they grew organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers
A parent group at School 45
Students at School 45
Helping a student
Mi amorcito, Santiago
Another student at school 45
Becca and I were both interviewed by this radio reporter
The students dressed as typical gauchos and chinas to show us their Uruguayan culture
The teachers always gathered in the kitchen to chat over coffee or tea
Students at school 45
School 45
Distributing the materials we brought to teachers
Sergio, Gretel, their son Juan-Jo (Juan Jose), and a girl he was dating
Escuela 274 (School 274)
Music class at School 45
The students gave us presents of hand-knit items that they had worked for weeks on during weaving class - arm/leg warmers, a coin purse, a keychain, and a pencil case.
They put on a play for us that they had wrote and costumes they had made themselves
The practiced traditional dances
Another class presented a puppet show
They ate communally, family-style, out of reusable plates, silverware, and cups. It made me think how wasteful American kids' lunches are with disposable everything.
During field day, they helped each other make toys
And played games
More games during field day
Playing with the toys they made - a balloon filled with sand, tied to a string with streamers - by launching them up into the sky
We visited an even more rural school, a one-room schoolhouse
Becca giving her presentation to the one-room schoolhouse. All the students, regardless of age, were in the same class.
The students from this rural school.
Gretel took us to visit a slaughterhouse, one of the main industries of Uruguay
Our great guide, Gretel, and another manager at the slaughterhouse
Gretel's 'rancho', her house in El Colorado
Oak barrels in the DeLucca family winery
DeLucca wine
DeLucca wine, bottled
the DeLucca winery
the offices of the winery
posing in front of an old barrel with Gretel
Our farewell ceremony. All the students gathered in the front hall for an assembly during which they presented us with many gifts
Mi amorcito, Santiago, who helped me hold all the gifts.
The farewell ceremony
Just some of the gifts I received on the last day at school 45
A parent / teacher get-together
One of the dads played beautiful folklorico songs
The bulletin board welcoming us at School 45
Gretel took us in to Montevideo to meet her sister, who is all new-agey and teaches metaphysics (the one on the right)
Gretel and her son JuanJo (Juan Jose)
The welcome ceremony and banner at School 274
Vegetables growing in the greenhouse
A welcome bulletin board
The abandoned train station in Pando, Canelones
Leticia's family's house
One weekend Gretel took us to her family's beach house in Piriapolis.
She took us to a castle
And to a Fauna Reserve, where we saw capybaras...
and nandus (kind of like South American emus)
me, Becca, and Gretel on the way to Punta del Este
Casa Pueblo, the house/museum of Carlos Paez Vilaro, an amazing artist / world traveler / etc.
Some of his artwork. Of course, I took a picture of the one with a bicycle
One on of the many balconies of Casa Pueblo
On another of the balconies of Casa Pueblo
Replicating the sirena (mermaid) pose
A side view of Casa Pueblo, which is also a hotel
One of Vilaro's murals in Punta del Este
We went to Gretel's daughter's and son-in-law's house for a family asado
The DeLucca family and the American visitors gathered around the picnic table in the backyard to enjoy an asado
While the kids, Belen and Lucas, played on the swings
Later we visited the pier, where fisherman packed up the catch of the day
The pier at Punta del Este
There were some sea lions, too
The famous sculpture on the beach in Punta del Este of a hand coming out of the sand
My host, Gretel, and her husband, Sergio - I loved this couple.
Students playing on the playground at school 274
A teachers' school invited us over for coffee and conversation
We were interviewed by a T.V. reporter in Pando
The teachers-in-training
Leticia also brought us to an evening class of a private English school
Despite the fact that I hate McDonalds, I had to try these weird "sticks de arroz" (rice sticks) I kept seeing advertised.
Leticia, the pre-K teacher, Becca, me, and Leticia the English teacher sharing coffee, mate, and conversation
Leticia's mom singing a lullaby that I wanted to learn
Leticia, her mom (an amazing pastry chef who made elaborate cakes), and her sister, who was studying medicine
Reading "La Semana de Cookie" with a pre-K kid who had been sent to the office
A geography lesson
Once a week, the students put on a radio show with a microphone and a speaker. Of course, were were interviewed in Spanish and English.
On the playground at school 274
Students at school 274
Traditional dances at the assembly held in our honor
Students performed
And we helped out by reading aloud a simple book in English while students acted out the story
Leticia knitted Becca and I hats
The teachers of School 274
Some professors at La Universidad Catolica invited me to give a talk about charter schools at a colloquium for professors and graduate students
La Universidad Catolica in Montevideo
The ashes of Jose Artigas (considered the founding father) are held in this underground vault under the huge statue in the main plaza, La Plaza de Independencia, where they are constantly guarded by unmoving soldiers
It's a somber, reflective place
The Teatro Solis in Montevideo
The Mercado del Puerto (the Port Market), where you can go to buy stuff or to eat asado
More street art
Andrea, an ESL teacher from Minneapolis, and I
Ruben, a 2nd grade teacher from Phoenix, with flowers for our hostess
One of our great hosts, Manuela del Pino and her husband
The Plaza de Independencia in Montevideo
