Posted by Ally on April 08, 2001 at 17:13:45:
Only read if you´re interested:
I´ve decided to let everyone know a few things about my holiday and an incrdible
part of my life I never knew much about...
Everything´s been mad here, but I´ve been having a great time. Montevideo
is very unique city. There are some rich areas with beautiful houses. My great
uncle Mac and aunt Lucia have a wonderful house, and so do my uncle Coqui, his
wife and their kids, my cousins Soledad and Santiago - I went to their house
two days ago and watched cable. There are some slightly poorer areas in the
centre where everyone lives in flats (like where I am living now with my Grandparents)
and some extremely poor areas where there are many slums, although I´ve never
visited because I have no relatives there. In the city centre, armed men stand
guard outside every bank. There are crossings everywhere, but you have to be
careful. A lot of the drivers here are maniacs who take risks all the time.
None of the cars I have been in have seatbelts in the back and front passengers
rarely use theirs. The police have given up fining people for it. Most of the
drivers ignore the speed limit, cars are always crossing lanes, and there are
horns constantly beeping. I´ve been in cars that drive along the coast road
at 100 kph (they don´t use miles here), although the limit is 45. On the streets
it´s quite upsetting to see stray dogs everywhere, searching for food among
the rubbish. There are also many tramps doing the same thing. In the centre,
the pavements are cracked and broken and very dirty - that wouldn´t be allowed
to happen in this country.
On the other hand, there are some great places to visit. The beaches are amazing,
and the weather has been wonderful. All the cafes have lots of tables outside.
There are tons of MacDonalds´, including one across the street from me. I also
live two doors away from a cinema. Most of the films are in English with Spanish
subtitles, although, rather amusingly, they are given Spanish titles - I saw
'El Gladiador' the other day!
The first thing I did when I arrived at the flat was visit my 96 year old
Great Grandmother. My great Aunt Lucia (who is in fact not much older than Mum
and speaks good English) took me to see her in the flat above. Meeting her was
a very emotional moment for me, but mainly a very happy one!
Last Tuesday I visited the school where my aunt (and godmother ) Maria works.
It is a school where many of the classes are taught in English, so the pupils
- particlarly the older ones - speak English very well. Me, Ellen and Grace
chatted to some of the classes, answering all the questions from pupils about
what life is like in Scotland, what sort of music we like, whether I have a
boyfriend, what his name is, if I´m missing him, if he ever wears a kilt etc
(yes, Gordy, they now know all about the ball!) Yesterday was my Granparents´
Golden Wedding, and we celebrated with a mass and then a huge party. The mass
took place in a small church inside Mum´s old school. It is also the place where
I was Baptised as a baby. The service was led by my great uncle Coqui who is
a priest (senior, not my Mum´s brother who is also called Coqui), who Baptised
me nearly 18 years ago. He speaks perfect English, and I had a nice chat with
him at the party afterwards. There were literally over a hundred relatives of
mine at the party, and even Mum didn´t know a lot of them. We all watched a
film that had been prepared by Maria and her husband Jorge (pity Anna doesn´t
visit this site - she would remember them) about the family. It was a series
of photos dating from my Grandparents as babies through to my youngest cousins
born within the last few years. There was also some 40 year old video footage
of their kids when they were tiny: My Mum, Maria, their sisters Sofia and Monica
who both died young, and my uncles Cocqi and Tato (real name Gonzalo, my Godfather).
Everything was backed by music, including "When I´m sixty four" by the Beatles.
Many of my relatives are huge Beatles fans, especially my Great Uncle Bernardo
(about Mum´s age!!!) who is a guitarist.
I found out some fascinating things, and heard some amazing stories which
I could not possibly write down. I can´t beleive some of the things my family
has been through.
Later I will be leaving the city for a few days to visit Great Uncle Mac´s
farm. I will be staying there over the weekend, and I´ll also be visiting Tato´s
farm. He has two kids, Matteo and Agustina, who must both be under 8 years old.
I´ve been getting on very well with them, espectally Agustina (we call her Tita)
who is a natural blonde - rare in this country. I´ve been trying to talk to
her in Spanish, and she´s become quite attached to me!
I´ve also met up a few times to go shoppong with my cousin Victoria (called
Toia), daughter of my late aunt Sofia. She is the closest to my age, and we
have occasionally e-mailed each other before, although this is the first time
we have actually seen each other since when we played together as babies. Her
brother Andres is the family´s computer wiz, and I am using his machine to type
this. He´ll be here in a few minutes to fix the computer so I can read the messages
in my hotmail inbox.
I´d better stop - there is too much to say! If anyone is interested I can
tell them more about my trip. In the meantime I will try and leave more messages
like this, if Takita doesn´t mind.
If you´ve made it this far, then thanks for reading!
See you all! Hasta luego,
Alice xxx