Golden Lotus #1

hello all!

how's it? as theyd say in the islands. anyways, sorry its taken me a while to log on and talk about my experiences in Uruguay. so some stuff might be a repeat from fubarrio (hehe).

okay here we go.

people here are very friendly, if you show respect for their culture and show and interest in their language, for the most part people will welcome you with open arms. i actually me a local during the hellish flight issue in d.c. and has become a rather good friend of ours here. and then from their own we met more and more people always end the conversation with "if you ever need anything at all call me." dont get that from other places even the states sorry to say. even the local grocery dude is like if you need anything please call me i am serious. totally friendly people.

you all know how much of a foodie i am and how i love to cook. so, its like really hard to find the stuff i am familiar with everything is in spanish ( i thought i could speak spanish, but apparently not). i've had to special order tofu (being vegetarian and all) from this japanese - uruguayian old lady (cool huh) that prepares all the meals for the japanese consulet. it was like a dollar for 250 grams. it will arrive tomorrow (wednesday) as well as soy sauce. we will see how it works out.

our realastate agent (sra. lucia del castillo) nicest lady ever! like a really sweet aunt! anyways, she is totally connected to everybody here, her family is old uruguary her great grandpa is on one of the dollar bills and her husband is some sort of opera singer. anways, she is a doll very sweet and so compasionate. she has helped us out allot. i really like her, i cant wait to introduce her to you J.B.R. what was i talking about?

ah yes, the food, i finally got FB to eat fish, it was difficil but i did it, it was during our lunch with sra. lucia. a local fish monger (i think thats how you spell it) opened a little eattery that turned into this awsome outdoor resturaunt. we had the bestest freshed fish and chips every (you all know how much of a food critic i am, quality and all)!!! the service was pretty poor though it took forever to get our food, but that is the way they do things around here, slow slow slow lingere lingere lingere. anyhoo, that place delivers fresh fish to your home so i think i am going to do that from now on if the tofu sucks. can you believe they even deliver groceries? yeah, i have to set that up but soon i wont have to carry such heavy bags (those of you who know me, i am suppose to be making a joke).

the best part, i always dreamed of walking a block or so and finding a fresh local farmmer's market with all sorts of beautiful colored verduras (veggies) and frutas (duh?) on a nice warm day. and boy did this place make my dreams come true. we live a block or so away from a tuesday farmmers market. not so big but big enough for me. as soon as FB and i walked to the triangle we were surrounded but sights of brightly colored eggplants, carrots, spinach, tomatoes, letucce, broccilli and so much more. there stands after stands of fresh locally grown produce. the sights were amazing! to touch a head of fresh crips locally grown organic spinach was to die for, the bright green leaves were crispy it was just freshly picked that morning. the plump tangerine was soft like a squeezey ball and the local market dude let us sample some and we were sold! the tastes, humm, fresh like it was just picked from the tree perfectly sweet and tangy at the same time. yumm!!! the people were all very nice and helped me pronounce words. lets see, i usually shop an wholefoods in california, so i spend around $60-80 on verduras alone (to last a week) and we spend about $18 here for not only verduras but three types of cheeses and amazing locally made honey (to die for) (sweet and melts in your mouth oh so yummy honey). so pretty inexpensive.

my hands are getting tired till next time

ciao ciao

golden lotus