Day 1 (tour)

DISCLAIMER!! TOMORROW  I WILL POST PICTURES TO GO ALONG WITH THIS!!!

Success success success!!!!  Great day!   We started our day at 8 today…  We had a wonderful breakfast of bizcochos provided by Elena, and then we headed to Portones.  That was the beginning to the walking tour that was planned.  Portones is a mall named after the gates (portones) that are there.  We took a random bus that had Portones as its final destination, but we did not realize that it took us through the worst parts of Montevideo.  It was nice to see that since the rest of the day was going to be spent looking at one of the richest parts of town.  Once we got to Portones, we started by seeing our old house, my grandparent’s old house, my grandmother’s house (recently sold), and the house I lived in until I was 5.  Then we continued our walking tour through la rambla.  There, we walked a bit on the beach and sat on some rocks… Sarah took the chance to mark territory and we continued to my favorite street, Arocena. 

Here we met up with Maia’s friend, Sol, and her sister Tini (Martina).  It was soooo nice to see her again and catch up.  Sarah got to try her first Chivito!!! (if you don’t know what this is, look it up, it’s worth it!)  Then we walked to Sol’s house together, and we got to meet Sol’s little sister who is 3.  After spending some time with them, we headed back on the bus to Elena’s to catch our breaths.  After 30 minutes we headed back out to Hemming-way for tea time and the sun set!   My aunt Marianne joined us and then we headed on a night walk and a trip to the grocery store in order to kill time before going to “cantar de todos.”  This is the choir that my mom was in since she was little and all of her friends are still in it.

There is one thing I have learned these past weeks, and that is the fact that music truly brings the world together.  I thought it on the bus the other day as I heard a guy sing beautifully in spite of his horrible cold and as I watched the choir sing today.  When we arrived, Daniel (the director who gave my mom guitar lessons as a child) introduced us and told everyone that we were Irene’s daughters and that they would sing some old song so that we would recognize them.  He talked about how my mom was one of the founders of the choir and how much they missed her and hoped we would get to sing with them some day.  As soon as they started the first song I started to cry….   This was the song that a lot of them sang when the surprised my grandmother for her 80^th birthday.  I will never forget her face when she heard the voices coming from the backyard…  Song says it all…  The songs continued and Daniel picked ones that would mean something to us… All I could do was cry.  I can’t really explain why… Maybe it was because of how great of friend they are to my mom, or how much they cared about us.  Or maybe it is simply because the songs were so beautiful and sooo filled with emotion.  As Daniel said before starting  “Irene would cry with these song”… well, apparently the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, cause I was a wreck.  After the rehearsal we headed back home at 10 pm.  Our day will start at 7:45, which is the time that our bus leaves for Colonia!!!!  For now, I’m off to sleep!