Las Noches de la Carnival en Uruguay o The Birthday Weekend of the Lost Ninja

(Note: this post is long but I'm bribing you to read it by including a picture at the end) Quite the title, right? This past weekend was a major adventure and a sensible title wouldn’t have done it justice. Where do I begin? You know like the golden birthday you had when you were young and everyone had to dress up in cowboy outfits because you said so or, if your golden birthday fell later in the month, your parents or loved ones surprised you with an extravagant gift like a car, a weekend getaway, a star named after you? Well, my 22nd birthday was nothing like either of those.

It started Saturday afternoon. After having communicated via email with my friend and fellow study abroad traveler far south of her native Wisconsin, Megan, I planned a trip to see her in Lagomar: Another barrio or neighborhood twenty-ish miles west of central Montevideo. We had been planning this earlier in the week but it took a while to figure out each other’s locations and the best forms of travel from place to place. I should also note that on Friday, a girl from Houston, Texas named Elissa joined my host family to live in the same apartment as me. She will be studying at La Universidad Católica along with Megan and I. So I invited Elissa to accompany me in my expedition to Lagomar and I was incredibly glad to have the company.
Elissa and I spent some time visiting le feria early on Saturday afternoon. La feria is very similar to the farmers market in Eau Claire except all the produce and goods are set up for display on wooden shelves right in the middle of the street. After half an hour spent inspecting the different fruits (and failing to figure out some of their names in Spanish) we headed for la avenida italia, a central street in Montevideo, to find a bus. I carried my backpack with a towel, some books, a camera, and some money while Elissa carried only a purse. I note this because these were our only supplies for the next two days. Finding the bus was easy after Elissa stepped up to a group of people and asked for directions to Lagomar. Having spent the last week going on adventures of my own and refraining from speaking to many people, I was amazed at how easy and comfortable it was to speak to native Uruguayans. The first person we asked gave us a long explanation we didn’t entirely understand (minus “red bus”) but then another person pointed at a bus and we waved it down. We asked the driver where he was headed and, within a matter of a few simple seconds and an exchange of pesos, we were headed toward our destination.

The bus was packed, but a native Uruguayan serenaded the passengers with an English song called “Angel.” Some of the verses didn’t make sense but it was oddly comforting to hear a song in English. Well worth the two pesos I dropped in his hat. I had drawn out a rough imitation of the area around Lagomar and once we neared our destination, I recognized some of the street names from my drawing. Elissa and I got off (a little too early, mind you) and walked an easy half mile to la Tienda Inglesa: a large shopping center; still much smaller than a Super Wal-Mart but compared to the dense inner city it was huge.

After Elissa and I had explored the store and the surrounding area (a much nicer and higher class neighborhood than the buildings closer to the city) Megan arrived at la Tienda Inglesa with her host sister, Natalia. Natalia is regular student at la Universidad Católica and she is also completely bilingual in Spanish and English owing to a semester spent studying abroad in Seattle. Natalia drove us back to her house: an amazing two story building painted a crisp yellow that matched a few of the caged birds residing in the backyard. A backyard! This was the first backyard I had seen and, even though smaller than the area of a volleyball court, it felt luxurious to stand in that much open space. Natalia also had three dogs named Luna, Jackie, and Chloe; the first two rottweilers and the last a daschund all colored a similar black and rustic red. Natalia’s sister and her grandmother were also home; they were kind, welcoming people open to speaking with los tres estadounidenses. It was comforting to be a group of three people who spoke English and imperfect Spanish while at the same time it may have made us less approachable. When we went to the beach a short while later, and when I attempted conversations with three different people and even tried helping a kite surfer who we feared was about to unwillingly fly off into the sky, I was ignored every time.

Natalie’s friends, on the other hand, were great. Later that night (Natalie had invited Elissa and I to stay over and, after I incidentally said something small about it being my birthday the following day, she declared we were going to have a get together and there was nothing I could say to change her mind) maybe seven or ten of Natalia’s friends came over to help celebrate my birthday in high energy, fiesta fashion. The city comes alive during the night and it’s common for people to continue the festivities of the night until 6 or 7:30 the following morning. Since dinner is typically served at 9 pm and since the favored drink, Mate, is loaded with essential vitamins, minerals, and super caffeine, people keep going until they drop. We spent the night talking, playing card games, and laughing. Somehow as I got more and more tired, I felt as if I understood more Spanish. I don’t know how this worked out, but I remember vividly understanding and learning about Chevi’s goal to become a lawyer, Juan’s (was it Juan?) interpretation on what it takes to become an Uruguayan, Sebastian’s jokes, and what to do in a figurative situation in when the keys are locked in the house. Suffice to say, I went to bed exhausted and not feeling quite up to the Uruguayan standard. Even though it was 5 am, I’m sure the night continued for many others.

Sunday morning, I felt great. I was pleased that I managed to hold a few conversations during the previous night and I had a lot of energy. I waited for a while for Megan, Elissa, and Natalia to wake up, drank some juice, stood in the sun, and basked. Somehow, maybe because of the card games we played during the night, I wanted to play ninja. It was a small inkling that spurned and flared as the day continued and, even later, I ended up spending time thinking about how I might begin to make the game popular in Uruguay; how I might change the country with a small game popular with college students. If you don’t know, ninja is a game played with a group of people in which, in incremental motions, players stand in a circle and take turns trying to smack the hands of people nearby. So later, when Natalia declared (she has an energetic way of declaring the next event as if no other option existed) that we were going to go to Atlantida: a vacation city where we planned to visit the beach and possibly go dancing (I was terrified of that part and, luckily, it never happened) – they mentioned something about my birthday party continuing but I was too afraid to ask for details.

A short drive later we, los tres estadounidenses, arrived in the beautiful city of Atlantida along with Natalia and five or six of her friends. Once again, and maybe this is typical of the areas west of Montevideo, the area was lush with big houses surrounded by iron gates, beaches with clear white sand, large stores, and buildings serving as entertainment like theaters and arcade centers. This was a place where the rich families of Uruguay go to celebrate, relax, and take a vacation away from work. We spent the day walking, taking lunch at an out-door café, playing pool and air hockey, and sitting nearby the beach of Atlantida. Too scared to ask in Spanish, I attempted to get Elissa and Megan to take part in a game of Ninja but my dastardly plans of changing Uruguay as it is known were doomed to fail.

Instead of playing Ninja , a few of us (myself, Natalia, Elissa, and two of Natalia’s friends) ended up going on something like a boat ride except we all sat on a floating apparatus shaped like a hotdog while a person driving a jet ski tugged us quickly across the water and attempted to force us to fall off the flotation by taking sharp turns. Natalia called it a banana and, for only 100 pesos or roughly 5 dollars, it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time: the speed, the ocean water, the air time we got off of waves, and the moment where we quite literally flew off the flotation were incredibly exhilarating.

Later that night, we ended up going to a house that a few of Natalie’s friends were renting for their vacation getaway during la carnival. I should have mentioned this earlier but la carnival is the Latino celebration of the end of the summer and the start of the fall and school year. Many people take the weekend, Monday, and Tuesday to travel, relax, or go on vacations. It was another great excuse to celebrate. We feasted that night on carne asada: rich meat seasoned and broiled, bread, salad, and cheese. I’m not going to lie, the meat tasted delicious even though I had spent the last three years as a vegetarian. The sight of raw meat still makes me queasy but, cooked, it tasted amazing. Later that night, we played Mafia and charades but all in Spanish. I had never played Mafia before so it was difficult to learn based on Spanish directions but Natalia was a huge help by translating. Charades, I knew how to play, but you try acting out “El Siniestro en la Calle 13” without using any words and without being certain on the meaning. Nonetheless, it was a great time.

After and during the feast of broiled meat, we had a few great conversations about tattoos, vegetarianism, poverty, and drugs. As it turned out, a number of Natalia’s friends were more-or-less fluent in English and we had an interesting exchange of broken Spanish, English, and mixtures in between. I was amazed that, in a culture and location so different from my own, I had a lot in common with native Uruguayans. And even though my birthday was nothing like a golden celebration with rich gifts, even though I felt as if I had absolutely no control or comprehension over these two days, I had a great time not knowing; being surprised. Like believing in Santa Clause or Santa Claus once again.

Later on Sunday night, Natalia drove Elissa and me to Portones, a city in the neighborhood Carrasco and dropped us off at the bus station. Within seconds (que suerte), a bus showed up and it was headed in the right direction. Being both exhausted and a little overwhelmed with the interactivity within the last two days, we were happy to return to out apartment in the city of Montevideo and call it quits on our adventure. Reluctantly, I gave up on the lost and forgotten game of Ninja but those up for it should be warned: you’ve been challenged to a game of ninja, ping pong, and ultimate Frisbee the next time I see you state side.