Campbellgates in Uruguay

When I moved to China, I was surprised by the level of, well, obsession, with food among my fellow teachers. Anytime you found yourself in a conversation, it inevitably became a discussion about food- where was the cheapest place to shop, where was the best western food in the area, where can one find American necessities like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (orange, preferably), corn chips that were familiar, or regular- in a jar- spagetti sauce. The conversations would quickly veer to restaurants people loved to visit on trips- "I love that Mexican restaurant in Shenzen- it has the best pork tacos!" or "I think we should go to Beijing for hamburgers/Mexican/pizza." or "What did you eat on your trip to Hong Kong/Bali/Thailand?" While I don't know that people actually travelled specifically for western food...wait, yes, I know they did! And they returned to regale us with stories of foods eaten. I remained set in my "I don't miss American-overproce...

On Sunday, we finally ventured out to the biggest street market, or "feria" in Montevideo, Tristan Narbaja. It is towards downtown, in the Parque Rodo neighborhood, which I have heard is the" up and coming" part of town that features art, restaurants and, like much of MVD, endless tagging on the buildings, which makes me sad.  The really great thing though about the day is that it felt like a "mini vacation" to a very different world from our sorta suburban life in Punta Gorda. It was like a vacation to the big city! The Campbellgates LOVE a street market. We love unusual food, the knick knacks and the people watching. This market was massive, on par with our favorite market in St. Petersburg Russia. that we all have a favorite item and story from. That one, however, was partially permanent and this one is entirely a pop up market- people must get up really early to set up their wares (which for people that seem to eat dinner at 10pm is a big ask!  There w...

 I am sure people think, from reading my posts (if they grant me the gift of reading them) that life as an international teacher is all "travel, restaurants, flea markets and fun." Truly, there are adventures, misadventures and fun things, there is also the real reason we are here...WORK! And, WORK starts, for real, TOMORROW. Uruguayan American School is a small but old school (60 years!) that was founded as a joint effort by UY and US citizens to provide an American- style education. They offer a Uruguayan Program, for students hoping to study in UY after graduation, and an IB diploma for 11th and 12th graders for those who want to study elsewhere. We have had training days, met our colleagues, checked out our classrooms and had our first asado experience (sadly, it was too cold for the real bbq but it was still good). Rob is teaching 11th grade IB World History, and Theory of Knowledge (**coolest class ever**) and I am teaching 11th grade IB English B, 6 and 7 Digital Liter...