Irony.

This pretty much sums up my day.
It's a Saturday and we are free to do what we want. Go to the beach, go shopping, do homework.
Whatever.
What did I choose to do?
Mercado del Puerto.
Also known as meat central.
All they serve is meat. Any and every kind of meat. Intestine. Gut. Errthang along those lines. One of the girls wanted to eat where Anthony Bourdain did when he was in Uruguay.
So that is how I spent my Saturday.
Well, not completely.

Newsflash.Newsflash.
Life goal completed.
One of them, at least. I managed to acquire antique crystal earrings. It was quite a process, given that I am a complete moron via the ATM front, which I needed because I did not have enough pesos to complete the transaction with the saleswoman, who is actually really cool. I like her a lot. I would hang out with her on weekends for fun while she sells her antiques. Speak Spanish. Smoke a cigarette. You know. The usual. Anyway, I have my earrings. And I absolutely love them. They are old and sparkly and wonderful and I cannot wait to wear them. Because they are cool. And from Czechloslovakia. But I bought them in Uruguay. Bam. Extra cool points.
Anyway, after I made my transaction, 3 of us walked down more streets of antiques. I found diamond rings from the 20s and instantly fell in love, but I realized (with the help of a friend) that the love I feel for such beautiful pieces will be unrequieted, because I don't know where the diamonds came from. So. My heart kind of broke. A small price to pay for sticking to my convictions. Plus I save about $450 dollars. Win.
They have the coolest antiques here. I want to buy all of the jewelry and just wear it and be awesome and vintage-y all the time.

This post is becomine entirely too girly. I must continue instead of fussing about sparkly things.

After we navigated through the ways of old and hidden treasures, we were on our way to the Meat Market. I don't remember which way we walked exactly, but we walked down near the port on some streets that didn't have anyone on them. The streets were entirely empty save for about 6 random dogs. 6 dogs and a random woman, sitting on a chair, eating a popsicle. I walked by her, not thinking anything of it, the rest of the group behind me due to my epic powerwalking skills. The lady didn't say anything to me, but as the other 3 behind me passed, she said hello. And when I say said I mean semi-yelled. I was rather alarmed that she said anything, since she was just sitting there with a popsicle or whatever. As we all passed by her, someone goes, "I think that I just saw my first prostitute in Uruguay." But I don't know if it was a prostitue. Though it's probable. Some random lady sitting on a street corner? Could be.
Maybe she's just crazy. Or hot.
After we passed the alleged strumpet, we ended up at the end of the block, where we kept walking until we ended up under a sign that led us to the Mercado del Puerto. We walked in and our senses were immediately assaulted with the sounds of sizzling meat, the heavenly odor of cut potatoes frying in things they shouldn't be, and bright, bold signs proudly displaying type after type of meat, each one saying that theirs in the best. We found the place that Anthony Bourdain ate at and sat at the bar, where immediately a waiter descended on us with menus and asked if we wanted water without gas. He then immediately told us the best thing to eat on the menu and starting list of all kinds of meat that I had no idea what they were. So, since we were were at the meat palace, and we were going to eat meat, we ordered it. Thinking that it was going to take a long time to get our food and that we had time to relax and look around, we were not expecting a giant pot of meat to appear in front of us in less than five minutes. And I mean giant.
Lots and lots of meat. Yum.
Except it was a lot of weird things.
Like cow glands. And blood sausage.
Cow glands = nay. Freak nay.
Blood Sausage = not too bad actually. I could put it on a bagel. Yummy.
I thnk I also had cow kidney. Which someone told me was pork. So I don't even know.
But yea. Lots of meat.
We took a taxi back, because we didn't want to walk for scads and scads of time, because we had already walked all the way to Plaza Independencia, and then to the meat market. So we taxied it home. The person who sat in the front basically got hit on by an extremely old man. With missing teeth. He asked for her number, which I think is hysterical. Because the girl in the front is about 20. And the driver was probably about 70. Hil.ar.i.ou.s.

Yesterday I walked to this fantastic cafe. It wasn't a long walk, about 20 minutes. I spent forever there, doing homework, studying, staring at the cute men, you know. It was really good. They had awesome cortado. My dinner from there consisted of a piece of chocolate cake with a thick layer of dulce de leche. And a chocolate crust. Needless to say I'm not going ot eat until Tuesday. Afterwards I walked around towards the beach, and then I walked back. I wasn't by myself, but it wouldn't have been weird if I had. I feel completely comfortable in the city, walking around by myself. I mean, there are shady places that I wouldn't dare go by myself, and I wouldn't ever go out by myself at night, but I feel like everyone freaked me out about being down here by myself, when it's not even that big of a deal. That does not in any way mean that I am not aware of my surroundings, or that I just am going to wander off into random areas that I am not familiar, I am simply saying the times I have gone out I feel safe. I think part of that is because I know Spanish, and if there was a legitimate problem I would be able to get by with the Spanish I know. I am not totally in the dark. I don't feel like I stick out and I don't feel incredibly naive. Thus, I don't have a problem doing things alone. I like doing things alone. I don't know why. Probably because I'm weird. And a loner.

I feel like I had more to say. But I really don't, now that I think about it. Meat, cafes, being by myself in the city. Yep. Basically covers it.

paz.