La Semana Pasada

Are you REALLY ready to be amazed? This 2 minute video shows you just a handful of good times from our first week here! Enjoy! Cuz we’re lovin it!


Untitled from jessalyn massingill on Vimeo

One week has passed since we left the good ol’ U.S. of A. and here I sit on a little twin bed with THE Jessalyn Massingill. We just came back into our room from our SWEET courtyard where we sat in our hippie circle singin’ and playin’ some gee-tar!

Ah! Speaking of singing, I’m sure many of you readers out there have heard of a little ACU shin-dig we like to call Sing Song. Well I would like to have you know that this year will be the first (hopefully annual) Sing Song Montevideo! We have been writing the act this week and in all of about two days we are ready to send the lyrics to the Sing Song co-chairs in Abilene. Another fun fact- last Spring Jessalyn and I were able to be part of the first Oxford Sing Song act under the direction of junior theatre major Jeremy Varner folks! I just had to take that opportunity to give a shout to mi amigo!

Let me take you back a few days to this past Wednesday night. We all decided we wanted to go to the fútbol (soccer) game together so Nathan Sanders (Professor Sander’s hubby) made the arrangements for us all to go to the Nacionál vs. (insert name of Brazilian team here) game. The game started at 10:45 p.m.—how about that late night culture! You saw some of the Nacionál Fans on the video. You saw our new friends! Some of the youth group from the Iglesia de Cristo accompanied us to the game. It was amazing! We practiced our Spanish with them and one guy, Martin, practiced his English with us. We all enjoyed them so much! I’m excited about seeing them at church again tomorrow. Interesting how we can form relationships in one night that surpass the barriers of language and culture.

Today I was reading for my “Travel as a Narrative” class and I read excerpts from The Greatest American Travel Writers. As I read some of the narratives I couldn’t help but get giddy because I actually knew feelings welling up inside of them. Travel isn’t about standing at a distance and observing from inside a tour bus or a 5 star hotel window. Don’t get me wrong- there are times for those as well. But the times when my heart races are the times I can share moments with people who live in a counter-cultural world; when I go into a church and sit with alongside people who praise the same God as me, when I sit in a café and giggle after I try to order and with a smile the waiter says “hablas espanol?” when I just proved to the entire café that I most certainly do not. I walk down the streets and lay at the beach just in awe of the beauty surrounding me, wondering when I will cease to be amazed at such unique creation.


Full from some delectable homemade curry,
Kara Dawn