Friday, November 14, 2008
Friends & Family:
OK I have given up on the blog. The internet capabilities here in Uruguay are a little slow, and actually our blackberries do not work, so I have torn out the wire Kathy Baxter uses for her computer and plugged it into my laptop! Tony from our office has gallantly offered to take my emails, and magically transfer them to my Blog, so now you can read my emails, and then later when you are lolling about with time on your hands, you can go back and read the whole Blog or share the whole Blog with your intellectually curious friends & family!!
Upon arriving at the airport, we were met by a representative from the US Embassay and thus were VIP'd right through customs and were soon on our way to The Residence, where Kathy & Frank reside. The Residence is a two storied "Federal style building that replicates the White House", and was built in 1938. Behind huge wrought iron gates, there is a a circular driveway approaching the home. The interior was just newly painted in lovely soft pastel colors. One enters into a grand foyer, and there are many rooms shooting off the main reception area. I was struck by the paintings, and Kathy explained that she & Frank chose each of them through the ART in Embassies Program. This program has over 3,500 pieces of original works of art by US citizens, and are displayed in over 180 US Embassy residences. Kathy & Frank decided that their paintings would showcase contemporary California artists, and as a result many are quite large and very colorful. The grounds of the residence have a large swimming pool and big barbeque area, and a separate building with a big pool table & game room. The Residence has been home to 22 U.S. Ambassadors...including the Baxters!
After some freshening up, Bill and I took a tour of the capital city Montevideo with an English speaking guide, thank God, as most people here do not seem to speak Spanish AND English. I quickly discovered my 8 years of spanish classes proved to be totally useless beyond an occasional Hola & Adios. Note, after a few days Bill got to thinking he was fluent in spanish, however when I overheard him ask the driver "Ahhh.... cuantos pe-po-lees live in Montevideo??" I told him to zip it up! But I digress...
Montevideo is a lovely city with beautiful beaches and sunny, breezy weather. One stop we made on the tour was of Ambassador Frank handing out McDonalds BIG MACS for a charity thing - more on that later but suffice it to say the country of Uruguay is known for their beef... there are 4 times as many cattle as people... there are approximately 3.5 million people in Uruguay so you do the math! Later that evening we went out with the Baxters and some friends of theirs to a wonderful upscale & chic restaurant - dinner was scheduled to begin around 9pm - Billy's bed time! We did not fall asleep in our soup.
Has been a lovely trip so far, except for when we were on the airplane and Bill got all huffy and mad at me for howling at an episode of THE OFFICE (where Steve Carrell burns his foot on the George Foreman grill). Other than that, we are having a great time. Kathy Baxter had some college girlfriends of hers visiting at the same time as us - one of them lives in Santa Monica and is a script manager for Desperate Housewives.
OK gotta go - we are staying in the "Eisenhower Room" where all good Republicans reside... there are photos on the wall of President Eisenhower and Maime's visit in 1960! The view from our bedroom window is of the Opus Dei Catholic girls school next door. It brought back to mind the fact that Bill took his fresh faced Midwestern Methodist fiance (me!) to Opus Dei for Pre Cana in NYC some 22 years ago. I am telling the absolute truth! Stay tuned...
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