1-25-12 Wednesday Today will be our first day of harvest. There is a whole lot of Chardonnay that needs to be picked and crushed today. After setting up the winery for the sorting and pressing we were driven to the chardonnay lot. Orlando, the guy in charge of the men who harvest the grapes told us to go to the end of the lot and start there. We were all determined to pick quickly because they thought we couldn’t finish one row, which is why they placed us so far away. At first I started with a lot of gusto, picking as fast as I could and filling lug after lug. By the end of my row I could hear the workers catching up to us. Ben and I finished our rows and helped Ori with ... read more

1-24-12 Tuesday 8 am wake up- seemed harder than you think because I didn’t sleep very well last night. I think that I have a phobia of mosquitos biting me at night, so I was up and down and up and down, turning on the lights every few hours to see if there were any in my room because I could have sworn I heard a buzzing. The morning came quick and we walked to the Winery together to see what the tasks of the day were. We tested the density and temperature of the two tanks and then went down to the fields for some sampling of grapes. Max and I were sent to one field while Ori and Ben to another. We sampled quickly and found some shade to take shelter from the sun ... read more

1-23-12 Monday After the weekend in Montevideo, we are all anticipating the time we spend in the country. After an early wake up we are on our way to pick up the others at their hostels. Max was easy to find where as Ben on the other hand was still sleeping so Francisco could not find his hostel and we rode around until we thought we saw it. The morning was very foggy both physically and mentally because of the early wakeup, so there wasn’t much of a view for the first few hours of the trip. We made a quick stop in Los Violettas before we made our way to the north. The vineyard here is rested in a small hill with miles of grapes, a lot of the land is new bright red clay ... read more

1-22-12 Sunday When we woke it started to pour, so we ran through the yard to the kitchen where Richard was playing guitar with some friends and other guests of the hostel. We sat over some Mate and waited for the storm to pass before paying our bills and hitting the road. The ride back was just as long if not longer then the ride there. I passed out in the back seat (big surprise) and woke 15 minutes before arriving in Montevideo. The rest of the day was spent in the living room of Francisco’s house while we watched Italian soccer and prepared dinner. Sundays seem quiet here in Uruguay, we drove through the city on our way home and there was hardly anyone in the streets, it seems as they take their rest seriously ... read more

1-21-12 Saturday The ride to La Pedrera was long and flat… quite literally. There are very few hills in Uruguay, especially in the south. As you ride along the highway, which is a two-lane road with stop signs, you can see as far as the eye can go on either side. There are small “hills” in the distance that look as though they could be large and miles away but in reality they are very close and very small. Randomly along the highway will be fields filled with antique cars. It seems as though the cars outlive the people here. It isn’t odd to see multiple VW buses and bugs drive down the street, along with old ford trucks and tons of fiats older than all of us in the car combined. They are rusted and ... read more

1-20-12 Friday Montevideo is a very interesting city; I am not sure exactly how to gauge it. The streets are filled with young energetic people surrounded by an antiquity of old buildings slowly dying into the background of a posh new city now being erected through the shadows. The old building are quickly forgotten, they are shrouded by graffiti that engulfs the city. Political campaigns by both government and local gangs alike use these beautiful ghosts as backgrounds to a new era. A new era is much needed but not the one that it is in. The people of Uruguay are a mix of European decent, to which no one is for certain where they should pledge their allegiance to Spain, France, Italy, Germany, it is a melting pot of all the countries, but it seems ... read more

This is the first part of my trip and so far it was an adventure... I haven't even left NY yet! After the hustle and bustle of driving to JFK there is a serine feeling in the terminal and I think that I finally realized that I am leaving for a month. Not that a month is a long time in respect to how long I have been on this earth and how long I will be here (god willing). 1 month.. New friends.. new sights.. new smells.. tastes.. and everything else that comes with it. I am thrilled. I need a breath of fresh air, and this January Winter weather is not really refreshing me. There is something about airports that helps to relax me. I prefer to be silent and start to reflect on ... read more