Oh Rivera...

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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 and the heat. It is amazing how much hotter it gets here in the afternoon. After waiting an hour for Francisco to return to pick us up, we were ecstatic to be in the air-conditioning of the lab. The samples were hand crushed and then tested for potential alcohol, acidity, and ph. By the time we were done with the testing it was noon and tiem for lunch, we made our way to the main house, for sandwiches of meat from the night before and boiled potatoes. Then it was decided that I would go the grocery store for the rest of the week, or two. I jumped in the car with Margarita and Francisco and went to Rivera. The city here is also very strange, I guess it will always be strange because it is a new place and a new culture, but Rivera is split in half, Half of the city is in Uruguay and is all in Spanish, also they are known for their Duty Free Shops, which are all over the city. And the other Half is Brazil, which is all in Portuguese and seems a little dirtier. A beautiful park with an open-air market that sells all kinds of goods in small kiosks divides the city in half. We only drove by but it seems like you can buy anything there. We went to BIG... which is the Brazilian Wal-Mart to shop. I tried my best to get what I could but I wasn’t told how long the food should last for. Again with the ambiguous answers… it drives me crazy. But I did what I could with the help of Francisco and we were quickly on our return to the vineyard. Today we finished early and we went back to the house. Thomas would fetch two horses that we could ride. I an the only one in the group with riding experience so there was a quick lesson for everyone else and we were off. Tonight was a perfect night for a ride, it cooled down substantially and there was a nice breeze, Thomas took me to through the vineyard and we soon came back to the house. Francisco would return to Montivideo tonight and we will be on our own for the remainder of the week. Our first dinner on our own was a quick sauce of evoo, squash, onions and garlic with pasta. The pans we have are all burnt and deformed from misuse, and also they are very thin so I immediately burned the garlic… rookie move. Restart, this time was much better. The others deemed me “the cooker” I hope that this isn’t my full time job as much as I like to cook. We finished the night with a game of cards and it was off to bed. We were told that we would have a 7:30 start tomorrow. <!--EndFragment-->

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