Overseas Briefing - 1/14/10

MONTEVIDEO — If I had a peso for every time an uruguayo told me that “Uruguay is a small country” I probably could have ridden the bus for free during my entire semester in Montevideo.

Upon opening my mouth to speak my classroom-learned Spanish — if my appearance didn’t already give  me away — my exchanges with uruguayos quickly would shift from whether I  wanted anything else with my cafe con leche to what on earth I was doing in Montevideo.

Where are you from? What are you doing here? Studying what? In which university?

All questions to be expected for the most part. But the question I was most surprised by time and time again was:

“But why Uruguay?”

I wouldn’t say that uruguayos have an inferiority complex; they are very proud of their wonderful country, various authors and poets, outstanding soccer teams (winners of the first World Cup!), delicious dulce de leche sweets, and would renowned beaches.

But I would say they they are certainly very “size conscious.”

As a country of about three million, and half of that living in the city of Montevideo, Uruguay’s population is slightly smaller than that of the greater Boston area, in a country the size of North Dakota.

I was truly confused as to why so many Uruguayans didn’t understand why I would want to come live in their “little” country to study of all reasons, and not just to party in Punta del Este.

But Montevideo’s manageable size was exactly the reason I turned down the potentially overwhelming bustle of Buenos Aires on the other side of the Río de la Plata. Having never lived in a big city before, I was drawn to the opportunity to speak and study Spanish in a midsized city that still offered no shortage of travel options, with the many benefits of a beautiful beach boardwalk, a maté culture, and a prestigious university where I could continue to study international politics and environmental issues.

While an uruguayo would sometimes be a bit convinced by my list of reasons for landing in his country, he was usually still a bit, well, confused by me.

I do think that because of Uruguay’s size, its citizens are especially conscious of the goings on outside their border. Watching the news with my familia, there was rarely a night in which I didn’t see Barack Obama’s face or hear about new policies overseas. I was frequently embarrassed by my lack of familiarity with U.S. news in comparison to that of my host padre. One of the most interesting conversations I had with him (of course relating to politics) had to deal with U.S. foreign policy.

He was incredibly curious to hear what I had to say about troop increases in Afghanistan, the Bush years, the Conference in Copenhagen and everything the US was doing both domestically and internationally.

For a country that is not enormously impacted by the U.S. wars in the Middle East, uruguayos still care, are still interested, and certainly still have an opinion on the topic. I was incredibly impressed by that.

How often are U.S. citizens, obviously of a very large country with a profound presence in international affairs, interested in the policies of another country that don’t really affect them? How much of our nightly news has an international perspective?

How many Americans can even name and locate a few counties on the map that don’t share a border with the US?

The US is big, yes, but it has nothing comparable to dulce de leche, chivitos, or weekend ferias, or the national pride you’ll find in el estadio centenario during a World Cup qualifying match. I would probably never miss an economics class for the Superbowl (even if I liked football) but I, along with 95% of my class, was absent the night Uruguay beat Costa Rica to go to South Africa in 2010.

So although Uruguay may be a small country, it has taught me an enormous amount of Spanish, and as corny as it is to say, captured a huge part of my heart. I don’t think I could very eloquently explain that to the curious server at my favorite beachside cafe, but I think that Uruguay’s “smallness” was a huge contributor to my love for the country, and I am enormously grateful for the opportunity to spend time there. A giant beso y abrazo to the other little place that is hugely important to me; I hope J-term is wonderful for you all at Midd.