Montevideo — Remote Year

One year ago today I was sitting in the cafeteria of my law firm’s New York office high above the city, watching the Super Bowl with my colleagues and a few of our clients. We were taking a quick break from a grueling week of negotiations to eat wings and drink a beer before returning to the conference room that served as team headquarters for our time away from D.C. Tonight, I watched the Super Bowl with a number of my fellow Remotes at Brickell, an Irish pub here in Montevideo. The Panthers fans talked trash to the Broncos fans and vice versa, we watched Beyoncé (and Coldplay and Bruno Mars) perform at halftime and, yes, drank a few beers. I couldn’t help but reflect on what a difference a year makes. Last February, I had never even heard of Remote Year, let alone thought that I’d be one week into this yearlong journey and yet, here I am.

My first week in South America flew by and was filled with a ton of activities to help us get to know one another and Montevideo. I continued to explore the city by foot and discovered even more amazing street art. I’m looking forward to settling into more of a routine over the next few weeks (only to disrupt that all again when we head to Buenos Aires in March).

Sundays in Montevideo are pretty quiet and many stores and restaurants are closed; today was even quieter than normal because Carnaval celebrations here continue through Tuesday. However, every Sunday there is a great flea market, Feria Tristán Narvaja, that sprawls for blocks and blocks through the Cordón neighborhood. You can buy almost anything at the market: books in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French; antique film cameras; American military uniforms; fresh fruits and vegetables; toothpaste and other toiletries; old Uruguayan license plates; wood doors; bras and underwear; bicycles; records and CDs; mirrors; all manner of Coca-Cola paraphernalia; and today, the cutest pit bull puppies!

After spending my morning exploring the market, I spent my afternoon in Parque Rivera playing “bubble ball” with the Remotes. It’s been in the high 80s here, so after about 10 minutes sweating in my bubble I’d had enough and was happy to sit on the sidelines talking and laughing as people bounced around trying to kick the soccer ball.

Eventually, a small group of us decided to explore the park and walked around the lake at its center, which serves as the hub of activity. People were sitting along its shores napping, barbequing with family, feeding the ducks and generally enjoying themselves.

Given how little happens in the rest of the city on Sundays, it’s no wonder people escape to the park to enjoy a little fresh air. I’m sure I’ll be back this month, perhaps to contemplate where life may take me on Super Bowl Sunday 2017.

After a lot of anticipation, planning, anxiety, packing, hugs and tears (my mom's not mine), I arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay on Sunday afternoon. I flew out of D.C. on Saturday night and caught a connecting flight from Miami to Montevideo. There were at least 15 other Remotes on my flight and I met a few of them standing in line to board the plane. After a two-hour delay on the runway to deal with some mechanical issues, we were finally off. Except for waking up to eat, I slept almost the entire eight and a half hours to Montevideo (which I never do), thanks in large part to the mere three hours of sleep I got after my going away party at home on Friday night.

When we landed in Montevideo and walked through the doors out of customs, members of the Remote Year team were there to greet us by name (they had clearly done their homework AKA a little pre-arrival stalking) with huge smiles and awesome welcome signs. I got some pesos out of the ATM and started meeting and greeting the people that I’ll be spending the next year of my life with. This first week is bound to be an endless series of answering the basics: “What do you do?”, “Where are you from?”, “Where’d you go to school?”, etcetera, etcetera. We’re also supposed to put together a slide with our name and pictures of ourselves that represent our personalities to share with the group at our official orientation this Saturday. However, we’ve glossed over many formalities in the “getting to know you” process that typically come when you meet someone at school or at work. Our dinner conversations the past few nights have included answering questions like “What’s your greatest weakness in a relationship?”, “What’s your greatest fear about this trip?” and “What’s your ‘type’ when dating?”. We all expect that traveling with one another for a year will bring us together in ways that we can’t begin to anticipate, so why not skip the small talk?

Montevideo itself is still somewhat of a mystery to me. I’ve only been here a few days but am already in a rush to learn the city’s secrets. The beauty of having a month here, though, is that I have time to explore and really learn the different neighborhoods and the city’s culture.

We’re staying in the center of Montevideo, right on Cagancha Square. Our co-working space, Sinergia, and the beach(!), are both about a 20-minute walk away. When I arrived on Monday morning I initially passed right by the door, but when I entered the building I was pleasantly surprised.

I’m used to having an office all to myself, so adjusting to the shared space has been an interesting, but positive change. The fact that Sinergia is an established co-working space for local freelancers and entrepreneurs definitely helps with the transition because we automatically became part of “la comunidad”. On our first day here we had a meet and greet happy hour on the roof deck followed by dinner and drinks with a number of the locals who work in the office. Sitting next to them at tables that seat up to six means I get to learn about what it is they’re working on (including by trying out some pretty cool virtual reality glasses) and practice my rusty Spanish.

Week one is not yet done and, while I've met most of our group, it is definitely going to take us all some time to learn one another's names and backgrounds. In the meantime, I think we're all trying to settle into Montevideo and get used to the fact that, yes, this is our new normal.

Maya P. Yette

Super Bowl Sunday / February 7, 2016 by Maya Yette

Initial Impressions / February 3, 2016 by Maya Yette

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