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Author Topic: Why I Love Uruguay  (Read 676 times)

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Why I Love Uruguay
« on: May 19, 2007, 10:46:35 AM »
Why I Love Uruguay, or
RPGPundit Breaks the First Two Rules of Pipe Club


The other day, I had noticed a thread on RPG.net where a guy was expressing interest in moving to somewhere in South America. Thinking it'd always be good to have some more expat gamers around here, and being unable to give my commentary on the thread, I looked to Jong and fed him some line of bullshit about his "national pride" or something like that: "Come on, look, those other guys are telling him about CHILE. You really don't want the poor bastard ending up in CHILE, do you? Are you gonna let Tangency think CHILE is better than URUGUAY?"

So Jong posted a few facts about Uruguay, including the two important ones for this guy (who's an american who's been living in Egypt for the last long while): 1. Uruguay has separation of church and state, and 2. Uruguay has an awesome gaming community.

But Jong also nudged me to the idea that I should write a post to back him up, one where I talk about what I love about Uruguay. Alejo pointed out to him that I'd already done posts like that, but Jong wasn't satisfied. It was one thing, he said, to show some pictures of how lovely Montevideo is, or to talk about how great the music of Uruguay is; but I'd never gone all-out about the real WHY: why the fuck am I still here, three years after coming down here on what was originally supposed to be a short trip of a couple of months?

My original plan for a response was to kick Jong in the crotch and then steal all his Shadowrun books, just to teach him a lesson.

Fortunately for Jong's goodies, something happened at the Pipe Club last night that has since changed my mind and led me to write this post, and spare his testicles from the kicking they nonetheless so richly deserve.

We had gotten together, a group of about 20 guys, smoking pipes in an astronomical observatory of all places. We got all the milanesas (wiener schnitzel for you germans), pickles, olives, brochettes (chicken and beef shishkabobs for you canadians), pizza and faina that you could possibly eat, for about $3 a pop. For another $4 a pop, we got all the bottled water, coke (in GLASS bottles), beer, Johnny Walker's, Teachers, and heavy-duty Grappa you could drink. We proceeded to gorge ourselves on food, get royally wasted on drink, and smoke to our hearts delight: cigars, pipes, everyone sharing tobacco.

The guys are all a laugh-riot, I laughed so hard that night my chest still hurts today. Some of them joined me in toasting to the Queen on her birthday, everyone toasted to the Pipe Club.
When we were all sufficiently soused, Marcel, who I am honoured to say I brought into pipes and the pipe club (Marcel is a gamer in my Traveller and Wilderlands campaigns), brought out his guitarra criolla and started to play. Quickly everyone was singing along. We spent the next several hours singing, songs that everyone seemed to know, songs about hopefulness, and about the land, and about the woman that got away. Songs about the people, songs about the old neighbourhood. Songs about revolution and funny songs about the woman you wish had gotten away.  Songs that said "viva el carnaval", and songs that talked about the pain of exile during the dictatorship.  Most were Uruguayan songs, but there were some Argentine, some from Venezuela, some Cuban. And I was drafted to remember the lines when Marcel played Yesterday and Have You Ever Seen The Rain?, though I was at a loss to remember all the lines to Sweet Child of Mine.

Two of the guys went downstairs and brought out the "piano", which isn't a piano at all but a huge two-man candombe drum. Pretty soon the CPU president, Alvaro Moreno was dancing an imitation of a flamenco dancer and using a fork and paper to simulate a trombone. Herman Betarte, the only guy who has a bigger pipe collection than I do in the club, was the victim of a love serenade when the president borrowed Marcel's guitar.

We were up till the wee hours of the morning, smoking as we pleased, drinking as we pleased, singing and making noise. Then we headed home at the ending of the night, everyone making sure that everyone else had a ride home.

Its the spirit of fraternity, liberty, and equality that exists in this country that makes me love it. Its the fact that there's always a party around the corner, always a marcel with a guitar, and always a President Alvaro Moreno that isn't so full of himself from his title to be the class clown when the moment calls for it. There's good cheap drinks and good cheap food, and priceless friendships.  There's the fact that everyone knows the lyrics of songs that say stuff like:

Alla va cielo y mas cielo,             (above there's heaven and more heaven)
libertad! muerte al tirano!             ("Liberty! death to the tyrant!")
a reconocernos libres,                  (We'll be recognized as free men,)
o adiosito y sable en mano.           (Or we'll take up swords in our hands)

There's the observatory, and the olives. There's the "brisk" autumn weather (20ยบ highs), there's the guy sharing his tin of tobacco even though he has no idea when he'll be able to get that brand again. There's winding city roads and the Old City packed to the brim with people at 3am, so many you can only drive at a crawl.

But it all comes down to that freedom, that fraternity; the people and what they believe in. That's why I'm still here. That's why I hope I can stay forever.

Uruguay is my country, and I love her.

RPGPundit

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