Soccer with a second wind

I went to my job for the entire week this week. It is not at all what I expected. My boss handed me a tape that was in both English and Spanish from a British man talking about advertising and he told me to listen to it and transcribe into both languages. Like any internship, it is basically just busy work. However, I am able to get online so I chat with people online and research some way to get to Buenos Aires.

I had booked a hostel a few days ago to stay in Buenos Aires this weekend. We didn't think that getting there would be a big deal. There are ferries run by buquebus that constantly run. We went onto the website and it said the trips would be about 190 pesos for the fastest boat they have that runs from straight from Montevideo to Buenos Aires in about 3 hours. However, it was in Argentinian pesos and ended up amounting to about 60 American dollars one-way. Ridiculous. By the time we figured out a slower/cheaper way of getting there (7 hour trip by bus and ferry from Colonia at $80 roundtrip,) it was too late.

I cancelled the hostel reservations and now we will be here for the weekend. I had no idea that it would be so expensive to get around South America. The main form of transportation are buses, but there are only beaches worth going to in Uruguay and it's cold now. There are mineral springs in the most Northern part of Uruguay (in Salto,) but those busses will be more expensive. To get to Buenos Aires we have to get across the Rio de Plata and obviously that is expensive.

It was sooo much easier to get around in Europe. You just hop on a slow
local train and it's just a few dollars. That's not even mentioning
Ryanair where you can hop on a plane for 15 euros to Ireland (no joke!) It
may have been ghetto, but it got us there. We are not that lucky in South
America.

On a lighter note, yesterday I went to the biggest soccer game of the season here. The players were Firelli and Nacional, two Montevideo teams. Nacional won by one goal. The fans were crazy. We got stuck in a scrimmage before the game outside of the stadium. I have never beene to a sporting event and feared for my life. It was fun though. It's always a cultural experience. After the game Jasmine, Kendall, Ryan and I went to the one Mexican restaurant in Montevideo. It's not Tex-Mex, but the place reminds me of home.

Tomorrow I think we are going to try going to the American embassy, which is supposed to be amazing inside. On Saturday there is apparently a huge feria that we are going to try going to. Between my work, not being able to communicate perfectly and not taking classes and still getting over my sickness I am ready to move on from Montevideo. I think it would have been different if there was a lot to do or somewhere to travel, this town is very sleepy compared to what I am used to in Europe. I think I am just bummed about not going to Buenos Aires this weekend.

Soccer and Sing

The past few days have been interesting. Monday literally all of the Spanish school at Herradura went to a meal where they prepared every kind of meat you can imagine. I do not even know all that I ate. Cow pancreas, sausage seasoned with sweet blood and another with salty blood, I tried it all. It was interesting.

Tuesday Jasmine and I went to the Punto Carretas shopping mall and i bought another pair of jeans since I only brought 3. I wish I had known that Montevideo fashion was so lax. People just don't care here about how they look and they wear jeans all the time. Women don't wear skirts, which is what I brought a lot of for my internship. I'm not in Italy anymore.

Yesday was random and crazy. After class literally all the spanish class students went on a three-hour bus tour of Montevideo. I am very glad that I went. We went all over the city and got to take pictures of the congress bulding, modern telecommunications building, went on the hill in carrascas to take picture of the port, and more.

On the tour we randomly met a guy named Lawrence who is from Seattle and was only going to be there for a night. He grew up in L.A. Beverly Hills and went to school with stars' kids. He travels all over the world for "business" and will stay in one place only for a couple nights before moving on. He then returns to the places that he likes. He claims that he doesn't have much money, but it was obvious that he does when he pulled out a black American Express card...which you are only personally invited to have and must have A LOT of money to keep. So he is pretty much loaded even though he insisted he was broke and from the "poor part" of Beverly Hills because his parents were from Costa Rica, which he visits about 7 times a year.

Liar.

Lawrence told us during the city tour that he was going to a soccer game between Brazil and Uruguay that night. We randomly decided to go. Jasmine, Ryan, Kendell and I randomly went to the game with him...he bought the tickets. It was freezing, but it was a good experience. Like Europeans, South Americans are crazy about soccer and there were all sorts of fights. They patted us down going inside for knives. The police were everywhere, it was kind of funny. They had fireworks like it was the Fourth of July. We sat on the Brazil side and they never once stopped singing.

After the game we met Jo and Karin at Bar Fun Fun. It is where most famous people go when they visit Montevideo. It was a really cool place. There was a singer, Rosanna, who was singing songs like Norah Jones, but in Spanish. It was really good. Of course Lawrence paid for all of our food and drinks, which there were nine of us. Oh goodness. Tonight I am going to learn tango! Wish me luck.