Job Hunts and Jack-O-Lanterns

Tuesday, 10-27: Tired of depending entirely on our Uruguayan friend, Sarah, Kara, and myself soldiered out on our own today. After some pleasant (and at times confusing) chitchat with Mariano, one of the Fruit guys downstairs, we opened up our gargantuan tourist map and plotted out a course to Ciudad Vieja. We figured said neighborhood of Montevideo would have the most to offer in terms of jobs for during Montevideo's tourist season. Hotels, bars, and nightclubs were the blips on our radar.

Fast forward through some awkward conversations, broken Spanish, locked doors, and tired feet and there you have it: Our first attempt at cracking into Montevideo's job market. While our maiden voyage into Uruguayan Employment may not have been a successful one, we plan on returning with curriculos (resumes) in hand and more practiced and refined Spanish. The important thing to remember is that we tried, survived, and know that we can do it again.

Thursday, October 29: The sunshine beckoned and we found ourselves on the beach in Pocitos with our new friend Popi, her sister Vicki, her Aunt, and her Mom. The outing included some much-needed Spanish practice, searching in vain for an abandoned soccer or volley ball, and a quick tutorial on how to spot young hooligans who are up to no good. (Note: they usually wear sneakers and baseball caps tilted low) We also learned that Uruguay has no system for incarcerating people under the age of 18, so even violent crimes are treated with a mere slap on the wrist. All the more reason to keep our eyes peeled and ears perked up, for fear of having a run-in with some kids that don't have much lose.

Saturday, October 31st: Happy halloween! The holiday is not nearly as popular here as it is in the U.S., so we become ecstatic whenever we see a hint of Halloween decoration: a neon orange plastic pumpkin here, a skeleton decal on a window there...we take what we can get because the Halloween spirit here is sparse.

We spent the day cheering for Defensor, the fútbol team for which Andrea's cousin Leandro plays, and then cheering for Popi at her swim meet. We made it home around 9:00 and got to work on putting together our costumes.

After going back and forth about what we wanted to dress as (We thought about being Yankees, the Kardashians, and even dominoes) we settled on the Spice Girls when we discovered that Popi had her heart set on finding 4 other Spices to compliment her Ginger get-up. So Spice Girls it was! Easy to throw together, fairly recognizable, and well-worn territory for us gringas. Unsurprisingly, I was to be Posh spice. My dark hair and penchant for wearing black aided in the tacit assumption.

We hosted a Halloween previa (pregame) and actually had a fair number of guests show up! After a couple hours of carousing we made our way out to club and danced the night away yet again.

Sunday, November 1st: We woke up this morning bleery eyed and craving cake, as we have been for days thanks to the New York Time's write-up on Montevideo and a spotlight on a little cafe that is called simply Cakes. We checked it out and, despite some turbulence with a delay in the order, found it to be an adorable space with delicious nibblies. Definitely a spot to return to on another soggy Sunday.

Thats all for now. Plans for the near future include printing out flyers (EXPERTLY created by my artistic sister Becky) for our English-teaching enterprise and looking for a way to attend a Peñarol vs. Nacional (the two most popular fútbol teams in Uruguay) game. Contrary to the wishes of Andrea's mother and brother, who are Nacional fans, we will be cheering for the yellow and black. Vamos Peñarol!