Chilly, but Nifty

Hello, people! It is cold and very, very rainy here in Montevideo. My Spanish is improving somewhat. Check it out: Es muy frio en nuestra sala de hotel. We complained to the owner guy, but it doesn´t seem to have done much. We have to stay under the covers of the bed whenever we´re in teh room, and pause every 15 minutes or so to warm up our frozen hands. Muy frio. We`re gonna go check out another hotel today and ask if we can see a room to gague how warm it is, and then maybe switch on Friday, since that technically the end of our reservation at the place we´re at. Peter wisely put off book the entire three weeks at once in case we needed to change hotels.

We`re looking into taking a week-long trip to Iguazu falls on Monday. That would be nice. I´m just hoping that my suitcase that is of appropriate size for three weeks will also be okay to bring on the one-week bus trip.

Things are much more lively here on weekdays. The first day we really went out exploring was Saturday, when very little was open, and then even less was open on Sunday. Of course, today and Monday it has been raining cats and dogs, so we haven´t been able to spend as much time ourside as we would like. We did go down to the old city and both coasts on Sunday, though. Very pretty. Well, not the port, really, but the old city was. We went to the Canadian Embassey and wrote our names in the big book, telling them who we are, where we´re staying and how long we´ll be here. And where we´re from, too, I guess.

I am so glad that I don`t have to drive down here. Busses and taxi have the run of the road, and they`re angry things. The buesses are angry huge things, and the taxis are angry little things, but you really don´t want to get in the way of either. Next on the totem pole is pedestrians. Traffic lights mean nothing to people here. Then, lastly, are regular cars. They´re small and cute and named things like Wind and Saxo, but they have no authority on the road.

We`re staying right in downtown Montevideo, quite close to the main drag, Ave 18 nde Julio. Apparantly there was a treaty (sp?) signed on July 18th, 1830. *shrugs* There`s a little plaque on one of the buildings explaining it.

The power converter my mom gave me doesn´t seem to want to work much. It kind of fritzes little bursts of electricity, but something´s not connecting properly. So we´re off to the electronics store in a bit to get another one.

Hmm, let´s see, what else to say...? Oh, mom, if you´re reading this, I sent you an e-mail, but I´m not sure that it went through, because the confirmation page wouldn´t load. It basically said to give Farley a tummy rub for me.

I think I´ll leave it at that for now. I´m trying to keep up with people´s blogs, but there are rather more entries than I expected. MorPRi, I´m looking at you. ;-p I´ll be stopping by an internet cafe every few days, though, providing I can find one. There´s a story and a great deal of walking behind that.

Oh, wait! I know what I was going to say! We stumbled across this insanely good Itialian restaurant last night. It was $70 for the two of us, all told, but that was with appetizer, mains, desserts, coffee and a drink. Peter was delighted. I was wishing I hadn´t been snacking on rice cakes that afternoon. And, the night before, I accidentally order a classic Uruguyan heart attack on a plate. Well, rather, I had almost no idea what I was ordering, except that it had chicken. It´s meat, usually a thin cut of steak or chicken, covered in cheese, then topped with an egg, served either on a bed of fries or on a bun. If you have the bun, the egg is hard-boiled, which is what I got, or, if it´s on fries, the egg is fried, which is what Peter got, but he requested no egg, because he´s Peter. It was basically all there was to order at this place we were at, becuse it was just after 7, but they didn´t start offering their whole menu untl 8pm. That´s when we realized that we might want to start going for dinner a little later. And learn how to get the cheque. You have to forcefully ask for it, otherwise people will just leave you to chat or whatever. *sigh*

Anyway, I should stop writing, because this internet session is going to cost me a whole $0.75 soon. *g*