I thought I was seriously done with math after I took College Alegbra two semesters ago. Wrong! It´s not like I´m doing calculus or stats in my classes but more the everyday things like paying for things, finding out what time it is and what it is in the US, and figuring out buses.
Exchange rates. Oh, man, they are not what they used to be. When our economy was doing much better in 2005 the exchange rate was 24 pesos uruguayos to 1 US dollar. Now it´s about 19 pesos to a dollar. Not really a huge change but considering how much I have to draw money out from an ATM (I can only get $263 USD out at a time or 5000 pesos) it starts to add up quickly. I think I avoid being charged for exchanging currencies this way by taking my money out of the ATM in pesos because the bank only says it charges me a fee for using an international card. Hmm...
Uruguayan money. This is something I should have looked at before I arrived. Uruguay uses Uruguayan pesos and money appears in bills (billetas)as such: 1000, 500, 200, 100, 50, 20. A bill for 2000 does exist but it is hardly ever seen and I have never seen one. Coins (monedas) come in denominations of 10, 5, 2, 1, and .50. The half a peso coin perplexes me. I only really use it at the grocery store when I owe .50 to .60 pesos. So, if my order is 143.60 pesos then they ask for it and I lose .40 of a peso because it doesn´t even exist. Does that make sense? I feel like someone is always losing with the half peso coin unless it comes up to exactly half a peso. Oh, Uruguay...
Time. The 24 hour clock is widely used as is the 12 hour clock. Ahhh. Everyone fully knows both clocks but they like to throw curve balls and say "Hey, let´s meet up at 15:30!" after I´ve been looking at my 12 hour watch and cell phone all day. What in the world. So, I have to figure out which method to use to find out what time we are suppose to meet and usually end up using my fingers and sometimes freezing in place so I can think of the right time. It´s a very simple thing to use a 24 hour clock, but I´m simply not used to it. I usually have to subtract two from the hour which works from hours 1 to 20. Then I just remember that 20 hours is 8 o´clock and add and substract from there.
Daylight savings time. When Uruguay is in daylight savings time, while the US consecuently is not, Uruguay is one hour ahead of Eastern Standard time. When it´s the reverse Uruguay is three hours ahead of EST. Then, of course, traveling is made difficult because which time zone you're in depends on the country in South America. This means you need to look up the times for each country you're going to travel to. I tried doing this for Uruguay before I arrived and even the internet would get it wrong. My suggestion is to use a map to figure out which time the country is in, look up legitimate sites (government or tourist department websites) or buy traveling books for the country/region which should be able to offically tell you the time zone and if daylight savings is observed and if so when and what regions are affected. Be sure to look up other places you´re traveling to as well because I know for a fact that Buenos Aires and Brazil have different times from Uruguay depending on the time of year.
Buses. I still haven´t figured everything out about buses yet but I´m pretty sure the numbers help to indicate the general area the bus will travel to. For example, most, if not all, of the buses between 100 and 109 with their variations travel from Plaza de Independencia and up 8 de Octubre. I know there are other patterns enough but I´m not confident enough to put them here so I can confuse people.
Taxis. They have two different fares: night and day. I´m not sure if they charge by distance or time, but there are a few that will purposely take the long way with the most lights/traffic if they sense you don´t know where you´re going, you are an obvious foreigner, or drunk. We had a driver this past weekend who was about to bypass Gral. Artigas in favor or taking the longer way to our apartment and Lorenia said "Estoy borracha pero esto es Artigas!" (I´m drunk but this is Artigas) to the cab driver and made him turn onto the main street. It was pretty funny because right afterwards we went on a bump and she was back to being inebriated and pretending we were on a rollercoaster. This is especially bad in Buenos Aires as I think every time I had to take a cab in B.A. I got ripped off one way or another. It´s just how it is in Buenos Aires so allow for it money-wise and know where you´re suupose to be going.
I find that stores, restaurants, and buses are more relaxed with their money. If you´re missing a few pesos they of course make you look for it, but if you can´t find it then it´s fine. I bring this up because I was a cashier for about five years at places where they would count your drawer and you would get in trouble if you were missing too much. Usually, I would have to add my own money and go looking around at the floors on my breaks to come up for whatever money I knew I was missing. So, it´s cool they aren´t strict about money.
And of course, always buy tickets early whenever possible when traveling out of the country. I know for a fact that flights are cheaper to South America when you´re already in there so plan ahead and always ask your fellower travelers where they went, why, and what did they think about it as well as to ask for any traveling tips. I know this has kept me from doing things not worth my time or money. Alright that´s my two cents. (See how I ended with a clever math pun? I didn´t even mean to. Honest.) :D
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