Camacho Watcho

I have arrived! Five weeks from my original blog post and now I am here! The trip went well and I feel I have a lot to tell, but I will attempt to be somewhat brief.

I arrived here safely although delayed by 3 hours. Not bad for a multi-connection, 12 hour trip. The trip to Miami was very good. I managed to sleep 6 hours (thanks to my new travel comforts) and not leave my seat. We landed in Buenos Aires and I experienced my first cultural difference. Upon landing, the passengers all applauded the pilots! It makes perfect sense – we put our lives in their hands and they deliver us safely at our destination. They deserve a round of applause. I like it!

The Buenos Aires airport is very nice, clean and commercial. Although many international terminals are commercial with their duty-free stores, this one is particularly impressive with its lighted promenade of goods ranging from perfume and chocolate to golf clubs, diamonds, crystals and cars. These are all displayed by model-esque women in bright, scant outfits. Of course, I immediately got out my camera and took a picture and then was promptly informed by a uniformed security officer that pictures are not allowed. Cultural lesson numero dos. I did get the one picture, which is below, although it’s not as impressive of a picture as it is in reality.

The next interesting thing that happened was before boarding my flight to Montevideo. They made an announcement at the departure gate and suddenly all the passengers stormed the podium. I knew they had not announced the flight yet, so I was curious as to what the commotion was about. The man had announced that a snack was being served – soda and sandwiches. While this does not seem interesting, what I was intrigued about was the type of sandwiches. Apparently sandwiches are a hot commodity here, and not just any sandwiches, I will describe. They are essentially Wonderbread (without the crust), meat (bologna is my best guess) and a cheese like substance (somewhat like velveeta). I tried one and it was okay, so I did not understand the hype. However, since arriving in Montevideo, I have visited a grocery store and these same sandwiches are displayed in the prepared food section (the specialty food kiosks in the deli area) and apprear to be quite popular. I am still intrigued, although I have no desire to eat anymore.

The 29 minute flight to Montevideo was uneventful and we landed amidst another applause for the pilots. I was greeted by a new coworker and we went to the hotel. I did a little exploring yesterday. I found a mall, some restaurants, the money exchange and some banks. All in all it was a good trip and I am excited to be here!

Today was my first day at work. Everyone is very nice and very helpful, although I know they wish I knew more Spanish. I will need to learn quickly. I met all my coworkers (all 80 or so who were there today) and greeted them in their custom – right hand on their left shoulder and one kiss on the right cheek. This is followed by an “encantada!” or “mucho gusto”!

I will stop there for now, but I will include one quick picture (I apologize as I know it is fuzzy). This is the view from a conference room in the office onto the Plaza de Independencia. I plan to explore this much more this weekend and will include more details. It is truly beautiful and is a center of business, shopping and restaurants. The statue you see is of General Jose Gervasio Artigas, father of Uruguay and the leader of its independence movement.

The last cultural lesson of the day is how they say good-bye…it is not “adios”, as expected, rather it is “chau!” pronounced similar to the Italian “ciao”, as most people are descendents of Italy and Spain.

Buenos noches y chau!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Customs, Food, Language, Transportation, Travel, Uruguay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.