Traveling around South America can be confusing when it comes to time zones, currency, weather and Spanish accents and idioms. In Peru, the time difference to Romania was 8 hours. In Chile, 6. Then Europe changed to winter time, so 5. Argentina is the same. The south of Brazil also changed, to summer time, so 4 hours. But the north didnt, so back to 5. Not to mention, I have to deduct an hour or two if I think about my friends who are in Western Europe. At some point, I just lost track. Then come all the different currencies. I was always pretty good at math, so you can understand why I didnt expect all this confusion. In Peru, 1 sol is almost 1 real, so that was easy. I have long since gotten used to brazilian money. In Chile, 1000 pesos = 5 soles, so I went along comparing to the country I was in before. Then, Argentina. 100 pesos = 5000 chilean pesos, so again, the country before. I just cant bring myself to think in dollars. As for euros, not a chance. Sure, I know how much 100$ is in each country, but when it comes to small amounts, converting to the previous currency seemed to be a lot easier. Oh, and then theres the weather. Ive subjected my body to such differences in temperature, that cold feels colder and heat feels like hell. I forgot what touching snow feels like and Im gonna spend yet another Christmas at the beach. Which might seem awesome, but its not, especially when the weather forecast is announcing rain. I cant get in the holiday mood with no snow, tree or family around. Finally, Spanish. Every country has its own variations of accents and idioms. Peruvian say ja a lot, for everything. I dont remember much else, only that they thought I was brazilian because I still spoke portuñol. Chileans say cachay, si, po, weon, they replace every as at the end of a verb with ay, so a simple como estas becomes como estay, not to mention, they speak so freaking fast, I dont know how I managed to communicate with them. Argentinians, on the other hand, will call you boludo and pronounce every y and ll as sh. Chileans are formal and will call you usted, whereas Argentinians will call even a respectable grandmother vos. And the list goes on. As for Romania, I just realized Ive been comparing everything to the way things were 18 months ago, which might very well be a distorted version of a reality I have no idea about. Oh, the shock that awaits..
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 08:22:27 +0000
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