I will not be celebrating Halloween the way I normally do this year and I’m quite sad about it. I will be going out and getting drunk as per usual but without a classic Autumn costume. This will be the first year that I don’t wear a costume on Halloween in 24 years. Down here Halloween is only for the kids and really it is just a commercial holiday that Argentine’s added to their culture from America. I asked a few of my friends if older people dress up for the clubs and they said no. Whyyyyy?
I must remember one of the reasons I am here is about experiencing a different culture and not pout about missing out on one of my favorite commercial holidays.
This morning I was rudely awakened about 4 times by a phone call from a local english teacher that lives and works down the street. She called me yesterday as well because she wants me to be a native english examiner for her student’s final english exams. The woman is nice but I know the gig won’t pay well. I told her I would meet with her anyway to talk details. She only has 2 students that need to take the test and she pays each examiner 10% of the fee that she charges for the student’s semester fees. For me, that equaled about 54 pesos or roughly $18 for what will probably be 2 hours of work. I didn’t want to say yes but I did anyway. I have this weakness for always saying yes even when I want to say no. I don’t know why but when people are nice I have a hard time telling them no. I know I should be more firm, especially when in financial situations…I just can’t. I know I need to milk all of my skills for as much as I can because I’m running a tight budget, especially my english skills.
I am still searching for apartments and the newspaper classifieds aren’t proving to be very helpful with my search. I can’t believe it is this hard to find a good apartment. My next stop is the realtor’s office to try my luck there.