Uruguay has just beaten Costa Rica in an intense game here in Montevideo, officially qualifying them for the 2010 world cup. As people set off fireworks in the street and the mob in the living room causes a rucus, I have escaped to my room to take advantage of the fact that it is empty. With summer approaching and the tourism season picking up in Montevideo, it is less and less often that my 6 person dorm room is disocupied at any given time...
In the last month I have become an all around odd job here at the hostel. Though I am still teaching yoga (which is becoming more and more popular and fun), it is hardly my main job anymore. I now wear the hats of entrepreneur, marketer, bartender, activities coordinator, translator, office organizer, accountant, and countless others. While this makes it sound like the hostel was a complete disaster before my arrival, that is not the case- it just needed a bit of fine tuning. The owners, both Uruguayan, both first time business owners, and ages 25 and 26, are doing a supurb job considering the hostel only opened 5 months ago! However they just don't have the time, outsiders perspective, or, for better or for worse, the deep seated trainings of a capitalist culture available. Thus I have filled this hole and devised several new and, if I do say so myself, rather crafty ways for them to stop breaking even and start getting ahead.
It is an increasingly creative project for me. I have never, for example, created a bar from scratch. Or tried to purchase and price bicycles for rental purposes. Nor have I ever bartended or created a cost/profit balance spreadsheat for a small business before. My mother, who has faught a lifelong and very uphill battle to teach me how to organize myself, would be beyond proud at the number of small organizational feats I have accomplished in the past few weeks... creating to do lists for them and setting up folders and task management tools. Ironically I don't think that, even in the height of my college career, I was ever as organized myself... Somehow it seems infinately easier to organize someone else's life than my own...
[Me in tending my new bar...]
Aside from all of my projects I am managing to find plenty of time to enjoy the beach, head out to surf with Juan, sketch in the backyard, try new inventions in the kitchen, and take siestas most afternoons. I am also really enjoying meeting the wide variety of travelers who appear from all over the world to stay and play a few days. I have learned an impressive amount about geography, linguistics, history, and food culture from my fellow travelers as well (did anyone else know that Welsh is a language?!). I suppose, even when you are traveling with very little movement as I am, every day is still a culural experience...
Well people, I am going to go mix and mingle again. Hope all is well in your corner of the world!
Besos-
cate
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