Funny Money

Hopefully this is the last time I will have to mention my money issues or dinerWOES as I like to call them. Wow, I'm even making puns in Spanish. Progress! So anyways, I got $200 transferred to Western Union thanks to the suggestion from Hana (I had no idea they were international) and the patience of my dad. Getting that actual money would of course prove to be a huge fiasco (surprise, surprise). On the Western Union website there is a tab to select "Agent Locations". This is very helpful since it shows you the location of the branch and gives you driving directions. I should say, this WOULD be helpful, if it were CORRECT. I plug in my current address and find one that is a little over 2 miles away. I figure, hey what the hell, I'll put my iPod in and go for a walk since the weather isn't so bad. I look at the map that shows up and it turns out the route is very straightforward: walk 4 blocks down Avenida Rivadavia, turn left at Jujuy and arrive at Avenida Caseros after about 10-12 blocks. Of course that didn't end up being the case. I walked for well over an hour before I even got to Caseros. I guess I should have asked someone where it was. In any case, I got to the Western Union, went upstairs and pulled a number that determined my place in line. Fortunately, there weren't too many people in front of me and I only waited about 15 minutes. Once I got called to the cashier, I gave her my fund transfer # and my passport. It seemed like all was going to be fine. I should have guessed it wasn't going to be as smooth as it should be. The teller looks at my passport and then walks off to her supervisor where they discuss something for a few minutes. The teller comes back and tells me that they can't deliver my money because their computers are only equipped to handle identifaction numbers (passports, etc..) of 8 digits or less. USA passports are 9 digits. I am not kidding. She then hands me a piece of paper with an address on it for a Western Union with computers that are so advanced they can handle an extra digit in their database. The address is 2500 Rivadavia. RIVADAVIA!!!! I live on the corner of the 2000 block of Rivadavia! I tell her where I live and she gives me this look like, aww man I'm sorry, you are not the first to get this bad news. For some reason, this branch isn't listed on the website and a lot of people have the same reaction. Fortunately, I discovered a subte line that runs almost directly from the bank to a few blocks from the Western Union I wanted to go to. So in the end, I did get my money. The actual Western Union I needed to go to was packed of course and ended up taking forever, but I got my money. It only took over four hours when it should have taken twenty minutes.

In other news, life is good here. I had an interview for a receptionist position at a hostel in the Palermo neighborhood. The guy wanted to give me the job but there was a major catch: Friday through Tuesday from midnight to 8 a.m. Not gonna happen. I've been getting to know my roommates, finally met them all. It's going to be a good time. A couple funny sports-related things to report too. I've been watching the Tampa Bay-Red Sox series on ESPN Deportes. I didn't realize that the commentators call home runs just like they do goals in futbol. Every time someone hits a home run, the commentators yell at the top of their lungs: "OOOOHLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO!!!!". It's pretty funny. The second thing that I find funny about sports here in South America is that apparently coaches smoke cigarettes on the sidelines in soccer. I watched the Argentina-Chile match yesterday and the coaches were chain-smoking the whole time. That would never fly in the States.