Christmas in Montevideo

Feliz Navidad! It's 10:30am local time (GMT -2) and it's 77 degrees and
cloudy. Last night went to a Christmas party complete with great
international food, fireworks and a potato gun, huh?

I had never seen a potato gun myself, here are the directions
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Original-Potato-Cannon/
We went to the beach, loaded up the spuds, sprayed in the hairspray and
screwed in the igniter, FIRE IN THE HOLE! goes the cry, plop, goes the
spud. The someone shouts, "It's Uruguayan hair spray!", LOL, didn't
have enough flammable content. Swapping to some better hair spray and
the spud flew several hundred yards to the water! It was very funny.
Eventually the igniter gave out on us and the fun was over.

The fireworks were funny as well, we called them "Chinese knock offs of
Chinese fireworks", some of them just did the most crazy things.

Come midnight the entire city erupted in fireworks, we walked to the
beach and we could see the fireworks at Punta del Este almost 50 miles away!

The Southern Cross was visible last night over the water. It was a nice
night, mostly.

Feliz Fiestas!

80 degrees and sunny, Christmas eve in Montevideo. The fireworks are
beginning to pop here and there, tonight the fireworks will be in full
force. I know, Christmas eve fireworks? I guess it's a South American
thing!

We got off work early today, good thing as it was a ghost town. Small
party around close of business, there will be others. In fact I am
getting ready to go to one now. There will be good food, and then hours
of Rock Band on Wii!

Oh, Feliz Fiestas, yep, Happy Parties, thats another thing they say here!

The ladies at the hair salon

I go to a small hair salon around the corner from my apartment once a
month for a haircut. Always funny as I don't speak Spanish well and
they don't speak English. I do know they talk about me as I hear them
say "He doesn't speak Spanish" and they wonder if I'm Chinese. Today
the lady cutting my asked me if I spoke "any" Spanish to which told her
a little. Well as it turns out a lady at the hair salon spoke English
and now the ladies who worked there finally had their chance to ask me
questions, any kids, where am I from (Of course), where do I work. It
made the awkward silence I usually spend there much easier.

Book corner - Finished Reading

This Man's Army - A Soldiers Story From the Front Lines of the War on
Terrorism by Andrew Exum
Paperback 248 pages
Nonfiction

I was expecting an action packed book full of good war stories, instead
it just seemed like a book full of an officer in a boys club. Not
worth reading at all.