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Car and Driving Glossary

Posted on June 11, 2007
Filed Under Vocabulary | 11 Comments

I had been planning to write about the requirements for driving and for obtaining a driver’s license in Uruguay. In the process of doing that research, I realized that it would be useful to have a glossary of the most common terms related to cars, driving and traffic.

With that in mind, I searched through a number of Uruguayan sites and collected terms I thought might be relevant. It turns out that most of these are common to many Spanish speaking countries, but others are specific to Uruguay and Argentina. This list is not exhaustive by any means, but I will augment it over time as I come across other related words. Read more

Uruguayan Spanish

Posted on May 5, 2007
Filed Under Expat Tips, Vocabulary | 6 Comments

Uruguay is one of those countries where you’ll need to know Spanish to function and it will make your experience there much richer. Relatively few of the people you’ll interact with on a daily basis will know enough English to help you out. The good news is that if you learned Spanish in school you will be in fairly good shape, as Uruguayans will understand whatever flavor you happen to have learned, for the most part. Every Spanish speaking country has number of colloquialisms and local vocabulary that must be learned, but the number of new expressions is manageable. Read more

Real Estate Vocabulary

Posted on April 19, 2007
Filed Under Real Estate, Expat Tips, Vocabulary | Leave a Comment

If you are looking for a home in Uruguay, keep in mind that a lot of the research or “shopping” can be done online. There are many real estate portals and real estate companies with very informative sites. The best of them however are in Spanish and are laden with Real Estate specific lingo. The purpose of this post is to provide a quick background, and a decoder ring for accessing this world. Read more

Mate

Posted on April 12, 2007
Filed Under Food and Drink, Culture, Vocabulary | 11 Comments

Sooner of later, any blog about Uruguay must talk about mate. Although I am not Uruguayan, I grew up in Southern Brazil where the mate culture is strong and where mate drinkers abound. In spite of being very familiar with the custom, the extent of the mate culture in Uruguay surprises even Argentinian and Brazilian gauchos. The sight of people carrying a thermos bottle and a mate everywhere is almost uniquely Uruguayan. And it is common to see people drinking mate in public at all hours. To illustrate how prevalent the habit is I actually witnessed a homeless man drinking mate, a policeman in a moving cruiser drinking mate and a moped driver somehow carrying a thermos under one arm, mate in one hand and steering with the other. Read more

Mary Jane Says High

Posted on April 5, 2007
Filed Under Crime, Culture, Vocabulary | 5 Comments

Uruguay has an unusual position regarding marijuana: smoking it is not a crime, but buying, selling and growing is. The current law states that if an individual is caught with an amount deemed for personal consumption it is considered a fault, not a crime. The law is vague and leaves it to a judge to decide about the quantity, taking into consideration intent and the moral rectitude of the individual. If a person is found to be at fault, they must attend an anti-drug class or other such activity. Of course, in order to get called before a judge, one needs to get caught first. Read more

Say Cheese

Posted on April 4, 2007
Filed Under Food and Drink, Vocabulary | 5 Comments

Last time I was in Uruguay I meant to conduct a broad tasting of Uruguayan cheeses, but ran into some problems. Unfortunately, I didn’t do any prep work and ended up a little confused. As a result I didn’t get to complete my mission the way I had intended. The things that got in the way were … well, let me explain by way of a comparison.

In France where small cheeses abound, a cheese ignoramus can walk into a shop, point at something faintly resembling a cheese and proceed to take the whole thing home. Later, at leisure, he/she can figure out whether it was cheese, butter or a door stop. Hmm, I must admit to having employed this technique. But that was before I learned French. Anyway, I was counting on using it again on a large scale to save time. Unfortunately Uruguay did not cooperate with my plan. There, the most popular cheeses are of the large type, sold in wedges (fraccionado). This means that you need to take a number at the deli section and ask for what you want. No biggie right? Were it not for the fact that in most delis there are relatively few types of cheeses but MANY brands of these same cheeses. And like everywhere else, the handwritten notes on the slabs, meant for the initiated, were terse and capricious. They sometimes referred to the type, sometimes to the brand, sometimes the characteristics of the cheese. Read more

Mucamas, Cocineras, Niñeras y Limpiadoras

Posted on April 2, 2007
Filed Under Expat Tips, Culture, Vocabulary | 5 Comments

If you are planning to live in Uruguay, sooner or later you’ll yield to the temptation of hiring household help (empleadas domésticas). This is totally understandable, after all it is much more affordable than in Europe or North America. However this is not a thing to get into lightly and there are many factors to consider.

According to this article, 8.4% of homes in Uruguay have domésticas and they are paid 37 pesos per hour, on average. Some of those domésticas, are mucamas (maids), cocineras (cooks), niñeras (nannies) or limpiadoras (cleaning person). The limpiadora is a contractor hired to come to your home a few times a week and charges by the hour (usually less than 60 pesos/hour, often far less). The mucamas, niñeras and cocineras are normally full time employees and usually costs less than 200 dollars per month (the minimum is 3150 pesos). Employers are supposed to contribute to the empleada’s social security, but shamelessly more than 50% of employers do not. Live-in mucamas and/or niñeras are not uncommon. In Punta del Este, many apartment buildings have a servicio de mucama as part of the building services. Read more

El Afilador

Posted on March 29, 2007
Filed Under Culture, Vocabulary | 3 Comments

Last January, I was strolling down Avenida Arocena in Carrasco when I heard a whistle tune that sounded very familiar. I thought it reminded me of the melody knife sharpeners played in Brazil when I was little. However, I was certain this craft had disappeared decades ago. I turned around and to my pleasant surprise there he was, a walking relic, el afilador.

As a kid, I had always been fascinated by the knife sharpeners and how quickly they could fix a knife, a pair scissors, saws, pliers, chisels, barber shears, hoes or anything else with a blade. Whenever they came by our neighborhood, I would get close and watch them work. I remember they did much more than just sharpen blades. They would also fix loose handles, polish rusty knives, un-dent pans, among other things. Read more

Pricing, Fees and Change

Posted on March 24, 2007
Filed Under Economy, Expat Tips, Vocabulary | 6 Comments

Before 1999, the Uruguayan economy was heavily dollarized and it was common to see prices in US dollars and to see it used as a parallel currency. Nowadays however, prices are almost always advertised in Uruguayan Pesos, with the exception perhaps of real estate, motor vehicles, appliances and a few other imported items.

The symbol used for the peso in Uruguay is the $. Unfortunately, this happens to be the same symbol used for the US dollar in the US. As can be expected, this is a source of confusion for the newbie tourist, ex-pat or immigrant from the US. So here you go, Warning to Gringos: assume all prices are in pesos unless displayed as US$ xxx or USD xxx. Read more

Uruguayan Spanish Banking Vocabulary

Posted on March 21, 2007
Filed Under Vocabulary, Banking | 1 Comment

In order to facilitate in the process of dealing with banks in Uruguay, I painstakingly collected all the information I could related to banking from Uruguayan sites. Below is a list of the terms I found relevant. Some of the more complex concepts have a full explanation next to them. Read more

Say it with Banners

Posted on March 12, 2007
Filed Under Culture, Vocabulary | Leave a Comment

If you walk about any neighborhood of Montevideo you will notice banners with some message or another hung across the street. These banners, called pasacalles, are a quirky and inexpensive way to surprise other people and wish them Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Welcome Home, Congratulations and sometimes just to express one’s opinion. It is also widely used for commercial purposes to announce openings, promotions, as well as, by political parties.

They are common across Uruguay and are the subject of several pieces of legislation regulating their use and are currently illegal in Montevideo. In spite of that, they continue to be very popular. According to this article, the city needs to remove banners that are put up illegally on a regular basis. One of the articles also states that few people are ever caught or fined. As anyone strolling around the city can attest, city employees cannot hope to catch up. Read more

Dulces, Mermeladas y Jaleas

Posted on March 9, 2007
Filed Under Food and Drink, Vocabulary | 10 Comments

To say I have a sweet tooth would be the understatement of the year. I get a lot of pleasure from loading a crusty-bread with honey, fig or strawberry jam. So I was on cloud nine when I discovered artesanal jams and sweets are sold everywhere in Uruguay at incredibly affordable prices. Read more

Intercity Buses in Uruguay

Posted on March 8, 2007
Filed Under Transportation, Expat Tips, Vocabulary | 5 Comments

Uruguay has a good intercity bus system, even if many of the buses are old and in need of repair. The roads are well maintained for South American standards and are usually two-lane, undivided, paved highways, except for a very few. Traffic is light except perhaps on the coastal roads, on certain summer holidays. Because of the good roads and the light traffic, bus schedules are usually dependable. Read more

In Dog We Trust

Posted on March 6, 2007
Filed Under Montevideo, Culture, Vocabulary | Leave a Comment

Montevideo strikes me as a remarkably dog-friendly city. On every visit, I’ve been amused by frequent sightings of dog walkers leading packs of dogs on leashes. Pet shops seem as abundant as bakeries. Dog food and kitty litter can be ordered over the phone and delivered free of charge to your home. Veterinarians and groomers make house calls! And it is not hard to find trainers, grooming establishments, boarding kennels, hospitals, emergency care and even mutualistas (or HMO plans) for pets. If you are the type that loves your pets more than your children, Montevideo may be your Shangri-la. Read more

Uruguayan Spanish Links

Posted on March 1, 2007
Filed Under Culture, Vocabulary | Leave a Comment

Click here for Uruguayan Spanish links in the UY Resources page.

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