A palm tree is cool as long as the parrot doesn't throw nuts at you
Let's start with work - our Uruguayan office is officially opening, so a lot of colleagues from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, etc. have arrived. The office is slowly getting noisy and a system of booing for space in the openspace is being introduced.
Normal office kitchen and carbs for some occasion
Gingerbread is about the same as in regular it-companies - coffee, snacks, fruit and all that.
Got a scooter for the new year. Plans for 10K steps a day have failed completely.
Everyone in the office speaks pretty good English, but the interlocutors are almost always in Spanish or Portuguese. After English, Spanish seems easy, a lot of things can be understood from context and words with common Latin ancestors. At least the principle of "as it is spelled - so it is read" saves a lot of nerves. I would like to learn the language more and more often, but so far I only get 2-3 tascas a day on duolingo.
When you are 35++++ new language is as bad as new friends. What saves me from the madness are calls with colleagues from Cyprus and small talk in the kitchen while the coffee is brewing. The best thing I've been able to do, perhaps, is to connect with colleagues from Venezuela, because we have similar stories - military dictatorship and oil curse. Only they've been in this poverty and tyranny for years. I recently rewatched Varlamov (famous ru blogger) about Venezuela and checked with my colleagues - it's the same and a little worse. https://youtu.be/4PqMBk3puPo
As long as we are afraid that those who have left will start taking away their apartments, it is already the norm there. There is always a topic of conversation - whose old geezer is more fucked up and who has it worse. So far they're in the lead, but our rate of flight is impressive.
Key point is here.
Against this backdrop, I got my residence permit today. I won't tell you anything about receiving it, as the registration and accompaniment were handled by separate people. Again, when leaving the country do not forget to apostilize everything you can, stock up on fresh certificates of no criminal record, etc.
Just a little bit left to send the kid to school and me to the gym. Adiós, amigos.