Account of the day: time & money

"Time is money says the proverb, but turn it around and you get a precious truth. Money is time."

-George Gissing

The more things I do, the more I realize life revolving around time & money. I'm experimenting with different formats for my daily blog posts, especially for those that are kind enough to follow what I write. Thus, I'll describe today's experiences and how they were all based around time, money or both.

• Time: Wednesdays are the only day of the week that I begin work at 2 p.m., because I work for Carolina at Artemisa and Entercomm the rest of the week. I like to wake up early and explore an area of town, but was asked to come up with some proposals for an Artemisa Naturaleza presentation. Developing these proposals to fit both mine and Artemisa's standards required a lot of my time, and although I have had a couple of days to think about it, I couldn't bring myself to go anywhere because I kept revising my explanations.
• Money: One of the items on my to-buy list has been a leather bag that fits my computer. The commute to work is about 40 minutes, and with an hour I left the house. I found a beautiful gray leather bag that fit my criteria, and couldn't resist. I spent all the money I had in my wallet on it (no worries, only 150 pesos), ran home, moved all my things to the better bag, and ran back to the Subte station. So much for not converting money for two whole weeks.
• Time: Carolina read and revised my proposals, and I spent the day creating a presentation for Artemisa Naturaleza. This branch of Artemisa emphasizes ecofeminism, the idea that women are more affected by natural disasters and have a stronger connection with the environment, so we must assist them in overcoming challenges. I'll elaborate more on ecofeminism in another post, but Carolina forwarded me a large collection of articles and videos to get a grip on ecofeminism before completing the presentation. Although this has and will take a lot of time, fully learning this new perspective has been an interesting experience.
• Money: After work, Stacey and I took Kylie's suggestion and found Corner, a convenience store on the other side of the water that has well-sized frapuccinos for only 8 pesos ($2 USD). My tendency to make sarcastic comments hit me when I said "HA, English!" to two boys speaking English outside and they turned around in confusion. When we left, I apologized for commenting on it and explained that we don't hear English very often, and they were flattered. The two boys were recent college graduates from Montana and decided to take the summer to travel South America. I have a newfound respect for people who travel with such freedom, not because I am envious of their spontaneity, but because it costs so much money. Between flights, food, attractions, hostels (or hotels) and transportation...it adds up quickly. Maybe one day when I am confident in the amount of money I can spend in one period of time, I'll fly to a random continent and travel!
• Time: We watched a two-hour documentary on factories and politics in Buenos Aires and Patagonia, Argentina. Essentially, it conquered the situation after the economy broke down, recuperated factories with no owner where all the workers are equal, and political parties. As I start to write a paper and research, this is another topic that will require a lot of time to have a good grasp on.
• Money: The budget for our Bariloche trip must have been pretty large because on our alternative trip to Montevideo, Uruguay, we will be staying at this high-class Radisson. Look how pretty it is!! If we would have taken our own trip here as anticipated, we wouldn't have the money to do this and would be in a hostel! Thanks J-School!