When I woke up this morning, I was immediately served lunch (after I changed out of my humiliating PJ's) and then went to sit on the couch when my eye was pulled over to a booklet from a place called 'Red Megatone'. I looked over the stuff they were selling.

Cellphones, digital cameras, CD players, DVD players, fridges...the list goes on and on. I know that I could easily afford nearly anything in there, seeing as my dollar goes farther than the Argentine peso, but I couldn't help but to feel a surge of guilt.

I know a lot of my friends in Argentina are saving up for something special, such as a cell phone or CD player. I remember back in the states that I did the exact same thing with my dollars, seeing as the dollar has the same buying power as a peso (For example, a book in the States costs 15 dollars, but here it's 15 pesos).

Anything electronic, they buy from Japan or United States and at the exchange rate, it can at times triple. A cheap CD player costs 120 pesos. To those in the USA, it's like a 120 dollar CD player.

I remember when I was in the 6th grade, all I wanted was a Gameboy Color. Pink. It was hard for me to ask for it for Christmas. I hate to ask for anything, and anything so expensive....

So I decided to save my money. I remember I got a baby-sitting gig during Spring Break in when I was 12 so that put me over when I needed to be. I had over 100 dollars, and not only could I buy my Gameboy, I could buy a game. I was beyond happy.

That's probably the same self worth that they acchieve when they get the things they want, only they don't have jobs to obtain them. In the states, if I wanted something, it really didn't matter so much because I had money tucked away from working so much. My flute, for example, I bought for 450 dollars and I had it all in my bank account. It felt good to know that I had that much money put away!

It's really hard to explain to a little 6 year old boy that the peso is worth so much significantly less than my dollar. He starts to think that he's poor, but still wants to learn more. Then he wants to know what the Chilean peso is worth (It's like the yen. There's probably 100 yen to the dollar, but you need a shit load of yen to buy anything). Then he gets all cocky because he thinks that his peso is so high and mighty, while in reality it's one of the least stable forms of money in the world.

All this talk of money makes my head spin. To cut it short, Argentines have to short end of the straw. What does this country have going for them? Nothing. Absolutely jack shit.

Wait, they do have cows....