Roberto Jeremías Bútler on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 5:40pm
Ok guys.. I know I've been really off but I've been so busy that I have not had much time to write.. So instead of my entry day by day, this time I'm going to hvae to do 3 days at once.
Tuesday night: So, I'm really happy with Argentine tv. I was doing some channel surfing at the hostel and I found out they have all the channels that I watch back home. History Channel, Discovery Channel. This acutally is pushing me one step closer to actually moving here. During my channel surfing, I hit gold. I came across ESPN deportes, and they were showing the Australian Open. For those of you who don't know, I'm a diehard tennis fan and it's basically the best thing in the world. In Spain, I had such a hard time finding the tennis matches on Eurosport and since no one had cable, it was pretty difficult. Here at the hostel we have ESPN Plus, ESPN regular y ESPN deportes so I'm definitely in the money. While watching tennis with some girl from Brazil, the guys from the unknown country walk in. Now as I said before, I was trying to guess where they were from. When I found out, I was acutally very, very , very ashamed and embarassed. Two of them are from Argentina and two of them are from Russia. What the hell? Don't I speak almost fluent Spanish and a decent Russian? How did I not pick that up? I should be tarred and feathered for that. Ridiculous. Anyways, they turn out to be really nice and we all start drinking together. It's really late about this time, around 2 am a nd we decide to go to a club. We are all hammered and staggering, but hop in a taxi and go out to a Brazilian club. Along with us are two random American guys that we literally had just met and one British guy named Dan who was staying in our room. Dan and I returned back early because we werent really feeling the club at all, and we left the Russian and Argentines to do their thing.
I returned back and pretty much just passed out. I can't believe it was an early night considering I slept at about 5am.
Day 7: Wednesday
I woke up late as usual and I did my whole routine of getting ready and fuckin around for 2 or 3 hrs until i leave the house. I decided that I wanted to go to the Recoleta cemetery becuase it's one of the top attractions in Buenos Aires. After walking my tired hungover ass all the way down Calle Santa Fe and up Callao, I reach the cemetery around 6 and it's closed. I was too tired to do anything else and that basically was the extent of my daytime. I stopped by the grocery store and purchased some goodies for the night. Two limes, one bottle of gin and a 2 liter bottle of tonic water: $4.86 Ridiculous. Anyways, I get home and I wait for Lucas so we can find some place to eat. I found a bad ass italian p lace on the net that promised wifi internet and tables o utside, but of course when I call they had neither. I met up with Lucas and we walked down to Plaza Serrano to find something to eat. We stopped at a restaurant and decided on steak I had an incredibly bad ass meal, it was awesome. Pork tenderloins on a shish kebab with grilled onions and bell peppers nad bacon and potatoes. My meal, plus a drink and tip came out to $45 pesos, which is roughly about 15 bucks. Not the cheapest, but look at the quality of my meal. That's what I'd spend at Chilis and instead this was a pretty posh restaurant.
I got back to the hostel and I started to lie down and watch the Serena Williams match. At 1 am, I was pretty tired but everything changed when the Canadian guys walked in. I've met some wild people in my life, but I don't think I've ever met people wilder than this. Two crazy Canadian guys from Toronto who say they are on a cocaine tour of South America. Sampling the cocaine in every country, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. They are fucking insane, it's awesome. We started drinking hardcore with them yesterday and they ended up convincing me to go out. We left here at 3:15am to go to the club and we hopped in a taxi with 5 people. We got to club Roxy, it was pretty fucking wild. There were shows going on, smoke in the air, all kinds of shit going on. I find that Argentina is the easiest place to meet people in bars and clubs. People talk to you so much here... People come up to you and just start chatting. If you were to go to the club alone, you would have no problem meeting people. I met tons of people yesterday in the club but unfortunately I don't know my number by heart so I can't really give it out. I put a bunch of random numbers in my phone but I ended up with random names as "Arg girl" and "Ah". I don't know who these people are but maybe I'll text them and pretend like I know. Speaking of unknonw people, someone texted and told me to meet them at the corner of Santa Fe and Libertad at 9pm to go to a cocktail party. I wanted to go so bad, but I had no idea who the hell it was. I didn't want to be a dick and ask who the hell are you so I didn't end up going. What a pity becuase when I looked at the club, it's one of the best in Baires. It's even on World's Best Bars.com, Fuck!
I ended up losing the Canadian guys and the British guy, so i just kinda chilled by myself and talked to people until I couldnt have anymore and peaced the fuck out. I walked outside to be greeted by complete daylight and sun. I feel so dirty when I come out of the club and the sun is shining, I feel liek everyone is starting at me like I commited a deadly sin. Anyways, I hop in a taxi and this is where the memory starts to fade...
Day 8: I woke up the next morning (today at 6pm, wow) lying in the hostel living room with two empanadas on the table. I felt embarassed because everyone was just staring at me. I didn't even make it to my hostel bed. Ridic. I warmed up my cold empanadas (call me disgusting but if you knew how good they were, you would never let them go to waste) and ate them. Now I'm just lying in my bed, completely hungover and waiting to go out tonight. Thank god we don't go out until aroudn 3 so I have ample time to recover. I ran into the Russian guy today and he said he has a bunch of good Russian vodka that we must try out. It's awesome having a Russian friend, I'm learning new stuff everyday. Russian word of the day : похмелитъся= the act of drinking a beer the next day to cure your hangover. They acutally have a verb for that.. cool.
Tonight the Russian guy has a list of clubs and we w ill decide w hich one to go to. I was going to have dinner with one of my Argentine friends, but since they canceled I guess I'm just going to stay in. I'm trying to cut down on my expenses bigtime. Even though its not expensive here you definitely spend much more money when it's so cheap. I'll keep you guys updated about tonight.
Weird Moments of the past couple of days:
1) I was crossing a 3 lane street and a taxi quickly turned the corner. I was already clear, he was in the other lane but purposely got in my lane and started speeding up. Yes, this confirms it, pedestrians are definitely last on the traffic hierarchy. Not only do they have no respect for human life when crossing the roads, they actually seek to kill you. Crossing the street here is seriously scary, I'm not kidding you. Everytime you have to run for your LIFE. Even though the walk sign is lit, you must run because cars turn from all different directions. The only warning sign they give you is a honk but they don't slow down. Left on red, right on red, it's all fair game here in Buenos Aires.
2) I got detained by the police. Ugh. I was walking from the retiro bus station (btw, if you want to see 3rd world, look behind the Retiro Bus station. It's not all roses. It's poverty at its finest). Anyways, I was walking from the station and this policeman keeps staring at me. I politely smile and keep walking, and I notice he's following me. I start to walk faster until I actually almost run into another policeman ahead. He stops me in my path and asks me "Documento por favor?" (show me your papers). Alot of international buses come in around that area, so I figure he thinks I'm an immigrant from some other 3rd world country trying to make my way in Argentina. Yeah, pretty realistic when I'm wearning an Armani hat.. wtf? ANyways, I don't have my "documento" becuase my drivers license was stolen in the c lub and I don't carry mi pasaporte with me, ever. After convincing him that I was America, helped by my lonely planet Buenos Aires guide in my hand, he finally set me free but told me I must carry documentos with me all the time in BAires. Weird.
3)Some guy stopped me in my tracks (this happens alot) and was like, hey, what's your name? He started talking to me about all kinds of stuff and turns out his name is Robert too. He's an older guy and was being really friendly, but I just wanted him to cut to the chase. Everyone chats you up here but they really take a long time to get to the chase to tell you what they want. After telling me everything and more I wanted to know about Bs As, I start to walk off and then he asks me for some money. He has an old, deteriorated pamphlet with some information about Aids. He says he's working for an organization where they try to provide money for Aids in argentina. I didn't believe it was true becuase he was kinda dirty, there were no other people around him, and his informational brochure looked shady as hell. On the off chance that it might be real, I decide to contribute 5 pesos. He looks at me, and is like, what the hell, everyone is contributing 20 pesos, 50 pesos and pulls out all this cash so I can see waht the "people" were contributing. I told him I didnt have any bills and realized I was fucked bc my 5 peso bill was wrapped up in my 50s and 20s. Instead, I decide to hand him the change in my pocket (total; 2 pesos.) He gets really angry and says, you promised 5 pesos, and in so many words called me a liar. I told him that's all I had, he took the change and straight up said.. Thanks, but you're a fucking liar. Wow. I'm sure his people at his non-profit AIDS organization would be thrilled to know that their representatives are calling people fucking liars and cheap for their petty contributions. After his outburst, I definitely realized he was just a scam artist. Now who's the fucking liar?
Peace,
Rob
Tuesday night: So, I'm really happy with Argentine tv. I was doing some channel surfing at the hostel and I found out they have all the channels that I watch back home. History Channel, Discovery Channel. This acutally is pushing me one step closer to actually moving here. During my channel surfing, I hit gold. I came across ESPN deportes, and they were showing the Australian Open. For those of you who don't know, I'm a diehard tennis fan and it's basically the best thing in the world. In Spain, I had such a hard time finding the tennis matches on Eurosport and since no one had cable, it was pretty difficult. Here at the hostel we have ESPN Plus, ESPN regular y ESPN deportes so I'm definitely in the money. While watching tennis with some girl from Brazil, the guys from the unknown country walk in. Now as I said before, I was trying to guess where they were from. When I found out, I was acutally very, very , very ashamed and embarassed. Two of them are from Argentina and two of them are from Russia. What the hell? Don't I speak almost fluent Spanish and a decent Russian? How did I not pick that up? I should be tarred and feathered for that. Ridiculous. Anyways, they turn out to be really nice and we all start drinking together. It's really late about this time, around 2 am a nd we decide to go to a club. We are all hammered and staggering, but hop in a taxi and go out to a Brazilian club. Along with us are two random American guys that we literally had just met and one British guy named Dan who was staying in our room. Dan and I returned back early because we werent really feeling the club at all, and we left the Russian and Argentines to do their thing.
I returned back and pretty much just passed out. I can't believe it was an early night considering I slept at about 5am.
Day 7: Wednesday
I woke up late as usual and I did my whole routine of getting ready and fuckin around for 2 or 3 hrs until i leave the house. I decided that I wanted to go to the Recoleta cemetery becuase it's one of the top attractions in Buenos Aires. After walking my tired hungover ass all the way down Calle Santa Fe and up Callao, I reach the cemetery around 6 and it's closed. I was too tired to do anything else and that basically was the extent of my daytime. I stopped by the grocery store and purchased some goodies for the night. Two limes, one bottle of gin and a 2 liter bottle of tonic water: $4.86 Ridiculous. Anyways, I get home and I wait for Lucas so we can find some place to eat. I found a bad ass italian p lace on the net that promised wifi internet and tables o utside, but of course when I call they had neither. I met up with Lucas and we walked down to Plaza Serrano to find something to eat. We stopped at a restaurant and decided on steak I had an incredibly bad ass meal, it was awesome. Pork tenderloins on a shish kebab with grilled onions and bell peppers nad bacon and potatoes. My meal, plus a drink and tip came out to $45 pesos, which is roughly about 15 bucks. Not the cheapest, but look at the quality of my meal. That's what I'd spend at Chilis and instead this was a pretty posh restaurant.
I got back to the hostel and I started to lie down and watch the Serena Williams match. At 1 am, I was pretty tired but everything changed when the Canadian guys walked in. I've met some wild people in my life, but I don't think I've ever met people wilder than this. Two crazy Canadian guys from Toronto who say they are on a cocaine tour of South America. Sampling the cocaine in every country, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. They are fucking insane, it's awesome. We started drinking hardcore with them yesterday and they ended up convincing me to go out. We left here at 3:15am to go to the club and we hopped in a taxi with 5 people. We got to club Roxy, it was pretty fucking wild. There were shows going on, smoke in the air, all kinds of shit going on. I find that Argentina is the easiest place to meet people in bars and clubs. People talk to you so much here... People come up to you and just start chatting. If you were to go to the club alone, you would have no problem meeting people. I met tons of people yesterday in the club but unfortunately I don't know my number by heart so I can't really give it out. I put a bunch of random numbers in my phone but I ended up with random names as "Arg girl" and "Ah". I don't know who these people are but maybe I'll text them and pretend like I know. Speaking of unknonw people, someone texted and told me to meet them at the corner of Santa Fe and Libertad at 9pm to go to a cocktail party. I wanted to go so bad, but I had no idea who the hell it was. I didn't want to be a dick and ask who the hell are you so I didn't end up going. What a pity becuase when I looked at the club, it's one of the best in Baires. It's even on World's Best Bars.com, Fuck!
I ended up losing the Canadian guys and the British guy, so i just kinda chilled by myself and talked to people until I couldnt have anymore and peaced the fuck out. I walked outside to be greeted by complete daylight and sun. I feel so dirty when I come out of the club and the sun is shining, I feel liek everyone is starting at me like I commited a deadly sin. Anyways, I hop in a taxi and this is where the memory starts to fade...
Day 8: I woke up the next morning (today at 6pm, wow) lying in the hostel living room with two empanadas on the table. I felt embarassed because everyone was just staring at me. I didn't even make it to my hostel bed. Ridic. I warmed up my cold empanadas (call me disgusting but if you knew how good they were, you would never let them go to waste) and ate them. Now I'm just lying in my bed, completely hungover and waiting to go out tonight. Thank god we don't go out until aroudn 3 so I have ample time to recover. I ran into the Russian guy today and he said he has a bunch of good Russian vodka that we must try out. It's awesome having a Russian friend, I'm learning new stuff everyday. Russian word of the day : похмелитъся= the act of drinking a beer the next day to cure your hangover. They acutally have a verb for that.. cool.
Tonight the Russian guy has a list of clubs and we w ill decide w hich one to go to. I was going to have dinner with one of my Argentine friends, but since they canceled I guess I'm just going to stay in. I'm trying to cut down on my expenses bigtime. Even though its not expensive here you definitely spend much more money when it's so cheap. I'll keep you guys updated about tonight.
Weird Moments of the past couple of days:
1) I was crossing a 3 lane street and a taxi quickly turned the corner. I was already clear, he was in the other lane but purposely got in my lane and started speeding up. Yes, this confirms it, pedestrians are definitely last on the traffic hierarchy. Not only do they have no respect for human life when crossing the roads, they actually seek to kill you. Crossing the street here is seriously scary, I'm not kidding you. Everytime you have to run for your LIFE. Even though the walk sign is lit, you must run because cars turn from all different directions. The only warning sign they give you is a honk but they don't slow down. Left on red, right on red, it's all fair game here in Buenos Aires.
2) I got detained by the police. Ugh. I was walking from the retiro bus station (btw, if you want to see 3rd world, look behind the Retiro Bus station. It's not all roses. It's poverty at its finest). Anyways, I was walking from the station and this policeman keeps staring at me. I politely smile and keep walking, and I notice he's following me. I start to walk faster until I actually almost run into another policeman ahead. He stops me in my path and asks me "Documento por favor?" (show me your papers). Alot of international buses come in around that area, so I figure he thinks I'm an immigrant from some other 3rd world country trying to make my way in Argentina. Yeah, pretty realistic when I'm wearning an Armani hat.. wtf? ANyways, I don't have my "documento" becuase my drivers license was stolen in the c lub and I don't carry mi pasaporte with me, ever. After convincing him that I was America, helped by my lonely planet Buenos Aires guide in my hand, he finally set me free but told me I must carry documentos with me all the time in BAires. Weird.
3)Some guy stopped me in my tracks (this happens alot) and was like, hey, what's your name? He started talking to me about all kinds of stuff and turns out his name is Robert too. He's an older guy and was being really friendly, but I just wanted him to cut to the chase. Everyone chats you up here but they really take a long time to get to the chase to tell you what they want. After telling me everything and more I wanted to know about Bs As, I start to walk off and then he asks me for some money. He has an old, deteriorated pamphlet with some information about Aids. He says he's working for an organization where they try to provide money for Aids in argentina. I didn't believe it was true becuase he was kinda dirty, there were no other people around him, and his informational brochure looked shady as hell. On the off chance that it might be real, I decide to contribute 5 pesos. He looks at me, and is like, what the hell, everyone is contributing 20 pesos, 50 pesos and pulls out all this cash so I can see waht the "people" were contributing. I told him I didnt have any bills and realized I was fucked bc my 5 peso bill was wrapped up in my 50s and 20s. Instead, I decide to hand him the change in my pocket (total; 2 pesos.) He gets really angry and says, you promised 5 pesos, and in so many words called me a liar. I told him that's all I had, he took the change and straight up said.. Thanks, but you're a fucking liar. Wow. I'm sure his people at his non-profit AIDS organization would be thrilled to know that their representatives are calling people fucking liars and cheap for their petty contributions. After his outburst, I definitely realized he was just a scam artist. Now who's the fucking liar?
Peace,
Rob
Its very informative and interesting article.all the points are very useful. Simple but very effective writing. Thanks for sharing such a nice post.
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