Roberto Jeremías Bútler on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 5:14pm
Life in Argentina – Week 1
So kids, I did it. Yeah, I can’t believe it. I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. If you check my Facebook blog from exactly one year ago, I said “someday I’ll live in Buenos Aires.” Well, I guess I don’t lie. Who knew that those words would come true? I sure didn’t! For those of you who don’t know, I’m living here for one year (possibly more) preparing for my master’s in Spanish linguistics. Since I can’t get the full degree here, I’m going to complete it upon return to the United States.
I promise to start writing almost daily about my experiences here… so much happens in one day here, it’s hard to recap an entire week.. so I’ll give you guys the summary.
From a 2 bedroom apartment in Recoleta to a studio in Recoleta:
Before I came to BA, I searched VERY hard for an apartment… I found one on Craigslist , which btw is getting less and less shadier by the day, and it was amazing. Sunday morning, my friend Rodrigo and I packed up all of my stuff and hauled it over in the rain to Recoleta. I don’t feel like explaining the whole story, but my landlord basically handed me my deposit money back (that I wired over from the States a while back)and told me that she wouldn’t rent to me. She basically called me a liar, because she thought I didn’t speak Spanish and said she didn’t trust me because I didn’t give her a copy of my passport in advance. Bitch. Anyways, luckily enough, Rodrigo knew an apartment locator, and she hooked me up with a really cool apartment one block away from the Recoleta cemetery. For those of you who haven’t been to BA, one block away from a cemetery probably sounds really creepy, but it’s pretty much the main tourist attraction of Buenos Aires! I now live in a studio, pretty modern, everything is new, and it’s in a great location. Sure, it’s no deluxe two bedroom like I planned, but I guess you have to roll with the punches! Signing the contract with the lawyer and the landlord was a real experience… I thought I knew Spanish, but 25% of those legal terms went over my head… I’m sure there’s a clause in there which allows my landlord to 1) kick me out at anytime 2) take all of my possessions 3) come move in with me, but I don’t care at this point.. I finally have a place!
Riding the train from Padua to Capital Federal:
Buenos Aires is actually a big province, and the city itself is Capital Federal. Outside of the city are a bunch of towns, and before I moved into my apartment I was living in a town Padua with my friend Rodrigo. I had dinner with his friends on the first night and they told me that Argentina was very third world. Third world?!? I’ve only been exposed to posh nightclubs, beautiful people, nice steaks and fancy shopping malls…To prove this, they told me to ride the train in the morning from the outside suburbs to the center. Wow, they were right. Wow. One day, Rodrigo and I boarded the train to get to the center.. The train was absolutely packed… not American rush hour packed, but packed as in Mumbai, India packed. People were pushing each other all over the place, people were riding outside of the train, it was absolutely insane. These trains are infamous for frequent accidents, breakdowns, riots, fires, and the occasional derailment. I asked my friend for the wildest experience he’s ever had on the train, and he told me that once he was riding, and he saw a severed human arm on the tracks below. Amazing. Anyways, the train we boarded was completely dark, the lights had gone out for some reason.. The train stopped in the middle of the tracks and shut down. People started going crazy…climbing on top of the seats trying to escape out of the windows, trying to break the doors down, and even a few guys tried to pull the train apart. Apparently when people get angry here because they can’t get to work or return home, they often start riots and light the trains on fire. In a weird, sick way, I was hoping someone would set fire to the train and I’d have to do something crazy like jump out of the window (makes for an amazing story), but eventually we boarded another train and arrived about an hour late. Welcome to Argentina!
Other bizarre things to happen to me:
Went grocery shopping with my friend and halfway through, someone ran off with my cart. I knew that petty theft is a common problem here, but seriously, what does someone get out of stealing my groceries in aisle 5? Wouldn’t they still have to pay for my items? I really don’t get it. Anyways, we completed the grocery shopping and they have an amazing service where they’ll send your groceries to your house for $2 so you don’t have to carry them home. I took half of my groceries home and had the others shipped to my house. Mistake. Groceries arrived today. Rob is missing 12 cans of beer, a 2 liter Sprite Zero, and 2 bottles of water. Since I took half of the groceries home myself, I couldn’t argue with them about what I had taken home and what was left to ship. Bitches.
Well, I’m a little tired of typing now, but this is my life so far in Argentina. I’ve got an apartment, I’ve registered for school (although I only have one class on Thursdays until March 27th (Spanish, French and Italian classes start then), and I have a shitload of free time. In fact, I’m sipping on a Vodka, blue curacao, orange juice right now at 6pm. I have absolutely NOTHING to do until next Thursday, where I go to school for 2 hours… then another week of relaxation. Life is beautiful.
So kids, I did it. Yeah, I can’t believe it. I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina. If you check my Facebook blog from exactly one year ago, I said “someday I’ll live in Buenos Aires.” Well, I guess I don’t lie. Who knew that those words would come true? I sure didn’t! For those of you who don’t know, I’m living here for one year (possibly more) preparing for my master’s in Spanish linguistics. Since I can’t get the full degree here, I’m going to complete it upon return to the United States.
I promise to start writing almost daily about my experiences here… so much happens in one day here, it’s hard to recap an entire week.. so I’ll give you guys the summary.
From a 2 bedroom apartment in Recoleta to a studio in Recoleta:
Before I came to BA, I searched VERY hard for an apartment… I found one on Craigslist , which btw is getting less and less shadier by the day, and it was amazing. Sunday morning, my friend Rodrigo and I packed up all of my stuff and hauled it over in the rain to Recoleta. I don’t feel like explaining the whole story, but my landlord basically handed me my deposit money back (that I wired over from the States a while back)and told me that she wouldn’t rent to me. She basically called me a liar, because she thought I didn’t speak Spanish and said she didn’t trust me because I didn’t give her a copy of my passport in advance. Bitch. Anyways, luckily enough, Rodrigo knew an apartment locator, and she hooked me up with a really cool apartment one block away from the Recoleta cemetery. For those of you who haven’t been to BA, one block away from a cemetery probably sounds really creepy, but it’s pretty much the main tourist attraction of Buenos Aires! I now live in a studio, pretty modern, everything is new, and it’s in a great location. Sure, it’s no deluxe two bedroom like I planned, but I guess you have to roll with the punches! Signing the contract with the lawyer and the landlord was a real experience… I thought I knew Spanish, but 25% of those legal terms went over my head… I’m sure there’s a clause in there which allows my landlord to 1) kick me out at anytime 2) take all of my possessions 3) come move in with me, but I don’t care at this point.. I finally have a place!
Riding the train from Padua to Capital Federal:
Buenos Aires is actually a big province, and the city itself is Capital Federal. Outside of the city are a bunch of towns, and before I moved into my apartment I was living in a town Padua with my friend Rodrigo. I had dinner with his friends on the first night and they told me that Argentina was very third world. Third world?!? I’ve only been exposed to posh nightclubs, beautiful people, nice steaks and fancy shopping malls…To prove this, they told me to ride the train in the morning from the outside suburbs to the center. Wow, they were right. Wow. One day, Rodrigo and I boarded the train to get to the center.. The train was absolutely packed… not American rush hour packed, but packed as in Mumbai, India packed. People were pushing each other all over the place, people were riding outside of the train, it was absolutely insane. These trains are infamous for frequent accidents, breakdowns, riots, fires, and the occasional derailment. I asked my friend for the wildest experience he’s ever had on the train, and he told me that once he was riding, and he saw a severed human arm on the tracks below. Amazing. Anyways, the train we boarded was completely dark, the lights had gone out for some reason.. The train stopped in the middle of the tracks and shut down. People started going crazy…climbing on top of the seats trying to escape out of the windows, trying to break the doors down, and even a few guys tried to pull the train apart. Apparently when people get angry here because they can’t get to work or return home, they often start riots and light the trains on fire. In a weird, sick way, I was hoping someone would set fire to the train and I’d have to do something crazy like jump out of the window (makes for an amazing story), but eventually we boarded another train and arrived about an hour late. Welcome to Argentina!
Other bizarre things to happen to me:
Went grocery shopping with my friend and halfway through, someone ran off with my cart. I knew that petty theft is a common problem here, but seriously, what does someone get out of stealing my groceries in aisle 5? Wouldn’t they still have to pay for my items? I really don’t get it. Anyways, we completed the grocery shopping and they have an amazing service where they’ll send your groceries to your house for $2 so you don’t have to carry them home. I took half of my groceries home and had the others shipped to my house. Mistake. Groceries arrived today. Rob is missing 12 cans of beer, a 2 liter Sprite Zero, and 2 bottles of water. Since I took half of the groceries home myself, I couldn’t argue with them about what I had taken home and what was left to ship. Bitches.
Well, I’m a little tired of typing now, but this is my life so far in Argentina. I’ve got an apartment, I’ve registered for school (although I only have one class on Thursdays until March 27th (Spanish, French and Italian classes start then), and I have a shitload of free time. In fact, I’m sipping on a Vodka, blue curacao, orange juice right now at 6pm. I have absolutely NOTHING to do until next Thursday, where I go to school for 2 hours… then another week of relaxation. Life is beautiful.
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