One month (and a bit) in…
¡Hola a todos!
I’ve passed the one month mark in Buenos Aires and all is well. What can I say? It’s been an experience so far and I haven’t even left the city yet. Travelling comes later, this was a month to get acclamated.
Last Thursday, we decided to stay in and invite some friends over to the apartment. Friday, we went out to the Buenos Aires Pub Crawl. The Pub Crawl is pretty much a couple of ex-p
ats who take (mainly) study abroad students on a tour of local bars and then give them entrance into a club at the end of the night. It’s a lot of fun. Anyway, we went but no one really showed up that night so we hung out with the staff at a bar for a bit and then headed to a bigger sports bar to watch Argentina-Nigeria in the gold medal men’s football match. The bar was packed with locals. It was a ton of fun. Argentina won 1-0 and everyone was going CRAZY! Down here, football is king (rivaled closely by red meat), so you can imagine what Argentina winning the gold medal in the Olympics meant to everyone…
On Saturday, we had another group of friends over to play some cards, with the goal of making it to 3:30AM to watch the USA-Spain gold medal men’s basketball match. Everyone ended up leaving by 2:30AM and I laid in bed “watching” (sleeping and catching a few minutes here and there… kinda like dad!) Team USA pull out an awesome victory. So, the Olympics ended well, even though I didn’t get to see to much of them down here.
Since then, I’ve been doing a bunch of work and non-important things. I had a 14 hour day today, so I’m staying and writing this blog. As things are probably getting repetative, here’s something different.
SAM’S RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT ARGENTINA, SO FAR…
- I’m sorry. But it’s really strange to see asians speaking spanish. A lot of the smaller groceries or laundry places are run by asians. And it’s just weird to hear them speak flawless español…
- People love dogs down here. Everyone has a dog. And conveniently, there aren’t really any laws (maybe there are, but they aren’t enforced) regariding cleaning up after your dog. So, a lot of dogs + lack of (enforced) laws = A TON OF DOG POOP EVERYWHERE. It’s gross.
- They waste a lot of paper. Every time you want to ride the subway or train, you buy a paper ticket. And once you swipe it to get through the turnstyle, everyone just throws the tickets in the trash. As far as I can tell, they don’t recycle paper down here.
- Everyone is really nice down here. I mean, Argentines can get a bad rap sometimes. The economy is really bad, so there is a lot of poverty, which means that theft can be a problem (especially with foreigners). Already a few friends have been robbed. But, I’ve had nothing but good experiences with locals. People are generally intrigued by foreigners who come to live or study here. They are proud of their country, and honored that we want to be here and learn. An unfortunate thing is everyone seems to be learning english which means that everyone wants to practice with an english speaker. But, I say, I’m the one in a foreign country trying to learn spanish, so if they really want to learn english, go to the states! I’m kidding… I actually may try to find an Argentine who wants to learn english and offer to do a weekly session where I teach them an hour of english in exchange for an hour lesson of spanish and Argentine culture.
- Unrelated, not a thought, just a fact… I’ve probably averaged at least one empanada per day. I won’t eat them every day, but then some days I’ll eat six… They’re delicious. And there’s such variety:
carne (meat), pollo (chicken), cebolla y queso (cheese and onion), jamon y queso (ham and cheese), verduras (spinach), choclo (corn and potatoes, i think). Despite the deliciousness, I’m missing American fast food and refuse to buy it down here. More than anything, I miss the nacho cheese you get at the movies or from taco bell.
The end. I’ll try to post again sooner than later. I’m not very good at this thing yet.
