Buenos Aires Update

Ok, so I am going to try something a bit different. Staring right now I am going to maintain a blog about my activities and life here in Argentina. This is a bit of a departure from the blog I had been writing about politics and current events, so I just wanted to make that clear. It is my intention to keep both blogs up and running now that there is a clear distinction between them. Oh and of course there is the blog I run where I review all that I have been reading. Don’t worry all enthusiasts of that blog; I have no plans to stop that either. That being said lets get down to business about Bs As.

It’s been a while since I gave a general update as to my life here, so let me just bring everyone up to speed. I recently moved to a different part of Buenos Aires in a barrio called Flores. It is located roughly in the middle of the city, not to be confused with the city center, which is the nerve center of Argentina. That is located east of me towards the Rio de la Plata. I must say that I am glad I am not living in such close proximity to the downtown as before, it was just a bit to hectic for me. Flores has a much more relaxed atmosphere to it and that is something I can appreciate. It also a typical middle-class Buenos Aires barrio which means that I am almost completely immersed in the culture and society with no other foreigners around. In theory this helps mean improve my Spanish skills and gets me more acquainted with the Porteños, but this is not always the case in reality.

My roommate Carlos is a history teacher and university student here in Bs As. He is cool guy as far as I can tell and one of the reasons I was really looking forward to moving in with him is because is Argentine and therefore he would provide an excellent opportunity for me to practice Spanish. Unfortunately I think Carlos had the same idea as I did because he speaks English to me at almost every chance he gets. Fair enough, just trying to get practice at another language, I can appreciate that. It just ends up working out kind of weird with me trying to speak to him in Spanish and he answering back in English. Practice is practice though.

My typical day is a bit hard to describe seeing as I don’t really have a set routine. That’s because I have been giving private English lessons to Argentines. The pay is definitely better than working for a language institute or school, but the drawback is that students can be unreliable, resulting in an always-changing schedule for me. Well I normally teach about four days a week in various places all over the city. On these days my main focus is usually making sure I have a solid lesson planned for my class and giving myself enough time to commute. This can be tricky seeing as the public transport system involves buses, subway, and trains, all of which can be a pain in the ass for a multitude of reasons. Number one on the list is the varying degree of people packed on to any one collectivo (public bus) or subte (subway) car. Lets just say that it can be a tight squeeze sometimes. Another major problem that I face on a daily basis has to do with money. Not so much the lack paper bills, although this too can be a problem for me, but the lack of coins. Coins are a rare commodity here and they are essential for taking a but ride anywhere, which means I find myself in dire straights at least three times a week wondering how in the hell I am going to be able to hop on the 53 to get where I need to go when I have only 5 centavos. The gravity of the situation really becomes apparent when I reflect upon the highlight of my day yesterday. It occurred when I was putting on a recently washed pair of jeans and, lo and behold, I found a 50 centavo coin in my pocket. No joke, this was by far the highlight of the day and it was by no means a bad day.

I try to spend the rest of my time not teaching in constructive pursuits, whether this is taking Spanish classes, doing a good deal of reading, writing, and independent study, playing guitar, or spending time with friends I have made down here. I have also recently tried to take advantage of my free weekends by venturing out different places in the proximity of the capital that I have yet to see. I also enjoy drinking the national drink mate at any chance I get and I count this as completely constructive activity.

Well that should bring everyone up-to-date a bit on what I have been up lately. I will be posting entries about once a week or so if all goes well, so check back to see what I have been doing. Please fell free to leave a comment or post something yourself, it is always great to hear from anyone of you. In fact make it a point to write something, I don’t hear from you all enough. Until next time, chau….