We are getting quite comfortable here (though we are still considering moving cities, and perhaps countries, next month, and renting another apartment somewhere else). We are over our most miserable jet-lag, which lingered way too long; our sleeplessness made us feel like we were going crazy and also like Buenos Aires was not nearly as cool as it is.
We have been wandering around and exploring and these are some things we have found:
This is a really chill city. For its size (about 12 million in the metro area), there don't seem to be large crowds anywhere (of course, we are not commuting in the morning), people are rarely in a hurry. There is a relaxed and calm vibe pretty much everywhere. Even the bus drivers and taxis who loudly cruise down our street, honking at all hours of the day, do so with a smile on their faces.
People love dogs here and many people are dog-owners; no one picks up dog poop, though and it is everywhere, on the beautiful streets and sidewalks of this city. What??? Joe reminds me that this was the case in the U.S. until the 1980s or so, but I hardly believe him.
Argentinos and especially Porteños (people from Buenos Aires) do not like spicy food. The food they like is meat and pizza and empanadas and desserts and coffee and tea (mate). On every single corner, there is a great looking little cafe that serves these things. There are also specialty meat and specialty pizza restaurants. That's about it. You really have to look around for other kinds of food. And the grocery stores? They have 100 kinds of cookies (Argentinos eat more sweets per capita than anyone else in the world, apparently), lots of pasta and sauce (which all looks weird and comes in cans or cardboard boxes), some cereal and milk and not very impressive looking produce.
Our internet (DSL) goes out on the weekends. Joe thinks the administrator goes home on Friday night, the system fails and no one looks at it again until Monday morning. Never mind that our landlord charged us $90 for a month's worth of internet when it costs locals $15. It doesn't work 2 days of the week because people just don't care enough to fix the system! Generally, we are amazed by the things in this country that just don't really work. For example: the mail system (mail is opened up and lost routinely). The “tax”/bribe system: there is a 100% tax on technology products; those that are available here are at least two years old. If we were to try and buy a computer in the U.S. and have it sent here (which Joe was considering), we would have to pay a “tax” on it at customs of up to 100% its value. This is a middle-class Latin American country with a real magnetism. There are ex-pats from all over the world here and their tourism industry continues to explode. They have a good education system and a functioning democracy. So, it is ironic to find that in some things, the country is just dysfunctional (when we complained about the internet, our landlord reminded us that “this is the third world.” It just doesn't look like it.)
We were walking up the pedestrian mall downtown on Saturday, when our destination came into sight: Plaza San Martín. A leafy, large, 200+ year old square- and there were 100s of large painted bears in it! It was the coolest art installation I had ever seen. These bears (all about 6 feet tall and quite fat) are called the “Buddy Bears.”
They are supported by world institutions like the UN and international companies and they are traveling (very slowly) to different parts of the world. There is a bear from each country represented in the UN (I think about 170), and they had all been painted by an artist from country that the bear was “from.” All the bears had their hands up in the air, close to the hands of the bear next to them and the project's goal is to promote international peace, understanding and friendship. It worked for me! Several times, tears came to my eyes, as I looked at the bears from the countries and regions I have visited - and those I have not, too. I loved looking at each one, so beautiful and individual. The U.S. bear was a Statue of Liberty bear, which was cute but not very inventive. Argentina had two bears, which seemed a little unfair.We like how Argentinos speak: an Italian-inflected Spanish. They don't speak too fast, but they have a different vocabulary than any other Spanish-speaker. I took a Spanish class last week that I really enjoyed. The class was composed of 5 women from 4 different countries, whose only common language was Spanish, taught by 2 male, Argentino professors. It was a lot of revision of verb tenses (ugh!) and lively conversation, which got quite rowdy at times. My challenge is now to continue to practice and study on my own, because classes are pretty expensive. I am going to begin volunteering this week at a community organization in a poor neighborhood near ours, so this will provide me with a new context in which to practice. Joe is busy working on his projects, when the internet is up. Even without Spanish classes, he tends to do most of the talking and questions-asking while we are out and about, trying to figure things out. He is not shy like me, which is great!
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