Up all night

Well it's 4:18am on a Saturday night, and usually I'd be out for the night (am hours), but since I had a really late night last night and can't handle two in a row, and my neighbor is having a house party that includes a loud band, I thought what a perfect time to blog about the late night schedule here in BA.

I keep my going out to a minimum during the week, but when it comes to dinner, don't expect a restaurant to get going til at least 9-10pm. Later on weekend nights- 10 to 12am. Once you've sat down to eat, you can expect the meal to least anywhere from 2-3 hours as well. They do not rush you out of a restaurant when you eat and generally the service is slow... so it's better to just sit back and enjoy it. Really enjoy it! Americans definitely eat on the run, and that is not the mentality here at all. People really enjoy a good meal and take their time with it. Since conversation is so big here anyways, you can expect a nice long time after the meal to sit and talk as well.

The weekend night schedule here is nearly killing me. I'm 33 years old... this is not as easy as it used to be. So most lounge/bars don't get going til after midnight and most clubs don't even open the doors til 2am. I've had to get used to going out from 12am- 5am or later if it's a really good night, watching the sun rise as you go to bed, and then of course sleeping in all day to recover. Since I have Lola, there are times where it really HURTS to get up and take her out to the park. I just want to open the door to the terrace and say, just go out there. But then my guilty conscience takes over and I think, poor girl doesn't want to be couped up all day in the apartment, she needs to get out and walk and socialize with other dogs. Luckily, Lola has a bladder of steel and can manage to hold it up to 18 hours sometimes. So she'll occassionally let me sleep in til noon, I'll take her out - this is a min of a 30 min deal-- and then come back and crash out again. The terrible thing is when you sleep away a really nice day! If you know me well, you know I need a LOT of sleep. I do well with a good 8 hours during the week, but then I usually sleep about 10- 12 hours a night on the weekend. The crazy going out schedule here really limits me to either Fri night out or Sat night out. I can't manage both.

Chau for now...

Antigua

Ok, I see that blogging is addictive so I'm going to keep going! My next topic is how life here feels very antiquated compared to the US. First of all, all the keys here are skeleton keys. This does not feel very modern to me at all. NOT AT ALL. Secondly, I haven't encountered a stove that has an automatic spark. You either have to light the burner using matches or a lighter. It scared me at first because I thought I'd burn myself, but you get used to it, I guess. Just seems like a lot of work to light it manually every time.

Third, we do not have a dryer, a microwave or cable. I've asked around and these things are available and not expensive, but it could be that I'm living with a hippie who doesn't believe in luxury. However, when I look around at all the neighbors terraces (we back up to a whole row of apartments- not the street)- everyone else seems to have the laundry hanging out to dry too. I asked my Spanish teacher if people don't have dryers because they are expensive or use a lot of enegy and she said they are fairly common, but I'm not seeing that in my neighborhood, which is middle class. I miss having a microwave but I've gotten used to eating everything cold. My Spanish school does not have a microwave either and I've yet to see a dishwasher anywhere!

Also, there is no such thing as pre-made pasta sauce here. Since pasta is very popular here and I don't have a rice cooker and I'm not going to take the time to cook rice that's not instant rice and I'm walking more than ever, I've been eating quite a bit of pasta. I haven't made a pasta sauce from scratch since I was a little kid. Luckily I remembered that you need both the paste and the sauce to make it taste good... ok well the second time around. I've been working on perfecting my sauce with sauteed onions, garlic, mushrooms, salt, pepper and oregano. It gets better every time! Yum...


The first time I went to a grocery store I was completely lost. It takes some time to get used to the food here- menus are not easy to understand either. The names of food here is different than in the rest of the Spanish speaking world. For example, instead of aguacate for avocado it's palta. I was lost when I went to order a Philadephia roll for the first time at this sushi place nearby. I was like, what is palta? They told me it's a vegetable. This is all in Spanish of course. That didn't really tell me it's avocado, but it all turned out ok. It's taken me awhile, but I'm finally getting it down and can order in a restaurant with some certainy of what I'm actually going to get.

Chau for now...

Monedas

Ok I'm going to post again since I've gotten such a late start with my blog. One big difference between here and the US is the issue with currency. Cash is king here... you always need it, but it's something you always have to be on top of. A lot of the ATM's here have limits on the amount of cash you can take out in a day and it's fairly low- like $100. So if you want to pay your rent of $500, you'd have to take out $100 each day for 5 days and pay ATM fees for each transaction. Thankfully, I opened a Citibank account before I left so I can avoid ATM fees since they have branches here. With the Citibank ATM's I haven't seen a cap yet- I've taken out as much as $700 in one day. I still have to pay fees for exchanging dollars into pesos though. It adds up to about $30/month. NOT COOL.

There is a serious shortage of currency and coins (monedas) in Argentina. Grocery stores and stores are always asking me if I have a different bill or another coin to help make the exchange more even or so they don't have to give up what little change they have. Taxi drivers and small stores have a hard time breaking a big bill (50 or 100). Since the ATM's normally give you 100 bills, you can see the delimma. I'm so glad that my Citibank ATM gives me the last 100 in small bills--- 1- 50 bill and 5- 10 peso bills. It just makes life easier. Yes, this is a commercial for Citibank. It just makes sense to have an account with Citibank here if you are an American. You cannot open an account with a local bank here unless you have a residency status.

It pays to keep your change. Sometimes when I see homeless people, I think I'd like to help them out but I don't want to give up any of my coins. I use the buses (colectivos) here a lot and they only take coins. When I'm out of coins and I need to get change for 2 peso or 5 peso bill, it's always a pain in the ass to go around the the kiosks or stores to get change because half the time they don't have it or they simply don't want to make change for you.

Chau for now...

6 weeks in...

I've been meaning to start this blog to share some stories and naunces in the life here that you won't see in photos. I've been here six weeks now and it's been a very interesting experience so far and I highly recommend to anyone that has the chance to live abroad (and especially outside of the US) to do it!



*** Update*** Sometimes life as a foreigner is very challenging. It can be lonely, isolating, and you will feel like an alien. It can be very frustrating and you just want to cry. You will question everything about yourself, your life and your very being. Today I had to really force myself to turn my frown upside down, because in the end, I know it will all be worth it.



For a long time now, I have envied people who grew up bi-lingual. Without a doubt, the second language of Texas is Spanish!!! So here I am struggling and struggling to learn this second language and when it's just handed to you because you learned it growing up-- that is a priceless gift!!! I want to have this gift to give to my children because I think it's muy importante.




Well after reading Dave's blog http://www.discoverbuenosaires.com/, I'm feeling a bit inadequate- he has some funny stories and some great observations on there. My observations tend to be a bit negative, so sorry for that. There certainly are a lot of cultural differences!!





These are all probably rash generalizations, but hey it's my opinion and my blog.





So I've noticed that the guys here are definitely NOT falling into the category of metrosexual. The style seems to be unkempt long hair and big time 5 o'clock shadows. I guess unless you're an ultra professional, shaving is not required for most jobs. Well it's been disappointing for me to say the least. Every once and awhile I'll spot a very well groomed hottie on the subte (subway) but it is few and far between. My love life has not been all that great- ok almost non-existant. While the overall percentage of latin men should be in my favor, it's still hard to find a professional single guy in his 30's.




Other things I've noticed...

People here talk for hours on end. I just don't quite get it... I have time to kill, but at the same time, I get tired of just sitting around and talking. I need to get up and move around and sometimes I just need to be alone. I recall being at the Venezuelan parties with Ivan and it was the same thing... they would just talk and talk and talk all day and into the night. I would get tired at some point and either want go to sleep or go home.

Smoking. Its terrible. I can't stand it sometimes. People here smoke while walking down the street, while riding a bike (saw this for this first time today!), getting off/on the subway, in the car, in clubs, everywhere and anywhere they can. Sometimes when I'm walking down the street and inhaling someone's smoke that is walking in front of me, I just want to slap the cigarette out of their hand and say, no! it's so bad for you! Being a former social smoker myself, you would think I'd be a little more tolerant, but I just can't take it sometimes. My asthma here is worse than ever because of all the dust in my building, and the last thing I need is to inhale second hand smoke.

And last but not least.... I've realized just how sensitive I am to the weather. I already knew I can't handle a cold climate after living in NYC. But now I know that I really have little tolerance for cold weather at all. Before I came in August, I thought that the winter here was similar to Houston - very mild. Well it is and it isn't. Most days here are around 60 degrees in the winter which is not really that cold, but it's very consistently cold and then throw in the wind chill from the river nearby and it's cold. Nights average 40-50 degrees, which doesn't entice me to want to go out much. The wintery weather has been dragging on, and it just officially turned spring on the calendar, and apparently, spring is going by the calendar! It's still very brisk! Houston really has a wonderful winter! The weather fluctuates often, and so we'll have a few days of cold when a cold front blows in, but then it's back to warm and nice after a few days! I heart Houston winters!!!!

Chau for now...