Cruising in Cama Suite

Argentina is a massive country, especially North/South and unfortunately there are almost no trains and the airlines are very tightly regulated with fixed (high) prices for non-citizens.  Which means that the cheapest option for travel is the bus!  Being a bit wary of the whole bus thing, for my trip to Salta I decided to play it safe and take the bus there and the plane home.  That way, if the bus was really terrible, I wouldn't have to spend my time in Salta dreading the return.  Luckily, the bus was great!

There are various levels of seats on the buses, which are actually prescribed by law, ranging from Comun, which is like a simple Greyhound type seat, up to Cama Suite, which I what I took (cama means "bed").  Basically the levels have to do with how wide the seat is and how much it reclines, and from there each bus company offers various services like movies and food.

All the buses leave BA from Retiro station which is like a giant airport, but with buses.  There are about 90 gates and you only have about 15 minutes from when your bus gate is announced until it departs, so you have to be vigilant about watching the departure board!  Luckily the gates are split into sections of ten, and your ticket tells you which section your bus will be in, so you can at least stand nearby.  Like all bus stations, Retiro is a bit sketchy and supposedly a haven for pickpockets, but I made it through with all my belongings intact.

The bus I took was an all Suite bus, with only about ten of the 25 seats filled, so it was very nice and quiet.  I got the front row on top, which was great for looking out the windows (although a bit less great in the morning with all the smooshed bugs on the windshield!).  The seat was like one of the first-class seats on an airplane that turns into a bed - completely comfortable and I was able to sleep for eight hours in all.  We also had personal TVs and they gave us headphones that we could plug in to watch movies or listen to music.  Unfortunately most of the movies were dubbed, so I stuck with books and looking out the window.

I have to admit that I spent the first hour of the journey willing myself not to throw up, after having a bit of a panic about being trapped on a bus in a country where I barely speak the language.  But once I relaxed, and convinced myself that everything was fine, it was an enjoyable ride.  I tried to take a few pictures of the bus, but since it was dark none of them turned out - so I have to steal from the bus company website:

Food was included, although I regretted not bringing a few PB&J sandwiches to supplement.  Dinner was a funny assortment - a slice of ham and a single olive (antipasti?), a tiny roll, a packet of mustard, ravioli with a piece of chicken (I think, there were weird bones and I decided against trying it), some sort of cake with an indeterminate filling and cherry jello.  The bus attendant also brings around a basket (like you use at a grocery store) full of pop and beer to choose from - he kindly offered me the sole bottle of Budweiser since I was American, but I went with Diet Coke instead.  The next day we also stopped for a lunch break in a tiny town about 150 miles south of Salta.  You could choose from three dishes - ravioli, 1/4 chicken or a milenesa, which is a chicken breast (sometimes beef is used) that is pounded super thin until it's about the size of a plate, then breaded.  These three options are typical dishes here and appear on the menu at probably 90% of the restaurants.  They don't really embrace variety in this country!

There was an older man across the aisle from me, Pedro, and he was very nice (although we communicated solely in my terrible Spanish and sign language) and I sat with him and another woman at the lunch break.  They would ask me questions, I would have to ask them to repeat it almost every time, and then I would attempt to answer.  It was exhausting but good practice.  And at the end of the ride Pedro gave me a holy card to protect me for my trip (more in my next post, but Salta is maybe the most Catholic place I have ever been) and said I was "muy simpatica"!

So I survived and we arrived to Salta about 40 minutes early.  The rest of the trip in the next post!

This week was my last week at school before what I am calling Spring Break this upcoming week.  At school we've moved on to the past tense and it's definitely challenging keeping the new conjugations straight.  But I am starting to get more of it into my brain and the words are coming a bit more naturally.  We finished class on Friday by playing Taboo in Spanish which was really fun, although a bit difficult if your partner didn't know the word you were trying to explain!  Now I take the week off, hopefully get a bit of practice in while in Salta, then back for my last four weeks of formal classes.

I had my first bank experience this week which was good because I was able to communicate the whole time in Spanish.  (I get really excited when that happens, but inevitably the next time I go to the store or buy food I don't understand a word, and I feel back to square one)  It's interesting b/c they set up all these screens so that nothing you do is visible to other customers.  I am guessing it's because people are often taking out large amounts of cash (since they do so much in cash here, like paying rent) and they don't want it to be visible to others that might follow them out.  Also, I had to go through a metal detector at the entrance, so I felt extra safe!

They do go a bit mental with the paperwork though.  Two copies of my passport and debit card and three different forms/receipts to sign, in order to buy some dollars.  I actually have to show my passport all the time here if I want to use a debit card - at the grocery store, the bookstore, etc.  In restaurants they don't always ask for it, but they do often make you put your passport number with your signature on the receipt.  All Argentineans have a SSN type number called DNI, with an associated photo ID card, so that is what is normally used, but for foreigners they always want your passport.

I also had my first experience of BsAs crime - though luckily I wasn't the victim.  I was at the local Chino (small grocery store) and a guy stole a bunch of empty bottles that had been returned for deposit.  It didn't seem like a very wise choice for stealing being heavy and quite noisy to run with, but to each their own.  The owner went mental screaming "Robo!!" (Thief!!) and "Sos basura!!" (You're trash!!) but didn't make any attempt to run after him.  Exciting times at the market!  :)  Meanwhile, the baby of the owners was just hanging out in one of the aisles.  I am guessing she was about seven or eight months old and they'd plopped her in the baby seat of one of the carts and then arranged packages of toilet paper around her to keep her propped up. A creative take on a baby seat!

Last night I had people over for the first time since moving here.  I invited people over for 9pm, and no one was here yet at 10!  Needless to say I was feeling like a huge nerd, but then everyone appeared at once and it was a fun, relaxed night.  Everyone that came is also a student at the school, although this was the last week for most of them so it was a shame to say goodbye.  It definitely wasn't a fancy party - beer, wine and cheese and crackers.  For large groups you can buy 1 liter bottles of beer and they are CHEAP - 5.70 pesos at my local market, so less than $1.50.  Of course it's not Yazoo brewery level, more Miller Lite, but still fine.  At restaurants people will often buy these large bottles to share between the table, like the Argentine version of pitchers.

Tomorrow I am heading out on my first big travel adventure, to Salta, which is in the Northwest and relatively close to both Chile and Bolivia.  It's meant to be really beautiful scenery in that region and a nice colonial city, so I am hoping it's a good time.  Also, my teacher says that I should have an easier time understanding the Spanish up there because they talk more slowly...we'll see!  I leave on the bus at 8pm, then it's 20 hours to Salta.  I went for the highest level of service that they have - Cama Suite - which means that the seat lies totally flat and I get my own TV screen.  Everyone is very positive about the buses here, so we will see if it lives up to the hype!

I'll be back next weekend with reports of my adventures and hopefully some photos!

Hippodromo de Palermo, Las Cholas & a party

On Monday evening I ditched boot camp and went to the horse races at the Hippodromo with some people from school.  The track is right in the city and we were able to walk there in about 20 minutes.  There were six of us (two Americas, two Germans, a Norwegian and a Swede) and I was the only person who had ever been to races before and knew what the process was for betting.  Luckily the system is basically the same as the U.S. (unlike in England, where you can bet with independent bookies as well as with the track) and the people at the betting windows were very patient with our Spanish!

The park is really nice and you can get into most of it for free.  There is a fancier stand with better views that you buy tickets for (approx $6) but we didn't check that out on this visit.  The odd thing was that they can't sell any alcohol in the facility, even though it also includes a casino, so I am not sure how they make much money!  But we survived with Diet Cokes and hot dogs for dinner.  Sadly I came away 20 pesos / $5 poorer on the night - I wasn't picking horses very successfully!

Here is a link to a cool photo that my Norwegian schoolmate Guro took (she has an amazing camera and takes great pictures!):
http://braluft.tumblr.com/post/10145754542

On Wednesday, a group of ten of us from school went out to dinner.  Thank god for school, otherwise I would barely know anyone - unfortunately people are always coming and going and one girl I've hung out with a fair amount has left town today.  Oh well...there will be new people!

We went to a restaurant called Las Cholas, which was in a really nice neighborhood called Las Canitas, a bit north of Palermo.  There was a TON of food - mostly variations on steak, which is still a very good deal here.   I had a steak kebab with peppers and onions, which was enough for two people (it came with fries and mashed pumpkin as well).  After dinner we went to a brew pub called Antares.  I am not sure what OD would make of the beers, but I thought the one I tried was very good.  I headed home at about 12.30, but the party definitely continued because four of the ten people didn't make it to school the next day!

Last night I had my best restaurant meal here so far, at a pizza place called Siamo Nel Forno.  We went at 8pm and were the only people there until about 8.30 when a couple came in with their toddler.  So 8.30 is when the kids go to eat!  When we left around 10 it was finally filling up.

One of my schoolmates was also hosting a get together at the apartment he and his girlfriend have rented and we went there after dinner. On the way, we went to buy some beer to bring along and had a funny/frustrating conversation with the couple running the little convenience store about how the bottle deposit system works.  If I understood it correctly (which is questionable!) they sell beer in 1.5 liter glass bottles that include a 3 peso deposit and if you bring the bottle back you get the money returned.  Unfortunately my Spanish is the "best" of the group I was with, so I was elected spokesman.  It was terrible.  I could understand them (I think) but my responses were so mangled - lots of work to do at school!!

(I added two photos to my prior post - dancing and the crazy popcorn fruit!)

Feria de Mataderos

This past Sunday I went with one of my schoolmates and her friend (both from Washington D.C.) to the Feria de Mataderos.  This is a street fair that is located way on the outskirts of the city in a neighborhood that is known as Nueva Chicago.  This is because it's where all the stockyards (mataderos) were located in the old days, just like in Chicago.  We took a 45 minute bus ride to get there (coincidentally on the same bus route that was involved in a terrible train accident today) which actually wasn't that bad as it was a chance to see lots of other parts of the city.

At the fair there are about 100 different craft vendors with some cool things for sale, especially gaucho related items.  I wanted to buy Tess some baby gaucho shoes (Toms-esque espadrillres) but sadly didn't know her size!  There was also a stage with traditional music and a lot of people that were dancing along in the street.  The dances all seemed to involve waving handkerchiefs around and it appeared that certain dances went with certain songs.

There was also a lot of fair food - choripans, which are chorizo sandwiches, various forms of fried dough and sticks of fruit that were coated in a sugar glaze then rolled in popcorn, like a popcorn candy apple.  The coolest part was a gaucho competition which involved them riding their horses as full speed down the street, standing up in their stirrups, and trying to put a stick (knitting needle size) through a ring (maybe a touch bigger than a wedding ring) that was hanging from a pole over the street.  This was the best youtube video that I could find!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sniv_o7Sq7U&feature=related

Tomorrow I'll be back with our adventures at the horse track!

The New Place

I am finally moved into the apartment that I will stay in until December and it is SO nice to be unpacked and more settled.  The apartment is on the 3rd floor of a small, modern building (I'd guess about four or five years-old).  There are only 6 units, and it's set up with a central courtyard, so luckily I don't share walls with anyone.  My unit is in the back so looks over a little backyard that the ground floor has access to.  I like being in the back because, while the street is relatively quiet, there are buses that go by and the buses here make this sort of wheezing noise when they brake (air brakes I think?) and the noise drives me a bit crazy.

This apartment has the same cable as my old one did, so I can still watch American TV to my heart's content.  I convince myself that I am learning from it because I read all the Spanish subtitles and thereby improve my reading comprehension (yeah, right!).  And I am also making myself put the local news on each morning to try and see how much I can figure out.

There are of course a few foreign country oddities in the place.  A bidet(!), crazy looking light bulbs, and wiring that I don't think would meet any construction codes in the US.  My a/c unit (which is built into the wall) appears to drain into a large Culligan style water bottle on the balcony, which I assume I will have to empty at some point when I start to use it.  Also, there is a little cleaning corner in the kitchen with a separate sink and place to store buckets, mops etc.  Luckily included in the rent is a really nice lady named Noelia who comes once a week to clean and change the sheets and towels, so I shall leave that area to her!

Sadly there is no laundry room in the building, so I have to go to the laundromat about a block away.  The concept of self-serve laundromats does not exist here - you have to hand over your clothes to be washed at a place called the lavadero.  I was terrified that my clothes would come back about 10x smaller, but all went well and my jeans still fit.  The only issue is that they use some seriously flowery detergent, which I am not used to.  But it was lovely to hand over $8 ($4 per load) and get back two bags of clean and folded clothes.

And now....some photos!!  I am far from a pro at taking pictures, as you can tell!

Half of the kitchen (fridge and sink are on the right).  It makes me feel like a giant because the counters are about 6 inches lower than what I am used to!

The "living room" with my orange couch.  If you look closely you can see a Gossip Girl rerun (subtitled!) on the TV.

The bed area - it's pretty comfy and there is a nice ceiling fan and a really large closet on the left.  Also you can see a bit of the folding screen that I could use to block off that area if I had people around to visit.

A (semi) permanent home

Well I have moved into the building I will live in until December, but unfortunately not the final apartment.  There are two twin apartments and I had one rented for all of September.  However, it was booked by someone else in November so they gave me the choice of staying in 2A until November, then moving across the hall to 2B, or just moving across the hall as soon as the other tenant moved out (today).  I decided to move immediately and then I can FINALLY really unpack and settle a bit more.  Sadly the cleaner is sick, so I can't move today and have to wait until Monday.  I can't wait!

The apartments are very good and once I am in the final one I will post some pictures.  My favorite part is that they have underfloor heating, which is soooo cozy.  I guess I won't really need heating for the much longer, but it is really nice at the moment.  It's also exciting to have a couch again, since I have spent all of the last two weeks sitting on my bed to do everything.  And lastly there is really cute American-style pastry and coffee shop literally next door which could be quite dangerous!

Classes continue to go well and I am actually able to pick out a few words when I hear people talking on the street, which is a definite improvement.  Once you know what to listen for with the accent it does become a bit easier.  A new person joined our class this week, named Izumi.  She is Japanese, but married to a French guy, and they have been moved here, with their kids, for three years for his job.  Spanish will be her fourth language so it makes me feel quite lazy only really knowing one!  The good thing is that we are at similar levels and learn at the same pace, so we work well together in the class.

I actually socialized twice this week, which was very exciting!  On Thursday some of us from school met up at the apartment of some fellow students.  They are a couple from Norway (the girl) and Sweden (the guy) and conveniently they live around the corner from my new place.  It was really nice to go over to someone's house and have wine and snacks and hang out.  Then last night I went with another classmate named Harmony (hippie parents - her sister is named Sunshine) to a cool Irish pub type place in Palermo Soho and had some Quilmes beers and shared the largest bowl of patatas bravas I have ever encountered.

This week I also attempted to take a photo of the famous BsAs dog walkers, which I see on the walk to school.  Sadly it didn't come out very well, so I've found an example from someone who is a much better photographer than I am, on flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/vtveen/404567170/)!  It is amazing how all the dogs walk together and are so well behaved.  Sadly the human owners aren't as well behaved as there is so much dog poo on the sidewalks - no one cleans up!!  There is literally some on every block so you really have to watch your step!