Even though I am writing this from my bed in Chicago, I have to get down the end of my time in BA, if only for my own records! During my last two weeks I didn't take the formal intensive classes and instead just relaxed and used the time to see any final places that I wanted to see in BA. I did however, take some private lessons with a teacher named Yesica. Private lessons are one of the things that are significantly cheaper there than in the US - about 1/4 the price - so I figured I should try to stuff in as much knowledge as I could before I left. Yesi taught out of her apartment and we did a good mix of just regular conversation and reviewing a lot of the grammar that I had learned in the last four months. It was great, but after just 90 minutes of one-on-one your brain is definitely exhausted!
I finally saw some tango during celebrations for the International Day of Tango (December 11th, in case you want to celebrate next year!). The city sponsored a huge free show in Palermo and blocked off one of the main streets for a stage. It was a sort of "best-of" show which was perfect for me - various singers and dancers did one or two songs, so you could hear lots of people and different types of music. But at the end of the day I think I just have to admit that tango, especially the music, just isn't for me.
I also tried to get my fill of my two favorite local foods - empanadas and ice cream (highly nutritious!) - from various places so that I could pick a favorite and be able to give recommendations. My default emapanada order was one carne picante (a taco-like filling that is never actually that picante, since the locals don't like hot foods) and one humita, which is corn in a white sauce. For empanadas my favorite was El Noble, which is a chain, mostly because the shells were really nice and crisp. My ice cream experiments centered around Banana Split flavor, which I first tried at the polo and fell in love with. It's banana ice cream with a ribbon of dulce de leche and chocolate chips. In BA there is an ice cream store about every three blocks and they are always full of people having an afternoon ice cream. As the weather was so hot, it was easy to make an excuse for an ice cream break in the afternoon. For me Freddo & Volta were tied on flavor, but the Volta I visited (on Santa Fe & Callao) had a gorgeous hidden patio to sit on so it takes the prize!
The oddest thing about the last two weeks was how I could not reconcile the fact that Christmas was soon approaching with the warm weather and lack of decorations. I would occasionally see a newspaper, or a ticket, that said 'December' on it and I would seriously think it was old, from last year. And while you would sometimes go into places that were decorated, for example the Hilton, which I popped into to use the ladies room, was Christmas light crazy, in general you didn't see a ton of decorations around. One of my neighbors in the building attached a small stuffed Santa to the fire extinguisher outside his door but that was it. And I was spending all my time in shorts & t-shirts, so it just didn't feel like Christmas was coming.
Since it didn't feel like Christmas was coming, it also didn't feel like my birthday. In the end it was a pretty anti-climactic day, especially since a number of the people I would normally hang out with had already left the city. I went out the night before with my friend Kim - I met her at boot camp in about September but sadly we didn't hang out until the end of November. It's one of the sad things about moving to a place for only four months - it's just enough time to get to know people and then it's time to leave! On the Saturday I met up with my friend Nina and we went to an exhibition of photos from a Rolling Stone photographer. Then we went over to San Telmo to a Basque bar to eat a few pintxos - the Basque type of tapas. While we were there we talked about how neither of us had been to the famed Cafe Tortoni, which is one of the oldest restaurants in the country and a major tourist spot. We spur of the moment decided to walk over there and see if we could get in (since there are often hour long lines). It turns out that a Saturday at 8.30 pm is perfect timing! Too early for anyone to be going out to eat, but late enough that the daytime tourists aren't around. The building was really nice, but the menu isn't very exciting - in the end I had a ham & cheese toastie...quite appropriate for an Argentinean institution!
And then it was time to go home to Chicago! My flight wasn't until 11.30pm so I had all day on Sunday to enjoy one last day of sunshine. I was handing over all my left over stuff (SIM card, cotton balls, stir-fry sauce, a whole collection of random things!) to Kim since she is staying at least for another three months. So she made lunch at the house she lives at with her boyfriend - huge delicious sandwiches and pasta salad - and we sat on their roof patio in the sun afterwards. Then it was home to pack and check out of the apartment! It was sad to leave my little apartment - I definitely got lucky when I picked it off the internet - but I didn't cry all the way to the airport like I did when I left London, so that's a good thing!
Chau! Molly
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Everyday Living
So this weekend was a relatively boring one, although I am off to do some sight-seeing with a boot camp friend this afternoon, so I thought I'd write down a bit of my normal day-to-day life when not at national parks or polo matches!
Going to the grocery store
For food there are what we'd think of as "normal" grocery stores and also Chinos. The place I go normally for big shops is called Disco and they suck you in with a 15% coupon for the following week every time you go. The grocery stores here are generally smaller than at home, although I am sure that out in the suburbs there are some huge American-style ones. One thing I had to get used to is getting the fruit weighed in the fruit section - luckily I saw someone doing this on my first trip, so I didn't get stuck in the check-out with un-priced fruit! It's funny to see the differences in what is sold. Cereal is not at all popular here, so there are usually only about 10-15 options to choose from. Meanwhile the red meat section is about 3x the size of the Jewel's.
The main hassle of the grocery store is check out. All the stores offer home delivery and the system is so slow - they painstakingly write out the information on a pad of paper using carbon paper. Then the food is packed (slowly) into delivery crates, often by the check out girl. If you see someone with a really full cart getting into line it's a definite avoid - they are probably doing home delivery and it will take ages! Also, they are always running out of change and when they do there is no sort of light that flashes to alert the manager - the cashier just says "Cambio" in a slightly louder than average voice, so that it takes about five minutes for the manager to realize that help is required. Lastly, to me the craziest, is that if one cashier is finishing her shift she will go to each other station to give a kiss goodbye and a quick chat, even if that person is mid-customer. Needless to say, I shall no longer be complaining about slow cashiers in Chicago!
The Chinos are a mix between a grocery store and large convenience store. The one by me does have a butcher and a mini-deli counter, but I'm not too sure about them. The Chinos are meant to be cheaper than the large stores, but to me it appears basically about equal. The nice thing is that there is basically a Chino every other block, so if you need something you can get it in about two minutes. I go to my local one alarmingly often - probably about 4x a week! Usually it's just to pick up a diet coke or toilet paper or something quick that I need. I am sure I mentioned this before, but they are called Chinos because they are run by Chinese immigrants (Argentina is not the slightest bit politically correct!).
Getting around
Most of my time spent going around the city is on foot or on the bus (the colectivo). My school was luckily walking distance and, with the weather being generally good, I liked that I could get 40 minutes of walking in each day. Pedestrians here have no rights though - even if the crosswalk is green, cars can and will turn right in front if you - so you need to vigilant (and also vigilant for spotting dog poo!). The colectivos are great for getting around, although you do feel at times like you might not make it off alive. There are usually a few different buses at each stop, so you need to wave down the bus. Sometimes, say if there is a taxi pulled over dropping someone off, the driver will just drive on by since they can't be bothered to wait until the taxi pulls away. Also, they will start pulling away from the curb as soon as you have a foot on board so you need to hold on!
All the colectivos are owned by different companies, so they are painted different colors and have all sorts of different designs. So you need to pay attention to the numbers on the front to make sure you spot the one you want. The good thing is that they are cheap (about 30 cents a ride) and on most lines you never wait more than three or four minutes for one to come by.
The Subte is also convenient and I used to take it a fair amount, but now that we are into spring/summer it is unbearably hot. It is always super crowded at rush hour and with no a/c you feel like in an oven after about 5 minutes. I prefer taking an extra 15 minutes and being above ground, with open windows, on the colectivo. Although yesterday I did take the famous Linea A, which was the first Subte line in the city and is still using the original cars. Everything is wooden and you can actually open and close the doors by hand (which seems a bit unsafe, but par for the course here!). It was very cool and old-fashioned feeling.
Laundry Day
The thing I am maybe most excited to see when I get home (besides friends & family of course) is my washer and dryer! Here my options are service wash (for about $4 / load) or hand-washing. While at times it's great to hand off a bag of dirty laundry and get clean back, it can be a huge pain. Like when they lose a shirt or a sock or send home someone else's sock, or when they are closed randomly and you need to drop your clothes. Also, since everything at the laundromat is done in the dryer, I don't send some of my jeans and shirts because I am afraid of what an hour in the dryer would do to them. So I end up doing lots of hand-washing, either for those clothes or when I want something clean in-between trips to the laundromat. And I just never feel like hand-washing gets clothes clean enough. In two weeks, everything I own is going to get a serious spin through the washer and I can't wait!
Going to the grocery store
For food there are what we'd think of as "normal" grocery stores and also Chinos. The place I go normally for big shops is called Disco and they suck you in with a 15% coupon for the following week every time you go. The grocery stores here are generally smaller than at home, although I am sure that out in the suburbs there are some huge American-style ones. One thing I had to get used to is getting the fruit weighed in the fruit section - luckily I saw someone doing this on my first trip, so I didn't get stuck in the check-out with un-priced fruit! It's funny to see the differences in what is sold. Cereal is not at all popular here, so there are usually only about 10-15 options to choose from. Meanwhile the red meat section is about 3x the size of the Jewel's.
The main hassle of the grocery store is check out. All the stores offer home delivery and the system is so slow - they painstakingly write out the information on a pad of paper using carbon paper. Then the food is packed (slowly) into delivery crates, often by the check out girl. If you see someone with a really full cart getting into line it's a definite avoid - they are probably doing home delivery and it will take ages! Also, they are always running out of change and when they do there is no sort of light that flashes to alert the manager - the cashier just says "Cambio" in a slightly louder than average voice, so that it takes about five minutes for the manager to realize that help is required. Lastly, to me the craziest, is that if one cashier is finishing her shift she will go to each other station to give a kiss goodbye and a quick chat, even if that person is mid-customer. Needless to say, I shall no longer be complaining about slow cashiers in Chicago!
The Chinos are a mix between a grocery store and large convenience store. The one by me does have a butcher and a mini-deli counter, but I'm not too sure about them. The Chinos are meant to be cheaper than the large stores, but to me it appears basically about equal. The nice thing is that there is basically a Chino every other block, so if you need something you can get it in about two minutes. I go to my local one alarmingly often - probably about 4x a week! Usually it's just to pick up a diet coke or toilet paper or something quick that I need. I am sure I mentioned this before, but they are called Chinos because they are run by Chinese immigrants (Argentina is not the slightest bit politically correct!).
Getting around
Most of my time spent going around the city is on foot or on the bus (the colectivo). My school was luckily walking distance and, with the weather being generally good, I liked that I could get 40 minutes of walking in each day. Pedestrians here have no rights though - even if the crosswalk is green, cars can and will turn right in front if you - so you need to vigilant (and also vigilant for spotting dog poo!). The colectivos are great for getting around, although you do feel at times like you might not make it off alive. There are usually a few different buses at each stop, so you need to wave down the bus. Sometimes, say if there is a taxi pulled over dropping someone off, the driver will just drive on by since they can't be bothered to wait until the taxi pulls away. Also, they will start pulling away from the curb as soon as you have a foot on board so you need to hold on!
All the colectivos are owned by different companies, so they are painted different colors and have all sorts of different designs. So you need to pay attention to the numbers on the front to make sure you spot the one you want. The good thing is that they are cheap (about 30 cents a ride) and on most lines you never wait more than three or four minutes for one to come by.
The Subte is also convenient and I used to take it a fair amount, but now that we are into spring/summer it is unbearably hot. It is always super crowded at rush hour and with no a/c you feel like in an oven after about 5 minutes. I prefer taking an extra 15 minutes and being above ground, with open windows, on the colectivo. Although yesterday I did take the famous Linea A, which was the first Subte line in the city and is still using the original cars. Everything is wooden and you can actually open and close the doors by hand (which seems a bit unsafe, but par for the course here!). It was very cool and old-fashioned feeling.
Laundry Day
The thing I am maybe most excited to see when I get home (besides friends & family of course) is my washer and dryer! Here my options are service wash (for about $4 / load) or hand-washing. While at times it's great to hand off a bag of dirty laundry and get clean back, it can be a huge pain. Like when they lose a shirt or a sock or send home someone else's sock, or when they are closed randomly and you need to drop your clothes. Also, since everything at the laundromat is done in the dryer, I don't send some of my jeans and shirts because I am afraid of what an hour in the dryer would do to them. So I end up doing lots of hand-washing, either for those clothes or when I want something clean in-between trips to the laundromat. And I just never feel like hand-washing gets clothes clean enough. In two weeks, everything I own is going to get a serious spin through the washer and I can't wait!
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