First Week and demas

(I am currently watching “Los Simpsons” in my host family’s house )

So I arrived in Buenos Aires this Wednesday and it has been rather lovely. My connecting flight from Texas to BsAs was delayed for like 5 hours, so I didn’t get to leave until 2 am. I got in around 2pm in the afternoon and Jorge, my designated taxi driver, picked me up. He was such a pleasant Argentine, rather round, with a goofy smile. Right when we left the airport, we were attacked by “a mafia of taxi drivers (as Jorge calls them),” and thank god that Jorge was there to fend them off with his perfect castellano.

Buenos Aires is a city of apartments; it rather reminded me a lot of China with its tall, raised apartment buildings and clothing lines outside. My host family lives in Palmero/Recoletta, which are the nicest neighborhoods in BsAs. I am not sure why they are considered wealthy because the buildings were not as beautiful as the ones in central city, but I do feel very safe walking around it.

I have a host mother and a host daughter, who is a lovely girl. She’s very vocal, which is great for me to practice my Spanish. On my first day, I just slept for like 12 hours. And the next day, I woke up at one in the afternoon and for breakfast, I had hot chocolate con leche, which is sweeter than regular American hot chocolate. I dipped in it some sweet pastries. Argentines don’t eat a lot for breakfast (either do they for other meals), but that breakfast was rather too sugary for me.

I then walked down Avenida Santa Fe, which is one of the longest streets in Buenos Aires and has many, many, many different types of stores/cafes/restaurants. People in Buenos Aires adhere to the definition of “window shopping” like no other as there are so many display items in the windows that people really had reason go inside the store unless they want to buy something. I bought a leather wallet and the sales lady told me that to know if something is real leather, you need to smell it. If it smells like a cow, then it is real. I also bought a copy of Borge’s “Ficciones” because I want to read his short story “El Sur.” It is about Buenos Aires.

After shopping, I went to a cafeteria below my host family’s apartment, which is one of the millions upon millions of little coffee shops in Buenos Aires. It was a lovely place, filled with chatty ladies. I ordered a cup of wine, which only cost 2 dollars around here.

On Friday, I went down to Avenida de Mayo, which is the central street on which all the government buildings/political NGOs are located. I was supposed to meet with my boss at 1pm but having arrived at 11am, I went inside this restaurant for a cup of coffee to pass time with a copy of the daily newspaper. Famous for its theatrical theme, the restaurant, called La Clac, is quaintly decorated with pictures of past actors/actresses, movie posters, and newspaper clippings. I ordered a cup of coffee, and the size of the cup was that of three thumbs. It was so freaking tiny that it looked something for an overweight Barbie. Apparently that the typical size because Argentine coffee is a lot stronger than American Starbucks, which according to my mother, is like agua. The menu of the restaurant was rather interesting has it had the names of television programs and movies as its dish names. I sat there for like 3 hours, studying the menu with my trusty dictionary. The waitresses thought I was a spectacle.

After the meeting with my boss, I discovered my work schedule is from 2pm to 6pm everyday. And actually, they don’t have a place for me yet the new office is not done yet (it was supposed to be done by the beginning of May, but by Argentine time, that means September). So for now, I am just going into the office like 3 days a week for a tiny bit of time. It’s pretty sweet.

On Saturday, after sleeping until noon again, I went the Latino Americano Art Museum with some of the Yale Law School students who were here. We then walked for an hour in this neighborhood called Palermo, which is just dripping with wealth, for lunch at a place called Café 69 (or was it Café 6, I can’t remember). The place was packed at 3:30pm, you know, the normal time for lunch. For 15 bucks, I had some fish and grilled vegetables. After dinning until 6pm, you know, the normal time to finish lunch, I took a subte (or the subway) back, bought some groceries, and then went out again for dinner with the Bulldogs people at Siga La Vaca. It is an all-you-can-eat restaurant filled with beef, beef, and more beef. We ate until 11pm, and as we were about to leave, Argentines were just barely coming in for dinner. Oh, you know, the normal time for dinner.

We then wanted to go to this random concert in La Boca, which is a rather sketchy neighborhood. But what we did not know was that it was soooooooooo sketchy and dangerous, the taxi driver refuses to take us there. “muy feo” he kept on repeating, and something about it was too dangerous for him to drive there. None of us were wiling to go some place that a local did not event want to go (never mind the face we are paying him to drive us) so we all called it a night at 1am.

On Sunday, I went to la Plaza Recoleta, which has an entire mall dedicated to home decorating. There were sooooo many people buying the most random crap for their homes. There was also an outside artisan fair – pretty nice stuff. For dinner, I had beef…again.

And today (Monday) was my first day of work, from 2pm to 6pm. It was cold as it was raining. I had beef for lunch…again.