Buenos Aires: Final Report

Last Monday, I flew out of Buenos Aires after living there for two months in 3 different neighborhoods.  Overall, I would say I had a very positive experience.  There will be many things I miss about the city and I hope to make it back someday.

Although I'm leaving with a positive impression, I didn't always feel that way.  Living in a large city in a different part of the world can be frustrating at times and there were definitely moments were I was counting down the days Until I could leave BA and move on to other parts of the country. The irony is I feel like I was just starting to get into my groove the last couple weeks before I left.

Regardless, since my overall experience was positive, I'm going to start off by listing the things that stood out for me and I'll save the other stuff until a later blog since many of the things that bothered me so much the first few weeks were in reality very trivial.  Here's the highlights:

• The People:  I found "Porteños" (people from Buenos Aires) to be very warm, friendly, laid-back, and fun to hang out with.  They are naturally nice, social people and very welcoming to foreign visitors.  

•  The "Porteño" lifestyle: Porteños generally don't go to dinner until 10 pm at earliest.  It's not uncommon to see families with baby strollers rolling into dinner at midnight.  Most importantly, at 4 am you can still hang out at an outdoor cafe and order a beer and food without any bouncer standing over you telling you how long you have to consume the beer.
  
• Cabs: To start with, no matter what time of day it is or where you are in the city, you can be assured of finding a cab with 5 minutes of walking out to the street. You will then be greeted by a driver that is probably dressed better than you and despite all the warnings of getting "taking for a ride", I probably took 50 cab rides during my 2.5 months and suspect I may have been ripped off once. 
• Wine & Steak: Yes, the wine and steak really are incredible in Buenos Aires.  You can eat a huge steak and wash it down with some decent wine for far cheaper than you'd pay in the U.S. and there seems to be a "Parilla" on every block.
  
• Affordable Services: When I was in BA, I had a maid clean my apt. once a week for 20 pesos (approx. 5 USD).  I dropped off all my laundry at the Lavanderia once a week and paid 35 pesos (aprox. 9 USD) to have all my laundry washed, pressed, and folded.  These are services I couldn't possibly afford in the U.S.
  
• Ice Cream: You will find a "heladeria" on almost every other street corner in Buenos Aires.  I've never really been a big ice cream eater but after two months in BA I finally wandered into one of the popular heladerias and was immediately addicted. Thanks to the Italian influence, the Portenos do some wonderful things with ice cream.  I've never tasted anything so creamy and delicious

Those are just a few of the items that stood out for me.  I'm sure there will be other things I miss after being away from the city for awhile. I'm not going to claim it's a perfect city (I'm yet to find that place) but I left with an overall positive impression and would definitely recommend anyone visit BA for a week or more if they have an opportunity. 

Learning Spanish

One of the main reasons I came to Argentina for my six month break was that I wanted to learn Spanish.  I came into this trip thinking it was going to be very difficult to learn a second language based on my previous experience attempting to learn Spanish.  As it turns out, it's been even more difficult than I imagined but I'm slowly making progress each day.  I've used a variety of methods to learn the language in preparation for the trip and since I've been down here which include:

- Fluenz Spanish 1 DVD
- Intensive Spanish Class (20 hours/week for 2 weeks in groups of 5)
- Private Tutoring
- Language Exchange Meet-ups
- Various forms of self study

By far, I've found the private tutoring and language exchange meet-ups to be the most effective methods for me.  For the past 3 weeks, I've been meeting with a private tutor for 1.5-2 hours a day where I practice conversation and learn new grammar, verb tenses, and other elements.  I've also discovered a few social groups that meet in bars and restaurants for the purpose of practicing speaking Spanish and English.  The other benefit of the meet-ups is that I've been able to meet some very interesting locals.

By the end of this trip, I hope to obtain some level of fluency but it's going to continue to be challenging - which is fine since the challenge is really my main motivation.  I'm not sure what the textbook definition of "fluency" is but I simply want to be able to express myself in Spanish and have the words easily flow out of my mouth without having to translate each word in my mind before speaking.  It would also be nice if I could speak Spanish better than the 5 year olds walking around here!

The Great Escape

While  cleaning out my apartment a couple months ago, I came across the Washington Post article that had originally inspired me to take a long vacation and move to another country.  The name of the article was The Great Escape, and I came across it in the Sunday Travel section while lounging at the pool in 2007.  What stood out the most when I read it almost 5 years ago was how natural it is for us as human beings to come up with reasons why we can't do something as adventurous as quitting our job to travel the world.  I remember thinking to myself "if a couple with a 3 year old can move to a foreign country, why can't I?"

The 2nd time I read the article, just a couple months ago, I was amazed by how similar my experience was leading up to my trip as the author's.  I also had a lot of pre-trip anxiety:  Will I have enough money? Is this career suicide?  Will everyone think I'm a loser for leaving a good job and a great career to travel for 6 months? Will I be the "old guy" at the hostels?

The answers to the first two questions are still unknown.   The answers to the other two: No.   I was pleasantly surprised by how supportive my friends, family, and co-workers were when I told them about my plans. I even had multiple people tell me they had considered doing the same thing.  For anyone that does decide to take a long vacation, I'll certainly have plenty of advice. 

As far as being the old guy, I've met people ranging from age 21-65 that have decided to travel around South America. The 65 year old was a retired body shop owner who had ridden here from Alaska on a motorcycle!  I'm yet to meet someone who has regretted making the decision nor have I heard any horror stories about anyone that left their job to travel and spent the rest of their life recovering from the mistake.  I still have over 3 months left so I will report back if I encounter "that guy".  Hopefully it won't be me!