Our Apartment

At the end of December, we signed a 6 month lease on an apartment located pretty centrally in Palermo. We're paying $500 USD a month for a one-bedroom apartment plus a comission. In order to get a $50 a month discount, we agreed to pay all of our rent up front, which was quite a hassle to figure out and a little scary to carry all of that money around. Argentinians, however, are not really phased by the idea of carrying $4000 USD in hand into a meeting. Since Argentina's currency was devalued by 75% in 2001, most Argentinians are weary of using banks. This means that most people store their savings somewhere in their home- hiding it in books, dvd cases, cookie jars, and under floorboards- and that most real estate transactions are done in cash. People literally carry hundreds of thousands of dollars into a meeting and sign the paperwork. So our landlord thought we were pretty silly for folding all of the money up tightly and stashing it in a money belt, but it gave us a little comfort. Carrying all that money around felt very sketchy, and we almost felt as if we were doing something illegal.

If we had ever questioned how present the machismo is here, it's annoying presence was confirmed by the actions of our landlord. He showed up an hour late to sign the contract and didn't apologize to Jill, Sara, or Sara's mom. As he showed us around the apartment again, his rude demeanor became more and more offputting. At one point, when Jill asked how the washing machine worked he brusquely replied "I don't know, ask a girl." As we were wrapping things up, Sara's dad and brother arrived to help move things in. Immediately, the landlord's whole tone changed. He firmly shook hands with both of them and began apologizing profusely to them for being so late that morning. He then introduced Sara's dad to our Portero (doorman) without introducing the Portero to either of us. It was pretty impossible to not pick up on the machismo, and Sara's dad even brought it up once the landlord had left.

Although moving in was a bit frustrating, we're really enjoying living in our new place. The place is spacious enough for us, gets plenty of sunlight, and is in a great location. We're a block away from a subway stop and a million bus stops, a 10 min. walk from parque 3 de febrero (this city's central park), a 15 min. walk to Palermo Soho (a trendy area with boutique shops), 2 blocks away from Jumbo (Argentina's version of a walmart supercenter + target + home depot all in one store) and in the center of a ton of the city's most diverse restaurants.

Come visit, and you can crash on our comfy couch.

The Holidays

Spending the holidays far from home is certainly different and challenging, but also a learning experience. Culturally it's interesting to see the differences between how we celebrate.

So first we'll start with a belated recap of our Buenos Aires Thanksgiving:

The holiday doesn't exist here- so there's not much to compare. We just needed to find some fellow estadounidenses to share a turkey dinner with us and make us feel less sad about not being with our families- and we did! We are both members of an online forum called BAexpats.org. This is our go-to site for whenever we have questions about how to live in BA. Posting a random question or finding someone else who already asked what you wanted to ask usually bears some utilitarian nuggets of knowledge. Of course, you usually have to dig through a few annoying "I've been living here for 3 months and as an English speaking 'american' and am an EXPERT on Argentine culture" comments, but those are good for a venting reply or a laugh if I don't want to waste time responding.

ANYWAY- we looked on the forum for what to do on Thanksgiving and some people were already planning a big dinner! We signed up and took a train to a northern suburb of Capital Federal, Vicente Lopez, and found ourselves on the doorstep of an ornate mansion that was currently being occupied (and I think maintained) by some fellow estadounidenses. There were about 30 people there and plenty of food, wine, and even a champagne toast. The man who organized the event ordered 3 frozen Brazilian-imported turkeys and it was just enough. He also made a whole vat of mashed potatoes with gravy, and others brought delicious side-dishes like green-bean casserole, salad, rolls, and stuffing...mmmm. A recent arrival to BA even smuggled in some cranberry sauce- impossible to find here! It was a delicious meal and we met some interesting people. The crowd was a mix between retirees and older (and wealthier) vacationing expats, 30-something business entrepreneurs, recent law-school grads taking their tanked-economy job deferrals to travel, and some study-abroaders. We were pressed to find people that we felt like were in our situation: 20-somethings planning to stay longer than the average study-abroader and wanting to spend it by really getting to know the city, language, and culture on a tight budget. We are a small demographic here I think, but hopefully when classes start up we'll find some other people who are in the same boat as us.

Christmas:

The Munzingers were here to make these holidays happier and more familiar than our Thanksgiving. Kathy brought lots of supplies, including all the ingredients for making cookies (a Munzinger family tradition) as well as a 2-lb bag of brown sugar and a big jar of Peanut Butter for us to keep. Sara's parents also surprised us with Christmas stockings and Ethan brought along some Christmas music (that we listened to on repeat for most of the trip). They really made it feel like Christmas in the little San Telmo apartment we all stayed in together. Kathy made a delicious Christmas dinner- we had salad, twice-baked potatoes, a roast, roasted garlic and bread. And as Jill's family usually has a Christmas ham, Kathy and Sara specially glazed and cooked up a cut of ham for her. We spent the rest of the evening listening to Christmas music and playing games around our tiny Christmas tree-cone that we decorated with construction paper garland.

This scene was a stark contrast to the world outside our door. While Frank Sinatra sang about "White Christmas", children laughing and sleigh bells ringing inside our apartment, outside it was 85 degrees and the streets were empty. I have never seen the streets of Buenos Aires as eerily vacant as I saw them after 2pm on Christmas Eve. It felt creepy to be outside in the middle of the day and worse in the evening, because absolutely no one was around and everything was closed. It was like a ghost town...

But then came the fireworks! Right at midnight the city exploded with sound and light and came alive again. Fireworks were being shot off from every direction as far as we could see. It was really beautiful and I felt this sensation of connection to the rest of the city, after a day of feeling like we were the only ones around. Everyone was stopping at this exact moment to look out their windows with their families and celebrate- it was like watching the ball drop on New Years Eve. The fireworks lasted for more than an hour. Then the streets became loud again, as they filled with people lining up to go clubbing on the biggest night out of the year.

Christmas Eve is the bigger day for people in Buenos Aires. The streets are dead because everyone is inside with their families for Christmas dinner and then they all watch the fireworks together. After the fireworks young people depart and head out to go clubbing with their friends until the sun comes up. BA really is the city that never sleeps, but we are people who liketo sleep and felt strange going out on Christmas, such a family-oriented holiday in the states. So we could hear the festivities outside our window but didn't partake.

Christmas morning we had mimosas and a breakfast casserole, and Jill had some quiche (a Meade family tradition). Sara's parents had also laid out a stocking for each of us and we took turns opening them together. After this, Jill Skyped her family and opened the suitcase full of presents her mom had sent along with the Munzingers. It was nice to feel connected to my family and have some semblance of a normal Christmas by opening presents with them (virtually anyway). It really meant a lot to me that both my parents and Sara's parents would go to all the trouble for me. Later in the day we went to Recoleta Cemetery, one of the few things open and then had High Tea at a fancy hotel nearby. It was a happy BA Christmas with Sara's family here.


New Year's Eve:

They left on New Year's Eve, also Jill's Brithday, which was definitely sad. In BA New Year's is a more family-oriented holiday than in the states. The streets were eerily empty again which amplified our own feelings of being sad to see Sara's family's go- but we trudged on! We made a nice dinner and Sara made an ice-cream birthday cake from scratch for Jill. It was delicious. Again at midnight the city lit up with fireworks and we had a great view from our balcony. We sat in the dark and watched the fireworks and toasted the New Year. We were still feeling a bit down, but managed to stay up until 2:00am so that we could watch the ball drop in New York in another attempt at feeling connected to friends and family back home. Jill called her parents to wish them a Happy 2010, and then we went to sleep looking forward to what our 2010 in Argentina would bring...

The Munzingers Visit B.A.

Sara´s family flew into Buenos Aires on Friday, December 18th. We really enjoyed spending time with them here for two weeks around the holidays. We had a great time relaxing with them but also did many touristy things together with them. Some of the things we did include:

● Took a double-decker tourist bus around the city, which gave a historical overview of some major tourist destinations and made several stops around town where passengers could get off and on.
● Perused the artisan goods at some of Buenos Aires' well-known ferias
● Checked out La Boca, a neighborhood that is famous for its colorful buildings as well as its high-crime rate
● Toured Palacio Paz, an ornate mansion that was built by the the family that owned "La Prensa" newspaper. Señor Paz built the home, with the intention of becoming Argentina´s President and using it as the Presidential Palace but that never happened.
● Toured Palacio Barolo, which was the tallest building in South America when it was completed in 1923 and it's design was inspired by Dante´s Divine Comedy. Originally, the Italian owner intended to acquire Dante's ashes after his death and to display them in the building, but that also never happened.
● Visited the Evita museum.
● Walked around the Recoleta Cemetery, where Evita and many other wealthy Porteños (Buenos Aires residents) are buried in mausoleums. Some of the mausoleums are meticulously cared for, while others next to them are crumbling in disrepair. Porteños make-out in public pretty much everywhere, but still, we were a bit surprised to see several couples making out at the cemetery on the stoops of
mausoleums...ew.
● Visited many leather shops
● Ate a lot of great food, including one meal where Jill´s parents treated all of us to an amazing dinner at "Cocina Sunae," a closed-door restaurant. Buenos Aires has several similar restaurants, where a chef opens their home to a limited number of guests each evening for a fixed menu. The meal was a Thai, Vietnamese and Filipino fusion, and we think it is the best food we have eaten here yet. We definitely want to try another closed-door restaurant soon!
● Saw a tango show at the historic Cafe Tortoni
● Went to Tigre, a popular weekend spot for Porteños that is located on a river delta just north of Buenos Aires. Tigre is made up of a series of islands that the river runs through, and most people are either sunbathing or taking a boat ride through the small channels of water.
● Took a high-speed ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, which was an hour-long ride from Buenos Aires. The sleepy town of about 20,000 is right on the river, and it really has maintained the look of an old Spanish fort and colony. The trip back from Colonia, however, was the scariest boat ride we've ever been on. A storm whipped up while we were in the middle of the Rio de la Plata and the boat pitched and rocked in every direction. The crew handed out cold presses and motion sickness bags and a ton of people on the boat got sick. When we finally, and thankfully, made it to shore we were told the waves were about 7 feet high. It was nice to be home...

Sara´s mom, Kathy, had also arranged for us all to make a trip to San Antonio del Areco, which is about an hour outside of the city and is known for its gaucho (Argentine cowboy) culture. Unfortunately, the day before we were supposed to go, San Antonio flooded because of heavy rains and illegal irrigation ditches built by farmers and 3,000 people were forced to evacuate. Needless to say, we didn't go...

The Munzingers also helped us move into and settle in our new apartment, which probably wasn't the most fun thing for them to do here, but we really appreciated their help!

Overall, we did a lot while they were here and had a really nice time getting to sightsee with them. We were sad when they left on Dec. 31st! They also made the holidays very special for us, but that's the next blog entry.

Trip Montage

A compilation of videos we shot while visiting Argentina's lakes district in Patagonia (including San Martín de los Andes, Bariloche and El Bolsón).