Buena Onda

So after a week or so in Buenos Aires, I feel like I’m finally starting to get settled here. The first few days were just completely bizarre – picture freshman orientation in all of its glorious awkwardness, but set in a hotel in a foreign country where everyone is of drinking age. Overwhelming is probably the best word to describe it.

After two days in the hotel I moved in with my host family, which was, and still is, a huge adjustment. There is just something inherently awkward about moving into someone else’s house, regardless of how welcoming they may be. I imagine that my host family will definitely make for some good stories down the road. Gabi, my mom, is incredibly sweet and a great cook. It’s funny though because they are probably the least typically Argentine family you could find in this city. Case in point – not only does my family not eat meat (a rarity in the beef capital of the world), they also avoid anything with “lots of calories”. That means no real sugar, only arroz integral (brown rice), and no classic Argentine fare like dulce de leche or lomo. I really can’t complain though, especially since some of my friends claim not have seen a green vegetable in days. Plus I’m learning lots of food words, a fair amount of which are different in Argentina than in the rest of the Spanish speaking world.

My host siblings are also an interesting pair. Marina is awesome – she’s really artistic, takes capoeira lessons, and is into a lot of the same music as me. She’s definitely a hippie, though, which is surprisingly not uncommon here. She had a bunch of friends over the other day, and most of them had some sort of piercing/dreadlock combination going on. (Sidenote: The Argentines LOVE dreads, mullets, and rattails. I don’t mean to be culturally insensitive, but never before in my life have I seen so many terrible haircuts. It’s really disappointing, too, because a lot of guys will look really foxy until they turn around to reveal a single dread dangling over their shoulder. Gross.)

My favorite word to describe Pablo, my host brother, is angsty. I mean, to be honest, I’d be frustrated too if I were living at home at the age of 20. But the thing is that living with your parents until you’re in your late 20s is totally normal here. So really, I have no good explanation for why he’s so brooding. He doesn’t like to go out, either, which is weird in a country where the average weekend night ends after sunrise. Basically he’s just really awkward with me, which is annoying but sometimes entertaining. I think that once my Spanish gets better I’ll be able to joke around with him more, since I another problem is that I have trouble understanding him sometimes since he tends to mumble.

My first night with my family, Pablo and Marina took me out to get ice cream, which, by the way, is amazing here. American culture is, like everywhere else, really pervasive here, and as a result the two of them know a lot of really random things about the US. For example, when we were out for ice cream, they asked me if high schools in the US really had “nerds” and “cheerleaders” like on TV. They also asked me why American kids like to “drink with cards”. Apparently one of the Americans who lived here in the past liked to play drinking games, a really foreign concept here, where the point of drinking is not to get drunk. It was also really entertaining to try to explain to them what a redneck is. I guess they heard the word somewhere and wanted to know what it meant.

The house I’m living in here is also really cool. It’s very open and colorful, with a huge garden in the back. I live upstairs in a really cute little room (sans air conditioning – I look like a leper from all of the mosquito bites from keeping my window open at night) with its own bathroom and lots of light. I actually have a surprising amount of privacy, and was also pleasantly shocked to find out I have Wifi here. Even better than our house is the neighborhood. I’m in Palmero, which is the largest barrio in Buenos Aires, and as a result is divided into smaller sub-barrios. Mine is called Palermo Hollywood, a name that I have a lot of fun telling people. A few years ago, a few television and movie studios set up offices right around the corner, leading the area to become a lot posher. There are a ton of really nice restaurants all around us, as well as a few trendy hotels. (Another sidenote: Last year, the Bush twins stayed at Home, a hotel on my block, for a few days. My host siblings said that there was a ton of security all over the place, and that their dad got really mad at all of the commotion and started yelling at the security and photographers. Bush is really unpopular in BsAs – one of the first things my siblings asked when I moved in was if I was a Democrat because the last kid to live here was a Republican and they thought he was an idiot. In contrast, nearly everyone here is obsessed with Obama. I wonder if the Obama reggaeton song had anything to do with it.) I’m also conveniently about 6 blocks from Plaza Serrano, a plaza with a ton of bars, clubs, and stores, as well as a “hippie” fair on the weekends. It’s nice because a lot of times people will meet up there, meaning I can avoid spending money on a taxi if it’s not too late.

Que mas…overall, I’d say I’ve been having a blast. I’ve definitely met some really chill people from a bunch of schools, and Buenos Aires itself is absolutely incredible. It’s also nice/comforting to have Tom here. Once my orientation ends and he has his apartment set I think we’ll get to hang out more, since right now we’re both all over the place. I’m also planning a few trips, one possibly to Uruguay this coming weekend. It’s super easy to take a ferry across the river, and apparently the beaches in Punta del Este are amazing. There’s also been some discussion of going to Mendoza and Valparaiso, Chile over Semana Santa. I really was hoping to head down to Patagonia then, but it’s super expensive and hard to find a place in a hostel at this point. Hopefully I’ll get to go at some point before I leave, but if not, I guess it’s an excuse to come back to Argentina

There’s so much more to say, but it’s hard to get it all down. I think I’ll just end instead with some random facts/musings, since that seems more appropriate anyway. Nos vemos!

Random Argentina Fact #2: Above, I wrote that people live at home until they’re in their late 20s. While doing so might be cost effective, as one might imagine it creates some awkward dating situations. During our orientation this past week, we were told that it’s not uncommon or frowned upon to visit a telo with your novi@. Basically the telos are glorified motels where people go to have sex without being disturbed. Some telos, however, have themes and/or optional costumes. Que interesante…

Random Argentina Fact #3: No one here sweats; it’s absolutely bizarre. While I sit on the non-air conditioned Subte schvitzing away, all of the Argentines around me look impossibly chic and beautiful. Even worse is the gym (again, no air conditioning – sensing a trend?). None of the Argentine women seem to break a sweat, although to be fair they also seem to barely work out. everyone sits on the equipment texting on their cell phones. It’s actually kind of disconcerting to be the only red-faced person in the place. I guess I’ll have to get used to being the gross gringa everywhere I go.

Random Argentina Fact #4: The infrastructure in BsAs is alarmingly weak. It’s been raining on and off for the past couple of days, and when it pours, the streets flood like crazy. I’m talking major floods – people walking in water up to their waists, cars destroyed, etc. There’s essentially no drainage system here, sending a lot of the water into the Subte stations. Today I got off the Subte, only to find myself standing in water up to my ankles. I also saw water spouting out of cracks in the station walls – always a good sign. Even weirder is that, 2 hours after a major flood, the sun is usually shining and it seems like nothing happened.