First few days

Some things I've done and experienced in the first few days:

Day 2

• Trouble withdrawing money from F and M (had to get the international flag removed)
• Ordered steak and mashed potatoes deviled to the house 
• Miriam calls mashed potatoes "smashed potatoes" so cute
• Played charades with Miriam y Joanna
• Went to a nicer Grocery store
• Got a lot of cheap meat
• Dog poop everywhere on the sidewalks and trash because the garbage men don't take it if it's open and homeless people always dig in the trash
• Talked with guys in the store to try to get food clips. This was an adventure, ended up having 3 guys trying to figure out what I wanted.

Day 3

• Went to San Telemo with Miriam and went to the antique market
• Miriam bought shoes and the lady was pretty strong on her price. Argentinians are more proud than many countries.
• Went to an old penitentiary that had been made into a museum.
• Ate at a place on defensa 
• Huge thick steak, sausage and papas fritas
• A boy about 8 or 9 kept starring at me throughout the meal. Afterwards him and his parents came and asked me if I was the star from some sitcom. They thought I was (Luka?)

Day 4

• On the way to class there was a man smashing out the window of a taxi. There were a lot of people around watching but not doing anything (probably were scared to). I never see this kind of crime in the states but in a country in economic decline I suppose it is fairly common.
• First day of class went awesome. I learned a lot but realized even more so how little Spanish I really know. Miriam is in my class as well as Gabriel from Brazil (beautiful), and Juanita from Canada (speaks French). My teacher Anna was very good.
• Afterwards Miriam and I ate empanadas and pizza with a bottle of Stella. We did our homework and had a good chat.

Bienvenidos!

I will be living downtown Buenos Aires for the next 10 weeks to become fluent in Spanish. I will be attending the El Pasaje Spanish school for 20 hours a week starting Monday. I am living at Loco Local a long term hostel in Buenos Aires that is much more like a home than a hostel.

Objectives for my time here:

1. Become fluent enough to have a flowing conversation with Spanish speakers.
2. Obtain a strong understanding of Argentine history and culture.
3. Finish my E-Book (side project)

The Gear:

For my 10 weeks here I brought a small suitcase, a large backpack, and a small school backpack containing:

• 14 pairs of underwear and socks
• 12 t shirts
• 2 long sleeved thermal style shirts
• 5 button up shirts
• 3 polos
• 4 pairs of shorts (2 gym)
• 1 pair of sweats
• 1 nice wool coat
• 5 pairs of shoes (2 casual, 2 leather, 1 pair of vibrams)
• 1 stocking cap
• 1 pair of sunglasses
• $250 cash
• 3 books (Think a Grow Rich, and 2 books on acid reflux for my E book)
• 1 tooth brush and tube of tooth paste
• 1 stick of deodorant and bottle of cologne
• Multi emzyme pills and vitamin D
• 1 mouth gaurd for teeth grinding
• 1 hand blow vase I made for a house warming gift

Insert pic of room and bags

Flight:

My flight left Omaha at 5:30 PM on May 16th. I wished my parents fair well and took off to Houston. From Houston I boarded my international flight to Buenos Aires.

While waiting to board my flight I began to observe the Argentinians waiting to board the flight. Their appearance reminded me of italians except that brown hair was much more prevalent. Most were slender and dressed in a European fashion except a bit more bright. 

I boarded the plane and took my seat in the middle of the plane between Alvaro and his wife. Alvaro was originally from Colombia but got a job in DC doing consulting where he met his wife. We had a nice discussion about problems occurring in Argentina on our approach.

Apparently the subway and many buses and taxis were not running because of protests from public workers. The protest was to obtain a wage increase, as their current wage was not enough for living expenses. Also while I was filling out my customs form I noticed that I had to claim any cell phones I was carrying.

Argentina has been engaging in a number of protective trade policies aimed to prop up their manufacturing companies who are no longer competitive, due to an increase in costs. In addition Argentina has just recently nationalized part of the Brazilian oil company Petrobras. This customs check for cell phones, to make sure people weren't smuggling them in to sell, was an obvious sign of decline within the country.

Upon arrival I took the Manuel Tienda Leon bus into town which was fortunately still running (I believe this is privately run). On the way into Buenos Aires I saw slum after slum. In many areas people appeared to be squatting in old abandoned buildings. They had created roofs and fences out of old scrap metal. I dozed off on the journey and woke in downtown Buenos Aires.

Downtown Buenos Aires looked much more like the city I expected to find here. Tall office buildings and beautiful French and italian style architecture. I arrived at Loco Local and was greeted with a customary (unbeknownst to me at the time) hug and a kiss by my host Danny. He showed me around him and his husband Jugo's beautiful unique house.

I also met Laura and Joanna from France and Miriam from Swizterland who were also staying at Loco Local. Laura and Joanna are here on a marketing program and Miriam is travelling for a while and deciding what she wants to do.

After meeting everyone and getting some ideas of what to do from Danny, and eating Chinese food with Jugo and Danny, I took a shower and a nap. That evening I went with Danny to take his dog Emma to the vet. The vet was nothing like it is in the US. If you brought in a dog you were required to have two people come in to help handle them. Danny and I help down Emma as the veterinarian took an Xray because Emma had some tumor like growths on her stomach.

After this we waited for the results in a small waiting room. Here there was an Argentine couple in their dog waiting as well. She we extremely friendly and began to complement how pretty Emma was, petting her, and talking with Danny. This was interesting to see how open and friendly she was immediately. Danny told me afterwards that people are crazy about their pets her, but I think it is also a cultural difference. In the United States people are not normally so talkative and open with strangers.

After we returned from the vet, Danny took me to a supermarket where we bought food, beer and coca cola. The supermarket was tiny by my standards and did not have the best selection. After going to the supermarket I definitely see why it is still considered a "developing country". I tried to find olive oil but the best they had was 70% olive oil and 30% sunflower seed oil. (I found some in a nicer supermarket later)

Back at Danny's, he prepared me the traditional fernet with coca cola. It bubbled up like a rootbeer float and tasted a bit like Dr. Pepper.

Later that night Danny, Miriam, and myself went on a walk where Danny showed us Ave Corrientes (elctricity) and his favorite pizza shop in Buenos Aires. We had a few drinks and then took a taxi to Jugo's bar in Palermo.

Here we had 2 nice bottles of Malbec and 1 of Pinot Nior for very cheap since Jugo is the manager. We discussed differences in our cultures, what we planned to do in the future, etc. Danny told us about how much Argentina has become socially liberal of late. Gays are now allowed to be married and Marijuana is now legal if you smoke in your home. You are also permitted to grow one plant in your own home. I think this legalization is a step in the right direction for Argentina (I don't think the government should be involved in marriage at all actually), but the rest of their current policies are toxic to any economic growth.

Miriam continually would wink at me throughout the night so I thought she had a crush on me. Later she claimed that she doesn't know she does it so we had a good laugh about the situation.