Hola todos…

…And sorry for the few days of delay in my postings - I know it is almost a week now!!!
In fact, this was all due to the general feeling of being lost in a massive city and “el jet lag de puta madre”.

But, after a few days of wandering aimlessly around, discovering that, in fact, I didn’t understand a single word of Spanish and meanwhile developing a certain sense of disgust for everything that looks, smells or tastes like meat (mmmmhhh Argentinean beef!), I finally put myself together and I am now comfortably cuddled up in a cover at my new place.
Cover? …Yes, I am not kidding! At the moment it might be freezing in Luxembourg and all, but don’t undermine the Argentinean climate.
Yesterday it wouldn’t stop raining. Today it is just cloudy, but somehow a nasty cold breeze is playing tricks on us.
But, let’s not overreact, ‘cause 4 days ago we had blue sky and the sun was warming us with its 30 degrees. Too bad only, that this was exactly the day, where the workers showed up to install the brand new air con system in my apartment, and I had to sit inside for 3 hours, waiting for them to finish. At the present moment, that box in the corner of my room seems ridiculously useless …or could I perhaps use it as a heater as well????

Enough of the whining let me now introduce you to Argentina, or at least to Buenos Aires.

BA for foreigners
First of all, this city is huuuuge! To make your way through most of it, there are shit loads of ways to do so; you have the taxis, the colectivo (bus), another kind of bus, which I can’t remember the name of anymore, el Subte (the tube) and you can try to proceed by foot (which can be very painful, by the way!)
Speaking of all these ways to explore the city, if you really want to stay alive down here, keep away from any means of transport whatsoever. Argentineans maybe a fabulous nation, but they really don’t know how to drive.

The craze is not over!
Another thing, worth mentioning is that if you come to Buenos Aires with not much knowledge of the city itself, you discover that it is a quite modern city. At night, the streets are fully lit. You absolutely don’t feel threatened at any time of the day or night and they even have the anti-smoking law in bars, cafés and restaurants. Shopping malls are 5 times bigger than those in Luxembourg and include sometimes a roller coaster. Mac Donald’s, Burger King and other, non-fast-food-like restaurants, are open 24/7 and all have a home delivery service!
With such levels of sophistication, I wonder why it took me about half an our of filling out forms and two and a half days of waiting to get my mobile phone activated?!
Then, finally after getting quite grumpy (for the people who know me well) and extremely annoyed with my new phone, the system kicked in and I was open to communicate again with the rest of world!
After these "technical" incidents, I just want to thank the Salvadors for their patience while the whole family was desperately trying to activate my voice mail box and apologise to my mother for hanging up on her every time she tried to call me … apparently I had a few problems with the simple task of just picking up the phone. Woooops!

My spannish, yeaahhh!…
…is almost non-existent!!!! I find it absolutely hilarious, that people are still daring to address to me in Spanish, given that their chance of a correct answer is close to nothing. But I am not giving up that soon …today I am going to pass the tests to know which level they are going to put me into at school. And even if they put me into level minus four, in six months I will be back in Luxembourg and fluent in Spanish, that’s for sure!

FFF - Facts and Figures for Foreigners:

News for all the smokers; a packet of cigarettes costs a bit less than 5 pesos, that’s approximately 1€.

I just had dinner (Chinese takeaway – massive portions) for approximately 10 pesos, which is the equivalent of 2 - 2,50€

With all the visiting, I was thinking, that I was perhaps using the taxi system way too much and that it would be more price worthy to use the Subte ( 0,75 pesos a ride = 0,16€ for a ride) or the bus system (just a bit more expensive than the Subte, 0,80 pesos) but then I figured out that I was not even paying 4€ for a taxi ride, that would have cost me 25€ in Luxembourg.

A few days ago, I was in a nightclub and instead of the commonly known disco ball hanging from the ceiling, there was a disco camel! WTF?

Now for the “shopoholics”, in BA the shops are open till 10pm and due to the price difference you could easily treat yourself to a Gucci or Dior outfit.

If you decide to have a night out with friends, it is normal to meet up around midnight for some drinks and then head out for the night clubs around 3ish – that would be the time at which everything closes in Luxembourg.

If you are visiting and wandering around in the streets of the city, watch out for dog shit. It's everywhere!
And if not, the pavement on the sidewalks gives you a hard time.

And last but not least, the area at Puerto Madero in BA looks almost exactly the same than Darling Harbour in Sydney. Weeeiiird!



…And last but not least!

Despite all those new and strange discoveries, despite the warm welcome of Fernando’s family and his extremely nice and sweet grandmother (Leli), and despite my ever-increasing appetite for discovering more about BA and Argentina, I find it sometimes very hard to stay in a country, where you don’t really know the language and you don’t have a lot of contact people, especially true friends and family. – In other words: I miss you, guys!!!!!


Stay tuned for the next postings of “BA for foreigners” (in approximately one week time)

A.