Archive for the 'Buenos Aires' Category

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Freelancing, Blogging, and Entrepreneurship

Published on November 2, 2008 in Buenos Aires and Expat Advice. 5 Comments Tags: Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Expat, Freelancing.

After teaching TEFL English for the last month and a half or so, I’ve come to one conclusion about living down here: if you want to do well for yourself, you need to either start your own business or secure a stable secondary income. Expats don’t have many job options to begin with, and those that are offered pay meager salaries. With that in mind, I’ve got a couple of ideas that have been bouncing around inside my head.

Freelancing

I’m working on this right now. As soon as some of my content is published on MiniHostels, I’m going to start shopping my services around. There are plenty of magazines and websites that I have in mind. The key here is to have some kind of written content to show them, and my articles that I’m writing right now can provide that. My immediate supervisor at work has a lot of experience with freelancing, and she’s going to help me in starting out. I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated.

Blogging

This blog originally began as a personal site I wrote for fun, but as more and more people have commented or emailed me saying they enjoy my writing, I’ve decided to really build the blog as a personal brand. There are lots of expat sites for people coming to Buenos Aires, but not many that speak to those coming fresh out of college. I think I can address that niche. I’ve already started putting together an informative e-book that I’ll be selling on here. It’ll be directed towards young expats and offer insight and how-to methodology for a lot of the problems they’ll need to solve before and after arriving. So stay tuned on the blog front, there’ll be more informative posts, but I’m not going to lose my quirky writing style any time soon.

Entrepreneurship

Over the last few weeks I’ve met a couple of young business owners down here, and it’s definitely the way to go if you’re the enterprising type. I’ve had a couple of ideas, but I think the one that would offer the best fit for my lifestyle and talents would be owning a youth hostel. I’m going to be interviewing local hostel owners for work anyways, so I’ll be sure to pick their brains once that gets going. I’ve checked out a lot of how-to sites and forums that offer advice on how to start and run a hostel, and I’m going to keep fleshing out a business plan over the next couple of months. I think it’s something that I would really enjoy and could potentially do very well at.

Wrap-Up

What about some of you other Buenos Aires expats that have been reading my site? Any advice or insight about these ideas? I know at least some of you have started your own businesses down here!

Empanadas!

Published on October 28, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 3 Comments Tags: Budget, Cooking, Empanadas, Restaurant.

Being that I’m poor, and can’t really afford to eat out all the time down here, I have taken to becoming quite the mad scientist in the kitchen. Tinkering with ingredients that always taste slightly different, trying new recipes from the area, singeing my eyebrows, etc.

I would like to report one very nice success amongst all my attempts at the ubiquitous local pastry: the empanada. I tried a couple of recipes I found online, but I’ve finally settled on one that suits my lust for spicy. Tonight’s masterpiece was composed of ground beef, chopped medium onion, diced green pepper, cumin (very heavy on the cumin), garlic powder, oregano, and diced tomatoes with juice (from a can). The pastries themselves were store brand — I do have to make budget sacrifices somewhere, after all!

Those beauties you see there were taken right after I finished folding over the pastries. Some people make the crimps on the edges fancy, but I suppose I’m just more utilitarian. All you have to do after folding them (easiest if you dab your finger with water to make the edges stick) is brush both sides with a bit of oil and throw them in the oven. You can fry them if you want them more crispy, but I prefer mine baked. Give them about 10 or 15 on the highest setting (my oven only has a dial, I’m assuming I’m cooking them somewhere around 375-400 degrees) and BAM! You’ve got yourself some bangin’ empanadas.

Yeah, I’m a bit proud of myself.

Cool Little Interview

Published on October 27, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 3 Comments Tags: Expat, Interviews.

Last week I got contacted by www.expatinterviews.com, asking me to do a quick interview about my experiences as an expat down here in Buenos Aires. They sent me the questionnaire and it was short and easy, so I went ahead and submitted it. You can check it out here.

I’ll be back real soon with another post, but I’ve got a big lineup of classes that I need to prepare for. Hasta tomorrow!

No Fatties Allowed

Published on October 24, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 0 Comments Tags: Elevator, Fatties, Office, Weight.

I had to share this with you guys. The office where I go into work has a relatively small elevator, with a relatively radical safety feature. Instead of advertising the maximum occupancy with a small sign or perhaps a simple number, this elevator has a weight-o-meter in it. You have a small bar of lights that wink green as more people pile in, but once that magical mystery threshold is reached, BAM! On comes the red beeping light of death. Do I know what the maximum weight is? Of course not! All I know is that if you’re the one to set off that alarm you were just decreed too fat for the elevator. Exit stage left, try the stairs.

I mean, I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised I set it off the other day since I’m just another fat American. But let me put this little feature in perspective. In Argentina, physical beauty is highly prized and sought after. Employer health insurance policies often include once-yearly plastic surgery, free of charge. Yeah, companies figure a little rhinoplasty or a tuck here and there is part of your normal check-up routine. So in this land of highly modified and highly beautiful people, you have to figure that self-esteem is intrinsically linked to your weight. Cue the red light of death.

What genius thought that was a good idea? It’s like the elevator is laughing at your misfortune. If it just wouldn’t budge I think everyone would figure it out, but it has the whole lighting and beeping system just to remind everyone that they’re in the presence of an orca. They might as well have programmed that truck backing up noise into the elevator. One minute it’s green for go, the next klaxons are blaring. I’m just glad it has only happened to me once.

From now on I’m taking the stairs.

Besos

Published on October 19, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 1 Comment Tags: Besos, Greeting, Students.

Argentina is a land of kisses. Everytime you see someone you know or meet someone for the first time, you have be ready to lean in for the kiss on the cheek. This greeting confuses me. In most social settings it isn’t a problem, but when you’re meeting locals that know you’re American it can result in some awkwardness.

For instance, I have a lot of professional students that want to learn business English, so they practice the mannerisms as well. This means that the men go for the firm handshake, which has been drilled into me as the trademark of any respectable gentleman. So when they go for the handshake and I lean in for the kiss, I feel like an idiot. It’s like trying to teach your parents how to give “dap.” Both parties feel stupid.

Also, you can’t lean in on the wrong side. Heaven help you if you lean to your right, because that just isn’t done here. I’ve had some looks of horror akin to me being a leper when I’ve made that particular gaffe. Always lean in to the left, no exceptions. I use a little phrase to remind myself: “Go left if you’re not a leper.”

Ah, the social shenanigans one gets into when learning a new culture.

Employment

Published on October 17, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 5 Comments Tags: Blog, Employment, Hostel, MiniHostels, SEO, Social Media, Travel.

Ok, so I promised splendiferous news for all my faithful readers, and here it is! I am now officially employed as a travel writer / blogger at MiniHostels!

All the aspects of what I’ll be doing are still being hashed out at the moment, but I do know that I’ll be writing and updating multiple blogs, as well as helping the other writers optimize each blog for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and distribution through social media. It’ll involve working with Google Analytics, identifying specific keywords for our blogs, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Technorati, and others. Basically, it’s my dream job. This type of work is exactly what I do on my own time with Expedition Evan, but now I’m getting paid for it!

They pulled up my blog in the interview, so I’d like to think that you guys reading and encouraging me to keep writing played a big part in getting me the job. So… Thanks! Right now we’ll have two in-office meetings a week, with the rest being done on my own schedule at home. I can definitely dig the freedom of the telecommute!

And I saved the best part for last – since I’m working for a hostel network, there is potential for free travel involved. Yes, you read that correctly, free travel. If I stay at one of our network hostels, I can write articles about the hostel in exchange for greatly reduced or free accomodation! And if newer hostels or travel destinations are added to our website, I might be sent to check out the city and accomodations to write about it! I can’t imagine a better job for me right now. When I got the phone call offering me the job, I jumped up and did a legit heel click. No joke.

This job is honestly the perfect storm of awesome. I was worried about finding employment when I came down here, but this has affirmed all the sacrifices I made in moving. It’s just perfect.

Whirlwind

Published on October 14, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 0 Comments Tags: Bar, Flickr, Intercambio, Interviews, Thunderstorm.

This last week has been a real maelstrom of activity. I’ve had a flurry of interviews with an assortment of different companies, but I don’t want to talk about them just yet. I should know more by Friday, and I’ll lay out what the heck I’m doing to survive to you guys then.

Last weekend was like living in Clark Kent’s Fortress of Solitude. All of my friends conspired to scatter across the country, and I’m saving my travel money so I stayed in the city. I ended up going out with my intercambio (language-exchange friend) on Friday, and it was good to get a bit of Spanish practice in. We went to a bar called Jack The Ripper, artfully decorated to look like crap. Seriously. Cecy told me that bars down here which are actually upscale will dress themselves down because dive bars are in right now. Of course, the drinks aren’t at dive bar prices, they still remain up in the stratosphere somewhere in lounge land. Drinking establishments have become a slave to fashion I suppose.

Saturday night was great. A real, live thunderstorm rolled through, and I got to sit on my balcony and listen for a couple of hours sipping wine. I also had a good book to keep me company, “Fuga y Misterio, Cuentos De Amor y Futbol.” Yes, I bought a book about love and futbol. I keep it classy on occasion. I would post pictures I took during the storm from my balcony, but flickr has decided that I use too much bandwidth and must henceforth pay for their services. Buggers. For now, I’ll just throw up El Fuego one more time owing to it’s sheer awesomeness.

Stay tuned for Friday! I have some earth-shattering developments in the works!

A Day In The Life

Published on October 10, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 2 Comments Tags: El Fuego, Plaza Dorrego, San Telmo.

Today was perfect. The weather was grand, I found a neon shirt consisting of a kaleidoscope of purple, pink, and turquoise, and I got to listen to some serious jazz for two hours in Plaza Dorrego.

I really enjoy these solo days where I wander the city aimlessly. I think it’s my favorite form of exploration. I never have a plan in mind, besides picking a barrio and wandering. Today I chose San Telmo. Calle Defensa is its heart, and I perused the street’s myriad antique shops for a couple of hours looking for the useless knick-knacks that I so adore. While I didn’t find any marbles or ancient watches like I had hoped, I was struck by a blaze of neon in a little clothes boutique window. There, in all it’s chest-hair baring glory, was my dream shirt:

I’ve nicknamed it “El Fuego,” for the record.

After paying my respects to the fashion gods that brought me this gift from on high, I stumbled upon Plaza Dorrego where a dude was setting up his amp and guitar. The guy proceeded to play jazz electric guitar for the next two hours while I wrote in my journal and sipped on some vino rojo. When he finished his set, I asked him if he played any clubs and it turns out he’s playing next week! I got his name and told him I’d try to make his show. I really can’t imagine a better way to spend an afternoon.

TEFL Teaching

Published on October 7, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 1 Comment Tags: Budget, Buenos Aires, Expat, Teaching, TEFL.

I follow a lot of expat sites and blogs, and the consensus has been lately that teaching English in Buenos Aires just doesn’t pay the bills. I’ve got some thoughts on that. Back around 2002 it was probably fairly easy to just teach English and do well, but nowadays with the galloping inflation it isn’t so easy.

Pay for a native English speaker teaching at an institute tops out around 25 pesos an hour. Most schools will offer around 20. Private tutoring and lessons are more lucrative, but are very hard to come by and the competition is fierce. The school I’m teaching at pays 25 pesos an hour (little more than $8 USD). Hours vary, but I’ll probably end up with around 20-25 a week once I really get going. If I work 25 hours a week at 25 pesos, I’ll be making 2500 pesos (about $833 USD) a month. Princely living this isn’t.

All in all though, it can definitely be done. I’m living in an admittedly more expensive area of the city (I like the nightlife, what can I say?), but if you split an apartment with a roomie and make an effort to cook at home or eat at restaurants only for lunch, you can do fine. I’ve been bleeding some money these first two months, but that’s because I was establishing my budget and where I’ll be working. If you bring some savings down, you can definitely enjoy yourself.

I promise to return to my regular adventures next post, but I was tired of seeing all these people telling students my age that it can’t be done. It can be done, and I’m doing it. So if you’re reading this and debating whether or not to take the plunge, go for it!

Antares

Published on October 2, 2008 in Buenos Aires and Restaurants. 3 Comments Tags: Antares, Bar, Brewery, Quilmes, Restaurant.

I found a new bar to park my rear at. Antares is a bar that shares its name with the brewery it’s associated with. The place reminds me of an airplane hangar, it’s a really long building with really high ceilings. The bar’s sparsely lit and has plenty of booths, it’s a good place for a rendezvous with a femalien friend. The real star here is the beer though, and my friend Alana and I opted for sampler to start. We both agreed that the Imperial Stout and the Cream Stout were the real stars. They’re a welcome respite from Quilmes, which is pretty much the equivalent of Busch Light. It’s nice to try some microbrews after being spoiled back home.

They had a band come a bit later in the night that was cool, heck they even covered Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls.” A band after my heart. They also covered Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” and a Radiohead song I’m blanking on right now. It made for a real fun night, especially with their 2×1 happy hour special they have every day.

Speaking of food, I interviewed for the touring job on Tuesday and I think it went really well. I should hear back from Kirsty tomorrow, so here’s hoping! I’d be leading small groups of tourists on dining tours around Recoleta. It would be my ideal job down here. Wish me luck!

Oh, and did I mention Antares also serves legit bacon cheese fries!? And that it’s less than 10 minutes from my apartment? That could prove dangerous.