Tag Archive for 'Buenos Aires'

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My Top 5 Travel Resources

Published on November 8, 2008 in Travel Advice. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Since I do a lot of research by nature, I’m always on the hunt for great resources — especially with travel now that I’m a staff writer for MiniHostels.  Here are five of my favorites:

1) Wikitravel

Pure awesome.  Think of it as Wikipedia for the traveler.  The entire site is built upon the real-time submissions of people, which means it’s constantly updated and never outdated.  It’s also policed  just like Wikipedia, so bogus information either isn’t there or doesn’t stay up for long.  You can find information about any place you want to go here, along with suggested links to other resources.  I use it any time I’m looking for information about a travel destination.

2) Thorntree

Easily the best travel forum on the web.  Thorntree is Lonely Planet’s massive travel community, populated by knowledgeable and extremely helpful posters for wherever you want to go.  There are threads for every country on Earth.  If you have a specific question about somewhere, chances are you can find your answer on Thorntree.

3) World Hum

A great site for travel inspiration.  It’s a depository of high-quality travel writing, and the amazing stories definitely inspire wanderlust in even the most hearty homebody.  You can find blogs based out of anywhere.  Very cool site if you’re looking for a personal twist on travel information.  Also, Rolf Potts writes a column here, and he’s my hero.  So it has that going for it too.

4) CouchSurfing

A worldwide community of people sharing their homes for budget travelers, CouchSurfing also offers a great way to meet people wherever you’re staying.  Members host events all over the world, so you’re never far from a beer with some cool people.  I’ve been to some of the Buenos Aires events, and they’ve all been fun.  Someone who is willing to share their home with strangers is by nature very open and will probably have interesting stories to tell.

5) National Geographic Glimpse

Glimpse is a project that got off the ground only recently, but has exploded in popularity.  Glimpse is written by young adults living and traveling abroad, and takes story submissions from anyone willing to write them.  They also have a correspondents program that involves paid writing, which I’ve applied to.  An interesting site for reading the perspectives of other young expats all over the world.

These are just my five favorites, but what other sites have I missed?  Where do you go for all your travel information needs?  I’d love to hear about other spots to get my fix!

TEFL Teaching

Published on October 7, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

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!

Ruminations

Published on September 17, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

As I sit typing this in my alpaca wool sweater, I can’t help thinking about how ridiculous moving to another country is.  Granted, Argentina isn’t exactly lacking in modern amenities, but there are the little things that are always funny.

Take peanut butter, for instance.  Like Spain, it doesn’t exist down here.  My friends found a couple of jars in Jumbo (massive department store) labeled from 1994, at the bargain basement price of approximately 12 USD.  Peanut butter.  I’ve also found some organic peanut butter in a gourmet outlet, but it just isn’t the same when you have to mix the oil on the top in to make it creamy.  I want my processed, Americanized Peter Pan peanut butter.  And it sadly is nowhere to be found down here.  To ship it down is also hit or miss, because customs likes to randomly open packages and then refuse to close them.  So if they randomly pick your package, you have to get to the airport ($30 taxi both ways), pay for the package (price depends on the mood of the customs agent), and then sign for it.  That’s a lot of work for peanut butter.  Still tempting though, especially if it’s crunchy peanut butter.

Same goes for spicy.  Nothing in this city is spicy.  Everything is dulled to something that only tickles your tongue.  I’ve tried a couple of Mexican places and requested my food be as hot as possible, only to be underwhelmed when they use mild salsa.  I want my spicy to make my eyes tear up and my nose run, riding the razor edge between pushing the food away because it’s so scalding and eating everything because it’s so delicious.  That’s the spicy I miss.  This problem, fortunately, has an easier solution than the peanut butter.  You can find most of the ingredients needed to make homemade salsa or guacemole in grocery stores, though the hotter chiles usually have to be bought in specialty shops.  If only I could smuggle in containers of my salsa to all the restaurants I eat at.  Rest assured, my search for spicy lives on.

Getting to said restaurants can also be an adventure, owing to the city’s public transportation.  The subway is convenient to getting around the center of the city, but is often completely packed.  Not Tokyo-style packed, but it’s definitely intimate.  Personal space doesn’t exist down here, so you have to be prepared to stand face-to-face with that businessman that just ate his ham and cheese tostada and breathes heavily.  I can still taste his breath if I concentrate.  The buses also cover most points in the city, but there’s a crisis currently gripping this fair city that my friend Julie covered well in this post on her blog.  So transportation can be hit or miss, depending on how you time it and the dietary habits of the commuters.

But despite these minor quibbles, I’m in love with this city.  I love exploring new cultures and meeting new people, and this city is so massive that I’ll be enthralled for months.  It was pretty harrowing coming down here with no real support network in place, but it has turned out great.  I’ve made friends quickly, I have a nice apartment locked down for the foreseeable future, my roomie Katie gets here next week, and I have a schedule that gives me a significant amount of freedom to wander around aimlessly, which is perfect for me.  I couldn’t imagine starting my career right now, which isn’t a swipe at my friends that have, just a reflection of where I’m at personally.  Maybe it’s just fist-month infatuation and my excitement will fade, but I honestly can’t see that happening.  I’m glad to be here.

San Telmo

Published on September 15, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

San Telmo is one of the oldest barrios in Buenos Aires, and used to be considered pretty unsafe.  It has undergone a big revitilization though, and is definitely a fun spot now.  In fact, my Bridge TEFL class was in a building on calle Defensa, the main artery running through the barrio.  The whole place is criss-crossed by cobblestone streets, little antique stores, and quirky shops.

Every Sunday Defensa is completely overtaken by a massive crafts and antiques fair.  It’s awesome.  Tons of crazy old antiques, hand-made jewelry, art, photography, books, pretty much whatever you can think of.  I scored a great hand-woven alpaca wool sweater for the equivalent of $20 at the fair yesterday.  It actually fits great and is softer than any shirt I own.  My new friend Alana also got some jewelry for herself.  I love spending an afternoon checking old knick-knacks and brick a brac.

After our wanderings we tried a restaurant my guidebook recommended, and it turned out to be a pretty nice spot.  It was named Lezama for any of you locals or fellow travelers.  Menu big as a textbook and portions to match, but still cheap.  You can find it at Avenida Brasil 359.  Food can hit or miss down here, but so far my guidebook hasn’t let me down.  If anyone is thinking about traveling to Buenos Aires, the Time Out guide is perfect for young people.

I should have pictures posted up here soon to accompany my posts, but this dang flickr widget keeps giving me trouble.  Stay tuned!

Buenos Aires

Published on September 13, 2008 in Buenos Aires. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Since I’ve been a bit lazy about setting up this blog, I’ll start from the beginning.  I got here at 4am on August 22nd, and I’ve been going nonstop ever since.

Thus far, I’ve had plenty of adventures adapting to life down here.  I’ve gotten myself out of my single-room dimly-lit hostel into a nice apartment in Palermo (negotiated with a broker who spoke ZERO English!), made it through my TEFL certification course despite the best efforts of crazy old man Fred, eaten the best steak of my life at La Cabrera, and been hired at Euro Trust Capital only to quit three days later.  Quite an eventuful first couple of weeks I must say.

Initially I was just glad to get here and off the plane, but then I remembered I couldn’t check in to my hostel until 10am.  I ended up sleeping in the airport for six hours, just like old times when Davy and I went biking.  The hostel was an interesting experience, mostly because I was given the “hippie” room.  It had a hippie license plate on the door, and the walls were covered with pictures of the Beatles, flower paintings, and lots of hippie lyrics.  I felt like I was sleeping in John Lennon’s meditation room or something.  But all of the people living there were really nice, and I got some serious Spanish practice in since none of them spoke English.  The apartment I’m currently in is in Palermo, a real young neighborhood with lots of boutiques, restaurants, and bars (that never close).  I negotiated the whole thing in Spanish, which I’m kind of proud of.  We’re going month by month and the rent is real cheap for the area.  I’m real happy with it, and I’ll probably post some pictures for you guys soon.

I got here on Friday the 22nd, and the following Monday I started at Bridge TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) for the second portion of my TEFL certification.  My instructor Karina was great, though being told that I was teaching a class on Tuesday was pretty scary.  My experience with the course was great though, all of the students were great and my classmates all were helpful.  Well, scratch that, everyone but Fred.  Fred was a real character that had come over from Brazil, after he had already been kicked out of Bridge’s program there.  He couldn’t take criticism at all.  He would flip out and attack people if they questioned any of his teaching methods.  And they were terrible.  He taught a whole class on a train robbery.  I can’t think of any situation where our students would need to know how to successfully rob a moving train.  I learned a ton, especially about teaching a live class.  It’s pretty intimidating at first, but you get used to it real quick.  We had a Fred meltdown on the last day, but it all ended well; we got certified and the certificate is a good thing to have on my resume.

To celebrate our graduation I went out to La Cabrera with two of my classmates, Jo and Kelsey.  We’d heard all sorts of good things about it, and if you don’t know Argentina is known for having some of the best steak on Earth.  And I’ve got to say, after eating at La Cabrera, I’m inclined to agree.  Best steak I’ve ever had, bar none.  And I’m pretty much exclusively a carnivore.  They knows their meats down here.  Oh, and the steak only set me back the equivalent of $20.  Can’t argue with that.  I can’t wait to try the other famous parillas around town, and keep you guys posted on where to go when you come to visit me.  And I do expect all of you to visit, by the way.

Lastly, Euro Trust Capital.  I hardly knew ye.  They advertised on Craigslist looking to hire “Financial Advisor Trainees” so I shot in an application.  I hear back from them, and give it a try.  Replace “Financial Advisor Trainee” with “Financial Cold Caller” and you’d have it about right.  Direct sales over the phone to our “clients” in Europe who had never heard of us and didn’t want anything to do with us.  Sorry, but not what I signed on for.  We parted ways after three days.

So here I am, a little over three weeks in and riding a roller coaster.  I’ll keep you guys updated on all my experiences down here, but I wanted to throw this up as primer.  Feel free to comment or shoot me an email, I’d love to hear from you guys!