Coffee

For anyone that's a fan of coffee, one may be disappointed when ordering coffee in a cafe in Argentina. For those of us who are addicted to americanos, forget about it...unless you break the rules and go to Starbucks. Which by the way has super ugly international travel mugs this year -sad!

Most cafes serve the following: café, jarrito, café con leche, lagrima, and café cortado. Let me translate that in terms you can identify with...

Café - essential a shot of espresso

Jarrito - double shot of espresso

Café con leche - coffee with hot milk 

Lagrima - mostly hot milk and a little bit of coffee

Café cortado - coffee with a little bit of hot milk

Or in a series of bad translations that I recently stumbled upon...

Café chico - coffee guy (small coffee)

Café grande - great coffee (large coffee)

Lagrima - tear coffee

Depending on the coffee shop, coffee may mean regular coffee or espresso. American sized coffees do not exist and you don't see people getting their coffee to go. (extremely rare and most places don't even have this option) However, coffees generally come with a shot glass of water for when you finish, and accompanied by a mini alfajor or cookie complementary. At certain coffee chains, you can get something similar to a flavored latte, but this is rare and usually seasonal.

Fall in Argentina

Fall is my favorite season - I love seeing the trees change colors. Here they change color much more slowly and the leaves haven't dried up yet, but it's gorgeous.

And in general, the weather here is amazing - hot summers, springs and for the most part, falls. (especially for Iowa standards) Winter doesn't include snow and temps are typically in the 40's, maybe mid-30's. however, I've become weak... I've lost the thick Iowa skin.

Today it's currently 55 degrees and I am absolutely freezing! (maybe in part because the heat isn't turned on yet in my room, but no worries - it will be when I get home tonight!) At any other time, I would think 55 was great, but I've gotten used to being spoiled by the warm temps. When locals thought it was cold months ago when it was in the low 70's, I was walking around in tanks and tees. (They were definitely in sweaters and parkas.... I can't wait to see how they dress now)

Thankfully they have good coffee here and today mine came with three mini sugar cookies :-)

And Then There Were Two

I've been meaning to give some sort of neighborhood update for awhile now, but alas better late then never.

In the beginning there were four - 2 guys from Mexico, 1 from Ecuador and myself. Two of them have been living in Buenos Aires for a few years (one studying engineering and the other training for tennis) and the other came to study architecture for the semester.

We live with an older couple - Tito and Susy, who are like grandparents ... telling us when to bring a jacket or umbrella and helping us get where we need to go in the city. During the week, Sandra (from Paraguay) also lives in the house. She cleans, helps prepare the food and does laundry for the family. In Buenos Aires this type of job is referred to as mucama because many people want so badly to live in BA that they are willing to work for room and board in residential houses. (For the record, I'm not sure if some get paid in addition to room and board.)

Despite living in Argentina, where dinner is usually around 10, we eat between 8 and 8:30. The food isn't great, but I guess it could be worse. They cook super early (4ish) and then reheat it in the microwave at 8. This kills any flavor or freshness the food may have had and dries up red sauce on pastas. We rarely eat meat and tend to eat the same things every week. We drink orange flavored koolaid with everything and dessert is always a piece of fruit, occasionally fruit salad.

Breakfast options consist of toast with jam, coffee with milk (half coffee, half milk), koolaid orange juice, a type of frosted flakes without sugar and a piece of white cake. I absolutely LOVE coffee, but they brew it the day/night before, add the milk and microwave it in the morning. Quite possibly the worst coffee imaginable. Not to mention super weak :( 

*However there is a great coffee spot a few blocks away that basically has caramel macchiatos!

Since we are all students, we have varying class schedules and some eat dinner later depending on their classes or activities. Breakfast is when you get up, so some at 7 am and others 10 am. I've come to the conclusion that there is nothing worse than getting up first thing and having the person who touches your food blow their nose continually and touch your food without washing their hands. Not cool, especially because a majority of the people here blow their noses without toilet paper! (Think of blocking one side and blowing with all your might into a sink or outside.)

Speaking of sinks, the bathroom we share is supposedly cleaned daily, but it definitely doesn't smell that way and I'm pretty sure the shower curtain has NEVER been cleaned!* Plus, I'm pretty sure if Sandra actually cleaned it daily we would not run out of toilet paper all the time. ...nor would my room be covered in dust.


*Note to self: never live somewhere where shower curtains are necessary.


Anyway, back to the original story... Tito has eyesight problems and can only see certain spots or angles. Thus Susy and Sandra serve the food, but Susy has been sick recently with some muscle problems and we were all told we had to find new homes (but we could obviously stay until we found something). About a week later, Tito told me I could stay, along with the boy who is training for tennis because we don't have weird schedules. (aka breakfast at 6:30 or night classes)

That was a few weeks ago - yesterday the other two guys left and I learned that the tennis player has tournaments in Mexico starting next week and he won't be back until I leave. Not news I was expecting to hear... I've been actively looking for a new home, but with no luck. I thought well at least there's the guys - not so much. I'm dreading two months of subpar food and awkward dinners with Tito (Susy never eats with us). Not to mention I've heard all of his stories enough times to retell them as my own. :( on the bright side, I won't have to keep putting down the toilet seat nor worry about sharing the bathroom.

Other positive aspects include: having my own room (large in comparison to other students staying with other families), cable tv in my room, a big desk with shelves and lots of closet space. Plus the location is unbeatable - two colectivos stop at the corner of our house, another three pass the avenue three blocks away and i have 15 or so stop eight blocks away. The subway station is 11 blocks away or I can take one of the colectivos on the corner to another subway stop. I love walking, so I'm glad it's within walking distance to the university, volleyball and church. I also live in one of the richer neighborhoods, so it's fairly safe to walk at night from the bus stops. Not to mention that we live a block away from a police station and the neighborhood is filled with security guards every couple blocks.

Here are two of the failed attempts at moving... 


Not even half the size of my current room, broken furniture, inadequate desk and super far walking from my activities.

Another option, but also itty bitty (aka the shower head was on the wall behind where the bathroom door opened), super expensive and the lady didn't know if she had wifi.