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.

Argentines and their obsession with ID's

Some of you may be wondering what happened to Katie, considering I haven't blogged in the past month. I could probably fill books with the ridiculous that is my life and all of the interesting things that happen, but I'll spare you the details (at least for now). Long story short, my computer stopped working and is now "fixed" except not... It is super frustrating! I've spent the majority of tonight trying to figure out why it won't read my sd card and with no luck. Thus, no pictures to upload and no idea how to save the pictures on my computer so I can take new pictures. :-(  The temporary soluation? Peanut butter mnm's, a nice hot shower and sleep.

But that's not the point of this entry...this entry stems from another frustration - Argentines and their obsession with ID's. Obsession you say ... isn't that a little harsh? No, they ask for your ID all the time -- for everything!! Not just any old ID either, your passport. Sure, in some instances you obviously need to bring your passport (if you were to fly somewhere or get money at a bank, etc.) but in order to get a free plastic card, which you can put money on to ride the subway or bus. Really!?? A bit ridiculous don't you think?

My favorite is when you purchase anything with a credit card they want your passport or sometimes they will just let you write down your passport number. (Who knows why my internationally-recognized ID card can't serve as my form of ID.) Maybe it's just me, but before traveling everyone tells you not to walk around with your passport. More so because pickpocketing is a full-time job here in the city. It's only logical -- think of all the pain and suffering you'd have to go through to get another one while in a different country, especially a country where running errands is guaranteed to take you at least 3 times as long as you originally had planned. This kills my efficiency and time management. :-(

Then there's the case of volleyball... we practice in a middle school gym not far from my house. It has a guard that buzzes you into the building and you sign in on a piece of paper. They want you to bring your school ID card (even though some people aren't students) or write down your passport number. I for one do not have my passport number memorized, nor would I randomly give it out in the case that I did have it memorized. This likely stems from our culture of not sharing personal information, especially given the amount of identity theft nowadays.

I just don't understand... I feel like asking for your passport number is as commonplace as saying, 'Hey, how are you?' while walking and not really looking for a response from the other person. (Try this - next time someone you know passes you and asks how you are, respond with something completely ridiculous like 'my liver really itches' and take note of how 95% of the people won't skip a beat!) Nobody here ever verifies, or has any way of verifying, if the passport number you are giving them is correct. Quite pointless if you ask me. :-)

So long sweet summer

I registered for classes on Sunday at midnight and they started Monday. The best part is that they are only Monday - Thursday and in the afternoon. :-) perfect!

I should be on the brochure ;-)

So far they seem to be interesting ... Although my social economy class was cancelled on Tuesday because the professor was in France. I can see my tango class easily being my favorite and my political class the worst. The teacher mumbles in a monotone voice and is very open about what party he belongs to and has said that the class may or may not bash Americans.... Not to mention that half the class are native speakers from Spain or Mexico.

They don't buy textbooks here...just photocopies. And since this is Argentina, the professors told us to go to specific copy shops, but they never had the material for the classes (or it was material from 2 years ago). After checking all of the different copy shops they sent us to, no luck. There were literally hundreds of foreign students trying to figure out where to get their materials. I finally got one of my class materials ordered yesterday and it was only $25! I could get used to that :-)

I also joined the volleyball team and that has been fun! Note to self: don't go months without exercising and then decide to play volleyball 2 days a week and run the day in between. Your body will not be happy with you...