For any reader who may be interested in studying abroad or going to Buenos Aires take note of my following observations. The city is gigantic. It is super confusing and congested. Public transportation is pretty widely accessible and cheap, but extremely overcrowded.
People talk in a distinct dialect which diverges a lot from the type of Spanish I was taught. For example, the use of vos instead of tu. The pronunciation of calle as cajje, ayer = ajjer, the use of che and boluto especially among young folk as slang.
Prices are inflated especially for consumer goods that weren't produced in Argentina such as electronics or toiletries. Prices for clothing and entertainment are pretty comparable and on the cheap side considering it is a big city. Food is cheap especially if you get out of the most ritzy parts of the city. The Argentine peso is tacked onto the dollar and so many of the prices are not so much different then they would be in the US. Although the exchange rate is 4 pesos to 1 dollar, for a nice shirt it might cost 200 pesos or 50 dollars, which is pretty comparable to the would be price in the US.
Empanadas are a pretty great food (think gourmet hot pocket)along with the beef in general. Vegetables and fruits while widely available and extremely fresh are not eaten by many and don't constitute a significant portion of the Argentine diet. The abundance of liters of Quilmes, Brahma, or Isenbeck (all Argentine beers) too is an added bonus especially as a way to break the heat. Beer by the liter is a great way to enjoy it and is very cheap.
People have been a mixed bag. Many younger women are very cold, distant, and put on airs. This is true for some men too, but it seems especially true of younger women. Then there are people who are extremely kind and helpful. I've been lost many times and have been rescued a couple times by very kind people. Apparently, petty theft is pretty common; a few of the people on my program have suffered from this, luckily I haven't.
Also people culturally are by US standards very imprecise and not at all in tune with "the customer is right" mentality. Take for instance the preferred method of giving directions. If I ask someone where to find something on the street, they will give me a a point in the general proximity of where I'm supposed to go and say "alla". This method would seem pretty vague and open to interpretation, but it is the only way that you will get directions. I even asked a Chinese person in the Barrio China (Chinatown) how to find something and was shocked that they employed the exact same method; a very animated point in the general direction with arm curvature and all.
I really was not fully prepared for just how different life is in Argentina and have grown to appreciate how much the habits which we all fall into are deeply encoded and not easily broken. So the theme for the last 10 days or so has been trial and error. Getting lost, asking a local for help, them not understanding what I'm saying, talking to my host grandma and having no idea what she says and other bits of fun like that. If there was a theme song to my time it would be the Clash song "Lost in the Supermarket"; in fact this is the song that plays through my mind as I try to locate myself and my destination.
Getting to know my host family has been difficult, especially the first few days. I have to say that I quickly grew to dislike my host mother Alejandra or Maria because of her rough, arrogant disposition. I'm starting to come around to her though and her disagreeable temperament. Although at first I thought I would get along well with the brothers in the family Tomas and Matias, this neither has gone according to plan. Tomas is 9 and can be a bugger. At times he can be cool too though. Matias on the other hand is never in the house probably because he doesn't want to be around the family. Further, he has really made no effort to show me around or hang out with me or anything. The father Ramone, hell of a guy, a great American if you will. His job is to keep Maria and Tomas in line which is a very necessary task. I've also recently found out that he was the former director of River Plate Soccer Club for like 10 years. This would partially explain why the family is so ridiculously into River. It would also explain why they got super pissed when I wore my Boca shirt around the house. For those who don't know, Boca and River are cross town rivals in Buenos Aires, the former considered the club of the working class and the latter known as the "Millionarios" because of their connection with the upper classes of Buenos Aires. I had the opportunity to see a River game against Velez at Estadio Monumental. It was pretty awesome, the fans are ridiculously passionate. Due to the "lindo blooper" (beautiful blooper) of the goalie, River gave away an early gift to Velez. Unfortunately, River ending up losing 2-1, and my host family, half jokingly, narrowed down my presence at the match as an causal explanation, as I was "mala suerte" (bad luck).
So a large part of my experience so far has been getting acquainted with the "colectivos", which is how they refer to intercity buses in Buenos Aires. For a little over a peso you can get a ride in these hot, overcrowded, stinking, crazily driven buses which follow routes designed by a four year old. Although the subte (subway) is not very close to me, I've found that it is much more convenient then the colectivos and much faster. On the buses especially, it is very easy to get all lost in the supermarket. When this happens you no longer shop happily; in fact one time I took a colectivo directly into one of the most dangerous areas of Buenos Aires at night called Constitucion. Awesome.
The typical experience on a colectivo can be related in a tale of two fat kids. As I get on the bus and the driver asks where I'm going or whatever I notice a great fat kid on the bus (or so I think). Just as I'm about to take a coveted seat on the bus, this would be great fat kid shows his true colors and slips in to get the seat ahead of me. As I wrestle my way to the back of the bus among the many standing passengers, I find a nice place to stand squeezed in among about 20 other people. Finally I get a seat, and I notice another fat kid on the colectivo, getting ready to go to school with his power rangers backpack. Now this fat kid is great because of how out to lunch he is. I knew right away by looking at him that he wasn't the type to steal a seat and was an overall cool guy.
The duality of the previous tale in many ways typifies my experience in Buenos Aires thus far. It has been extreme - I've met awesome, very helpful people. Take for instance Jorge, the owner of Los Amigos, a little empanada/pizza place about two blocks from where I live. Great guy, always tries to help me out and asks if I need to know where anything is. And I've met awful people, take for instance my host mom. This woman makes the biggest deal out of nothing. One night the people from the program called the house and she has this grave look on her face. "Are you going to class?" "Yes of course" I answered. Basically she ending up making a big deal of nothing: very annoying. I've had days where I've wanted to throw a chair through a window or an open paint can at something out of pure rage after getting lost all day and to top it all off stepping in dog crap. This is probably my biggest complaint about the city i.e. the prevalence of dog waste and the fact that people are that lazy that they don't even pick it up. And I've had very positive days too where I've done a lot of cool stuff, that's one thing there is no shortage of stuff to do. There a ton of clubs, bars, restaurants, shows to see, movie theaters, soccer matches packed in the city easily within access.
