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A Post Trip Reflective Report

    Quote from Bombonera

    UK Man wear it as a badge of honour!

    By the by how many foreigners live in Chivilcoy? Any other Brits knocking around? My friends in Alberti tell me Iā€™m the only ever Englishman to have been there but sim not sure about that!

    Apart from the odd Bolivian/Peruvian I've never met any other foriegners here. Funny you should ask, as I was thinking of this just the other day. There is a house in town reputed to be be owned by a Swiss couple however that's about as much as I know.

    Quote from Bombonera

    The western outreaches of the province has its charms but unless you have a husbandry or wifery stake in the area itā€™s not a natural choice for somewhere to live.

    Indeed...one would never swap the beauty of Scotland for hundreds of miles of boring flat pampa land unless you had a very good reason to. Only a woman would have attracted me to be here.

    Quote from Bombonera

    Iā€™m 10 weeks into an 11 week trip to the Argentine.

    Iā€™m looking forward to going home but I know from previous experience I will be looking at flights back here soon enough.

    I think Iā€™d like to post some thoughts and observations once Iā€™m home. I cannot write like serafina and Splinter but hopefully I can give it a go.

    My poor Spanish stands in the way of a richer understanding but my eyes are keen and my thoughts run deep.

    Best wishes all.

    Get yourself an Argentine girlfriend and you'll be fluent in a week or so!

    @Bombonera , we have all started somewhere with Spanish. I came here when I was already 30 years old. Although I dreamt of becoming bilingual, this is something that is never gonna happen. I could work more on my accent, I could take classes, but my brain is still living in an Italian household and I work in English all day. Despite living in a Spanish-speaking country for 9 years, Spanish is still my L3 language. I am actively working on it, at least in writing, and it is less painful. I can solve my own doubts most of the time, but I can't still make jokes and play of words like in my mother tongue or in English.


    Have you already lived abroad in the past? Despite the claim that Argentina is made of Italians, it took me a few years to adjust. My husband says that I spent the first 2.5 years complaining non-stop. I was also "stuck" in San Isidro as he wouldn't contemplate living in Capital. Many people living in the Province (and this can be as far as Olivos as in the middle of the fields in the pampa) have a strong dislike for Capital, that they consider the worst of evils. Actually, Capital has many barrios and there are many kind of lifestyles. If you have the privilege of a choice, you can live a pretty decent life that isn't any less enjoyable than in Zona Norte.

    Obviously, if your idea of Capital is Mataderos, Once, Barracas, you'd better off in the Province.

    Reading this is making me recognize my own prejudice. I so love living in Capital that I just canā€™t understand how anyone could choose to live in the Province, with many of the inconveniences of the city but few of the benefits, IMHO.


    I love that BsAs is such an easily walkable city, with so many opportunities within close reach! Why live far enough away that itā€™s necessary to have a car or take a train to concerts or museums? If itā€™s the simplicity of small town living that is appealing, why choose a town that is part of BsAsā€™s urban sprawl?

    Quote from Bombonera

    Iā€™m 10 weeks into an 11 week trip to the Argentine.

    Iā€™m looking forward to going home but I know from previous experience I will be looking at flights back here soon enough.

    I think Iā€™d like to post some thoughts and observations once Iā€™m home. I cannot write like serafina and Splinter but hopefully I can give it a go.

    My poor Spanish stands in the way of a richer understanding but my eyes are keen and my thoughts run deep.

    Best wishes all.

    Please do continue to post and be part of this community after you go home. Youā€™ll definitely be back!


    And I believe we will all look forward to what you write about your time in Argentina!

    Quote from Bombonera

    Thanks Rice

    Iā€™d happily live here but 2 things make it challenging.

    I have a daughter back in England. Sheā€™s an adult now but still.

    I earn my money in fits and starts and I donā€™t see my irregular income meeting the visa requirements. I can earn quite a sum in one day or week and then not earn for months. In fact that has happened whilst Iā€™ve been here.

    We hope you do come back, mate! I'm sure a beer or two wouldn't go amiss.

    :cheers:

    I usually feel less the return leg (to Buenos Aires) than the outbound on (to Italy). Perhaps because I am happier to go back home than to visit Italy, which for me is a stale and decaying country. Unfortunately, my family doesn't live in a touristic area, nor close to the sea, so I am stuck in a grey, monotonous plain populated by factories and mall. I would trade it for the Pampa any second. Even if repetitive and plain, the Pampa is actually miles and miles of countryside with cows, sheep and horses grazing under the sun. It is very relaxing, there are birds, the smell of Eucalyptus comes in breeze. Add a good mate, torta frita, a nice dinner with a red wine, and I am a happy camper.

    serafina , I, also, look forward to the flight to Argentina with a dancing heart, and dread the return trip to New Orleans. Argentina makes me so happy. Of course I love BEING in New Orleans, just not the deadly experience of arriving in Houston or Miami at 5 am, standing in line at immigration and customs (ok, my own fault for insisting on returning with many bottles of Malbec), running to catch the connecting flight, and finally arriving, sleep-deprived, feeling as if I havenā€™t showered for days, and with a furry animal living in my mouth.


    But most of all, I hate that trip because it means Iā€™ll be away from Argentina for months again.

    In Bariloche, we used to buy food at the supermarket or takeaway empanadas. Prices to eat in restaurant (nothing fancy) were expensive compared to Buenos Aires. The north is cheaper than anywhere else in the country.

    I gather that your daily expenditure is calculated on the cost of food when eating out every day, twice meals a day, @Bombonera ?