Arriving in Buenos Aires was a bit crazy. The sheer size and amount of people in this city is crazy and one always needs to keep an eye out, more in some areas than others. I arrived and got the first taxi to Gaspar´s house, which turned out to be a fair distance away from the station and I ended up having to pay 100 pesos for the car, which is around 25$, I guess not a crazy amount at home, but here 100 pesos is a lot for a taxi... Anyways I arrived and got settled into Gaspi´s house no problem, which was nice. He lives alone in a small apartment. I had a pull-out love-seat to sleep on, which was better than the previous sleeping arrangement in BB. I was determined to take care of some errands first, including a Brazilian Visa and mailing a some extra weight home. After spending some time talking over the city with Gaspi and the various transportation roots I begun the searchs, which I soon realized took me right back to the area around the bus terminal where I had come from.
I spent the next few days and nights taking care of these errands. The Brazilian Visa proved to be too long of a wait here in the Buenos Aires office so I gave up on that, but the mailing went well. In between doing these things I would walk about different parts of the city. I would say it takes at least a week in the city to get to know its different districts at all, and that is what Buenos Aires is all about. Walking amongst the different districts and feeling the differences between them, some being very rich, upperclass areas, while others are the complete opposite. Each ¨barrio¨ has a distinct feel, this is cool thing about the city. I was staying in Chacarita and thus had to take public transportation everywhere to get anywhere, so after a week and a half in the city I got quite used to the bus routes and subways. The buses are fast and extensive and the subways are slow (for a subway) although direct. The subway system is useless in some ways because all the lines lead to the center from different parts of the city, except never go in a diagonal or perpendicular to the main straight lines. So to take the subway to Palermo which is next to Chacarita. I have to take a 20 minute subway to the center then change lines and another 15 minutes back out of the center. Quite inconvenient. In that sense buses work much better.
I arrived on monday and thus there wasn´t much to do in the city, at least compared to the end of the week... So it wasn´t until wednesday night that I went out with a friend and began to comletely ruin my sleeping pattern and begin damaging my liver with alcohol. From this point on the days continuously began to shorten and the nights lengthen. Going to bed at 9am would without a doubt make one feel like sleeping until around 5 pm at least. ISome days I would force myself to wake up early (at 3 pm) to go out for a walk or go to a market. Gaspar, my temporary room-mate seemed to have this lifestyle built into his being, and he rarely ever goes out at night for lack of money. Studying here in Argentina is free and thus many students from outside the country swarm to get in (which is no problem) and study for free. The vast majority of these international students go to Buenos Aires because UBA (University of Buenos Aires) is the most prestigious school in the country for many things, even more so than the private Universities. Although these students that come, including Argentinians, to BA to study are being completely supported by their parents. While they do not have to pay for Tuition they do have to pay for a place to live and food. I accompanied Gaspi to one of his summer course lectures on evening. It was much different than the schools at home. It is only a school, a place to go and sit in a room and study and take notes. The basicness of the place leaves one with a feeling of amazement towards the idea that it is prestigious. It is not an institution that has an incredfible amount of organization, hierarchy or staff. There are no clubs or groups for people to meet others. It is just a building with rooms and a common area in the middle with plastic patio furniture to study. So much is built around the institutions that we call Universities at home. Such effort to incorporate students and make them fit in. Such a pride and competition between students and other schools, attempting to create a comradery between students and a respect that they wear on their chests for their schools and who they represent. A part of me thinks this is extremely stupid and unnecissary. Is this what we are paying thousands of dollars for? Because that is what the main differences seem to be between their FREE education and ours. They view University as study and nothing more, because thats what it is. We view University as fun, partying and clubs. Being a part of something! I feel like this is the wrong viewpoint of education. People here study to work and if they fail they try again because its free. They can work while they study although it means they will simply take more time to complete their courses. School is not seen as something that needs to be completed and put in the box as soon as possible but something to get done as you see it and when you want it.
So, unless they work on the side, adding more pain and suffering, their parents do not give them extra money each week for the sake of their social life... So, while Gaspi didn´t go out much, he still seemed to prefer the night as opposed to the day, staying up late playing video games or whatever else he might do with his girlfriend when the door is closed. At any rate I truly do not blame him for being nocturnal, the days here are infernal... well the nights are too but just less so. The heat and humidity in Buenos Aires is horrendous and constant. Unless it is completely cloudy and raining I would not recommend even stepping foot outside before 3pm. Even then you will still work up a sweat. So spending full-days walking around the city was not preferable and left me exhausted by the night time, where we would eat dinner at around 11 pm and begin to drink at least a few litres of beer, whether we were going out or not. On the nights that we did go out. We would gather, order-in, buy maybe a dozen litres of beer, a few bottles of Fernet and maybe some wine on top of that and proceed to dry up for the next 4 hours, when we would go out to the club and carry on doing so until at least 7 in the morning.
One morning I was the last one of my group to leave the club at about 7 am (when it closed) walking down the street I asked for directions from a trio of guys who then started up conversation and I got swept away with them to eat breakfast/continue drinking. The later came first. We sat on a patio under a porch casually talking as the rain turned on and off from above. Casually drinking and exchanging cultures and opinions. The dim, half-light of dawn at 9 am was either held back fog or over-tiredness. After finishing up here we proceeded to look for an ¨after¨ which is a place where people go after the club closes to party until around 11 am. On the way there fight broke out between 2 guys, each with a friend, a few meters in front of us leaving one side with 2 bloody noses and the other walking off satisfied. They said it was over a ¨mina¨ or a chick. Mina directly translating to Mine in english. We then became doctor for these two poor souls who clearly had the worse end of the stick. While talking to one bloody face and telling him I was Canadian, he grunted out a ¨mmm arcade fire¨ I smiled because this was one of the first south americans that I had met that knew of the band that I hold with such pride. Arriving at the ¨after¨ and finding it was full, we left to get some breakfast, which was followed by sleep. A damn long night...
When I did not go out for nights like these Gaspar and I would just go out to a bar in Palermo (the night life hub) and sit and watch the women go by. When doing this it was clear that many others were doing the same. That was the entertainment! The abundance of gorgeous women in Buenos Aires is stiffling and they all seem to come out when sun comes down like vampires coming out of their dens to get some attention, and do they ever get it. They dress themselves up without shame and do the walk, they may be with their boyfriends or not, it doesn´t matter. Here in this country this sort of thing is not attached to the idea that this is an easy girl or a tramp. Neither the women or the men look at an attractive women with disrespect when she shows off her body, it may be all she has, why take that from her. At home in Canada this girl would be shunned from the get-go as a skank by her peers and abandon those ¨evil ways¨ just as quickly as she had taken them up. On top of that in Canada, because the men are not used to these types of treats as soon as they see such ¨mina¨ they begin to drool uncontrolably. They lack of ability to contain what they are thinking and desiring brings about the jealousy of the other women who degrade this skank who is taking all the attention. These petty social insecurities do not exist here and I am glad. While the men do drool here they keep it to themselves or amongst their friends bringing it down to a nod of the head, a raising of the eyebrows or some such signal that lets his companion know there is something coming. Yes the nightlife was a considerable part of the experience.
All of these bars in Palermo, centered around a main Plaza would then turn into clothing outlets in the morning. The tables and stools would be put away and the entire floor of the bar or club would be filled with racks of clothing while outside, the streets would be filled with kiosks selling jewellry, art and leathers. I spent several days walking about the different markets of Buenos Aires, for there is an abundance of them, especially on weekends. Occupying streets and plazas all over the city. These are the places where the coolest things can be found and often for a much more reasonable price.
I stayed for little over a week, taking my time doing these things. I got quite accustomed with the city and how it ticked. It was a thrilling ride although I don´t believe I could live in the place simply because of the size and sprawl of noise and industry. Nevertheless it would not get old to visit the city for a few weeks each year to do what I have just done! I left on the wednesday morning, and did not take a taxi to arrive at the Port where I was going to take a Ferry across Rio de La Plata and arrive in The Republic of Uruguay. To Colonia del Sacramento.
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