Getting to Know BA

We have been wandering around the neighborhoods of BA for the past few days trying to decide where we might want to live. This is much harder than it sounds as BA is a HUGE city. Our feet are worn out.

We sometimes take the subte (subway) back towards our neighborhood. The ride is about US$.40. The trains are a mixture of typical subway trains and gnuine antiques depending on which line you are on.
I felt really out of sorts for the first few days. I am having trouble with the language, not just because my Spanish is horrible, but also because the accent here is so different that I can't even parse the sounds into words sometimes! People here are friendly though and forgive us for being dumb Americans.

We went to a local neighborhood pizza joint a few nights ago and by slaughtering a few words of Spanish and some general pointing we ordered a pizza and beer and sat down with the local boys to watch the futbol game. It was Boca Juniors vs. Arsenal (not the English one) playing for the South America cup - quite exciting. The locals welcomed us, tried to talk to us, and then, because they so rarely get tourists (especially Americans) in there - they took our picture. Boca Juniors won with a score of 2-2, something I still don't understand, but it was a great evening.

The other reason I felt so out of sorts was the season change. It's weird, of course I knew it was the end of winter here and would be chilly, but the shock of moving from the feeling of late summer to the presence of late winter is really disconcerting. It's hard to explain, but my body was very resistant at first to this feeling of lingering cold. We are used to traveling and have often had sudden climate changes, but season changes are something completely different. Now I am looking forward to the promise of spring.

Thursday evening we took a cab over to the Palermo Barrio and joined a HUGE group of American Ex-Pats at Sugar to watch the culmination of the Democratic National Convention.

We met a few interesting people, got the proper forms to fill out to make sure we receive our ballots in November, and enjoyed watching the speeches with an enthusiastic crowd.

And now, for a few random bits we have discovered about BA.....

There are professional dog walkers here who have HUGE mobs of dogs with them.....

A large local beer (1/2 liter) costs between US$.95 and US$1.50, depending on where you are and what type it is....

They serve Pizza and Empanadas EVERYWHERE, there is more pizza here than in Italy.

There are four meals consumed during the day:
Breakfast, 8:00 - 11:00AM consists of coffee, juice, toast or medialuna (croissant)
Lunch, 12:30 - 3:00PM can be simple, or more commonly, a large meal with a few courses.
Tea/Coffee time - 4:30 - 7:00PM tea or coffee with light snack or sweets (pastries are everywhere)
Dinner - 9:00PM - 12:00AM again, can vary significantly, but usually appetizer or salad, entrée, and desert. They always look at us strangely when we only order entrees.

You can buy fresh candied nuts on the street corners for between US$.35 - US$.65 a packet. Mmmmmm....hot candied peanuts. Unfortunately they are easy to get addicted to.