From Bmore to BA

Last week a friend of mine shot me an e-mail out of the blue inquiring about his options in Buenos Aires, were he to give up his life in NYC and move down here. He mentioned that while he´s been reflecting on his circumstances for awhile now, what brought Buenos Aires in particular to his attention was this article in New York Magazine from late February.

Without going into too much detail, this article, which is now somewhat infamous in various expat-circles down here for its hedonistic and overly self-indulgent view on living abroad, goes on to tell the story of a guy ¨who would be nothing¨ if he were back in NYC, according to his (tactful and surely likeable) best friend, but because of his good fortune in being born in a country that now has a very favorable exchange rate, can pretty much live on his own terms, ostensibly assuring he remains far from ¨nothing.¨

Now, it seems, everyone´s getting on the bandwagon: just a few weeks ago came another piece on the dramatic increase of visitors and expats to Buenos Aires, this time from the Washington Post, which hailed the city for its great value, and claimed the driving force behind it all is ¨$250 (USD) rents.¨

I get a fair amount of inquires from people asking about moving to BA all the time, so I´ll try to clear up what I think are a few misconceptions about the whole ordeal.

Shall we…

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You probably won’t see the above headline in the NYT travel section anytime soon. At least not while the supposed travel “articles” focus on little more than bickering about whether the foie gras is better at the 4 Seasons or the Intercontinental. But you’ll find it here, especially now that this past week has seen a few important developments arise regarding my current state of affairs in Buenos Aires:

1) I checked my bank account, and it’s confirmed: I have almost nothing, even by Argentine standards. I knew it all along, but either out of fear (or blessed ignorance) I avoided looking at the balance the past week or two. Which brings me perfectly into the next point:

2) I’ve started teaching english, and this time seriously. I’m now committed to just over 10 hours a week. While I’ve been solicited to teach alot more, for me this is a good start. “10 hours” just reflects the actual time spent teaching - between commuting and preparation, these 10 hours can easily turn into 20. I’ll go into more detail about my English teaching gigs below, but because I want to continue freelance writing (which I’ve been trudging away at for the past 5 weeks), and I have plans to start up a mini-business with a friend of mine (I can’t go into details yet because we’re still waiting for the patent lawyers to get back to us), this 20 hour commitment is ideal.

Also, one of my friends mentioned while he loved my sharp political commentary on US foreign policy and the current state of anti-americanism in Latin America, I should, in the wise words of Bill O’Reilly (warning: link contains racy material not seen since the Monica Lewinsky files) “shut up,” and get on with the interesting stuff.

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