Holy crap, what is up Argentina!

Holly and I got in yesterday and all I could do was feel overwhelmed. We got off the plane, passed through customs, and met our taxi company with all-american grace: Holly knocked over the taxi sign with her over-stuffed backpack and I fumbled through a conversation with the driver while managing to only get ripped off a little bit. When we got to our apartment, the address at least, and there was no one to be found. We were told to meet the owner’s mom but she wasn’t waiting outside like we had expected. Fortunately we were meeting our contact at our apartment (SP) and we decided it was best to just be American as hell and ring through all of the flats in the building and ask for “la madre de Fede!?” Short story short, it worked. We got into the apartment and were given a quick orientation of how to use the heaters, kitchen appliances, and other janks. Fede’s mom never got around to telling me how to use the bidet but I know I’ll figure it out.

Anyways, after the initial shock of being totally alone in a big city in South America, Holly and I gathered the stones to wander around aimlessly in order to complete a few small tasks; get a chip (SIM card), un tarjeta SUBE (public transit card), and breakfast for the next day. After raw dogging a few conversations with the locals and walking around for a couple of hours, we decided to get food at a corner rest’o. Seemed like a great idea execpt we were totally alien to the local dining etiquette. We walk in like total assholes, ask if we can eat there, like idiots, and then finally find a place to sit in an empty dining room. I ordered a milanesa sangwich, a huge bottle of Quilmes (the local brew, which i was fortunate enough to be familiar with) and a bottled water for Holly. The food comes out quick; more quickly than I’d like, and it’s awesome. Good, basic, and straightforward. The beer was cold and delicious and we concluded the meal by forgetting the word for tip and handing the waitress a stack of bills that was probably too much. Kill them with kindness as I always say.

Anyways, after that whole fiasco we walked back to our apartment with bellies full of food and beer and took a nap for what seemed like many hours. You see, we had gotten on our first flight from RIC around 2:30PM 6/3/2013 and hadnt arrived in Buenos Aires until around 9AM 6/4/2013. Not that it was a particularly long flight, but getting to a new place in the AM is much worse than at night; I felt like I was drunk and on drugs the whole time I was awake until I got that nap after lunch. Before that, I was having questions about what the hell I was doing and all this other stuff that melted away after a quick nap and another lap around the block. That night we had plans to meet up with SP and her boyfriend, who is a legit badass American expat running a software company here, for dinner. Holly and I used my newly acquired SUBE card to take the bus about 30 blocks away from our cozy apartment to a dinner that would make foodies cry. It was the best introduction to Argentine cuisine. We started with some marinated eggplant, a bottle of 2010 Malbec, a basic arugula salad with cheese and a balsamic vinigarette, and a chorizo link that made me want to kiss puppies. When the chorizo came out, so did the Chimichuri (Chimi) and I put it on everything. After all that worked out, we ordered another bottle of wine and got ready for the main meats. The expat ordered us a plate of pork and a plate of beef. The pork was of the shoulder variety and seemed to be marinated and cut into strips and grilled. That was recommended to be eaten with a sprinkle of salt and lemon. The beef dish, bife de chorizo, was just about a 4 pound serving of a 3 inch thick cut of sirloin strip steak. Holy cow, shit. The expat we were with said it was unusual to get a steak that rare, but I couldn’t have been happier. The pork was well done and the beef was mid rare to the max. Needless to say, it was excellent and I will be back.

Holly and I took the bus back to our neighborhood and wandered back to our house without incident. Sleep was good. Around noon the next day, we woke up, made coffee and ate some little chocolate chip cake. We had plans to meet up with SP to trade out our American USDs for some black market Argentinian pesos. It turns out that the black market rate (blue dollar) is about 100% better than the regulated Argentine rate, which turns $200 USD into roughly 2000P instead of 1000P. Its a good deal. Anyways, after we gave our dollars to SP and threw her dog, we tried to get back on a bus to find that our SUBE card had become deactivated somehow. After making a fool of ourselves and trying to put paper pesos into the unmarked receipt slot on the bus, we wandered around looking for a maxikiosko to fix our card. Turns out you have to register your transit card AND your sim card to your passport. Good to know. We shall see tomorrow if it works. We wound up walking back home anyways.

After getting back and registering our cards, we walked over to el parque centrario and boned around. Nothing too exciting but there was a little skate park there and some decent graffiti. It’ll be a nice place to go hang out and read or throw frisbee or whatever but nothing too special. Afterwards, we came back to our neighborhood, Villa Crespo, and picked up some stuff for dinner. We bought some meat empanadas and stuff to make lentils and rice. I cooked up some onions, garlic, red and green bell pepper in butter and worked those out for a bit. Then I tossed in washed and soaked lentils and washed white rice and toasted that jank for about 10 minutes until I felt it was awesome. Then I added the soak liquid, a box of tomato puree, and some red wine. I let that reduce a little then covered it to finish cooking the lentils and rice. I had to leave to go get salt and another bottle of wine but the food was ready by the time I got back. We heated up the empanadas and ate them the the lentils/rice for a pretty decent meal on the fly. Afterwards, Holly started working on her spanish and I moved pictures at an absurdly slow rate from my CF card to my external hard drive via my chromebook but that’s a story for another post. Spoiler: it sucks…currently. Anyways, after that, I decided I go ahead and start this thing.

Currently (6.5.2013), I’m sitting in our apartment listening to Holly yell at her Spanish speaking iPad and a song called One Boy/One Girl by a group called !!!. Our second bottle of wine is about halfway done and this post nearly complete. The dishes are done and it seems like we are pretty content staying in for the night. Tomorrow, we are going to venture away from our place in a SE direction in order to see the water and also some of the more classic views and experiences in Buenos Aires. Needless to say, we are excited. Stay tuned for more editorial ish.

With currency the way it is, I probably spent about 275Pesos which works out to be about 30USD.