Mi Casa

I promise I'll start actually writing stuff more..... As for today, I hope you're interested in my house and what living in Buenos Aires is like.  Extra special bonus: I turned my keyboard and spellchecker back to English so there's not a billion typos!

First, my house!  This place is full of many colorful paint and natural light.  Everywhere, that is except for my small, boring white room.  It's kinda like a dorm room.  Anyways, the rest of the house looks like each room was built decades apart and as a result nothing is completely consistent (doors, windows, ceiling height, etc.).   I don't know exactly how to explain it, but the line of indoors and outdoors is blurred here.  The house has a grass courtyard, small patio, kitchen, living room, a separate living space for my host parents and rooms for all the rest of us.  Pics or it didn't happen, right?  The order is from the entrance of the house to my host parents bedroom on the far side.

Every day when I return home, after walking down a very long, white hallway, I get a nice view into the small patio:

Pati-oh yeah!

If you look through the windows at the far side of the previous picture, you'll see that they look into the living room and dining place. This photo shows how open and relaxed the feel of the whole house is, there is no room that is more than 5 steps from being out in the sunshine. 

Looking across the grassy courtyard, you can see the kitchen from a new angle and notice the different styles mixed together in the building.

 

Meet Rocco, one of my good buddies here in Buenos Aires.  He decided to pose for me in front of my host parents room.

 

It's been about a week and a half since I arrived and I'm now comfortable with my neighborhood.  I live in a "trendy" neighborhood with lots of middle class families, bars, cafes and clubs.  It's quite the scene at night, but during the day it's pretty quiet.  So far, I haven't found that much of a difference between the different barrios (neighborhoods) of Buenos Aires; There's almost always dog poop, street art, questionable sidewalks and happy people.  Navigating Buenos Aires can be a little tricky because streets are not always marked well and there are different types of street signs.  Anyways, I took my camera out for a walk around my block to see what I could snap a picture of (and to gain perplexed looks from the locals gazing at the blonde boy talking photos of broken sidewalks).

There was a lot more art on this wall, but these three guys are my favs.

When walking around, it really does matter what street you're on.  As far as I can tell the maintenance and cleaning of sidewalks is left up to the owners of shops and residents.  The picture on the left was taken just around the corner from the one on the right.  In any of the other outlying barrios of Buenos Aires, sidewalks are just as random.  Walking along some of the massive roads is one place to find consistent(-ly boring) sidewalks.

 

This is the street corner closest to my house.   As torn up as this sign may look, these kinds of street markings are the better ones.  Often, the only marking for streets will be plates on the walls of buildings at intersections that are near impossible to see when you're on a bus looking for a street. 

Also nice to see that my block is sponsored by my cell phone provider, Claro!

Well, that's about all I have for you now.  Buenos Aires is a massive city that still manages to have nice people everywhere.  My pictures might make the city look run-down, but keep in mind that this city is not in Europe or the US.  The combination of huge population, a rapidly growing economy and recent political strife all lead to a city that hasn't yet developed infrastructure we take for granted in the States. 

Stay tuned for a semi-bummer blog about corrupt cops and humanity in a big city.  Chau for now!





If anyone wants to send me mail I would be super super stoked and will write you back muy rapido!   However, please don't send me anything more than a letter because it is extremely expensive to pick up and may not arrive with all of its contents. 

Ben Andresen C/O Road2Argentina

Anchorena 1676

CP1425ELL Capital Federal

Argentina