Hey Folks!

So, last time I am going to update this blog. I never thought it would be so time-consuming and difficult to maintain a blog, but apparently I failed to do so on a regular base O_o. This last post is therefore meant to mark the end of this blog.

The end of my stay here in Buenos Aires is not far off and It’s kind of getting emotional on the closing line. I am looking back on a wonderful time here in Argentina with unforgettable and hopefully long-lasting memories that I’ll take back along with me to Germany.

My personal objective was to look back one day on my time here and to be able to say that I enjoyed it to the full – and believe me, I can say that for sure! I travelled a lot, I partied even more and got to know many young people and interesting characters from around the world. What to say – I came here alone and now return with many new friendships. Though I won’t see most of them any time soon, I got plenty of photos that perpetuate the memories.

But my wanderlust (I just love these German words forming part of the English language) still remains unsatisfied and I am already planing the two months I’ll have left over before university starts again at the end of August. I’ll probably use that time to visit my relatives in the States.

With this final post I also want to thank each and everyone who assiduously followed my entries here…!

Muchas Gracias!

Hey Guys,

I’ll update my Blog this week .. so stay tuned!

Hola ¿qué tal?

It’s been a while now since I have posted the last time… especially the last post on Wednesday, where I only uploaded some images, was carried out under an immense pressure of time. I was just about to catch my Bus to the train station to go to Mendoza … but first things first:

It’s now 11:30 pm, I am sitting in a rustic Argentinian Pizza and Empanadas Restaurant and just ordered a Cheese/Basil/Tomato-Sandwich to the liter of beer I’m drinking. To tell the truth I am out tonight alone … exactly two years ago a very close friend of mine took his life and I simply wanted to spend the day secluded, away from others. It’s just inconceivable how fast the last two years passed by since he gave his life…. well, I’ll dedicate this beer (and the following ones) to him… Live Hard – Die Young…

So what have I been up to the last couple of weeks? Let me start with me most recent experience: My trip to Mendoza! Few weeks ago Paco, my Mexican friend, asked me if I was interested in traveling with him and some other exchange students to Mendoza. The whole trip was planned as an adventure-weekend and cost 650 Pesos (130 Euros), so I didn’t hesitate much and decided to go with ‘em.

Mendoza is a Argentinian city with 1.5 million citizen located at the boarder between Chile and Argentina. Apart from Max, Johanna and Sebastian who are all from the my university in Germany the group also comprised Italians, French, Bolivian and plenty of Mexicans. I already got to know them on various Parties and other events. All in all we formed a quite diversified bunch of people (18 persons to be precise) .

The trip itself started on Wednesday and began with a 14 hours lasting Bus trip. I already wrote about the “Collectivos” (the buses you use for transportation within Buenos Aires), but the buses to travel within Argentina are way different. There are basically three different categories: “Semi-Cama”, “Cama” and “Suit”. Our bus was equipped with “Semi-Cama’s”. A very broad seat that you could transform into a quite comfortable bed by moving back the backrest. But that’s not the end of the “bus-luxury” story. There was a attendant that provided you with dinner and breakfast. Even Whiskey and Champagne was ready for order.

We arrived in Mendoza on Thursday morning and started the day with a a little (3 hours….) walk through the city and it’s central park and climbed up a hill from which you could overlook the whole city. At midday they picked us up and we went rafting. Well… what do you generally expect from rafting? Huge waves that wash overboard and an endless fight to maintain the direction of the boat? Negative … it was rather like a cruise for elderlies than anything you would expect from a rafting trip! Quite disappointed we spend the rest of the day with chilling in the sun and chatting.

The next day (Friday) we were picked up again very early to do the “Alta Montaña” (high mountains) part of our trip. Once again we had some expectations that weren’t fulfilled. Thinking of mountains you probably would think of trekking, hiking or any other form of physical strain. Once again: Negative. The whole excursion was carried out in the bus, driving from one lookout point to another. The only positive thing about that whole trip was that we got to see the Aconcagua-mountain, which is the largest mountain on the American continent and measures 6900 meters.

There was one Bolivian girl in our group that knew some exchange students from Uruguay in Mendoza and organized Para gliding for all those that were interested – including me. We stood up very early that Saturday and went to the office where we were supposed to be picked up. There were some jeeps that drove us up the mountain from which we intended to depart. The mountain had an height of 1600 meters. The whole thing was a lot of fun. Luckily nobody got injured or worse and everyone got his money worth… 160 Pesos (37 Euros)… the rest of the day we spent with a “Bodega-tour”, which was composed of visiting different wineries and one olive oil factory.

We then spend the last day with chilling and going out to a “Parrilla, tenedor-libre” restaurant, which was a Steak House with all you can eat Buffet! Afternoon we then took the bus and drove all the way back home. All in all it was a very cool trip. But not due to the different activities we did in first place but rather due to the well-mixed composition of the whole group.

In a rush …

Hey there!

Some ten days have now passed by since my last entry or the more important event: moving to the new apartment. We are very content here and finally enjoy some privacy which wasn’t available at all in the apartment we had before (since both rooms were connected…). We already had some friends over and cooked for them!

Having a new direction also implicated having a new way to university and since the Subte-railway system isn’t that far-reaching we are forced fall back on another notorious transportation system, namely the “Collectivos” (Buses). One might now think that this isn’t anything worth to mention but the bus-riding is a huge adventure here in Buenos Aires.

The first challenge you have to face is the payment method. Bus tickets cost you something about 0,90 to 1,50 pesos (depending on the distance) which can only be paid by coins. Ok, let’s say you have a country where the biggest bill is something like 100 Pesos. A bill that almost nobody wants to accept. Then let’s say that coins are an absolute rareness… think of both and now imagine the problems you might have in that very same country. The other day we didn’t have any coins to take the bus. So I took a 10 Pesos bill and went to -not joking- 15 different shops, stores and restaurants and asked each and every one if he had some change .. but nobody was willing to change my money. Eventually I was forced to buy small things like chewing gum and chocolate speculating that the change might be in coins.

Another interesting “money-story” (I could tell you plenty of them) happened to Stefan yesterday. After going out with a friend of his he told me this morning that the taxi-driver refused to accept his 50 pesos bill (although the ride cost 20 pesos and giving change wouldn’t have been a great deal) and asked him to give all the loose money he had with him.
Today before going to university Stefan and I went to a kiosk to buy some coke and he tried to pay with the 50 Pesos bill from the day before, but the cashier also refused to accept the money … but only because he identified the bill as false money. So what happened exactly? The day before the taxi driver took the bill – changed it rapidly with a false one – and pretended not to be able to give out change. If you believe it or not .. that’s how it happened. If you throw a glance at the false money you can see clearly that it’s a simple print which can be made with any computer. Nonetheless a very tricky situation…

But now back to the buses. Driving buses here in Buenos Aires is a very risky business – every time. In Germany we used to say “Henker am Lenker” which seriously applies to each and every bus driver here. Should any of these buses have a more or less grave accident – I could tell you that half of the passengers would die instantly. Nonetheless it’s always a cool adventure … that’s how you gotta see it!

Oh, another money-story crosses my mind: Until ten days ago I was able to withdraw money everywhere and as much as I wanted. But out of a sudden I can’t withdraw more that 60 Euros (300 Pesos) and have to pay a fee of 20 pesos every time. So what to do…

Every reasonable person would try it at different ATM’s –> check
Every intelligent person would try it at different banks –> check
Every sane person would ask the banks if they can explain why there is a new limit –> check

So … nobody was able to give me a satisfying answer. Nobody knew why the machines got new withdraw-limits. So from day-to-day some banker must have decided clandestinely to change all ATM’s in the whole city … sound’s funny, doesn’t it?

Last weekend we went to play some paintball with some 28 other exchange students from all over the world (Holland, Mexico, Russia, etc.) That was really fun! Since the paintball field was located very far outside of Buenos Aires, it took us 3 hours to get there and another 3 hours to get back. But the whole experience was very cool. It was actually my first time playing paintball and I can say proudly that I played quite well . After returning home we prepared ourself and once again went to Tigre, which is some 30 km outside of Buenos Aires where we were invited to an Island-Party. Having arrived in Tigre the host chartered 3 boats and transported all 200 guests to an Island where everything was prepared quite for the great party. We paid some 40 Pesos in advance and could drink as much as we wanted. I still was so tired from playing paintball that I couldn’t motivate myself to party and so I spent most of the time chatting with people

Hey guys, here we go again!

Stefan and I just returned from our 6 days lasting road trip to the northernmost provinces of Argentina. Before I tell you everything in detail, let me wrap it up in one word: A W E S O M E ! ! !

Hereby I would like to thank Marvin and Katha for providing really helpful tips and advices from their last years’ trips to the north of Argentina. But now everything in detail …

1st Day (Wednesday)

We woke up that day at 5 am and took the first flight from Buenos Aires to Salta, which is the capital of the northernmost province in Argentina, namely Salta. Having arrived there, we directly rented a car for 6 days and started to plan and schedule all the places and cities we wanted to see and visit. We basically planned two different trips:

1. One lasting two days and heading to the south. Driving to Cachi and Cafayate and then return to Salta.

2. The other lasting 3 days and heading to the north. Driving to Purmamarca, Humahuaca, La Quiaca (close to the Bolivian fronter), Iruya, Jujuy and than back to Salta.

On that day we started with the first tour. To Cachi we had to drive around 170 km on a gravel path which was mainly blocked, buried or inundated. And if there weren’t any obstacles on the route you would very likely find animals relaxing your lane. The area and landscape around Salta was very jungle-like but just after 30 km we noticed a lot of cacti growing on the mountains. The rest of the route was diversified – but you should rather look at the images I posted in the gallery to get a better impression of what it all looked like.
In Cachi we had lunch and then continued driving to Cafayate. Unfortunately we miscalculated the time to the sunset and the distance (120 km) we had to cover and ended up driving at dusk on a abandoned road. With abandoned – I really mean abandoned. We drove hours without seeing any soul… and the pavement was so miserable that we weren’t able to drive faster than 40-50 km/h.
It all worsened when we all of a sudden had a flat tire though we had some 50 km more to go. Luckily Stefan was quite well-versed with changing tires and immediately tried to fix it. But the result was even worse. While trying to fix the spare tire, he broke one of the screws, so that the spare tire was only fixed with 3 instead of 4 screws. Luckily we managed to get to Cafayate without the car breaking down. It was already 11 pm when we found a garage and had to wake up the mechanic to ask him to repair our fourth screw.

2nd Day (Thursday)

In the morning we drove to the center of Cafayate and rented some Quads. Stefan and I were accompanied by a guide and we made a three hours lasting tour in the region of Cafayate. And just as the day before we experienced indescribably beautiful landscapes (Once again: check the pictures to get an impression). After the Quad tour we continued our trip and drove back to Salta. The day before, we thought we had seen the prettiest mountains and valleys but on the way back to Salta the landscape outshone everything we had seen up to that point.

3rd Day (Friday)

On that day we started the second tour, heading to the North. Most of all we were looking forward to seeing the famous salt dessert, called “Salinas Grandes”. As the main route didn’t really lead directly to the dessert we pursued a hidden road which was actually used for the trucks that extracted the salt from the dessert. Since we didn’t see any truck working there around we didn’t worry about trespassing or anything alike. After driving some 5 km on that road we found ourselves right in the middle of the salt dessert, which was my personal highlight. But just like the first day, the mishap was still to come: Having taken some pictures on the dessert I wanted to turn around the car to get back on the main road. But just as I tried to turn the car it broke into the dessert and got stuck. Well .. there we were .. right in the middle of nowhere without anyone to help us. All our efforts were in vain … we didn’t manage to get the car back on the road. We waited desperately some 10-15 minutes until we saw a truck approaching. At first we didn’t really know what to expect – feeling lucky that somebody is coming to help us or being worried about having trespassed? Well … the truck finally halted and we tried to explain the workers what happened. Luckily they reacted very kindly and helped us getting the car back on the road..
The rest of the day we continued our tour as it was planned and drove to Purmamarca and Humahuaca. During the drive we reached a height of 4100 meters and finally spend the night at a height of 3000 meter in a very small mountain village.

4th day (Saturday)

After spending the night in that tiny mountain village we continued our trip to the north and drove to La Quiaca, which is very close to the boarder to Bolivia. From La Quiaca we actually wanted to drive to small village accessible via a non-paved mountain road, but sadly our car wasn’t prepared for such a challenge. Hence we decided to drive to another mountain village right in the middle of nowhere hidden 48 km inland. Once again the road was so miserable that it took about 2,5 hours just to get there. 2 km before we reached the town we had to halt the car because the road was so disastrous that a continuation would have lead to a breakdown. Luckily we met the only policeman on that mountain village who took us to the center with is police car. Well … generally you expect police cars to be clean and safe but his car was the exact opposite. There were round about 50 flies in the car – seriously! Well .. at least he gave us a ride and took us to the center where we spent some hours before we returned all the way back through the mountains.

5th and 6th day (Sunday and Monday)

Unfortunately we finished our 6 days program in 4 days, driving 1744 km and visiting 8-9 different cities. Since we didn’t get any flight back earlier, we spent the last two days in Salta mostly playing in the arcade …

So .. that was it basically. It was a wonderful trip I will never forget!

Here we go again!

The last couple of days have been very nerve-racking for Stefan and me. Some of you might have seen the pictures I posted on this site. At first glance it seems to be a quite inviting and cosy apartment, doesn‘t it? Well, here it turned out to be the right the opposite. I could actually tell you 14 different serious shortcomings (yes, we made up a list…), but this would go beyond the scope. We are not talking here about unsatisfied special requests but about standard expectations anyone would claim. Anyway we see ourselves forced to change the apartment as soon as possible. We already have chosen the apartment we would like to move in and will probably do that on the 8th of April. I am gonna update the „My Apartment“-Page as soon as we changed.

There is one Argentinian personal trait I noticed in the last few weeks, especially during the problems we had (or still have) with the present accommodation: I am talking about corruptness. There are so many Argentinians that constantly try to fool you. Actually everyone says that they are open to bribery but I rather noticed the curruptness. Let me tell you few examples:

1. I told you that we went to a „Boca Juniors“ match! There were some Argentine students from our university that organized and planned the whole evening (bought the tickets, picked as up at home and brought us back safely). Anyway they told us that the tickets would cost 120 Pesos (24 Euros), which turned out to be a lie. The only cost 35 Pesos (7 Euros)…

2. If you take a cab here, the taxi driver probably won‘t drive directly to your destinations, but rather try to go for some spins. Hence you might sometimes pay 12 Pesos and other times 15 Pesos for the same direction.

3. The caretaker in our apartment turned off the gas and claimed 30 Pesos (6 Euros) to fix it…

These are just three little examples. I even experienced some worse cases. Consequently you really have to be aware of what you do and with which type of people you have contact. Should I experience any further case of curruptness, I‘ll let you know .

Last weekend we had the „Semana Santa“ here, which is basically Eastern. Additional to our four lecture-free days we got one more day added. Initially we wanted to travel to Uruguay and rent a car there but we didn‘t get any tickets for the ferry. So we stayed in Buenos Aires and used one of the days to visit San Antonio, a small village 2 hours far from Buenos Aires located in the Pampa. We went there by Bus early in the morning and visited a „Gaucho Party“ or „Day on the country“ if you want. This event included some typical Gaucho-style attractions like horse riding, Argentinian steak, typical and traditional dances and so on. It really was a nice day!

The next trip we planned will be to Salta, which is in the North of Argentina. Stefan, Paco (a very cool Mexican student we got to know) and I will fly to Salta on Wednesday early in the morning and return Monday in the evening. That’s all we planned. We will then be equipped with some travel guides and rent a car to get around. Apart from the Salta dessert, which is a dessert which mainly consists of salt there are some other touristic must-sees we would like to visit.

So, that’s basically it.

Hey you all!

First of all –> here is a new gallery that also includes pictures from the sightseeing I told you about in my last post:

So what did I experience the last couple of days? Quite a lot!
Niki Ritz, who studies in Rio de Janeiro came over with some friends from Germany and visited us here in Buenos Aires. They stayed 3 days in Buenos Aires and went through all the touristic sightseeing musts. Since they stayed in a hostel and didn’t have any phone we didn’t manage to undertake much together except clubbing one night and eating some good steak.

Speaking of clubbing, clubbing is fun here! I haven’t talked about going out yet but now it’s time to provide a brief resume: We try to go out almost every night, except those nights we are really tired or have to get up early the morning after. Sometimes Stefan and I go out on our own without the other German students and then try to make some new friends in the clubs. The quarter “Palermo” where we both live offers many different clubs and so facilitates getting to know different places and people.
The majority of the clubs we have been to play the latest pop and house songs but there are also many electronic and minimal clubs here around. The ones that play the latest stuff also often play Spanish or Argentinian songs which can be quite bothersome if you try to dance to music you don’t know.
There are some clubs that don’t charge you for the entrance. Some others charge you anything between 4 and 10 Euros which also includes one (long)drink of your choice. For ordering a cocktail or long drink you generally don’t pay more than 3-4 Euros. Quite affordable, isn’t it ?

See ya!

Hey you guys!

I spend the last couple of days with a lot of sightseeing activities!

On Friday for example Stefan and I visited the famous cemetery in Recoleta, where Evita is buried among other famous Argentinian celebrities. We didn’t know what we had to expect, in fact we expected a common cemetery, but the cemetery in Recoleta was really beautiful and absolutely different from the ones we know from Germany or any other country. Though it wasn’t really huge, every person had his own mausoleum. So the entire place was full with those little mausoleums that were decorated very extravagant and adorned with statues and other expensive things. The sun shone and we spend plenty of time walking around there.
Friday night we went to a Sushi restaurant few blocks away from our apartment. They had some very good Sushi! We probably can’t eat steak only, right !?

Since we partied hard that night we didn’t get up early on Saturday and just had enough time to visit the zoo, which isn’t that far from where we live. That was fun, too! Especially since I hadn’t visited any zoo for quite a long time. They even had Cows and chickens.

The day after (Sunday) we (Stefan, Sebastian, Johanna and I) went for a walk in Puerto Madero. Initially I thought it’s only some area where the rich live but it offered more than skyscrapers and noble restaurants. You could rent bikes or just go for a long walk among the river (part of it has desiccated). It was very crowded and many people were having a BBQ around that place.

The pictures will follow! Still waiting for the Internet to work in our apartment !

Living in Buenos Aires

I’m living here in Buenos Aires for almost 2 weeks! To sum it up: glorious!
Here is some noteworthy information about Buenos Aires:

12th BA’s ranking in list of world’s biggest cities in 2005
4th BA’s ranking in list of world’s noisiest cities
142nd BA’s ranking (out of 144) in list of world’s most expensive cities
1:30 Ratio of psychoanalysts to population in Argentina (1:100 in developed countries)
41%  Percentage of young Argentinians who say that would accept a bribe
7 Number of Argentinian presidents since the 2001 crisis
7th Argentinian’s world ranking for wine consumption

But what can I tell you from first hand?

1. The entry-level test

In the second week I had to write an entry-level test to assess my Spanish skills! According to the result of the exam I then was assigned to an adequate Spanish course (which is mandatory here for those who aren’t native speakers). Somehow (please don’t ask me how it happened) I completely screwed up the written part (with only  <40% of correct answers) but performed excellently in the oral part (>90%). Anyway they wanted to put me to the lowest level course (out of four different levels), where you begin to learn “Hi, my name is…”. After certain discussions with the head of the language department I managed to convince her to make an exception and to allow me to attend the second-lowest level course. I visited that course once and completely felt underchallenged! So I begged the teacher to send me one level higher. I had to write an essay to prove my knowledge! Anyway she finally allowed me to attend the third-level course.

2. My courses

Eventually having my Spanish course dates, I was able to select my other courses! I chose “Impacts of Globalization on Latin America” in Spanish, “Valuation of Emerging Markets in South America” in English and “Administration” in Spanish. Including the Spanish course I now have 4 different courses. Good luck for me, that all my courses take place on only three weekdays.

3. The Subte

The Subte is the Argentinian version of the Metro/ Underground/ Subway! The Subte here is quite popular and consequently often tremendously crowded. If you happen to take the Subte during the rush hour you’ll definitely experience an unforgettable adventure. The trains are always completely stuffed with people and you feel like playing Tetris when you try to squeeze yourself into the last remaining hole. The air in the compartments is incredibly muggy and makes you feel like standing in the sauna dressed with a winter coat. Nonetheless I use it almost daily to either go to university of just to move around in the city!

I will soon tell you more about my experiences!

Bye!