Hi everyone!
Since we’re coming up on almost two months in Buenos Aires (which I can barely believe!), I figure it’s about time to start blogging.
To recap on what we’re doing here, I left my job in the U.S. so we could live in Buenos Aires for six months. I wanted to practice my Spanish and get to know another country (more about that in the About Me section). I’m also using this as an opportunity to do some freelance writing.
Justin and I are loving it here so far! Buenos Aires is a big, cosmopolitan city. It has a lot of neighborhoods that are all really different. In some ways, it feels European but definitely has its own flair. We’ve been having a great time exploring and getting to know a new city.
Besides that, I was busy in April with Spanish classes every weekday. I figured I needed a review to get into speaking Spanish again and review random grammar that I hadn’t thought about since living in Spain five years ago. It was nice being in a classroom again, but definitely a little weird. (I even had to do homework and study for an exam at the end!)
There’s a lot to catch up one from the past month, but here are the basics for now:
The Neighborhood
We’re living in Belgrano, a nice neighborhood a little bit outside of the main downtown area. The highlights of Belgrano are that it’s home to the relatively small but vibrant Barrio Chino (Chinatown) of Buenos Aires and that it borders the cool hipstery neighborhood of Palermo, which has a bunch of bars and restaurants. Belgrano is really pretty, with cobblestone streets, beautiful houses with colorful flowers, and a lot of parks. One of my favorite things about Belgrano is all of the florist stands on the street corners selling flowers.
Our Apartment
We booked a long-term Airbnb before we got here. We only booked for three months to start since we didn’t know what we were getting into, but after being here for a month decided to book it for the full six months.
It’s just a studio apartment, but it’s pretty big and modern. We have a balcony and parilla (grill) on the roof, which Justin was happy about!
Of course, we made friends with the neighbor’s cat when he snuck over to our balcony our second week here, and we were cat-sitting by week three.
The Weather
It’s been perfect — sunny and 70 most of the days. It’s definitely started to feel like fall in the past couple weeks, with leaves falling off the trees and the sun setting earlier. (Reminder for those who hadn’t heard me complain about this before we left—we’re going into winter here.) When we arrived at the end of March, it felt like spring, and almost summer some days. So it’s a little weird mentally for us that now it’s fall all of the sudden. But based on the thick jackets people here are already wearing when it’s a beautiful, sunny 60 degrees out, I don’t think it will get too cold here in winter.
The Food
Our favorite restaurants are a French cafe and an Italian pizza place—go figure. They’re both right around the corner from our apartment. A lot of Italian immigrants came here in the 1800s, so there’s a lot of Italian food, which means pizza, pasta and bakeries! There are tons of stores selling fresh pasta to cook at home, and lots of gelato too. There aren’t as many vegetarian options here as there would be in the U.S., but there are enough. I’ve had some amazing veggie burgers already, and there are also a lot of vegetarian restaurants that I need to check out.
My new favorite Argentinian food is a provoleta—basically just a huge chunk of grilled provolone cheese. And more importantly, my favorite dessert is the alfajor, which is two biscuit-like cookies with dulce de leche in the middle.
Now that I’ve covered the basics, that’s it for now! Check back soon for more details about what we’ve been up to!