Che boludo!

As I arrive at my last week in Argentina, I’m also down to my last 4 of my top 10 of things I will miss about Argentina. In trying to pair each of my blogs, it hasn’t always been easy trying to put 2 of them together seamlessly and logically. While some of my choices have had easy and natural pairings some, like today’s #3 and #4, really don’t go together in any way. Both of them are things that have greatly affected our, and especially MY everyday experience here in Argentina but one has little to do with Argentina itself while the other has EVERYTHING to do with the country. Either way, though, they are things that, when I look back on my experience, both what I’ve done and what I’ve experienced, they will certainly be aspects of my year here that have had a significant impact and helped make my year here both enjoyable and succesful, both on a personal level as well as on a professional level.

So, then, without running on any more (which I have been accused by my wife of doing), here are the next 2 items on my list of…

… the Top 10 things I will miss about Argentina

4) Argentine Spanish

Though in many ways this has been a source of struggle for part of my family, for me, the opportunity to speak and learn and then write about Argentine Spanish has been both a fun exercise for me and an intellectually and professionally fulfilling experience for me, especially as both an Italian teacher and, more appropriately, as a Spanish teacher. While I haven’t had the opportunity to teach Spanish in about 6 years (since the Italian program at my school has grown so much), being in Argentina has allowed me the wonderful opportunity to learn the Argentine version of Spanish, a true treasure with some great Italian influences, and practice speaking it as much as possible. Though I will likely not ever be mistaken for an Argentine after opening my mouth in Spanish, as a result of living in different Spanish-speaking countries and conversing in Spanish with Spanish-speaking people from all over the world, I think I have been able to more than hold my own and have a renewed love for an confidence in speaking Spanish. Here are the things I think I’ll remember most about the language:

1. el castellano – it’s interesting that though Argentines do use “el espanol” to refer to their language, the term el castellano is easily the most common term for it. El castellano, which means “Castilian”, as in “Castile”, the part of central Spain where the modern Spanish language originated, doesn’t really resemble Spain Spanish so much, ironically, but has a unique flavor, accent and uses all its own which I’ve learned to really love. Hopefully, you’ve followed this blog which has pointed out, through tons of unique posts, from my point of view, some of the most common and interesting differences between Argentine Spanish and Spanish from Spain and other countries. Clearly, the melodic, Italianesque accent and use of the “sh” pronunciation for the letter ll and the use of vos instead of tu are the most important differences between Argentinian Spanish and the rest of the Spanish-speaking world and, indeed, these were, for me, the most difficult things to get used to when speaking initially. However, there are a host of other lexical, grammatical and common word usages (some of which have origin in Italian!) that are just used differently here on a daily basis than in other Spanish-speaking countries and which have helped my learning of the Argentine Spanish version a pleasurable job and fun experience for the past 10+ months. What more, they use similar hand gestures to Italy which makes it feel a lot closer to there for me. 🙂

Check out this great video of an American kid doing a great job of imitating the Argentine accent and skillfully throwing in lots of typical Argentine expressions in the process. If you know Argentine Spanish, you’ll probably love it, though it’s not the “cleanest” video you’ll see:

2. My kids speaking Spanish – One of the great pleasures for me this year was to see my children slowly adapt to Argentine culture and learn to speak Spanish, slowly but surely, during the past 10 months. Though they usually refuse to speak it with me, they now pretty much exclusively speak it with their friends in school and their Spanish teachers. My youngest has taken to it quicker and adapted better, much of it due to her personality. My older one, because she’s shier and lacks some self-confidence, initially was reluctant to speak but, eventually, warmed up to it to the point where it now a source of pride and confidence for her. She, actually, knows more, I think, then her sister, partially due to her being older (when more language is necessary), but to see them both adapt linguistically, at different speeds and in their own way, has been a real marvel and true joy. I have little doubt that if they spent another 1/2 year or a year here they would be completely fluent. Of course, just as they’re really getting comfortable, it’s time for us to leave.

As a language teacher, it’s fascinating to see them learn the language their own way, through real immersion, and for them to pick up an Argentine accent much better and quicker than I am ever likely to. After sending them to a bilingual school here, I’ve become a big believer in immersion and bilingual schools. Though, of course, a big part of this is that all of their classmates are native Spanish speakers, that is the only place the basically speak it as they speak English with us at home and out.  I hope to be able to capture them speaking Spanish on video a little more this last week but every time the camera goes on, they stop speaking so it’s a little complicated sometimes. In any case, even if they forget most of it, which they likely will, I think they’ll both be wiser and prouder because of the experience here and, in the long run it will benefit them tremendously in many different facets of their lives.

3) El departamento

One of the things that make or break your experience is where you live. Both the area but also the physical apartment/house itself. Location, location, location. Particularly for me as I was going to spend more time in our home than I would usually do back home (since I wasn’t going to have a full-time job), living in a comfortable, secure place with conveniences was going to be important. Of course, not just for me, but for all of us. My wife is a master researcher and did a ton of research on our options and where to live and, in addition to researching what we need, also figured out where would be the best place for us to live given our particular situation. Though we needed to stay in a couple of different decent but small and somewhat sub par apartments for our first 2 1/2 months, the past 8 months in our current and final apartment have been simply marvelous, better than any of us could have anticipated.

Indeed, as my introductory post to this apartment alluded to, this apartment (departamento here in Argentina) both in initial reaction and, as it turns out, in long-term habitation has been a godsend for us. While, yes, it hasn’t been cheap for us to stay in it, we were able to negotiate the price down significantly from the offering and with all of its amenities and despite massive inflation and stripped subsidies, in the end we are confident we got an excellent deal… especially in seeing what other expats paid for their apartments and in how prices have gone up i the last year. I’ll sum up the great things about our apartment:

1. Location – As my previous post of the neighborhood told you, we couldn’t be happier with the area. It’s neighborly, safe, well-located for transportation, near great parks, close to almost anything we need (ice cream, supermarkets, pharmacies, etc.) to buy, right by our kids’ schools and a great area for walking around.

Castle-esque home near us

2. Security – The building has 24 hour security and we’re on the 18th floor with an elevator that basically goes to only our apartment on the floor. Can’t get much safer than this and, in a town that’s got a reputation for a lack of security, it’s great for us for peace of mind if nothing else.

3. View – It had nothing to do with why we chose the apartment, but, in retrospect, the view is something we are going to miss. Being on one of the top floors of a tall building, we can see all around as we’re among the tallest buildings in the area. We have a view on practically 3 sides of the city and the sunsets that we get every night can be memorable and spectacular. There’s even a common room on the top of the building, on the 21st floor where you can get an even better 360 degree panorama of the entire city!

Spectacular sunset view from our apartment

4. 3 bedrooms – couldn’t be better set up for us: we have a master suite with our own bathroom, porch and a walk-in closet (for Katy); the girls have bunk beds and great storage for clothes and toys; and there’s a 3rd bedroom for guests or to be used as an office when we have none. Our “hotel” was open for guests and I think all of our guests enjoyed their experiences in the place.

Master bedroom

5. Nice kitchen/living space – not huge but plenty of space for us to cook, entertain guests, relax, for the girls to play and for storage. Kitchen had a dishwasher (rare in BA), washing machine, two sinks and decent appliances and storage space.

Dining room into kitchen

6. la pileta (pool) – from November through March, the great in-ground nice-sized pool was heaven. We had lots of warm days and the girls LOVED the chance to swim every day. I hope they don’t get used to it because they’re not getting this when we get home!

Our pileta

7. All expenses paid – Our rental included everything: digital cable, wifi, electricity, water, phone, gas, cleaning once a week, maintenance fees, all building expenses, furniture, linens, towels, etc. This just made our good deal even better. Many things that we didn’t have to deal with. Our landlord, while perhaps not the quickest to respond to the few problems we had, was honest and a pleasant guy to deal with.

8. Sum/parrilla/gym/sauna/hot tub/playground/ping-pong and foosball table – Granted, we used the parrilla (grill) twice, the sauna never, the hot tub never, the sum (private room for parties) never, the ping-pong and foosball tables sparingly and the gym rarely the kids did play on the playground a decent amount and, well, it was nice to have it all to use “if” we needed/wanted it. 🙂

Our gym (with party room behind)

Indeed, as I type this post and look out my window in front of the beautiful panorama of BA on this perfect day, I realize how good we have it here and, while it’ll be nice to go home, I can see how much I’m going to miss this place: our temporary though wonderful home away from home in Buenos Aires.

Coming up by the end of the week: my #1 and #2 things I will miss about Argentina. Stay tuned.

Prof Rabner