Turning a new corner
I’ve just passed the three month mark in Argentina, and I feel like I’ve turned a new page. I was down for a while there, what with the hard transitions, new jobs, saying goodbye to friends while trying to make new ones, etc. It’s never an easy thing to pick up and move to a new country, but somehow I fooled myself into thinking it was going to be all swell. It’s spring now, and accordingly, I feel like new beginnings are on the way.
Just recently, seemingly by accident, I met a new friend. An actual Argentinian, no less. While on a tour of El Zanjón, a complex system of tunnels in San Telmo, I chatted it up with my guide. We eventually got to talking more and more, and quite soon we became friends. It was oddly reminiscent of my time spent in other Latin American countries, whereby you instantly become friends with someone, and that’s that. I hadn’t found that to be true in Argentina up until that point.
My new friend has promised to introduce me to her friends as well, take to me other parts of the city which I haven’t seen yet, and help me adjust to life in Buenos Aires. She’s good to her word, and yesterday we went to her neighborhood, further north and away from the center. It was a quiet, residential neighborhood with mansions where ambassadors live, and just a few cafes. I couldn’t believe it was still Buenos Aires. And I realized that there’s so much more that Buenos Aires has to offer than what I’ve seen thus far, even after three months. No tourists will ever go to that neighborhood, and I won’t help them find it. I’d rather preserve it the way it is than let people know how they can disturb the peace.
Maybe this will be a new direction for me in Buenos Aires. One in which I’ll be getting more local, and getting a more authentic porteño experience. Only time will tell.
Latest posts by jgbrandt8
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