New Chapter: Ridiculoso!

I feel like since arriving in Buenos Aires I’ve lived four or five distinct chapters. Every few months I end up with a new group of friends, a crazy new project, a big move or a romantic disaster. Once again, this month I’ve managed to tip my little world upside down and I’m embarking on yet another new chapter.

This time the setting is the new and upgraded apartment in Barrio Norte/Recoleta. It’s a busy spot in the city – faulting the trees that populated my street in Caballito – but it’s incredibly convenient. I can hop on a bus or the subway and be to work in 30 minutes. Phenomenal!

The apartment also comes complete with a set of four solid walls, my own little bathroom, lots of great storage, a terrace, a black cat named Bruja and a fabulous new roommate named Ali (featured below). I’ve ended my permanent camping situation and I’m more or less in love (it even has a microwave!).


Along with a new location, I’ve begun making lots of effort to replace my girlfriends who mercilessly left me here a few months ago. As a result I’ve discovered some new and amazing ladies for adventure hunting. I’m also seeing an Argentine who is about the sweetest human being on the planet and is keeping a smile on my face. We’ll just have to see how that goes before I tell you more stories about him.

And the big announcement:

I’ve decided to change the name of my blog to “Ridiculoso.”
This is a word that I invented.

The real translation for “that’s completely ridiculous” is “es completemente ridiculo!” but I always want to add an extra syllable to “ridiculo” and thus this has become my signature error. As an invented word, it just works… and I think with all the ups, downs and craziness of the last year it’s an appropriate title for my self-musings!

An Expensive Accent

My last a post was about how lovely life can be... but today I’m going to post a rant about this stinkin’ country and how everyone is always trying to rip off foreigners. Really! Taking advantage is an Argentine specialty.

I am moving soon, so I need to arrange for a little moving truck to come get my bed and my small collection of possessions and take them to the new apartment. So I called a moving company close to my house to ask about prices. They quoted me $400 pesos for the move – which I knew was ridiculous. I asked the lady on the phone, “What exactly does that price include?” and she was like, “Oh, don’t worry! Everything! We’ll send three people and move everything.” What? Three people to move a bed? $400 pesos for an hour or two of work? You have to be kidding me. She refused to give me an explanation of the the pricing breakdown – no, that was just the price.

So I asked my male Argentine co-worker to call. For him, the price was $40 pesos an hour for the truck, $18 pesos an hour for workers to help move (he was able to request just one) and $3 pesos for a flight of stairs. Yup, grand total will be under $150 pesos.

Sorry, but that just makes me mad. So I’ve got an accent. That doesn’t mean that a) I’m rich, nor b) I’m an idiot. I can communicate perfectly fine in Spanish: I understood everything said to me on the phone, and that stupid woman understood everything I said, even if it included a couple grammatical errors. I’ve been here long enough that this treatment is simply infuriating, for crying out loud!

It’s a well-known fact the Argentines love to “aprovechar” or take advantage of us foreigners. What makes me mad is that I’m not running around with dollars: I’m as poor as any of them are. Apparently I've just got an expensive accent.