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Published: June 22nd 2007
Well my time in Buenos Aires is up.....for now. I have enjoyed this place so much. I have met so many wonderful people, had such a great experience at the spanish school, have created great memories and even learned a little spanish. I'm not even sure how to explain it. I think the smile on my face in the photos tells it all. The people in buenos aires are, at least in my experience, very friendly and interesting. It amazes me to see how cheerful and optimistic they are when they are living in a struggling economy that completely collapsed just 5 years ago. They seem to pridefully grasp the moment and cherish their relationships. And they live for social interaction. BBQs, dinners going well into the night on a weekday, partying with friends, chatting with everyone over some mate (their bitter tea), truly caring for one another...you would never know that their standard of living is so far below ours. As my teacher put it ´I wish I could travel like all of my students do, but I can't because I live in a third world.'
Quick Argentine history lesson. Middle of the century Argentina flourished when Peron
What was my morning walk
Which was followed by a crazy subway ride where you literally have to jam yourself on the train car if you want to get on. You almost have to take a running start and lower your shoulder to clear space.was president (Evita's husband). Even though his actions and policies were suspect to say the least. He feel out of control and the country began to spiral downward. When a military coup took over the government and started the dirty war (guerra sucia). Their policy was to detain, torture and kill anyone that opposed them. And they didn't discriminate between a professor or a militia, if you spoke out against them you were done. So as you would think, this only worsened the situation in argentina. To try and save the economy and national pride the government decided to start a war against England to reclaim the Falkland islands. Yeah, not a good call. Margeret Thatcher bitch slapped them so hard the people in control lost total control and the country went through a succession of of new presidents. They once switched presidents 3 times in one week. Until the president that took charge in the nineties(can't remember his name) decided that to bring the economy back he would peg the Argentine peso to the american dollar. This worked as a bandaid for the problem and helped in the short term, but since it wasn't a floating economy and there's
no way they could keep up with the american economy the peso became way over inflated. Until 2001 when the new president was forced to release the peso from the dollar and the value dropped to 3 pesos to 1 dollar (about where it still is). Here's the good part(sarcastic) say you were an argentinian that had 1,000 pesos in the bank, well before 2001 it was worth 1,000 dollars. Well after 2001 if you went to withdraw that money the bank would only give you 1,000 pesos(not 3,000) or about 300 dollars. But if you owed the bank 1,000 pesos before 2001, you now owed them 3,000 pesos. So basically the peoples money depreciated and the banks didn't. There is a teacher at my school that was about to buy a house when this happened and now still can't afford to do it. Anyway, I guess that wasn't short, but interesting none the less.
Well I am off to Chile from here. Heading up into the Andes to begin the snowboarding part of my trip. My photos will look much whiter in my next entry. I miss all you guys and wish you could be down here with
South American Sushi
Not bad, except for the fact that they only had salmon! me. A little spanish to finish this off.
¿Que pienso de Buenos Aires? BsAs es una gran ciudad. La gente era muy amable y muy simpatico. Los edificios y calles son muy lindos. Hay muchas cosas hacer. La vida de la noche es divercion. Creo que puse vivir en es lugar. Yo espero venir aca otro vec. Estoy triste que estoy saliendo de Buenos Aires. Voy a apreciar my tiempo aqui.
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Leon Phelps
non-member comment
You're A Pimp
Envy you man, while some of us continue to run the hampster's wheel, you're out livin. Hope you have fun, stay safe. Miss you man. Dogg oh btw, the Angels 5 games, dem bums 1