Trip to Güalmart

Today I went to the only Wal-Mart within 50 miles. It's located in Avellaneda, which is a municipality just outside of the city of Buenos Aires. Since it's Sunday and there's not much traffic, I was able to get there in 45 minutes on the bus. They sell food too, and it's probably one of the nicest (if not the nicest) supermarket in the country. It's also more expensive, even moreso than most other supermarket chains. In the US almost everyone buys their food in a supermarket, but here you also have the option of buying you food in smaller, family-owned markets or going to individual stores (butchery, green grocer, etc.), saving money in the process. In the end the chains may win, just like they did in the US, but that time is not here yet. (15 years, right Noui?)

Wal-Mart is located right next to a shopping mall called Alto Avellaneda. There's also an Easy there, which is the local version of Home Depot. Most of the store in the malls here are incredibly expensive. You can easily spend 2 or 3 times as much for basically the same clothing. The prices in dollars are comparable to an upscale American store like Abercrombie & Fitch, which is pretty expensive for Americans. For an Argentine it's outrageous. For this reason, the average Argentine buys clothes in smaller, family owned stores. I did find one store in the mall with reasonable prices. It's sort of the equivalent of American Eagle Outfitters in terms of both style and prices.

One nice thing about the malls is the food courts. They have McD's and Burger King, but also some better food choices. You can even get a grilled-to-order steak with potatoes or salad, bread and a drink for US$4-5. In terms of pesos the food is slightly on the high side, but in dollars it's quite reasonable.

I temporarily left my computer job, and starting tomorrow will be I working as sort of a secretary at the Spanish school I went to when I arrived. I got along well with everyone there, so it will be fun. The idea is that I want to have a job for a few weeks where I have to speak Spanish more. After that I'll return to the computer job.

Some random facts about Buenos Aires:

• Just about every restauarant delivers for free. I tried it for the first time yesterday, and the food came in less than 45 minutes.
  
• On practically every block there are kiosks, little store they sell snacks and random stuff 24 hours a day. You can often buy just one of something, like one battery or one cigarette.
  
• The University of Buenos Aires offers most of its classes for free. They do charge for certain special programs, though.
  

Train bells and Diet Coke

I've noticed something interesting here about those bells that ring at a train crossing. In all the years I lived in the US, I rarely heard those bells ringing. But here, where I've been riding the train for the last 3 weeks, I've noticed that those bells are ringing every time we pass a train crossing. I guess they do things differently in differently countries.

Last Friday night I went out with a bunch of people, mostly Argentines learning English, but also a few Americans. Now, I've noticed that Diet Coke is less popular here than it is in America, and that only women drink it. In fact, last year when I went to lunch with a female friend here in Buenos Aires, I ordered a Diet Coke and she ordered a regular Coke, and the waiter gave her the diet and me the regular. So anyway, on Friday, I was sitting near two guys and they both ordered Diet Cokes. I thought wow, finally I found some guys like me, but I decided not to risk actually saying that just in case. And, sure enough, it came out later that these two men....ahem, "bat for the other team", as they say. Boy did I dodge a bullet there! By the way, I had ordered water to drink.

The apartment I had a lead on fell through, so now I'm back to the drawing board on finding a place to live.