Life in Argentina is incredible! And I certainly love it here, but for fun, or to vent a bit, or maybe both, here's some of the things that I don't like about living here...
No bulk spices other than salt: I'm not joking, I've since learned some places where you can sort of find it, but the normal grocery stores will only sell spices in small plastic bags, they remind me of weed bags when it was illegal. I am in disbelief that a society with such a strong connection to Italy, doesn't sell bulk garlic. The investor in me has thought about breaking ground and showing that garlic can be sold in more than 1 ounce bags and good for the whole year... We shall see...
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| Think I'm kidding? This is the spice section, 100% salt! |
Design of certain things: This is where I came up with one of my Argentina phrases, "Cuando aceptas la derrota, la vida se vuelve más fácil." When you accept defeat life becomes easier. I gave up on trying to understand somethings here, and why they are built this way... As a tourist you may never notice, but living here it is impossible not to notice! Certain hand tools, a lot of construction elements, a coffee side table with rails above the table, door locks with a slat over them for no reason, parking garages that are built too low that only motorcycles can enter... etc.
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This is a table at a coffee shop, unless you are a child you can not put your legs under it, if you are a child the height is too high
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The laundry machine delivery to the elevator story: True story of living in the third world. I bought a washing machine, the delivery guy shows up with the washing machine, without a dolly. Ok... He and another guy bring it to the front gate of my apartment. "Good amigo?" Hell no! I live on the 3rd floor and we are literally on the street. They wanted to pretty much just leave it at the gate. But then there's also the refrigerator...
The Refrigerator story: I wasn't allowed to buy a refrigerator at a major chain store because I didn't have a DNI, I have both my Italian and US passport, and I was paying for the fridge in one credit card payment, no financing!
Immigration: It's slow, it's painful, with technology 90% of my trips to immigration which are now monthly should have been done online, but it's the system here. My usual trip takes about 2.5 hours. I arrive 30-45 minutes before they open, if I'm lucky I'm in the top 20 on line, we all wait and when my turn comes it always takes less than 5 minutes for whatever I came for. I also speak Spanish, if you don't... Good luck on this part!
9 trips for the certificado domicilio: Going with the above for immigration, for my certificate of where I live, rather than just uploading documents, I had to go to one place for a document to sign, go from there to another office to pay 1000 pesos, like $1 at the time, back to the first office, back to immigration, and this whole process with a few closures and do over's took 9 trips...
No large bills 10,000 pesos $7: Technically there is a 20,000 peso note, but it's a bit like the $2 bill in the USA, it's rarely seen. If you want to carry a lot of cash, this is a pain, the pockets bulge, thief's may know, and generally it's just a pain in the ass to pay for things. I literally wrote an entire other article on How I Pay For Things in Argentina.
Book stores No Order: Not every bookstore, but when I want a book now I just generally will go to Mercado Libre, because if I go to the book store in person, they have sections, but beyond that it's a free for all. They are not alphabetized by title, author, etc.
The Surprising Lack Of Beach: I started to type this one out and realized it can be a whole other article here, but for the short version, Argentina has more coastline than almost all of the 195 countries in the world, I think it falls in the top 10, but a lot of the coast line is too muddy, too cold, or just too damn far to get to. Luckily I'm working on exploring more, but it's odd to be living so close to the ocean for the first time in 20 years after living in Phoenix and not really being able to enjoy it so easily.
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| "I found one!" |
Store hours: I'm happy for the culture that a lot of things are closed Sundays for faith or family, the essentials are open if you want groceries, and plenty of restaurants, but it's generally not a day for other things. I like that. What I don't like is the hardware store that is opened Monday 9am-11am then 5pm-10pm. The Sushi restaurant that is only open Thursday and Sunday night. The gym that closes midday, the best hour to train!!! Some of the hours are just too damn weird.
The DNI: I wrote an entire article on this one too here, but short version, it has damn hard to do anything without a national ID card, I understand it for things with safety, mortgages, etc. But one business refused to sell me a refrigerator that I was paying for in one credit card payment with two passports to verify who I am. Same thing happened with tickets for Teatro Lola.
You can't have a beer at a bar: This one applies to way more countries than people realize until they are living there, but "bars" just aren't the same, you go to the physical bar which generally is just decorative, if it has seats the overhang is barely existent so it's somewhat difficult on the knees to actually drink at the bar. It's always more like ordering dinner, you get a menu, you pay after, its a long process for just a beer. Lets say you actually find one with the right overhang, and you find one that you can just order a beer without any further fanfare, the culture just doesn't exist too much to shoot up a conversation with someone, make a new friend, even meeting a date is rare in most places. Bars are places with a bar that have tables that people order drinks to and drink at their table..jpg)
Credit Card fees: I love paying with credit card, paying it off before the bill comes, and flying for free in business class from the points! But my points game here has drastically changed, not all, but many places charge credit card fees, it's usually 10%! Which is wild to me because to my knowledge the credit card companies themselves only charge 1-3%.
The Cash Society: "Como abonas?" Going with the above, merchants love cash, for everything. I hate having to always carry cash. But it's La Vida here.
Not Being Able To Flush Toilet Paper: Thank God I live in a modern building, so this doesn't apply to the home court, but if business needs to be done on a visitor court, in a building that is not modern... Let's hope the trash bin is there, and there's plenty of toilet paper... That's I'll say.
Anyway, as I wrote from the start, I love this country. But these are a few things that get to me. Some of them I knew coming in, some have been a complete surprise. I can't wait to see what else I will love about living here... The don't likes hopefully won't add I'm up, but I'm sure this article will have a few add on edits as well!
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