My Take On Doing The Unemployment Thing In Buenos Aires

Que tal chicas y chicos! I'm back in the wheeling, dealing, global, commercial economy of America and enjoying the spoils: highspeed internet, an iPhone, a DVD player and lighting that doesn't short out every other day. The question that comes to mind is: Is this really all that better? Especially as an unemployed gal struggling to live in this country? Uh... yeaaah.

Ok... Maybe.

Yes, America feeds my addiction for advanced technology and satisfies my multi-tasking nature...a deep rooted beast that needs to read, listen to my iPod and eat at the same time. YES--I like to download a video and upload a photo and post a blog at the same time... is that so wrong? Does it matter that I overwork and overspend and feed myself latenight movies and Craigslist purchases at all hours?

I can't say Buenos Aires was exactly relaxing or low-cost either. It's like New York intensity and image consciousness mixed with South American inefficiency mixed with cigarettes and eating disorders and soot. Let's weigh out the pro's and con's: I drank less and smoked more. I watched less TV and did less work. I bought fewer things and bought more clothes (the fashion is great). I spoke more Spanish and spoke less Spanish (if I didn't mention it before, the portenos speak Castellano, which means they turn every double-L into an "sh" sound and throw in a lot of slang... can't use that anywhere else!) You can live there quite well if you have foreign money, but it would be very hard to live off any money you make while you're there. In fact, it's quite a severe economic situation, as the city is quite full of money but urban slums hug the city perimeter... then foreigners live it up in the city like they have a hotel on Boardwalk and the locals hike up the prices to get some good tourist dough. Of course, is this any different from anywhere else? Not really, eh?

Plus, there are quite a few local artists, musicians, filmmakers and people just kind of moving from one job to the next with gaps in-between, jobless, artsy, stying out late during the week. What do they do for money? It is very easy to live on very little, I imagne, especially outside of the city. Plus, Argentina tends to lean towards funding more social programs, such as unemployment benefits, education and health coverage across the board. And they have a very political culture (we saw a protest nearly every day on Avenida de Mayo) with many unions and social networks. It's nice.

I may enjoy my capitalism, but there is something so right about 3 hour meals, tea time in the afternoon, long walks in the park and late nights. The moral of the story is: Could I live and do my semi-work thing in another country and find a little more tranquility or a lot less? Not sure. My verdict on Buenos Aires is still up in the air. Next stop: New Orleans!