Tango at last!

Three months after moving to Buenos Aires, I have finally started taking tango lessons in the tango capital of the world. It seems a terrible waste of time to my dedicated dancer friends that fly 30 odd hours from Taipei every few years just to soak up the tango scene for 2 weeks, or a month if they're lucky, dancing every night till the sun comes out.

I blame my procrastination on decision fatigue. I was overwhelmed with choices of tango salons, schools, and milongas, not to mention a multitude of tango teachers. When I asked my dancer friends for recommendations, I was only left more puzzled by their vague assurances that there are too many good teachers to name. (I later learned that for a beginner like me, I don't need a high-flying pair of tango teachers.)

Turns out I just needed a pair of sexy tango shoes to spur myself into action. Though it's a wonder why I didn't have decision fatigue shopping for tango shoes at the annual Tango Festival and World Championship! 

Tango shoes aside, I also have my friend Hong I to thank for knocking some sense into me when I was obsessively analyzing the local listings of tango classes based on location, reputation, teacher bios, class times, etc. "Stop thinking!", shaking me lest I miss the point that tango is for experiencing, not overthinking.

My first tango class with Damián y Nancy (far right) at Club Villa Malcolm

阿根廷版的微型世博

昨天我和朋友去了Tecnopolis，一個展現阿根廷科技發展的園區，概念有點類似去年的上海世博，當然規模就完全不能相提並論。

其中，我實在想不通為什麼要選在冬天辦，也不理解明明是個能收門票的活動卻讓民眾免費入場。問了我的朋友後才知道跟選舉有關。這在和台灣同一個時代脫離軍事戒嚴並逐步邁入民主的阿根廷，也就不讓人意外了。

算一算時間，現在離10月23日的總統大選還有兩個月的時間，所以現在辦一個彰顯政府功勞的展覽，的確是個好時機（阿根廷很多科技方面的發展不是政府直接推動就是國營企業主導）。尤其是現場的眾多低收入戶，在領了免費的衛星電視小耳朵之後，難免拿人手短，應該不選執政黨也難吧！

阿根廷大大小小的選舉，感覺上比台灣的還要多，因為只要候選人的票數不過半就得重選，而且重點是還不能不去投票，要不然要罰錢！雖然這個硬性規定有點違反民主精神（放棄投票權也是一種權利啊，不是嗎？），我還是很欣賞這麼高的社會參與度。

我在Tecnopolis最快樂的事，就是到有照相活動區的館去照相（連照4張到臉部僵硬～）

First day of public school

My first day of school at Lenguas Vivas Juan Ramón Fernández, a public school in Buenos Aires, started in typical Argentinean fashion - half an hour late! My teacher is a sweetheart, and when she explained she was tied up with administrative duties on the first day of school, for once, I was neither surprised nor upset.

I take my new-found calm as a sign that I'm acclimating. Two and a half months after moving to Argentina, I've finally reached the point where jaw-dropping tardiness, and people's laissez-faire attitude about it, doesn't infuriate me, but rather amuses me.

For all that I poke fun at Argentinean ways of life (all in good humor), the country has obvious merits for which I feel justifiably smug about intuiting before coming here. Apart from the world's best beef and ice cream, free Spanish classes taught by top-notch public school teachers is no laughing matter, for which I am grateful to take advantage of during my year of no gainful employment.

The view from my classroom at Lenguas Vivas

時間 Tiempo

最近常常在想時間的事，可能是因為我對時間很敏感，不管是準時的禮儀還是人生裡大大小小的里程碑。再加我在阿根廷整整兩個月了，漸漸體會到這裡的人對時間有很不同的概念，tempo也相對比較慢。對於不讓自己鬆懈的type A人格，阿根廷真的是個不錯的棲息之地，不過前提是要在適應、學會不抓狂之後！

例子不勝枚舉，在此分享我最近的兩個經驗：

上超市的時候，記得身上一定要帶一本書，沒有書也可以靠字典消磨時間（查周遭不懂的字），因為阿根廷結帳的時間出奇的慢，一般長度的隊（4、5個人在你前面），可以等整整半個小時才輪到你！

還好我後來發現我常去的超市有兩個結帳區，分別在超市前門和後門這兩端，我就會推著車走到後門比較少人的結帳區，節省將近半個小時的時間。我很納悶的是，為什麼大部分阿根廷人不會這樣做呢？他們天性就比較悠哉，還是文化的熏陶讓阿根廷人不覺得“乾瞪眼”是浪費時間，而是漫長的一天之中，難得喘息的機會？對於凡是衝、衝、衝的台灣人，這一點是需要慢慢學習的。

我常去的咖啡廳b-Blue號稱晚上9點關門，但其實8:45的時候店員就已經開始打掃、把沒人坐的椅子堆到桌子上。要不是在大陸也碰過類似的情況，我應該會不能接受。幾年前我在上海新天地逛Sisley的時候，在關門前的20分鐘跟店員說我想試穿衣服，結果她大小姐說她快要下班了，別試了！我傻眼到根本不想再試衣服了，不是不想據理力爭，而是對於不同的文化，漸漸學會見怪不怪了。

b-Blue和Sisley的經驗讓我覺得，阿根廷原來跟大陸比較類似，那就是“下班最大”！不像美國和台灣，店家標識幾點關門，就是幾點關門，之後才是店員整理、清潔的時間。其實就是對工作時間的認知不同，一個是店員導向（店員也是人，所以需要下班休息！），一個是顧客導向（老美講的"customer first"）。

時間的西班牙文"tiempo"這個字，我覺得蠻美的。可能是因為比英文的"time"有更多且拉長的音節，比較不急不徐。我上個週末去阿根廷第三大城Rosario，徹底見識到阿根廷人多會享受和家人相處的時光：在河畔，他們坐在草地上曬太陽，小孩看人偶秀或上畫畫課（畫風景），大人隨性的起舞或看著載貨的船隻開過。

For the love of football! 給我足球，其餘免談！

I'm not stereotyping when I say Argentineans are football fanatics, to the point that watching an important match trumps appearing professional at work! On a visit to a local Home Depot-like store called Easy, we didn't get any service for the duration of the Copa America quarterfinal between Argentina and Uruguay as all the staff tuned into the live broadcast en masse. Just another day in Argentina!

阿根廷人是出了名的愛足球，如果有場重要的比賽，管他什麼上班敬不敬業，先集體看完實況轉播再說。客人如果需要任何的協助，不是自求多福就是耐心等候到球賽結束！

Third-world country?

Before and since I have arrived in Argentina, no fewer than four locals have stated matter of factly that Argentina is a third-world country. At first it made me panic I made a mistake in choosing Argentina over arguably safer Spanish-speaking countries like Spain, but in recent weeks I've just come to see it as an acceptance of reality - it is what is is!

Today I witnessed a robbery (unarmed) in broad daylight near Retiro, the main train station of Buenos Aires, where a poor bloke was running after three thugs that snatched his backpack. The commotion was certainly hard to miss, but no one made even a small deal of it. From countless incidents I've heard so far, these petty thieves tend to be short, agile, and work in teams - their modest statures work to their advantage by giving standers-by a false sense of security.

It's been eight years since I last picked up an economics textbook, so I'm rusty on the difference between "third-world countries" and "developing countries", but I'm going to venture to say "third-world country" is less politically correct nowadays, whereas "developing country" - with the emphasis it places on an upward trajectory of growth - has a sunnier disposition.

In my earlier post on my disastrous experience with a the world's local bank, I mentioned two peculiar things I want to elaborate on.

First, I pay my rent in U.S. dollars because inflation in the past six months has kicked into high gear, eroding my landlord's side income. This adds to my transaction cost, but my landlord explained he couldn't simply exchange pesos into U.S. dollars because he already maxed out his forex "quota", above which he would receive a visit from Argentine tax authorities. I haven't looked at historical inflation figures, but this would imply a stark uptick from previous levels of 10%-20% a year (CPI, with core inflation being higher), according to a friend's account.

Second, I was surprised to learn that the security guards outside the Chinese restaurants I frequent in China Town aren't private security guards but rather police officers making a buck on the side. Ditto for the dozen or so police officers at HSBC, I assume, but I could be wrong, because HSBC is a conservative financial institution after all?

According to economic theory, income disparity is a reliable indicator of a country's level of development, so by that measure, I'd have to agree with my Argentine friends that bemoaned their country's state of affairs. But where else in the world would you find a country whose national anthem sounds like a tango song in all its glory, broadcast every midnight on the dot and throughout the day, with cab drivers singing along with admirable vigor? How do you measure a country's level of cultural sophistication ?

Cabbies and footballers alike sing the national anthem with flair

Adios Expanish...por ahora!

My first five weeks of Spanish immersion classes at Expanish has come to an end! Except for the first week, my teacher Cynthia taught the class almost entirely in Spanish, which has done wonders for my comfort level with hearing a mile-a-minute Spanish.

Thanks to double-digit inflation, Argentina is no longer as cheap as it was back in the heyday of living like a rock star (or tango star) in Buenos Aires, as Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek, put it. But it's still good value for money (or as the Chinese say, 高性價比) if you compare it to Spain. For example, some steals in the city of Buenos Aires include:

• a 20-hour week of language instruction for around US$150, further discounted during the southern hemisphere's winter low season
• tango lessons for around US$10 an hour
• a maximum subway/bus fare of US$0.30 - you guessed it, it's subsidized by the government
• a thin, crustless sandwich for under US$1, a staple of my current diet - comes in ham & cheese, ham & eggs, ham & tomato, etc.

My favorite hangout at Expanish