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