73. Losers (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Argentine fútbol song #5:

Volveremos, volveremos
Volveremos otra vez
Volveremos a ser campeones
Como en el ochenta y seis

We're gonna be we're gonna be
We're gonna be once again
We're gonna be champions
Just like in '86

Sadly, it wasn't meant to be. As all of you would know by now, Argentina lost in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Bummer. Guys shook their heads in dismay. My girlfriend cried after the game. And in an amazing display of immaturity and bad sportsmanship, a group of Argentine players picked a fight with the victorious German team. OK, so one of the German players blew a kiss or something at an Argentine player during the penalty shootout but so what. I should mention FIFA suspended the German player and an Argentine player two matches after the incident.

So then Germany went on to face Italy in the semi-finals, and my how the Argentine public got behind Italy. 99% of the public wanted Italy to win, for mixed reasons. Some of the population have Italian heritage. Others identify with a shared "Latin" culture. I think most Argentines would justify their support of Italy with one of these two reasons, but really, more than they wanted to see Italy win, they wanted to see Germany lose. So when Germany lost there was a collective sigh of relief, "a consolation", as one TV pundit put it. At first I thought "what a bunch of sore losers", but later my friend Juan explained that Argentina and Germany have a long World Cup rivalry, and the fact that Germany have won 3 World Cups while Argentina only 2 means a lot here.

What else have I been up to? Another birthday came and went. And I've met a couple of other BA expat bloggers in real life. It's always interesting swapping opinions with others on the way of life here, even if we do usually share the same list of grumbles.

Buenos Aires is still the same... the bank a block and a half away from me got held up a couple of weeks ago. The internet cafe from where I am writing this post is directly opposite and in full view of the bank, and a couple of robbers took the internet cafe hostage to prevent the cops being called. I recognised the guy who works there when they interviewed him on the news.
On Thursday night I went and visited my friend Juan, and as we ate pizza the TV showed live coverage of a ride by shooting of sorts that had just happened about 15 blocks from us. Some guy in the street pulled out a rifle and shot 7 passers-by, killing one, before fleeing the scene on a bus. He's still at large, and newspapers next day screamed El Francotirador (The Sniper).

Update: last night one of the Chinese supermarkets in my barrio was robbed at gunpoint. The robbers killed a policeman and another customer. Crime against policeman here is all too common - they keep an annual toll of it, like we have for the road toll back home.

Good news for bargain hunters - as reported in other blogs and the media here, Buenos Aires is still one of the cheapest major cities in the world, coming 142nd out of 144 cities. I told Juan about this, and he said yeah, but in 2001 it was one of the most expensive (well, 23rd most expensive actually, just above Los Angeles). Back then, he went backpacking to the US and Canada in the days of the strong peso. He told me that back then, with the peso so strong everything was cheaper for Argentines. Flights were so affordable - you could fly to the US for $500 pesos - that when you went travelling there were Argentines everywhere. For him, things in the US were about the same price as in Argentina, whereas the Europeans and Australians he met along the way would be complaining about the prices of dinners etc. $500 pesos to go to the US - man, I've spent $350 pesos on minor things for my van in the last couple of days.

Reader's comment:

I remember walking into the local grocery stores and restaurants and for the first 6 months I would always use pleasantries that most civilized people use like "hello", "thank-you" and "good-bye". After 6 months of NO RESPONSES, scowling and downright hostility I have tired of it and the Portenos can take their city and stick it...

I know what you mean - I found it the same. Worst of all are the Chinese supermarkets or chinos as Argentines call them. Every day I shop at one of two chinos near where I live - and never, in a year and a half of shopping, have I got a hola or gracias from the Chinese staff. At least the Bolivian who runs the fruit and veg section of the same store will say gracias.

One thing I've never gotten used to is whenever you call a business or government department, all you'll get when they answer the phone is "Hola?". They won't even say the name of the business, department, their name, nothing. Just Hola. And if you ask who's speaking they'll get all defensive and ask who you are.

Now, back to the rudeness comment. I think English speakers tend to use more pleasantries than in Spanish. My girlfriend, a waitress, complained to me the other day about how foreigners always order with too many por favores (pleases). We'd say "Could you bring me a coffee, please" which has three pleasantries - the could, the please and the question. Whereas in Spanish un cafe, por favor (A coffee, please) or me trae un cafe? (Could you bring me a coffee?) would be adequately polite. Being overpolite tends to rub people the wrong way here - it's the same if you said "I would really appreciate it if you could be so kind as to bring me a coffee, please". You get the idea.
Intermediate Spanish for tourists, lesson 1: when you ask for the bill, don't say "la cuenta, por favor". Argentines normally say traeme la cuenta (bring me the check) or me cobras (charge me). Make it a question if you wanna be more polite, or add por favor, but not both.

Astute readers will have noticed I've added a little clock showing the local time in Argentina to the right side of the blog, above the weather. I also added some Google ads to the right side of the blog (just to see if they actually do pay out anything), and so far in two weeks or so they've earned me a whopping $6.60! That's like, 47 cents a day. Dude, sell-out. At this rate I might earn $100 by the next World Cup.

Say friend, (deep breath, sales pitch coming) if you out there use the links in the Ad section of my page (to the right) to download and install "Firefox with Google Toolbar" OR "Google's photo software" (aka. Picasa), both of which I use and recommend (really), and you haven't already installed them on your computer, they pay me ONE whole shiny dollar. So far no one has bothered (I know - Google tells me). Fellow bloggers, if you want to join the life on Easy Street like me, earning around 47 cents a day, use the link at the right to sign up (Generate revenue from your website. Google AdSense), go on. For that they pay me too (but only if you manage to earn $100 in your first 6 months - for which I estimate you'll need 60 readers a day). Gold.

Update: I just downloaded and installed Firefox on the PC in the internet cafe to see if I'd get that $1, and no, they'll pay me UP TO $1, depending on the user's location. If someone in Argentina installs Firefox they'll only give me 10 cents. Bah.