RBBAASA - Day Two
Hello, boys and girls, and welcome to Day Two. Let's dive right in...
Looking for digs in Buenos Aires, (also known as Capital Federal, CABA, or BsAs), involves two unique concepts, called garantia and ambiente.
La Garantia
The word garantia means literally 'guarantee'. It means that you or your family own a property equivalent to the one you hope to rent, and place that as security for your good behaviour. All well and good for prosperous middle-class Argentinos, but foreigners and everyone lower on the socio-economic scale is left out in the cold. Nominally, there exist alternatives, such a paying a bank to post a bond for you in place of a garantia, but in actual practice, this is beyond the financial means of most of us.
El Ambiente
The word ambiente means literally 'environment'. When you see it used in isolation, as in the header just above, it means the environment, and ambientalista translates as environmentalist.
When discussing living quarters, however, the word takes on a new meaning. The living room is considered the first ambiente, and each bedroom is one more. So "un departamento de tres ambientes" is a two bedroom apartment, not three. And a monoambiente is a studio apartment; it's all one room. And they can be truly tiny. I saw an ad last week for a monoambiente of only 22 square meters. You can multiply that by 10 to get a good approximation of square feet. Rich people have bigger closets.
So what am I looking for, and what can I afford?
Argentina is in the midst of a serious economic disaster. This particular piece isn't about politics, so I'll skim right over the reasons why, but we are talking IMF level problems. We are now in the same risk category as Venezuela, according to some major Wall Street investment heavyweights. My mother's phrase was, "screwed, blued, and tattoooed".
I'm budgeting for 600 USD per month, which is going to leave me with options only in the somewhat downscale neighbourhoods. Reality is what reality is, and I'm no stranger to rough neighbourhoods. In San Diego, I lived in Barrio Logan for a year, and worked there for almost eight years.
I really don't want to have to settle for a monoambiente, but I will if I must. I need at least a large balcony with plenty of sun, and a small terraza (terrace) would be better. Part of my plan involves some vegetable gardening. It's something I've done since I was a kid, and I'm good at it. Given the high price and infuriatingly low quality of produce here in BsAs, this is a must-have.
It needs to have a full kitchen with a gas oven, or connections for one. Clothes washer, or connections for one, is also a necessity.
And those are the only hard-and-fast parameters of what I need. I can be flexible on everything else.
And that's a wrap for today
Writing this all down has helped, as it always helps. Writing is catharsis, writing is organization, writing is an ordering of the thoughts, because we must articulate our thoughts before we can write them down.
So, enough scribbling about it, time to go do it. Arriba y adelante!