Back in Argentina (and back writing a blog!)

I think the hardest thing is to write the first phrase into a new blog. But there it is, and now I can continue...

It's been two days now since I arrived in Buenos Aires, but I'm still feeling a bit jet lagged-ish and haven't properly realised yet that I'm here. I suppose that a part of not feeling super excited must do with the fact that most of the time it's been pouring and so a nice stroll in the city centre has not happened yet. But don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to be here and feel fortunate that I was able to return after the economic crash that hit me after my last year and of which I have had a really difficult time recovering. (For those who don't know, I got a scholarship from my uni to come and work on my thesis which is on the pulp mill conflict between Uruguay and Argentina).

I must say that Buenos Aires looks a lot different from what I remembered it like. Perhaps this is partly due to the bad weather and not venturing into the fancier parts of the city, but still, it does seem quite polluted, dirty and visually not so harmonious. In fact, it reminds me of my first day impressions on Córdoba last year. I think that the reason for my impression must be that when I last year made it here I had already been in Argentina for a good while, and was used to the certain unpleasant aspects of the urban life in here. So for me, it was great to see big monuments, vast boulevards and so on. But now after a summer in Paris, Buenos Aires just doesn't seem to live up to its fame of being the Paris of the Southern hemisphere.

But I don't want to sound all depressed because that's not the case at all. Again, it feels great to be around such nice people. Today, an old lady stopped me on the street to complement my hat! That's so sweet. The fact that I'm back to a country where self service is non existent also feels wonderful. No more queuing up with a heavy tray in the university cafeteria! A glass of white wine in a nice café for 1 €, a delicious Malaysian lunch for 6€ :) Life is good.