Dear all, so finally an update. It's been a while, but now I find the time to do this.
It's early April by now, time is running, we're already in autumn here in Buenos Aires, even though that doesn't mean all that much, or at least not the same as in Berlin. The 30 C we had a few days ago, and still hefty humidity doesn't exactly make one think of putting on a winter jacket.
The city is the same as ever, still a mixture of exiting opportunuties, noise, traffic and pollution. But I have been able to move "barrios" - I have escaped from the ugly textile district called Once, where my old appartment was, and have moved into the middle-class neighborhood Almagro. A few more trees, a lot less dirt, actual people living there (instead of just small businesses like in Once, and everyone leaving after 7pm, leaving the streets deserted). I have a few cafés around the corner, which are both good and surprisingly cheap (e.g. A 300g Sirloin Steak for A$ 4.50 -- a bit over 1(!!) Euro). People on the doorsteps chatting, a little park nearly, a few fitness centers that I still have to sign up with, a few supermarkets... in short, the quality of life has improved considerably.
I am sharing my 50sqm appartment with an English Journalist Intern, with monthly cost of some 140 Euros for the whole placve also a bargain in comparison to the 300 US$ for the 20 sqm studio I paid before in an area I grew to hate. So I have basically "turned local", I don't feel like a tourist at all.
Which is good, since as of March I do live off my savings. The fact that nothing replenishes my account does make me a little uneasy, but fortunately I was able to settle with my old company, leaving me with a small severance payment that here, with the exchange rate as it is, and NOT paying tourist prices, will last me a few good months more.
In any case, I am looking for alternatives. One is to get hold of a few paid consulting projects for NGOs. Even though they tend to pay very little money in Euro-terms, here such a payment might just be enough for the rent. I am consulting NGOs to put in place online donation systems, volunteer signups, polls and referendums, etc. All very interesting work, and something I would like to keep my foot in for the future. I like the style of working as an idependent outside adviser, you can be a lot more frank about what has to happen in an Organization, and they even pay you to do just that.
Of course, long term that is not enough - after all, I would like to be able to once in a while travel to Europe and elsewhere, to see friends and family, and keep my options open in general. Therefore, I have put together a small group of really good programmers, and am trying to get some Webdevelopment for Europe going. So if any of you need high quality / low price websites done, I can make you a good offer. :-) If this should take off, I should make enough money to live here comfortably for a while, and still be in touch with the old world. I'll have to see if and how this will take off. It would, in any case, be an interesting venture, and at this stage in my life much more tempting that a regular job as an employee at some big company.
In general life news, I have by now acquired a level of Spanish that allows me to participate in normal life here almost like a local. It makes a huge difference to be able to communicate rather effortlessly, and even though I make still a lot of mistakes, I've grown leaps and bounds from the early stumbling stutters. Now I also start to appreciate more the cultural So even if nothing else works out from now, at least the objective to "learn Spanish" I can comfortably check off.
I will try to post a few pictures after "Semana Santa" to get things a bit more visual. :-)
