Wednesday 29th of April. I get home after my first working day in Argentina. This time there is (or there should not be) any way back. I havent got my papers yet but I did get the job, I am staying in Buenos Aires.

Sunday 10th of May, in front of the mirror. There is a big wound over my right eyebrow and a huge hematoma covering my eye. The weekend will leave me a scar but also very possitive feelings.Its been the first great sociable and party weekend since I live in BA. First step on my way to get over this Madrid nostalgy I was experiencing lately.

Sunday 17th of May. The second amazing weekend in a row just passed. The house where I am living is literally a club. The whole weekend has basically been a non-stop party. I feel really comfortable with both the place and the people. Right now my life is BA is just perfect

Just a bit more of personal stuff and I promise I will go back to more interesting stuff such as trips and argentinian impressions, topics definitely more related to the goal of this blog. But, since the end of the last one was a bit uncertain, I thought I had to say how the whole thing ended. At least I pretend this post to be the opposite counterpart of the pretty much pessimistic previous one. There we go…

And I finally found the way

Which will guide my steps* The bad thing about how lazy I am when it comes to update my blog is that this stuff I am writing is already know to everybody, at least everybody I keep in a more or less regular touch with. I will shout it anyway: I got a job in Buenos Aires! I am staying! And I didnt even have to get close to that month deadline. In fact, the oportunity came shortly after I decided I would not leave to Madrid yet. However I still had time for another frustration before that happened. Something that now that everything worked out fine in the end it is even funny to remember. I went to this interview with another consultancy company. This time the second interview with the client was already arranged at well so it looked more promising than usual. Since I lost that job due to the paperwork issue my european condition is the first thing I mention in the interviews. I make clear that I need their help to legally work in this country and if they are not willing to go through the whole process we better dont waste any more time. Surprisingly, this time I dont get funny faces about this, these people really seem collaborative. They have a look at the papers I told them I need, call their lawyer and tell me that it will be fine, they will sort out the paperwork for me. We also agree about my salaray. Great, this is more and more promising. Now I just need to have the interview with the client.

I go there and everything looks nice appart from the fact that the place looks a bit posh and people are wearing ties. Allright, at this point I am even willing to go back to the uncomfortable piece of shit hanging from my neck. The interview goes well, I know about the technology they are asking for and the job looks interesting. Everything seems to fit very well until the guy says “well, there is one thing, as you see, we wear ties here and… you would need to cut your hair”. I consider myself a very peaceful but I swear I was about to jump over the motherfucker and strangle him with his tie. And you might think I had a King Lion look or something but no, my hair was hold in a discrete ponnytale. Fuck man! I finally find a place willing to do my paperwork and I have to face this shit. Quite demotivating… So I diplomatically say nobody tells me when to cut my hair and the interview is over.

Two days after that I am still pissed off but I get called by some guys I had done an interview with the week before. This was a promising job cause it was located five minutes walking from my place but, after not having news for them, I had given up on it. It was a small company, around ten people working in two flats in the same building. The add they had posted was as follows:

Do you feel proud when you write some code and it works? Do you have programming in your blood? We offer an HIGH technlogy environment, WEB 2.0, Spring, J2EE, WebServices, Axis, Hibernate, etc etc and thousands of terms like these ones that the consultancy companies use even though they have no idea bout it. If you know something of that wellcome. If not it does not matter, we just expect you to be a programmer and for the first time in your life you will be able to say that YOUR BOSS KNOWS.
5 years project, possibility of travelling abroad. In two years we guarantee your expert title.
People wishing to use suits, ties or Polo shirts please stay away. MBA: stay away.

Maybe it sounded a bit too cool but still promising. Not exactly that I have programming in my blood but we seem to agree about the tie ande there is no need to cut my hair. But, the most important thing with these guys is that I could start inmediately and they will deal with my paperwork. However the financial issue wasnt so clear. They were not offering the salary that I wanted and we got into this tense negotiation. In the end the figure was not what I wanted but it wasnt too far away either so I accepted. They promised to review my salary soon and they talk about possible business trips to Spain but I have been long enough in Argentina no know you should not really rely too much in these kind of promises. Anyway, the important thing is that I had secured a job and I was gonna start working inmediately, no waiting for my appointment for migrations. The important thing is that, in a huge city like BA, it would take just five minutes to get to work. Definitely good news

Just to close the “working chapter·” of this post I will tell you that, so far, the job is happening to be really nice. It is all young people here, timetable is flexible, barbacues on Fridays, definitely a comfortable place to work in. I have had to do overtime a couple of days but this wasnt exactly a demand of the job but a consequence of some other days I totally wasted because of showing up totally hangovered after a bit night out in Buenos Aires… It’s kind of hard to be working at the office after four months travelling but I am slowly getting used and even appreciating the back of a routine.

Searching for Orense3

Oddly, after I got the job I have a few days in which my spirit was a bit low. I know it looks like I am never happy but that’s the way I am I guess. The problem is that there was a part of me who had already assumed the idea that I would go back to Madrid and was very looking forward that. I was starting to imagine myself back with my friends, in a house I like very much and in a city I feel very comfortable with. Somehow there was something I was missing in Buenos Aires. In fact this is not a rare thing, whoever went abroad knows there is always this period you have to go through. When you think if the move was worth it or not, if the change was for better. All this travelling and knowing new places is really cool but you also loose things. In my case I have definitely lost, lets call it “financial” quality of living, and also social life because of been so far away from my real friends. That’s the way it is and its difficult not to think about it. In compensation you have the experience of living a new place and meeting new people. Most of the times I am convinced this sort of life is worth it but sometimes I am not. Sometimes I think of this so many things you have back at home and you just cant build up in a couple of months somewhere else. I had a few days my head was going back to Madrid all the time, thinking of the life I had left there.

Clearly I had to do something about this situation. Movement, I need movement. I got the job, let’s look for the next thing to feel better in this place. I realized that the social atmposphere at my shared flat in Madrid (that always busy place we called Orense2) was one of the things I was missing more. Nothing wrong with María, my flatmate, but that place was too quiet for me and it got even worse when she and all my argentinian friends started to study for their exams. Suddendly I had nothing to do and nobody to do stuff with. Too many afternoons watching films and weekends staying home…These circumstances made me start my second house hunting in Buenos Aires. The objective this time was to find a more happening place. And my usual luck that seemed to be gone during my job search came back for this. The first place I saw the first day I was looking was the good one. A few days after that I was living there.

Actually I shouldnt say flat but HOUSE in capitals. Two big floors, huge living room, interior and exterior terraces and an open roof. I never lived in such a huge place. Orense2 is a matches box next to it. Regreteably it no longer takes me just 5 minutes walking to get to work, now I need 15 And the social factor is the best here. Didnt you want more people Paco? There you go… Eight people living there in a funny mixture of argentinian gays (4), argentinian girls (2) and gringos (a british guy and myself). A bit of everything inside there. The argentinians are great and the british guy is a party animal, looks like I am gonna paint the town in red a few times with him. It looks like he was looking forward having another straight person in the house to go out with. I still have to get to know the others, with so many people around is already hard to remember all the names but the house is definitely a world itself. Every weekend there is a bunch of people coming over, friends of the argentinians, gringos and Spanish. I dont know if this sounds to you as what I previously said I was looking for, but it definitely does to me

To expand even further my social circle, I got in touch with the IT guy in the Spanish embassy in Buenos Aires and he introduced me to some other Spanish expatriates or Spanish speaking gringos whic is more or less the same The Friday I moved in was also the first day I met all these people. We had the typical Spanish drinking meeting with bottles of Pampero everywhere and the night happened to be very funny. At some point I touched my head and… I am bleeding… Great Paco! You made it again! You banged your head and you dont know how. And I will never know, it’s been erased on my memory thanks to a shitload of rum, like that time in Madrid. I am gonna start thinking about going out with a helmet. What it looked like a simple wound in my head made my eye became totally purple the next day. I was looking like some crazy gothic had been doing my make-up. Anyway, that didnt stop me from going out again that night after a house party full of cachimba and rum. As you see, this is sounding more and more like my life in Madrid…

The next weekend was pretty much the same but even more “professional”. On Friday we had a birthday party for the british and most of my friends came over. Saturday was a party day again, big event organized for a hockey team. And this was a serious thing mate, they set up this huge sound and lights system in the living room, there was a guy serving drinks and another one charging a cover fee to get into the house (I wasnt joking when I said the house was a club). However I gotta say this was more commercial than funny. The people living in the house ended up having a smaller and private party in the kitchen, away from the packed living room. The problem is that all this people coming to our flat was actually too young and nobody knew any of them. In fact it was just a bunch of people which had rented us
the place to organized thir party. Apparently my clever flatmates organize events like this from time to time to pay the bills…

In short, things are going pretty well know around here. I guess this can be considered a reward to my perseverance, the thing is that I feel more and more settled down in this place. No more dramas, no more dilemas, no more philosophycal thinking. Now is time to enjoy

PD: the post about the Andes trip is already written, I just need to add the pics. Anyway, I thought closing the argentinian drama was more important.
PD2: a week after that motherfucker had an issue with my hair I happened to decide to cut it.

* Maradentro, Héroes del Silencio

Tags: Buenos Aires, Personal