It was three pm when I started. I told myself that at 4pm I'd jump into the shower and get to the other stuff I had to take care of today. But by 6pm I was still sitting here at the computer. So, to be fair, I was setting myself up for disaster-but whatever, here is what happened next...
...at 6:05 I jumped into the shower. I had a deadline at 7pm, but I had waited till the last minute.
By 6:12 i was locking my door on the way out of the apartment. I remember now hearing a funny "click" but I didn't think anything of it at the time and I went on my way. Here was my challenge: I had to pay bills for the first time here in Buenos Aires, and I had to get it done by 7pm, when the "rapi pago" joints close for the night. That was the main challenge, but there were two more challenges I had to face within this 38 minute time frame: 1) get money out of the ATM, and 2) find a place where I could actually pay the bill. having been in BA for a while, I'd heard of "rapipago" and "pagofacil", but I'd never actually gone to one, and wasn't sure where the most convenient and close location to me was.
First of all, let me say that it is absolutely impossible to get money out of an ATM in BA. First of all, they're called "cajeros automaticos", secondly, everything here is done in cash, thirdly they have limits of about 350 pesos (approx US $110), and finally, atm's are nowhere to be found. It's not like in the States where you can find any 7-11 or 24hr. deli type joint and take out cash...here, unless you're on a big avenue or something they are hard to come by. So, with that in mind...
...My plan of action, with the 38 minutes I had left, was to deal with each problem one at a time. My first objective was to get cash. And so I started for the only ATM I knew that was close (approximately 8 blocks away). This was risky because I'd played this game once before and what had started out as a quick 15 minute excursion to get cash had turned into a 2 hr ordeal as one cash machine after another was "out of service". Super frustrating and agonizingly typical in this part of the world. Nonetheless, I pursued this option as it was my best bet. Luckily, once I got to the ATM, I was able to take out money and that part of the saga was over.
My next objective was then to find a place where I could pay my bloody bills. I started for the one Kiosko (deli/convenience store) I knew that was only an L shaped block away thinking that would be a good place to start my investigations. When I got there, however, it was uncharacteristically busy, with one guy on the phone and and a bunch of people inside. Working with a time limit, I had developed a very rapid pace and before I knew it I had walked right by the Kiosko. Luckily I was walking towards a major avenue and I thought that would be a good place to start anyway. When I got to the major avenue I was somewhat disapointed not to be immediately rewarded with a rapipago within seeing distance. Again, with the momentum, I made a quick decision to take a left and continued my journey...
There was a police officer standing outside a major supermarket that I secretly hoped would have a pagofacil service. Being that it didn't, I kindly asked him if he could direct me to one. He motioned one lock 4 blocks east and 1 block south. I thanked him and continued my journey with his directions in mind.
The trip was taking longer than I had anticipated and at one point I realized that I had taken the police officer's word for it, without question, and that my short-term fate would lie in his hands. Not that you can really trust police officers anywhere else in the world, but here they are particularly corrupt and scary. But my sudden hesitations were suddenly abated when I found the joint he had described.
It was half pharmacy, half bill-paying joint. Interesting. Of course, at 10 of 7pm, I find out that their system is down. God damn-it! I ask for another option, another joint. I am pointed to a location that I had bloody passed on the way over here in the first place...but with no assurance that it would still be open. Keeping an open mind, I try for the new place. At the very least, it's on the way home. I finally reach the joint, and to my astonishment it is not only open, but ready to serve me! And so, friends, after all this excitement, I was finally permitted to hand over cash and pay my mother-fucking bills!
I stepped out of the joint with what seemed to be a weight lifted off my shoulders. I had not been a complete deadbeat today-though it was only in the nick of time, I had managed at least to pay bills today! I walked the streets of Buenos Aires once again as a free man!
Along with my shoulders, my spirits lifted. I was trying to make my way home by or through streets I didn't yet know in order to do something and learn something new. I was soon rewarded...I passed by a joint and something about it caught my eye. When something is even the slightest bit different in Buenos Aires, it tends to catch your eye. This is because, after the honey-moon phase of course, everything in BA is terribly bland. After you get over the idea of how good the steak, choripan, and chimichuri are here, you face the music and realize that everything here lacks originality and flavor. And so, i pass this joint, and I know there is something different about it. Upon closer observation I realize that my attention has peaked because it is a middle-eastern joint. Fucking taboule and shawarma and kebe and all sorts of flavors await me in this little take-away joint.
I have a bit of a history with a young lady from Jordan, and so I tend to be quite eager to not only order and devour a tasty combination of foods and flavors but also to throw a couple of words out in Arabic and watch in amazement as they are amazed by my linguistic skills. This was not to be in Buenos Aires. Firstly, I'm pretty sure that today I visited the only middle-eastern shawarma joint that doesn't have shawarma during all opening hours. Typically Argentine, I'm afraid. Secondly, I stared down through the glass into a cage where they kept little tupperwares of taboule and started to realize that my expectations had been way too high. In the spirit of adventure and trying something new, I ordered it anyway. Pretty soon the suspiciously Argentine middle-eastern man was putting the little container into a plastic bag for me. He asked me "what else" and I told him nothing but some utensils to take with me. But guess what, they don't have plastic forks for take out orders! Fine I said, give me some pita bread so at least I can scoop this shit out of this crappy container with half-assed taboule in it (you can imagine what I actually said and what i just thought to myself)! He motioned to another counter where there was a huge stack of pita bread and told me that they only sell it, they don't give it away for free. "Go fuck yourself" comes to mind but at this point I understood that my whole fantasy had gone to shit and I might as well just pay for the bread and get the hell out of there.
And so, a few moments later, i'm walkng down the street eating a pita bread filled with shitty taboule that's leaking onto the sidewalk. I was so hungry at that point that I still managed to find joy in consuming the bloody thing. But in doing so, my mind shifted to another peculiar point...people here don't eat on the street. What I mean is that it is very rare for you to walk down the street and see someone eating a slice of pizza, or an apple-or anything. In a previous conversation i had had, this point was attributed to the fact that the Argentines take their time with meals, and enjoy the food and company they're in. But my last stop was NYC and eating my lunch between destinations was routine, if not encouraged, and I was getting tired of people staring at me. God damn I needed something to go right today!
2 B cont'd.
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