T-Minus 1 month until Extremadura

1.5 months of USA later, my student visa for Spain is now ready for pickup! Yes, after a road trip to Washington, DC (thanks, Megan, for accompanying me!) and a short plane triplet to Chicago (thanks, Omar, for putting me up in your place!), I am approved and ready to depart for Spain! Time to take yet one more road trip, this time with Martincito to Chicago, to pick up that visa and get this party started.

All in all the visa process was very smooth - I got all the necessary documentation without any problems (despite taking a trip to Washington DC to get the Apostille of the Hague on my FBI background check, to gain time, which was in theory unnecessary). As with all trámites, something can always go wrong. I'm happy to report that nothing went wrong thus far. :) Very ready for Spain!

One thorn in my side has been recurring ingrown toenail problems. Yet again. I finally went to an American doctor to get the problem re-resolved. Let's see if it's true that medicine in the USA is that much more advanced. If this guy can solve a problem that was plaguing me for 1.5 years in Argentina, I may be convinced that moving back to the USA is in my future. You can't argue with 1.5 years of pain versus...an actual solution. Imagine if instead of an ingrown toenail we were talking about oh, I don't know, cancer? The difference is clear...Claritin clear. No, just clear.

Although I've enjoyed this time with family, friends, and dogs, I'm ready to move on, and am super ready for Spain! As of now I'm very glad I decided on doing the auxiliares de conversación program in Extremadura. It will be taking me to a place I never would have gone otherwise, and it will be an experience I will have otherwise never had. I'm nervous and unsure whether I will truly enjoy high school teaching. But here's to trying!

Back to the Heart of it All

View from Windhorse Farm, Williamsfield, OH

Back in Ohio on the PA border with my family (on the front porch of the farmhouse as we speak, see pic above). It has been really refreshing to take a break from both work and from the overcrowded people, pollution, noise, etc. And breathe some very fresh air (barring the chemicals the farmer next door sprays on his little soybeanlets). It has been a week since I left Buenos Aires and other than Martín, I'm not missing it too much yet. That takes time. But I am also feeling rather in a limbo between a sort of vacation and a sort of purposelessness, which is why I wanted to keep working throughout the summer, even if what I earn is pennies when you're living in the US. Something is better than nothing, and it does not feel good to have no purpose for 2-3 months. That said, I'm not anxious to go back to working yet. The sun and fresh air and animals could keep me entertained easily for another week or two. Unfortunately I think my vacationing time is coming to a close!

In a couple days I will be taking a trip to Washington DC with my friend to get a walk-in Apostille of the Hague on my FBI background check for my student visa for Spain. I might be crazy to drive almost 7 hours to DC just to do this in person when you can do it by mail, but doing it in person saves me anywhere from 2-4 weeks in time that I need to get my student visa earlier. :) Besides, we're making a road trip out of it, so it should be more than fun. Next we've got Chicago in a few weeks to apply for the student visa. Thanks to Spain I will be exploring my own country a bit more before I take off in late August/early September. I'm certainly not complaining.

Leavin' on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again

2 horas me quedan en esta casita, y 6 en este país. Recién ahora me está entrando una inmensa tristeza por finalmente despedirme de todo sin saber cuándo voy a poder volver. Espero que pronto, si el dios de los pasajes de avión quiere. Tiene algo de bizarro hacer tareas cotidianas como lavar los platos y limpiar el baño durante las últimas horas que uno tiene en su casa. Supongo que será porque en las mudanzas se suele vaciar todo, y la casa que te queda durante tus últimas horas en ella no es la mism de siempre, sino una pelada, fría, sin vida. Esta casa sigue con vida, más precisamente la de mi esposo quien se va a quedar acá un tiempito más solo. Eso también me provoca una gran tristeza. Saber que van a pasar poco menos de 2 meses sin que lo vea.

Pero todo es así en la vida - la felicidad por seguir adelante y crear historias nuevas se mezcla con la nostalgia por lo viejo que se está dejando atrás. Es como cualquier viaje de los muchos que hice en estos 5 años...primero se siente la amargura provocada por las despedidas, y después se siente la dulzura de que te reciban todos con una amplia sonrisa y tanto amor del otro lado. Los viajes siempre son así, agridulces.

 Hasta luego Buenos Aires!~

Lo que se extrañará y lo que no...

Faltan 4 días para que me vaya, y mientras escucho un poco de Estopa para ir afinando mi acento gallego...perdón! Digo, español, me pongo a pensar un poco en lo bueno y lo malo de cerrar esta etapa de mi vida.

De Buenos Aires voy a extrañar...

•  Delivery de todo tipo a cualquier hora!
•  Estudiar con un café con leche en la confitería del barrio.
•  La gente! La flia argentina, compañeros de trabajo y de clase, amigos, extranjeros o no.
•  Saludar todos los días al chico que vende anotadores en la puerta de casa.
•  Nuestro verdulero de confianza (que hasta recetas te da!)
•  El mate, y las mateadas de mediodía los fines de semana completas con facturitas o cada tanto con algunas madachoc.
•  Esa tonadita tan linda! Che! Vos! Boludo! Y demás...
•  Esa variedad infinita de pastas con sus numerosos nombres que son imposibles de recordar.
•  Crónica...
•  Reirme de lo malas que son las telenovelas argentinas.
•  Estudiar portugués, francés, japonés, etc. con argentinos.
•  Desempeñarme como defensora oficial de las gentes orientales, chinas o no.
•  Feriados innumerables!

Pero no voy a extrañar....

• El subte, el colectivo, o cualquier medio de transporte porteño colapsadísimo.
• Ni tampoco el humo que te echa en la cara este último si optás por ir caminando...
• La inflación.
• Los asados. Por dios si tengo que explicar una vez más que no me ENCANTA la carne...voy a...uuuuuuuffff.
• Los moto-, bici-chorros, o los de cualquier otra índole.
• Vivir encerrada en un depto de menos de 50 m2 con vista a nada más que el patio de las señoras de abajo con sus 3 gatos.
• Trabajar en dicho depto todo el día todos los días.
• Comprar algo caro que se me rompe a los 2 días.
• La cumbia.
• Los piropos vulgares (a ver si los españoles son más creativos, o por lo menos más educados.)

Esta lista no pretende ser exhaustiva, sino tan sólo lo que se me ocurrió mientras esperaba por última vez que llegara mi pedido de sushi, el cual procederé a comer...ahora.

~Rumbo a Badajoz!~

They confirmed for me that I will indeed be working in the city of Badajoz (the largest city in Extremadura) and a small town about 20 km from the city. This is great news as I was worried about getting placed in a small town far away from any city! I'm ready to slow down a bit from Buenos Aires but living in a town with 5000 residents would have been too much. So Badajoz is a good medium-sized city (I believe some 150,000 residents) which will hopefully be a good size to adjust from the crazy pace of Bs As but without crying of boredom. As far as I understand, the city limits actually border with Portugal, so that means a lot of exploring Portugal, too! Martín isn't happy about this. He has an irrational fear/aversion to Brazilians and all Portuguese language speakers. God knows why.

I also am happy about Badajoz because it will give me the opportunity to continue taking flamenco classes and maybe even a language (probably French, not holding my breath for Japanese...)

So all that's left is a certain amount of paperwork, and a long summer in quaint little Ohio. One week and one day from my departure, and all the goodbyes are finally making me see how much I will truly miss.

So the auxiliares de conversación program got me all excited for nothing this morning. I woke up to an e-mail called "Designación Auxiliar de Conversación". Awesome! I got my school placement. Or did I? I did effectively receive a school placement to my e-mail. The question, however, is whether it is actually mine. You can imagine my severe disappointment when I re-read the e-mail and realized that it was not addressed to be, but rather to a girl named "Stephanie". Great. So either they made a mistake with the name (I sure hope so) and it is actually my school (which is in a great location!) or they made a mistake with the e-mail address (I sure hope not) and it is actually Ms. Stephanie's school, taking yet another good school placement away from my possibilities of getting a good one. Of course they had to e-mail me on a Friday right before leaving the office, so I couldn't even call them to clarify. I just have to live with the anticipation all weekend. Ahhhh! Will it ever end? I just want to start making plans for my next year! Is it so much to ask? I guess it is. And to think this is just because they made a mistake with a name/e-mail address, which is easy to do...but...but...:(

I am trying my hardest not to let work-related overloads interfere with this blog. As I well know from failed blogatures of the past, once you stop you really don't start again.

So yesterday I began my most epic packing adventure yet: 5 years of life in 2 suitcases and a backpack. It's an exercise in decision-making and throwing things out, particularly for those of us on the verge of packratdom. But it's also a good way to start fresh and separate myself from my material possessions (I think too strong of an attachment to them will only hurt you in the long run).

In a similar vein, I also separated myself from another long-term obsession of mine: my hair. I finally decided to chop off my waist-length hair to an above-the-shoulder, practical and comfortable cut. I'm not sure I find it more attractive, but I think it's a healthy move to distance myself from vanities in my outward appearance and focus on feeling good inside. And boy was my long hair uncomfortable. So I suppose I am a feminist, after all, and this change is in keeping in line with my principles of health, comfort, and practicality over fashion. After all, we feminists believe women are equally valuable in all ways, right? So that means we can sacrifice looks for comfort and health, too, just like men? I like to think so. :)

A long few days of work ahead, combined with more packing fun. And all the while I am desperately trying to keep my mind off of that damn carta de nombramiento that should be coming soon to tell me where in Extremadura I will be working. This is yet another test of patience. So...zen.

Y listo! Ya están los que deben ser los últimos trámites que haga acá en Buenos Aires~! This time a relatively pain-free process, and much easier than the ones I am in the process of doing in the US (getting a federal background check, and getting it legalized with the Apostille of the Hague). I did this here in two short trips and one week. In the US this whole process takes some 2-3 months just for the background check, and another up to 4 weeks to get the Apostille. That's because I don't live in Washington, of course, which would make the second part of this process faster, although I'm afraid there is no remedio for the lengthy and complicated nature of the former. But I digress...

This is definitely something I will miss! Having everything so close, and not having to depend on shipping things off by postal mail and crossing your fingers for weeks or months that they will actually return to you. I won't, however, miss the waiting in lines for hours.

Now that I have all the paperwork I need from here ready to go, the move is finally starting to feel real. Now I just need to get started on packing. Packing 5 years of your life into 2 suitcases is not an easy task and will take some obligatory spring cleaning.

I'm very much looking forward to spending this summer in the US. The summer may be a long, boring time for most of the future auxiliares de conversación going to Spain this fall, but for me it'll be a very special time. Spend some time with old family and friends and relax down on the farm, and recover from this people-generated claustrophobia I have been feeling lately. Fresh air, no people. Sounds really lovely to me after a 2-hour walk through the microcentro doing trámites...

That said, a quote from a recent translation I did comes to mind. I translated an essay in which the author included a quote which I couldn't stop thinking about these past few days:  

"Nuestro apetito condena y desdeña lo que posee para ir en pos de aquello que no posee. - Montaigne" or basically "Our appetite condemns and scorns what it has in order to pursue what it does not".

I suppose this is a fancy way of saying "The grass is always greener on the other side" but it still made me stop to think. Maybe this is why change is so good. Because you get a bit of both sides, constantly gaining and losing things, and appreciate everything more in the process.

So who am I and why have I decided to pack up and move to Extremadura this year?

My name is Kay and I'm one of the many American study abroad students who came to Buenos Aires in the 2005-2009-ish onslaught when the city was still incredibly cheap for an American bringing precious dollars due to the devaluation of the peso argentino in 2002 post 2001-economic crisis. We lived it up. I mean, it was pretty cool to come to a large metropolitan city and pretty much do whatever you want, and eat and drink whatever and wherever you want, all on a student's budget. At any rate, this didn't last long, for two main but very important reasons:

1. Coming to Argentina with dollars as a student is awesome, but you can't stay long here on dollars unless you had significant investments back home which most of us 20-somethings of course did not have, which leads to a foreigner's first major difficulty in Buenos Aires: finding paid work. Finding paid work for English-speaking or otherwise European foreigners in Buenos Aires isn't actually hard at all. In fact, I'd say it's relatively easy, even post-worldwide-financial-crisis. So what's the major difficulty? Finding paid work that doesn't actually suck, and doesn't actually abuse you as the silly, naive, English-speaking foreigner you are (Although I did eventually find one job that treated us very well, which I don't at all regret working for. If you are reading this you know who you are !) Also finding work that pays well, but I believe that's a problem everyone has in Argentina, not just foreigners.

2. Inflation. Oh how I love thee. Except not really. Volatile economic situation where you must demand a pay raise at least twice per year in order to not get swirled down the metaphorical drain that will be your standard of living if you fail to do so.  Seriously. I don't know the official numbers, and frankly I don't care because the official numbers (from our friends at the INDEC) are basically lies, anyway. But I would say an inflation of approximately 30% annually isn't too far off. While all of this does not make life impossible here (of course not, there are millions of people who lived and will live their whole lives here), it does make life harder. So you have to have a seriously good reason for wanting to live here long-term; this isn't just a big joda like study abroad students like to think it is.

3. Work papers. I know I said two major difficulties. That's just because I didn't even want to go here. It's just too painful. But I decided it's gotta be present, or else I am leaving out something very important that any foreigner should know. Expect not to get your work papers in order to for what may possibly be a very long time. Even if you are lucky and this is a fast process and you DON'T have to live "under the radar" for many a year, once you do apply for your residency/work papers it will still be a process worth crying over. Sorry but it had to be said.

These two major gripes aside, I would recommend that anyone looking for a short time away from home give Buenos Aires a spin. It's a different world, the people are fun, and you've got a lot to learn. All you've got to lose is a bit of money, and perhaps a bit of patience.

That said, why have I lived here for 5 years? It certainly doesn't sound like I would want to of my own free will after what I've said. Complaints aside, I have a seriously strong love-hate relationship with this city and everything in it. It took me a number of years to decide, definitely, it wasn't actually for me and that I needed to try new things. And then I needed to wait for my (Argentine) husband to finish school and be ready to come with me.

So now we're off to Extremadura (or at least Spain) together! Here's to hoping it will have as much to teach me about life as Buenos Aires did.

After 5 years in Buenos Aires, I finally decided to make the move to Spain. In light of the current economic situation that Spain has been going through lately, notably the high unemployment rate, I decided to take the safer road and apply for the government scholarship/work program Auxiliares de Conversación Extranjeros en España. The upside? Go to Spain with a job and (small) salary already arranged. The downside? You don't get to choose where in Spain. And that's okay. After 5 years of Buenos Aires, I would probably rather become a hermit for the next 5 years than go to an equally large city like Madrid right now.

And...

Me tocó...Extremadura. I didn't know much about it either. I still don't. But I do know there's a lot of countryside. And ham. That's also okay, because I like ham. Better than I do the Argentine asado anyway. And my dream of returning, albeit for a short time, to a more relaxed, friendly life is surely what decided I would be going to Extremadura.

So the journey begins here. In two weeks from now, just 2 weeks shy of my 5-year anniversary here in Buenos Aires, I will leave this city for what may be forever, or at the very least a long time. With my eyes set on my next destination. I realize now that I thrive on change. Exchanging Buenos Aires for a town (which I don't even know yet) in Extremadura will hopefully be the change I'm looking for, as well as a punto de partida for finding my next rumbo.

Aires Extremeños