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.