15 Reason To Hate (Er,... I Could Do Without ) Ba Living...

[D.B. Cooper]

15 reason to hate (er,... I could do without ) BA living...

1. Soccer hooligans.

2. Uncollected garbage that piles up on the sidewalk.

3. Air polluting & noisy cars, buses, motorcycles.

4. Bus drivers who intentionally avoid picking up passengers. WUWT ???

5. Broken sidewalks that make you trip & send you flying through the air.

6. Stray dogs. I love dogs & all animals. But too many strays on the street.

7. People who cut off traffic to make a political point.

8. Subway that closes from 11 PM. to 5 AM.

9. Corrupt, manipulative & greedy Politicians & Union leaders.

10. Scam artist, fraudsters & thiefs. They should be considered a national "treasure" .

11. Grafitti "artist" who deface architecture treasures with their spray paint.

12. Having to miss-pronounce English words so the locals can understand ... Router ?... Rooter!, Giga ?... Geega !

13. Men who dress up as women. !!! OMG !!! They're a plague !!! Actually I feel sorry for them.

14. Apartment owners who have no qualms about punching out huge holes to put in an AC unit in Beaux Arts / Art Nouveau buildings.

15. Irresponsible parents who send their young children to beg in restaurants & trains. Shame on them !!!.


All in all I'm very happy living in BA. No doubt about it, I'm staying. I love it !!!. But these are the things I could do without.
Cheers !!!

 

[niceguyeddie]

12. Having to miss-pronounce English words so the locals can understand ... Router ?... Rooter!, Giga ?... Geega !

You do realise that the Argentineans pronounce 'router' as it should be. It is our friends from the United States that do not pronounce the word correctly, along with a lot of other words including aluminium, potato, tomato etc.

 

[EricLovesBA]

4. Bus drivers who intentionally avoid picking up passengers. WUWT ???

Aside from the obvious cases where the bus is already full, negligence, laziness, shift is almost over, etc I gather that the routes may be timed and they are sometimes attempting to catch up to where they are supposed to be on the route? It seems I notice them sometimes trying to create some distance with another collectivo following closely behind. I've never asked them. Are the routes timed?

 

[EricLovesBA]

12. Having to miss-pronounce English words so the locals can understand ... Router ?... Rooter!, Giga ?... Geega !

This could be (undoubtedly already is) a funny thread in itself. I used to work for a Taiwanese guy in the states and I would catch myself mirroring his quirky grammatical mistakes when I spoke to him. What gets me the most is how proper names (countries, places, names) all have their local version. I don't really get how that happens. It's like there's not even any attempt to pronounce names as they were created in their place of origin. I also catch myself introducing myself as "aydic" instead of Eric because I've heard it mispronounced for so long. Ask a local to say the Quaker brand name. Watch their reaction when we pronounce Tijuana as Tia-wanna. What can you do - go buy some baby clothes at Mr Cock's, go home and eat some Barfy burgers and have a good laugh.

 

[ThatOneLittleBunni]

You do realise that the Argentineans pronounce 'router' as it should be. It is our friends from the United States that do not pronounce the word correctly, along with a lot of other words including aluminium, potato, tomato etc.

hey hey, no hatin on American pronunciation

 

[PfQ]

In most countries foreign words are pronounced as if they had been written in the local language. (Hence why 'live' becomes 'leebe' and so on.) People within their own countries mostly interact with co-nationals, within their own language, so they don't usually bother changing their pronunciation for the occasional foreigner. It's the same in most everywhere - I mean, just take in account the way Florida, Colorado, Los Angeles, and so on are pronounced in English. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just a part of appropriating other languages and cultures; some pronunciations are kept, most aren't.

Buses do have timed routes, or at least vague approximations of them. I've never been passed by one that wasn't full up to the gills, but I wouldn't be surprised. Buses running late do tend to pass minor stops, both here and in most big cities. Hell, I've been passed over in Portland many times, and the traffic there is virtually utopian in comparison to any major city.

These seem like complaints pointed at living in any big city, from the transvestites to the pollution to the scam-artists. New York's not much different.

As far as the subway closing at 11, there's a very good reason for that, and it's actually one of your other points. Crime. If the subway was open any later, when passengers are few and between, it would be a hotbed for muggings and assaults.

 

[mariano-BCN]

I would add: Argentineans who have an opinion about everything, specially about world-politics without having a clue what they're talking about

 

[PfQ]

Hahaha. That's a wonderful one, but again, I'm sure there's plenty of people like that in every country. I know I've met plenty, and even assumed the role at times.

 

[Yogur griego]

I've experienced several bus drivers that nearly drove over people and some who actually did, just because they didn't care or were too consumed by their cumbia music. There are some really bad drivers in BA, but it's nothing compared to what I was used to in Indonesia. So, I come to that conclusion while reading most of your points: many of these things are often way worse in other countries, but yes, in comparison with Western Europe and the US/Canada a couple of things are pretty terrible in BA.

I guess I am the only person who never had a problem handling the ghastly sidewalks in this city.

And I do remember the unprecented presence of transsexuals in Buenos Aires, I remember a weird black guy with lipstick, a handbag and an appaling bright green costume who tried to look seductively at me, and while I think they should dress however they want to,I just unintentionally burst into laughter and couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes. Probably from Brazil or something, a country that also produces armies of weird-looking tourists in Puerto Madero that take my non-existent Portuguese skills for granted and orate in their strange language .

 

[robwerwe]

For me its the people here.
A lot (but not all of course!) are really annoying!

They are so rude and arrogant and have a general distaste for anything thing different. I found it such a surprise at how closed a society it is here.

I've met some great Argentines mostly from outside Capital but I really can't wait to leave this place!