As stated above, it seems a lot of expats enjoy complaining about BA. When I was living in Capital, I would occasionally try hanging out at expat get-togethers, but it was really a turn off for me to hear all the condescending attitudes about local infrastructure, ethics, etc etc. A turning point for me was late 2008 when I was at a tango show with a few expats, and one was complaining about all the scams that you can run into here. I was speaking in defense of the locals, trying to get her to see the positive side of things and suddenly, exasperated, she just stopped and looked at me with that patronizing look like when someone is trying to "save" you and exclaimed "you really *love* them don't you!?!!?". This was the impetus for my username here on the site "EricLovesBA", and the point at which I really stopped actively trying to spend time with expats.
To those who think it naive to make a list of things to enjoy about being here, I would say: What is the point of leaving your own culture to enter another without really trying to integrate into it? I'd be willing to bet that many of you who slam BA probably had similar negative attitudes about your own native culture (as do I). You tried to escape, but here the negative attitudes are again, following you like your shadow on the ground. The problem, it turns out, isn't BA, it's you. If the "first world" is so great, why are you living here?
Granted I've been here a while now. The newness has worn off and I can be annoyed on a daily basis by many things that were easier to manage in the US where I am from. There is a kind of home court advantage about living in your own native country. I wonder, for example, how many of us speak Spanish fluently? Imagine how you would get by in your native country if you spoke your native language like a 4-year-old. Granted, learning Spanish has been a long uphill battle for me, but to the extent that I have learned, it's central to my sense of integration here, and my ability to feel like I can really manage my life independently. And without that sense of autonomy of course it's going to be easy to blame all your troubles on everything else and your environment. But it's so much more than just learning the language isn't it. It's learning to see and appreciate all the things that are different from your preconceptions.
So here's to the OP. Good for you! I'm going to try it too, as it seems a very healthy thing to do:
*** 15 Things I Like about living in Buenos Aires ***
1. Designing and building my own little house with my own 2 hands, without some inspector riding my ass or having to hire 10 zillion licensed professionals to help me do it.
2. Being surrounded by my wife's family, somehow reminiscent of my childhood, or perhaps even an earlier time. I sometimes feel like I've stepped back in a time machine to a value system that I imagine the US might have had in the 50's or so- stronger family ties, simpler family roles. It has a certain vibrancy to it that I like. It makes me feel connected. Basically you could just say a stronger sense of community.
3. Facturas - esp if they are fresh, with dulce de membrillo.
4. Yerba Mate. Ok - I'm kind of addicted to mate now like have been at times to coffee in the past, but the mate doesn't seem to have the hard crashes or headaches associated with hardcore coffee drinking. Also mate is such a social drink - more social even than beer isn't it? How many times have you seen someone drink mate by themselves? What a cool tradition of sharing time with people.
5. Helado. Helado. Helado. Helado. (that's how I chant it in the streets when I'm walking with my wife and the craving hits).
6. Public transportation. I've lived here since 2008 without owning a car. Living without a car in Houston would be quite a pain by comparison.
7. The people. They are pretty, warm, social, direct, practical, not so materialistic. I went to the US for a bit and came back here on Aerolinas Argentinas, and I was suddenly struck, walking out of my US world into the plane full of argies, how calm, polite, quiet, and beautiful they are. Elegant. By comparison I find Americans arrogant, materialistic, fat, entitled, and overly-accepting of their dangerously imperialistic government.
8. I'm not embarrassed to say I live here. I left the US during the Bush years. When I really think about the actions of my government I want to throw up. The empire building, killing of innocent people all over the world, steady deterioration of liberty is sickening. When someone asks me where I'm from, part of me cringes inside. Maybe the Argentine government is corrupt, but *everyone* here knows it, and doesn't pretend it's ok to leave everything up to the government. Maybe CFK is a bit ridiculous, but at least here the government is a bit afraid of the people instead of vise versa, and thieving is more on the scale of a pickpocket on the subway instead of something like Enron, or robbing the entire middle class to pay off too-big-to-fails. At least the taxes I pay here don't result in the death of women and children in all remote corners of the planet.
9. The music. The local taste in music suits me. They tend to like a lot of the same rock music I've listened to for years, plus a fun mix of techno, rap, reggaeton, and national rock and more, but hardly ever boring.
10. Culture, in Capital. Seems there is something for everyone, all kinds of museams, concerts, tango shows, street shows, art fairs, theater. Who could as for more really?
11. Stronger sense of personal responsibility , in the sense of looking after your own safety and not being so responsible for everyone else. Maybe I'll change my mind if I get run over one day, but I get some kind of kick out of it when drivers approach a group of pedestrians accelerating and honking when they have the right of way, or there is an open manhole in the street without any safety tape around it. It some how seems simpler to watch out for yourself, as opposed to a culture where you can sue someone for burning yourself with a cup of coffee because the lid was loose. Maybe you could call it a slight agreeable taste of anarchy.
12. I like it that police, for what I've seen, are not thugs. I have yet to directly see a beatdown, or a cop using unwarranted force, something I saw many times in the US. The obvious example could be in protests - the police presence for peaceful protest is appropriate here, and totally inappropriate in the US, for what I have seen. I have also seen more appropriate handling of drunks and thieves here. Balancing that, I did see one instance of a crowd throwing rocks at the train I was on with an inappropriate lack of any police response, but maybe they had not yet arrived.
13. The reasonably healthy state of mom-and-pop stores everywhere you go, who can still reasonably compete against big corporations. I like it that you can often find good prices and better service on a very local level and I enjoy the relative lack of chain stores and restaurants dominating the landscape.
14. The generosity of people with their time. Although it's difficult for me still to drop everything go hang out all day with friends drinking mate, I do really appreciate how willing people are here to invest time in making a new friendship, placing a strong value on social connections and family.
15. I love my Argy wife, and how happy and peaceful my life is since we got together.
