29 Y.o. Male Seeking A Radical Sabbatical In Ba.

[steveinbsas]

Not to unromanticize you before you even arrive but as others have stated 2k will go quite quickly especially for a new arrival.

Short term jobs are generally not very glamorous, barback, perhaps teaching English, but they don't pay very well as noted, and usually will not be full time. Also if you tell people you're only here for a few months they're going to be less likely to hire your or pay well, as there's not much in it for them.

Recently, the mother of a Harvard University student who is studying in BA asked how her son (who had already been here for a while) could find clients to teach English. He wasn't having any luck advertising on craigslist.

I replied that selling used dress shirts (in near new condition) bought in thrift shops in the USA would be easier and more lucrative than teaching English in BA and I wasn't joking. Cowboy shirts with snaps instead of buttons would likely sell even faster.

If you only have enough money to last two months when you arrive, you might not be able to find a "job" before you run out of money.

 

[wild_horses]

Please, before you accuse, prove it. Quote me when I said something racial was funny. If you are referring to some ways porteños call foreigners, you will never understand since you re not a porteño, why we call people negro, gordo, chino, loco, etc, all with affect. I made a list explaining which ones were considerated offensive and which ones not. For example, bolita or brazuca or chilote, are offensive, but paragua or yorugua or franchute, are not. If you dont get it, and it seems you dont, it is your problem.

Don't even bother, she likes to accuse people with no prove and then when you ask for evidence, disappears all of a sudden. Lilita le dicen.

 

[cosmolat]

the amount of money necessary to get by in BA is something of a hot topic here. Personally, it strikes me that many of the long-term forum members are quite/very well off. Even if your standard of living is much more flexible/less expensive than some here, Buenos Aires is not a cheap city if you make pesos or are living off limited savings.

For example, my boyfriend and I live very cheaply (even our porteño friends tease us about it). We found a monoambiente in Saavedra that is 3500 all in. We don't eat out a lot, and we cook a lot of beans, rice, and veggies. I get paid in pesos and have a side job on the internet that pays dollars into a paypal account that I then xoom to myself when necessary. My boyfriend is a student and works carpentry on the side (obviously, this is all en negro - under the table - work). We don't mind living far from centro/palermo or cooking, because transport is cheap, we like our barrio, and we like cooking and each other. Obviously, depending on what you like to do for fun, you will probably want to be closer in, at which point rent will be more expensive. Basically, my feeling is that if living cheaply and going without a few things doesn't make you feel "deprived," if you don't find yourself needing retail therapy or things of that nature, you could be very happy here. We are. But we didn't come here expecting to live large. Our expat friends who did are largely unhappy.

As someone above mentioned, shared housing is a good option, esp to meet people and upgrade your spanish quickly. There are pension-style houses filled with students from other mercosur countries and traveling young people for around 3000/habitacion.

 

[cosmolat]

The other thing I would mention is, as Steve says, to abandon any hope you have to "pass" as local or not to feel like a tourist. That will not happen, even once you start saying lluvia as shoovia and learn the "vos" conjugation. That's ok! Learn to view "de donde sos?" as a friendly, not a judgemental question - even if it's not, you will feel better. There are people here from all over the world, and you can get to know the city on your own terms without trying to construct some sort of pretend authenticity acclimation is a slow process.