Buenos Aires vs. Colombia

[Alzinho]

Hah! Wow, Alzinho, that was quite a post.

Yeah, a justifiable response though, eh?


;-)

 

[ssr]

Yeah, a justifiable response though, eh?


;-)

Not really, dude.

 

[Alzinho]

Not really, dude.

OK, I retract the final sentence, but the rest of it is deserved, given the baseless and patronising accusation in the knob-head's post.

 

[STElmoFranco]

I completely agree that Colombia and Argentina are worlds apart. Colombia being more stereotypical Latin America with its music, food, culture, heritage; and Argentina more European and arguably having a national identity crisis.

I appreciate your simple but valid question of what I'm looking for in a city to live in. To give you some background I graduated from a fairly elite liberal arts college about two years ago, and though I've been working most of that time, have found the work unrewarding and with little reason to hope for more responsibility to be given in the foreseeable future. I largely blame the US economy for this issue. I plan on beginning grad school in the next few years, but in the meantime I would like to live in Latin America to work, improve my Spanish (I'm nearly fluent at this point), and be able to enjoy myself, I especially enjoyed the nightlife in BsAs. I studied in Buenos Aires at UBA for more than a year during college so I know the city quite well. A concern I have about moving anywhere outside of the US, is that I don't know many people and I've come to realize that more than the location, friends are what makes an experience great. So, another question for you I have is, how have you met locals that have become meaningful friends or romances?

Thanks for all the advice you've been giving me!

 

[TheJag]

I think Buenos Aires would be perfect for you. I would seriously take grad level courses at UBA. You cannot beat the price(Free). And you will meet a ton of people, and enough chances for romance with classmates.

I personally prefer the women in Argentina, but I am a glutton for punishment by psychotic women.

 

[cocteauuk]

Alzinho, is unbelievable things you can say behind a compute screen. First of all you're the asshole. My country is not a shit hole as you said, you stayed less than a day as I could see and had a bad experience, in a normal conversation with a normal human being I would say I'm sorry that happened to you, but in your case I can see you totally deserved it. I'm sad for you as you attitude didn't let you appreciate the place you were in. Nevermind, no-one needs people like you.

You might hate the whole world because things like that happen anywhere.

 

[STElmoFranco]

I think Buenos Aires would be perfect for you. I would seriously take grad level courses at UBA. You cannot beat the price(Free). And you will meet a ton of people, and enough chances for romance with classmates.

I personally prefer the women in Argentina, but I am a glutton for punishment by psychotic women.

Taking classes is a great idea that I hadn't thought of. I was just looking at the UBA site and saw some interesting looking courses. Doesn't look too hard to register either.

 

[use2brew]

I think Buenos Aires would be perfect for you. I would seriously take grad level courses at UBA. You cannot beat the price(Free). And you will meet a ton of people, and enough chances for romance with classmates.

I personally prefer the women in Argentina, but I am a glutton for punishment by psychotic women.

Perfectly put The Jag. These women are definitely the craziest I've been around, even more crazy than the Colombians and Venezuelans I've known. Having said that, for me, it's the old question of the chicken and the egg. Are the women 'hysterica' b/c the way the men act, or is it that the men act that way b/c the women are so damn 'hysterica'? In the end, does it really matter?

I have to agree to some extent with the responses of the 'Argie Bashers'. For me, the 'typical' personality of the 'typical' Porteño is the worst of the Latin (Hispanic) and Italian cultures rolled into one. There's still much more machismo here than what you'll find in the EEUU or most of Europe (granted a bit less than most other Central/South American cultures), but when you couple that with the Italian bravado and arrogance, for me it has started to become a bit too much. Depending upon your personality type and experiences, you might find it to be the same.

As for Porteño friends I have made here, most of them have spent considerable time in the US and/or Europe, or at least have had a very large exposure to it (vacations, relatives living there, many ex-pat friends). That's not to say that I don't have any friends who don't fit into that category. As in any part of the world, there are always exceptions to what is 'typical'.

I just tend to agree with some of the other comments. They are very argumentative, proud, elitist, forceful, tend to work the truth, and above all, there is a totally ingrained sense of 'aprovechar' (take advantage of) in both the good and bad sense.

I must clarify, however, that I've lived here 2 years already, have thought through the pros and cons of this culture thoroughly (yes, there ARE pros, MANY!!!), and have decided to travel to Colombia for a month and a half before I head home to the US for a month in my homeland. It's totally my intention to get an idea of what the culture of living in Colombia would be like.

.... And thanks for the post... very poignant for me!!!!

 

[Alzinho]

Alzinho, is unbelievable things you can say behind a compute screen. First of all you're the asshole. My country is not a shit hole as you said, you stayed less than a day as I could see and had a bad experience, in a normal conversation with a normal human being I would say I'm sorry that happened to you, but in your case I can see you totally deserved it. I'm sad for you as you attitude didn't let you appreciate the place you were in. Nevermind, no-one needs people like you.

You might hate the whole world because things like that happen anywhere.

Well clearly you're not from Colombia are you? What planet are you from exactly?

Maybe you should re-read your original post - the one where you told me I was wearing an expensive watch and trainers and suggesting that I deserved to have a knife put to my throat and declaring that I'm stupid. What evidence did you have for ANY of those?

And now you can see that I totally deserved it? Why? Because I was a foreigner in your country?

And I didn't appreciate the place I was in because of my attitude? No, I didn't appreciate the place I was in because after being robbed at the airport in Bogota and in my third week in Cali (another poor assumption on your part) I had a knife put to my throat. I hadn't previously mentioned it, but I had also witnessed 2 other muggings in Bogota before I went to Cali and had been warned that I couldn't travel outside of the major cities by any means other than air travel because foreigners were being kidnapped on a daily basis.

It's absolutely true that any city in the world has its dangerous areas and I've also known people who have been mugged in London, but this was a whole new level of constant threat. And the thread was asking about Colombia/Argentina and all I did was described my personal experience.

You chose to make an unfounded, unnecessary and inaccurate personal attack towards me - if you can't take the comeback from that, I suggest you stay away from the internet.

 

[Alzinho]

Apologies to STElmoFranco for messing all over your thread!

I just wanted to let you know about my experience of Colombia. Maybe it's changed in recent years, though a bit of googling seems to suggest that it hasn't.

I still wouldn't let that put you off though - everyone has a different experience - the world would be boringly predictable if they didn't!