It's funny how most expats post about how negative life in Arg has become...not even for them, but for their significant others.
I had a 6 month plan here but now have been here for 2.5 years with another 2 years to go since I'm studying in UBA now. You're all right about life changing...being in the school system here sometimes seems like a joke...who has to wait 6 months for a grade on a paper? And who has to wait an indefinite time for the date of the defense of their thesis (over a year)? And who has to wait over a year for paperwork for a visa?
My situation is also different in that my significant other is from another first world country. We both left our countries for new experiences in the world and are met with stupid headaches in a country that, yes, doesn't seem to care about its own people. 150% inflation for the subte? Daily inflation in grocery stores? I don't know about you, but you would think my pay would go up being an English teacher...no....we are still exploited in just the same way, where out of my 60 pesos, they take 40% from me and people just don't have the money anymore to pay for classes.
An expat friend of mine who is a travel blog writer recently left and her reasons were: being cat called by men who think they're all that when they aren't, constantly; garbage (she posted a picture of a mattress in a hole on the street with a beer can on it...this was in palermo); lack of culinary diversity (she was a vegetarian) and amongst other things, she had her residency but still had to pay everything like a tourist.
The fact that we can't buy or sell dollars is a nightmare when all our tourist rents are in dollars. The other day, we were going to pay our psycho landlady the peso equivalent according to the currency exchange online and she magically showed up saying we had to pay her 200 pesos more than what it said...for some bullshit reason...highway robbery.
The instability of this country is making it suffer. The fact that the government and officials do nothing to help its people is blatantly obvious. The nervousness of its people can be felt daily and frankly, it makes me nervous thinking of what could happen here... (another crash??)
I think it's sad that us expats can't stick around here...and even though right now, the laws are still lax about us staying here every 3 months and popping over to Uruguay, how long until they tell us we have to leave? They may want our money, but they want too much...so much that we can't stay because then we sink into an Argentine pit of moaning, groaning, and complaining and not being able to make ends meat to match the skyrocketing prices.
All in all...I hope to god I get my masters and get the hell out...who knows, maybe I won't finish it because the paperwork won't come in!
Thanks for the meat, thanks for the spanish, but I didn't come here for an expat world...I came here for an Argentine one, and now that I'm in it, I can't handle it nor accept it and neither should they!
Suerte!
Jojo