Me Quiero Ir

Hope things change for you. It is not easy to see clearly when things don't go our way. Gotta' clear your head first, before you make right decisions. Usually things work out somehow. We muddle our ways through life, you will be surprized. If we lived according to a book, it will be boring. Never thought that anyone could be trapped here against their own will.
 
I've been here 8 years. It took me a good 2 years to get over the exact feelings you are having now. The things that got me to the point of really liking it here are:

1. Learn Spanish. Get serious about this. You could be highly conversant in 6 months (even with a full-time job). This allows you to ...
2. Navigate your way through life here. You'll discover things that YOU like and will enrich your life. You'll ...
3. Make new friends, weed out the ones who think you are rich just because you're from (fill in your country here) ... and that allows you to ...
4. Expand your life and discover the things that this city/country can provide you (job, food, shelter, friends, culture) and ...
5. Expand yourself and grow as a human being. That allows you ...
6. Give back to your community and be a fully-functioning person within the society.

If you get stuck anywhere along the way it helps to have expat friends to whom you can b*tch to over beers, get it out of your system, and then get on with yourself. Don't overlook the fact that as much as you might be "hating" life here in Argentina this country opened it's arms to you.

And now I'm going for a run - because the freaking internet keeps shutting off and if I don't I'll be at the Cablevision office bashing someone in the forehead with my laptop. :)
 
It sounds to me like you have a classic case of culture shock. Also, we are in the nasty month of December, where everyone is miserable and are ready for the year to come to an end. If you are having culture shock (and these feelings can last for a long time), the next step for you is acceptance. It might help for you to travel home for a brief period before diving back in.

A friend of mine who has lived here for 30 years told me that after 3 years, she saw the planes flying overhead and all she could do was fantasize about being on it. Then she realized that she was experiencing what is known as culture shock, a period where you hate the new place with all your being. She wanted to scream out loud sometimes. If you can stick it out, though, it will get better and you will arrive at a place of acceptance.

Something like that happened to me in year three when I had my first child. When I had to go to 15 different Supermarkets to find newborn diapers one day, I wanted to scream out loud and beat the old lady that was pushing her shopping cart slowly down the middle of the aisle so that I could not pass. Every little nuance and difficulty becomes blown ten times out of proportion in your mind. You lose all patience and you hate the culture in general. If you are experiencing extra stress, it makes things much worse.

But the good news is that this is perfectly normal. You need to recognize that it is a phase and that it will pass. You have to eventually come to accept things. If you move on to some other new place, you will be happy for a while, but in 6 months, a year, two years, culture shock will set in there, too. So if you can stick things out, you will probably have a more realistic view of Argentina after a few more months or a year, a view that is more like reality. It is definitely not a paradise. But it is not hell either. It's a place to live with its good and bad.
 
With all the difficulties of being a 9 year perma-tourist, I'm putting up with a lot of quirks, but I love it here wish never ever go back:

1. Have no desire or reason freezing my ass 6 month of the year, neither my health can afford it now.

2. Chaos her is freedom for me. How I love that there are no traffic tickets and no police hiding in the bush and around every friggin corner handing in real real $500US (3 tickets in one shot), ... who needs that now ... it is un bearable

3. It looks chaotic ... but in reality it is not ... Traffic looks lunatic ... but in 6 years driving I yet have to report one accident ... there is an UNWRITTEN rule: "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME EVEN IF I SHIT ON YOU ... AND I'LL DO THE SAME FOR YOU" ... there you go ... no accidents.

4. People are arrogant and proud yes (even morons sometimes), but not MEAN SPIRITED .... absolutely not .. they really are nice people and fun to be around.

I came here by accident for 3 weeks vacation, never ever new anything about Argentina, and was love at first sight (even if I couldn't find my breakfast first morning here).
 
What Matiasba said. December is INSANE!! Everyone gets so pushy and bitchy and there seem to be five times more people in the streets/ buses/ supermarkets. All impatient, all determined to get what they want no matter what. Stick it out, then evaluate how you're feeling about mid January.
 
khairyexpat said:
With all the difficulties of being a 9 year perma-tourist, I'm putting up with a lot of quirks, but I love it here wish never ever go back:

1. Have no desire or reason freezing my ass 6 month of the year, neither my health can afford it now.

2. Chaos her is freedom for me. How I love that there are no traffic tickets and no police hiding in the bush and around every friggin corner handing in real real $500US (3 tickets in one shot), ... who needs that now ... it is un bearable

3. It looks chaotic ... but in reality it is not ... Traffic looks lunatic ... but in 6 years driving I yet have to report one accident ... there is an UNWRITTEN rule: "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME EVEN IF I SHIT ON YOU ... AND I'LL DO THE SAME FOR YOU" ... there you go ... no accidents.

4. People are arrogant and proud yes (even morons sometimes), but not MEAN SPIRITED .... absolutely not .. they really are nice people and fun to be around.

I came here by accident for 3 weeks vacation, never ever new anything about Argentina, and was love at first sight (even if I couldn't find my breakfast first morning here).
Click to expand...

Don't have the exact figures ready at hand, but Argentina has something like the second-highest highway fatality rate in the Western Hemisphere.
 
ajoknoblauch said:
Don't have the exact figures ready at hand, but Argentina has something like the second-highest highway fatality rate in the Western Hemisphere.
Click to expand...

Yes, this, the whole "we're chaotic drivers but good drivers" is a complete myth. The accident rate and the amounts of auto claims is through the roof. Driver education is extremely poor here, coupled with a extremely high self confidence factor, poor road maintenance, poor city planning and traffic flow and amount of buses, taxis and complete lack of any punitive measures and the result is that in the UK and Ireland around 4 people per hundred thousand die in RTAs, in Argentina it is more than 3 times that figure.

I think statistically there is only one worse country in South America, even Brazil has lower accident statistics. Some of things I have saw people do on the roads here are frankly appalling, and that has everything to do with no regulation on the state of cars, poor driver education and a complete lack of any interest in applying drink driving laws, speed limits or pulling people over for going full retard on the road.
 
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