Soon to be in BA

[Lina827]

Hello Everyone,

My boyfriend and I will be arriving in BA mid to late July and I'm looking to make as many connections as possible. I am from NY and he is Costa Rican, we are moving to BA as an in between to figure out our relationship before having to get married to get him into the United States. Visas are ridiculous...

Anyway, I'm looking to teach English and work in any type of community gardens/farms in the area and he is a talented carpenter and also has experience in solar energy. We're hoping to stay until the end of the year if not longer, provided we can sustain ourselves.

Right now I'm looking for housing and not having much luck. Ideally I would love to find a house sitting position but am running into dead ends on the internet. Does any one have any advice/know of anyone looking for a house sitter? Or what areas we should look in for apartments?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Chao!

Carolyn

 

[jb5]

Carolyn, why Baires?

As you can read in many posts, while this is a wonderful city, it's no longer cheap and expats have a hard time finding jobs that provide for a decent lifestyle.

You're a few years too late for the bargains.

So come with eyes wide open. Teaching English does not pay a living wage. Carpentry and other skilled labor is also low wage and highly unionized so breaking in will be hard. Solar energy? Energy is subsidized in AR, so few will invest in it.

Opportunities can be good here for those who bring money to start a business and those sent here by foreign companies who are paid in dollars or Euro. People looking for jobs who are paid in pesos and can't get rentals at the price locals pay? Not so much.

 

[citygirl]

To the OP - given the skill sets that you have, I'm quite curious why you choose a big city like Capital Federal? Community gardens/farms aren't exactly prevalent around here.

I would recommend that if you are set on Argentina, you might look at a city other than Cap Fed. But there are plenty of other most cost-effective places in South America that might suit your needs a bit better

Regarding house-sitting - I wish you luck but that's not exactly a common situation to find.

 

[HeyBA]

Hi Carolyn,

I made the move from NYC five months ago. Here's the real deal:

-Rent: 700 to 1,000 USD in an awesome apt all bills paid. Think Upper West or Soho for that price. It's get's cheaper if you're here longer, but it starts like that. That's awesome compared to NYC, but still expensive.

-Work: All service work, community gardening, construction, is underpaid here. There's just no shortage of labor. Anything well-paid is unionized, and you're out of that as a foreigner. I know people tending bar for 100 pesos (25 US) a night. Poor kids. I've heard of pro yoga teachers and personal trainers and things of this nature working for 40 pesos a session.

All the while, locals will think you're a rich foreigner, and have no compassion for your plight.

I hear of lots of misery, like tending bar above, but some people find decent jobs here, though it's mostly through something connected to their home country with which they have experience, like pharma sales at home leads to pharma sales here, etc. Don't want to get you down, but I was shocked by the prices here and wanted to share the advice with you. How BA really breaks down is living the high life for mid-American prices.