Breathing Buenos Aires

1. Go to Argentina with openmind
2. Think outside of the box what comes to other people and culture
3. Don’t try to live the same life as in Finland
4. Bring lots of money with you
5. Study hard
6. Experience harder
7. Stay cool
8. Think clearly also when drunk so you won’t get robbed
9. Ask questions
10. Think about your living situation, you get also apartment from Buenos Aires
11. Beginning is always hard, try to enjoy it
12. If you are not use to write a blog, don’t write it
13. Eat in TGI Fridays
14. Network with other than Finns also
15. Live like you wish, not like other wish to live
16. Live thinking about the future
17. Argentineans lye
18. But they also help
19. Learn Spanish in Finland before
20. Don’t put too much pressure to yourself in studies
21. Visit other countries and areas
22. Dance tango
23. Try to get good place from aircraft
24. Afterwards try to know San telmo, Puerto Madero and if possible Palermo
25. Recoleta is expensive but great
26. Enjoy your time

The best thing coming back to Finland was coming together with some other exchange students in a group flight. It was easier to say goodbye even though it is not goodbye with everyone. Some people you will meet again and others at least in a reunion. That is the way that you keep in touch with people that you have done networking with.

Finland is brighter and lighter than South-America even the green is greener back home. Food taste like before and everything seems to be same.  Some restaurants are closed and others are opened. There are still people who are building better roads and dears that are running on the road and under the cars. Nothing has really changed. Not so much culture shock for me. It has been nice to see people you know and it has been nice to notice that people move on even though you are not there. With some people you would like to share happened but it is impossible and you just need to enjoy the moments that you can have afterwards. For some people you don’t exist anymore.

The thing that I was looking forward was driving a car and it feels so good. If something could have changed in me it will be the time when I go home from bar. And by the way the jet lag is my new friend. I don’t even know if I am tired or not I just don’t sleep during the nights or days…

Approximately four months ago I came to Buenos Aires to study. Now after great time I am soon leaving back to Finland. Opening the program here was difficult because everything was new and it takes time to get to know things, but there is also the beautiful side of that and it is nice to notice how much you still enjoy finding new things from Buenos Aires.

During the four months I have learnt Spanish (Castellano), got new ideas for entrepreneurship, understood better strategic management and got interesting experience about marketing plan. I have now better knowledge about international group working and how it works in better and worse. And above all I know how to handle things in Latin America environment. And that you can only learn being and living here in Latin America.

Closing ceremonies have been great and it felt good to have everything done and now it is time to back to Finland. Life goes on and it is good to go back when life here is closed. And one of the best things is that other Finnish students live in Finland too, so we will have great time again together.

Now I will open new doors and close old ones.

I was in love when I met Disco. After buying food from chinese grocery store or even Carrefour Disco gives so much more choices to buy food. Carrefour is good too but I lost my heart to Disco.

Disco offers lots of fruits and vegetables that are fresh and so delicious. The selection is wider also almost in area from juices to meets. The food from the sea area is really interesting. From Disco is also possible to buy empanadas and vegetable pies and those are really good. But of course from bakery those are better and more expensive as Disco is compared to other ones but my opinion is that it depends what you going to buy.

Interesting cultural differences are the way fruits and vegetables are weight. There is always someone who is going to do that instead of you. And more than twice I have gone back from the queue to weight the fruits. And the queue is really a problem here. It seems that is a great luck if you don’t have to wait 20 minutes before leaving the store in the queue. And there are many cash desks and like ten are for those who have less than 20 items. Unfortunately many people have less than 20 items. But waiting doesn’t matter because time doesn’t have value in Argentina.

Finally at the cash desk when employer goes to take some change it is funny. Will I ever get out of here?

There are multiple choices where you can live in Buenos Aires. There are areas where you can be safe but they might be costly and areas where you don’t need to go even during day times. I have experience from two areas and going school and hanging around in Uade gives me right to talk about the residence.

Suipacha is situated in Microcentro which is quite full of everything at any time of day. It is full of people going to work in the morning and full of tourists and shopping people during the daytime and when the sun starts to go down people from hoods starts to wake up. But during the night time there are many interesting restaurants and bars to visit. Cinema and shops are close depending of course in which side you live. Areas as Puerto Madero, Retiro and San Telmo are close and also school. So in the mornings is nice to walk to school without staying at busses or in metros. There are lots of good in Suipacha area but it is not safety neighborhood or at least not as safety as for example Recoleta.

Guido is situated in Recoleta cerca e cemeteria. This place is incredible. Everything is nice. There are nice green parks, wide streets, relaxed atmosphere and it is not so dangerous here. Of course you have to take care of yourself. Bars and clubs are nice such as restaurants and shops. The variety is bigger because here people have more money to spend on themselves. But this all means that it is more expensive to live here. As usually in life if you have money you have access to better places. And near the cemeteria everything is really expensive. Areas like Barrio Norte or Once are much more cheaper. I do like this place but my wallet does not.

Residence is next to Uade and some of my friends are living there. They say it is nice and close to school but during the weekends they must always leave quite far to Palermo or Recoleta to find a nice bar or club. But if you like area of San Telmo and their rock bars you don’t need to go far. Residence and the Uade are situated in area that is not so safe. But it is a short way to school and it is easier to hang around with others who live in Residence.

Some people say that marketing is twisted truth, some say it is full of white lies and some believe everything that they are told. Marketing walks on the same street as sales. Good salesman can sell anything and with profit. Some people can do it, some people don’t.

I am maybe one those who believe everything they have been told. I just believe in good in people and that there are no reasons to make things prettier as they already are. Some people have habits to do that and then some people suffer. But fortunately I don’t buy everything that I have been told, even though it may look like that.

Part of the studies at UADE is marketing. That dear marketing that all the students are struggling with. Teacher requires more than she should, our spare-time is full of homework from marketing and when doing the marketing plan we need to do lots of irrelevant stuff. Marketing in my xxx I would like to say.

The funniest thing is that I have been taught that in marketing I really should do for customer everything I promised. But why people don’t follow that rule as an example.

As I wrote earlier I do sport in the mornings. In the beginning it was important to be out before sun was too bright and now I am worrying if it is too cold cause I did not took any warm sporting clothes with me. Being here few months gives so many ideas what I should have taken with me before leaving Finland, especially cause clothes are hear relatively expensive and now when it is getting colder every day.

Sporting is fun. Here parks are full of runners and it doesn’t matter in which shape you are, there are people from every size groups. The most interesting is to see those who do other stuff. There are enormous amount of groups that train their muscles in different ways. It looks fun and once I also got an invitation to join them. The training includes warming, training and stretching in a group of 20 people. It is different, hard and it happens everywhere. During certain times it is weird if there are people in the park who are not training because here everybody do it together separated or not.

Doing sport alone in the park is free of charge but with the group it costs. Gyms are expensive and even after paying for the school the school gym is not free. It would have been nice to try it because they renew it for this year at UADE.

Like finding time to write this blog it is also hard to find time to do sport because the everyday life doesn’t go in cycles. Balance is hard to find but after that it feels good to sport, eat and live like you will be in the best shape before coming back to Finland.

My Mondays have begun often with the nice and long run in the park because my school starts at 1 PM. It is hard to manage between school, free-time and normal life. That’s why the morning is great to spend to myself, because I never know where the day takes me.

I have strategic management at school on Mondays. The teacher is great. Much better that in JAMK. And the one thing I always remember is the phrase that he uses. Mucho dinero. That means lots of money. In Argentina and in other South America it is easy to make mucho dinero and on the other hand one Monday when one wakes up, one can be poor and living on the street. Or people end to the street some other way and unfortunately some people born there.

Mondays are also easy to spend somewhere else like in Mendoza or Brasil. Luckily we have a chance to be off school 25% of the lessons. And because on Mondays I only have strategic management it is not that bad even though I really like the lessons. And the teacher knows how important is to study hard while experiencing the LATAM culture. And one tip from the teacher “If you are rich in Argentina and you don’t go Punta del Este, your nothing” so consider visiting to Punta del Este.

It is very nice that after the incredibility great weekend on Mondays you have time to sleep little longer than in other days. My weeks start always well.

Last time when I wrote here I had just started my experience. Now after many weeks with only little time left it is much easier to write blog. When city is as vibrant as Buenos Aires and continent as interesting as South America with great people from Finland, Sweden, France and Germany, there is not enough time to write a blog often. Searching the culture is much more interesting.

Tomorrow starts one of the last weeks. And I start to write this blog again.

It took me more than ten years to travel by train in Finland for the first time but during the last few weeks I have been travelling by airplane, by train, by buss,  by metro and of course by taxi.

Flight from HEL to EZE via FRA took about 14 hours. I slept surprisingly well, liked the food and drinks and was satisfied at least for the one flight attendant. She was working in the right place. I was really calm during the flight even though I just left Finland for four months and flew to another continent. Not just to Italy.

During the flight and the night Captain announced that there is turbulence in the air. For me it was the first quite bad turbulence experience. The aircraft felt like rollercoaster for a while and I had to stop sleeping. There I sat in the middle of Atlantic Ocean trying to fasten the seat belt wondering what is happening. And if something would happen I was able to do nothing.

I felt almost the same way when taking the train from Retiro to Peru Beach. The speed was quite slow but the condition of the train was quite bad. It felt like being in a bad rollercoaster. At the aircraft I at least had soft seat with nice flight attendant. Compared to costs public transportation might feel bad but it is cheap. It costs only one peso (20 cents) for 40 minutes train. Exceptions also found.

Busses here in Buenos Aires are like those trains but on wheels – cheap and in bad condition. I took bus to Parque Norte. It was already full when I jumped in and I thought this bus cannot stop anymore and take any more passengers. I thought it also after the fifth stop. The bus for so full that it was hard to move. Luckily I haven’t been in bus in India.

Nowadays I travel by bus to school and it is familiar to me and it is not so full every time. I have also gotten inside the driving culture so it is not so unpleasant to take a bus anymore. Taxis are the best way to get to know the driving culture. Taxi is cheaper than taxi in Finland but for four months it is not so cheap. In taxi I have spoken Spanish, been little scared (Me: Should we fasten our seat belt? My friend: I already did) and wondered that how is it possible to city this size to get same taxi driver for same trip with same friend again.