Argentina. Day 135. I stay. Argentina by russian expat.

By Tim Shtok. Professional journalist, writer, pathological optimist

I have a widget on my phone's desktop that counts the number of days I've spent in Argentina. Now it shows “135 days”. And now I can say for sure: "I'm staying here forever." Why I made such a decision, what is good and bad here, I will try to tell you sincerely.

Unlike those who went to Argentina for a passport, I went in search of a place where I would like to stay. Yes, the prospect of obtaining a second citizenship was a definite plus for me, but a secondary factor. First of all, I tried to find a place where I would be psychologically comfortable.

I must say right away that I do not live in Buenos Aires. I saw him only briefly, riding a taxi from one airport to another, from where I flew to Cordoba. This is where I plan to stay.

Why not Buenos? Firstly: I don’t like big cities. And secondly: I am professionally engaged in voice acting and I needed a house in a quiet place, for adequate money. Before departure, I carefully monitored the market and realised that I would not find what I needed in the capital, and it was not a part of my plans to fence the announcer’s booth in a rented housing.

Cordoba has a million inhabitants. That defined my decision. Here are some pictures of the city:

argentina2 1 — Argentina, day 135. I stay. Forever 52

argentina3 — Argentina, day 135. I stay. Forever 52

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Money

Yes, inflation here is actually “mom don’t cry”! But in fact, everything is not so sad. The salaries of state employees, as far as I could understand, are regularly indexed, but in general Argentines have long been living “in dollars”. That is, having received a salary, they buy dollars, and then, as necessary, change them to pesos in order to pay for purchases.

When I arrived, the dollar cost 390 pesos. Now it is 710. But at the same time prices have not risen proportionately. I carefully write down my expenses and I can say that, for example, my food expenses fell from $ 280 to $ 220 / month in three months.

For example, my favorite “L’Abratto” sausages cost 590 pesos a pack when I arrived. Now they cost 700. The prices for soda have not changed at all (judging by the “Monster” without sugar, which I sometimes buy: it remained the same as it was 450-500, but in the photo below I generally got caught in the action).

I took these photos today, Sunday, August 27th. The dollar exchange rate is now 705 pesos, and to get prices in rubles, divide by 7.

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There are no problems with transferring money. I don’t even get into the crypto. There are people here who are ready to accept rubles from you on a Russian card and immediately give you either dollars or pesos in cash. The exchange rate is even profitable. Definitely more profitable than bothering with a Western Union through intermediaries or withdrawing through a crypto.

But not everything is so easy. I am terrified of what I have to do when I need to upgrade my cellphone. The prices for simple smartphones here are exorbitant. To be more precise: about 2 or 2.5 times higher than in Russia. At the same time, the ordinary models cannot reach Argentina, as well as Turkey. For example, if some flagship from Samsung or Apple comes out with 128/256/512 options, then you won’t even find a version for 256 here.

And cars: in general they are just unreachable luxury here. I have not been interested yet, but based on what I read in the Russian speaking community, prices are exactly 2 times more expensive than in Europe and the USA.

The same time: I should say that there are a lot of brand new cars with the fresh license plates are browsing the city. Basically, they mostly are French Renaults or Italian Fiats: “Dusters”, 208th “fawns”, Fiat Aegea and Canadian Jeep (Compass, Grand Cherokee).

So, after all, the people can afford to have them?

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Safety

To get robbed in Argentina, you need to do the following:

Put a $ 2000 camera around your neck, a gold chain (so that everybody on the street will be able to see it). Make a patty of money stick out of your pocket and go for a walk alone in some poor area. That’s when everything may probably happen.

I don’t stand out in any way and walk at any time of the day. Cordoba itself is much safer than Buenos. In my memory, there was a rather loud robbery with a firearm. There were a lot of talks on TV and in newspapers.

The thieves climbed into the apartment of some immigrant through the roof and took out everything of value.

They unsuccessfully tried to snatch the phone from the owner. some inadequate person began to pester one girl with a child. She screamed. Scream gather the crowd. The thief hastily desappeared. That’s the whole criminal chronicle for 135 days of life.

In fact, even compared to Rio de Janeiro, where I spent three weeks the year before, I feel safe here. And, as I said, there are actually no “shocking reports”.

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Telecom

My most favorite topic. Let’s start with the fact that mobile communications are free here. Don’t rush to roll your eyes, now I’ll tell you everything 🙂

When I bought a SIM card, it had 2 gigabytes, as well as all unlimited social networks. All I spend traffic on was Apple Music. But taking into account the fact that the application caches my favorite tracks very well, very little traffic is spent on it. Therefore, two gigabytes for a month, in principle, was enough for me.

So when this month almost came to an end, the operator sent me an SMS: “Refill your account with 600 pesos and get 2 gigs of traffic, as well as all unlimited social networks for a month!” And I faced a choice: either to buy those 2 gigabytes from the account and spend 1100 pesos on them, or go put 600 pesos and get them for free.

The action has been repeated next months. I regularly put money into the account, it accumulates there, there is always traffic. I’ll never know what to do with accumulated money on my cellphone account 🙂

Internet: despite I have the fiver optics in my apartment, the upload and download speeds are different. Upload is always 10 times slower. In order to more or less comfortably upload all sorts of large videos to the cloud, I had to take the maximum tariff: 600/60 Mbps. It costs now something about 7 dollars a month.

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Transportation

The public transport here is developed quite well. Buses dart back and forth every 5 minutes, you can get to anywhere. You can get to Buenos by plane (if you take a ticket in advance, you can fly without luggage for 7-12 dollars), or by bus.

Moreover, intercity buses here are such that travellers sing praises to them: some places (of course, those that are more expensive) are laid out in a full bed, there is a toilet, WiFi, charging and other delights of life on board. I haven’t tried it myself, but, despite the fact that I love airplanes more, I’ll definitely use it somehow for the sake of interest and tell you.

Taxis are numerous, may be easily instantly caught by rising hand, or called in the application. The average trip to the city center costs 1-2 dollars.

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About attitudes towards immigrants

Literally everything has been done for immigrants in Argentina. Do you want free language courses – please. Medicine and education – for health. In the migration service there are announcements:

“Free healthcare and education is your legal right, whether you have a DNI or not!”

(DNI – plastic card of residence permit or citizen).

The children of our compatriots are gladly accepted to local municipal schools and are helped in every possible way. I had heard about this before, but the seven-year-old daughter of my friend, with whom we chatted while her mother went to the store, finally dotted the “i”:

“When I lived in St. Petersburg and went to kindergarten, I had one girlfriend, and all the rest were enemies! And here I have all my friends! And everyone helps me so much!”, Eva says with shining eyes.

Eva’s mother is also delighted with the impression the local school makes on her child: “I have never seen her so happy and inspired,” says Alena.

But I must say that the Argentinians themselves look at us with bewilderment. When one of the first days I talked to the pensioners in the park (a couple of them spoke quite tolerable English) and they found out that I was going to stay here to live, they goggled at me and asked: “Are you crazy?!”

Yes, Argentines, especially the young ones, try to leave the country when possible. Therefore, they look at those who fled from “prosperous Russia” into “this hole” with incomprehension. I in response tell them that I am a journalist and a writer, and we have a problem with this, so to speak … When they hear the details of some resonant stories known to all of us, their jaw drops to the floor and bewilderment is replaced by understanding and sympathy .

And the rest: the genuine interest, the desire to communicate, talk, hang out together, introduce friends and all in the same spirit. I already have a couple of acquaintances who now and then invite me for walks, during which I pull up my Spanish.

If in Turkey everything was limited to secular communication (“Hello – how are you – and all the best to you”), then there are periodic messages: “Tim, my daughter and my friends are in the park! Come with us!”

In less than a couple of months, a journalist from a local channel somehow found out about me. She wrote to me and asked for an interview. The host of the show, who made the introduction to this interview, literally said the following: “Every day a variety of people emigrate to Argentina and we welcome everyone without exception! Here is another interesting story of an immigrant from Russia, with whom my colleague, Christina, spoke.”

argentina16 — Argentina, day 135. I stay. Forever 65

A frame from this same interview.

A strong fly in the ointment is added by those who came here “for a passport”. Translators tell a bunch of stories about how Russians raise op in the offices of migrant women from the position: “It is written in your law, you are obliged!!!”

Or in the hospital: “You are required by law to provide me with an interpreter!” And they do not care that now there is nowhere to take it. These people behave as if they poured a couple of suitcases of dollars into the economy of this country and now everyone around them owes them.

Our community is full of normal, adequate, cool guys. If only these Sovkonauts could get out of here somewhere 🙁

Even the migration officer told me during the interview: “Are you definitely Russian? You are smiling… You like everything here… You drink Mate tea… Are you some kind of rare Russians?” We laughed. When I went to leave we hugged in a friendly manner (Argentines generally do this).

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Accommodation

There are problems with housing in Argentina. First you need to understand that there are two types of rental contracts. Maximum three months is for foreigners. At least three years is for locals or those who have a residence permit.

For local people conditions are quite different. Unfurnished apartments, contracts in pesos, many live in such rented accommodation all their lives. But for foreigners, the picture is different, especially for Russians. Remember I told you that the Argentines think we are “prosperous” (read: “rich”)?

So. Despite the fact that tourist contracts are paid in dollars, landlords manage to inflate the price from scratch after the expiration of the contract!

There are so many stories about this phenomena in the Russian speaking community! A typical one looks like this:

“We rented a house for $400, although we understood that it was expensive. But we had nowhere to go. Three months later the owner says that the new contract will be 650. We declined and moved out. A week later the house appeared in ads for 350”.

I am also shocked that local real estate agents do not charge money for the fact of renting out only. They charge a percentage of the monthly payment for the entire duration of the contract! And this percentage is pretty high: from 10 to 25%!

I’m probably lucky. I rented a house through friends of my friends, directly from the owner, bypassing an agent. And we agreed that the host would not raise my rent for at least a year. Now I’m paying $250 for a one-room house (large living room with a “window” into the cooking area) and a small bedroom, which is also a recording studio.

We have one gate to the courtyard, in addition. Argentinians live in the same houses with separate entrances. All the neighbours are very nice and pleasant. On top of that, it’s a very quiet area. So I’m more than satisfied with everything so far.

argentina17 — Argentina, day 135. I stay. Forever 66

Jardin. This is what my area looks like.

And this is not a suburb, it is a feature of the city and it is far from the outskirts! The center is either 40 minutes on foot or 10 minutes by scooter. A three-minute walk and you are in a huge shopping center, a bunch of restaurants, a supermarket. In general, everything is there.

But in the future I want my own house. And I already even know which one it will be. And it is now for sale, as the ad on the facade says. It is not certain that it will still be on sale when I earn enough money. But I really want to buy it.

By the way, this is not some kind of super-mansion. This is an ordinary house, I just fell in love with it. 🙂

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Food

When in Russia meat is a food, then in Argentina meat is a Culture. Damn, I used to think that I ate the most delicious meat in my life in Lermontovo (small city near Saint-Petersburg) It had been cooked by local Krasnodar Armenians. Sorry guys: Argentinians outdid you.

And there are absolutely crazy pies (empanadas), ravioli. My favorites are with salami and mozzarella. Very fast and tasty delivery from hundreds of restaurants. In an application like Uber Eats. Cheeses, sausages, ham: everything is very tasty.

Well, our compatriots are also it this team:

A woman with golden hands opened here the production of pancakes, dumplings and other joys of classical Russian cuisine. I already bought dumplings from her and then I was not too lazy to write a review in the community: those were dumplings “you will eat your fingers:!

For food, as I wrote above, I am spending about $ 220 monthly. Taking into account the fact that I sometimes order it with delivery or go to some of the local restaurants.

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