The Blue Dollar

I finally made a trip to the Cambio, and I’m back in the spending zone because I now have pesos again! One thing you need to know is that there are two different exchanges for foreign currency. You have the official exchange which is currently sitting at 5.32 pesos to 1 dollar, and then you have the blue dollar exchange which is done on side streets and is currently sitting at 8.05 pesos to 1 dollar. Now you do the math. LOL.

Beef, It Was For Dinner

With Buenos Aires being one of the largest international cities in the world, there is a wealth of “insider” information available on the internet. Not only are they interesting to read, but these sites are the source of my information, the backbone of adventures, and the explainer of the Buenos Aires "dos-and-don’ts." When traveling to any foreign destination it is always smart to do a little digging and fact finding prior your departure.

In general...

For All You Dog Lovers

Just like Iowa has cows and pigs, Buenos Aires has its dogs. Comfortably, I can say it’s very apparent that man’s best friend rules in this Argentinean concrete jungle because at least 1/3 of the people I run into on my ways to-and-from work have a leash firmly held in hand.  You can expect to see any type of dog to be at the other end of that leash, but more commonly a Boxer, Dachshund, or Golden Retriever.

Daily, I run into several dog walkers and their entourage of four-legged companions.

The Band Lavail

Lavial @ L'arc 6-7-13

Last night was another night of adventure in good ol’ Buenos Aires, Argentina. It started when my flatmates invited me to have supper with them. Vanesa and Nicolas were very nice and welcoming, plus Vanesa made a great torta. Both were interested in learning about my home town and where I grew up, so I told them. I kept the questions going by asking them in return questions about their hometown, La Plata, because I’m a curious one as well. After showing each other pictures and such, they invited me to go with them to L’arc, which is a night club about six blocks from where I’m living. So far all of the clubs here have been been similar to those in Las Vegas.

Here we watched a live Argentinean band called Lavial.

A Night to Remember

This morning I woke up to a pleasant email in my inbox! I received my first Smarty Pig donation, with a message that went like this, “Lance, have an amazing time! I’ll be living it though your blog :)!” That message explains the entire concept behind The Rural Iowan blog! The conversational style I’m writing in helps me bring my Buenos Aires experience to you! (As you can see I’m excited because I just got done using five exclamation marks consecutively.) Also, if you do contribute, please include your mailing address because I would like to send you a personal thank you from Argentina.

Immediately after sifting through my email, I had a nice Skype session with my former work crew at Barzen & Associates; who I highly recommend purchase a microphone before our next session LOL!

Toddy Galletas...should be Illegal!

Buen dia, amigos!  I believe I finally found out where that morning whistling tune was coming from; it was in fact my host because when the kitchen light came on the whistling started. LOL! Today I woke up at 9 am with a noon deadline to be at work; I don’t have my keys yet. However, before I get into any more details about my day, I must tell you about my first favorite junk food item I have down here!

Oh yes! My Toddy Galletas

Yes, you heard correctly…health-nut me had some Argentinean junk food, but not just any ordinary junk food…they were Toddy Galletas! (Click the link!) As you can see these round, crumbly, cookie disks are packed full of chocolate chips. Just look at them! Hungry yet? Now I know what you are probably thinking…those are just the South American version of Chips Ahoy cookies. Nope; those are called Pepitos. (Click the link!) If my heath goes decreases because of these Toddies, I have my co-worker, Rachael, to thank because she was the one who introduced me to them on my first day. LOL!