Posted in Recreation on 28. Jun, 2010
Buenos Aires is a great city, but Argentina is a great country, and it would be a shame if you lived here and didn’t see all that it has to offer. And so without further ado, here are 8 places in Argentina you absolutely must visit.
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Posted in History on 22. Jun, 2010
Any expat living in Buenos Aires will be aware of Argentina’s open door policy towards immigration. After all, lots of us just hop over to Uruguay every three months to perpetually renew our tourist visas. Technically it’s illegal to spend more than six months per year here on a tourist visa, but no-one seems to mind.
In fact, Argentina has had an open door policy on immigration for the last 200 years, including a long period where immigration (specifically from European countries) was actively encouraged. And how’s this for a factoid: between 1821 and 1932, Argentina was #2 in the world in the number of immigrants that it admitted, a staggering 6,405,000 people. (Wondering which country was #1 in the world during this period? It was of course the United States of America, admitting approximately five times as many immigrants as Argentina!)
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Posted in Soccer on 18. Jun, 2010
It’s World Cup time. Argentina could win. And you’re living in Buenos Aires – your timing is impeccable!
As I write this the Albicelestes have just played their second game in the group stages of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. It was a convincing 4-1 thrashing of South Korea in which superstar Lionel Messi shone and teammate Gonzalo Higuaín hit a hat-trick of goals, the first so far in the competition.
But you knew all that, right? It’s pretty hard to live in Buenos Aires and not get caught up in Mundial fever with 40 million people shouting ‘gooooooool!’ in perfect harmony every time the blue-and-whites find the back of the net!
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Posted in Recreation on 17. Jun, 2010
Greetings folks. I am excited to announce that I will be starting a weekly newsletter for A Gringo in Buenos Aires! The plan is as follows:
The plan will be to release a new newsletter once a week. I have subscribed to many email lists in the past and I have found myself unsubscribing to more than I have followed. Usually this was due to newsletters invading my inbox every single day with pointless information. My goal is to make this newsletter something that you will look forward to every week and to provide you with information that is actually useful.
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Posted in Spanish on 16. Jun, 2010
No, don’t worry, we are not suggesting the Spanish learning product featured in the above photo. It is just an awesome photo. It must be from the early 90′s, no? I am not sure, but that boy sure is having fun learning Spanish. And so can you!!!! 
Ok, enough with that, just kidding. Lets cut to the chase!!!
A lot of things are helpful when you’re learning a second language. A great teacher is one. An inability to feel shame (or at least, to be able to quickly dismiss it) when you make embarrassing mistakes is another.
And then there are these five resources. True, none of them are essential, but together they make a pretty damn fine package. Three are websites that are free for anyone to use, while the other two are books that are easily worth outlaying a few dollars on. Enjoy, and please share your comments if you have used any of them.
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Posted in Soccer on 11. Jun, 2010
Awwww yeahhh! For the round-ball lovers amongst us, June and July 2010 represent something we’ve been waiting four long years for: the World Cup. Woooot!
Whichever way you slice it, the World Cup of soccer is waaay bigger than any other event in world sport. Bigger than the Olympics. Bigger than the Rugby World Cup. And definitely bigger than the World Series (which, let’s face it, is highly inappropriately named!).
There’s no doubt that many, many expats living in Buenos Aires will want to watch as many World Cup games as possible. So to help you do so, we’ve put together this handy, all-in-one guide to watching the World Cup 2010 in Buenos Aires.
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Posted in Peñas Folklóricas on 10. Jun, 2010
Think you know everything there is to know about Argentine cultural traditions? Well here’s something that you might not have heard of: peñas folklóricas.
Let’s explain those two words. A peñas is an Argentinean folklore party, or if you prefer, a ‘wine-sloshing musical shindig.’ And folklórico is a kind of catch-all term that refers to almost any traditional music that isn’t tango.
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Posted in Drink on 09. Jun, 2010
If there’s one Argentinean custom that’s bound to give new arrivals in Buenos Aires a ‘wtf?’ moment, it’s the insane popularity of Fernet + Coke as the go-to mixed drink for any occasion.
More on that soon. But first, what is Fernet anyway? Here’s a description from our good friends at Wikipedia:
“Fernet is a type of amaro, a bitter, aromatic spirit. Fernet is made from a number of herbs and spices which vary according to the brand, but may include myrrh, rhubarb, chamomile, cardamom, aloe, and saffron, with a base of grape distilled spirits, and colored with caramel coloring.”
Now is it me, or is that ingredient list bizarre? If you’d always wondered what in the hell Joseph and Mary were going to use the ‘myrrh’ in ‘gold, frankincense and myrrh’ for, now you know. That just leaves frankincense, but you can probably put that in Fernet as well. It kind of seems like all bets are off. I mean, rhubarb? Come on, that’s just perverse.
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Posted in Drink on 08. Jun, 2010
The world of beer drinkers can be easily divided ‘in twain’ (which is just a fancy way of saying ‘in two,’ but I like to keep things interesting). In the first, much larger group, we have the people who like beer and drink it often, but don’t really do so for the taste. They’re happy to drink any beer that’s cheap, cold, refreshing, easily available, not horrible-tasting, and contains alcohol.
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Posted in Restaurants on 07. Jun, 2010
Italy, France, India and Thailand are world famous for their cuisines, but Argentina is world famous for its buttery, tender, melt-in-your-mouth steak. And where does one find this food of the gods? Why at the barbecue grill restaurants known as parrillas, of course.
Now, trying to name ‘the 5 best’ parrillas in Buenos Aires is actually a little insane. There are hundreds if not thousands of parrillas in Buenos Aires, and very few of them (by your author’s humble estimations) aren’t at least ‘quite good.’ So: I’m not even going to try. Yes, that’s right; the heading of this article is a total lie!
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