dx �as you might have heard: i'm going to argentina
i'm on my way to the airport and doing that thing of "oh i could have packed [thing]"
hiiiiii there was wifi for 10 or 25 eur (both aggressively restricted) and i failed miserably to use iodine (90% packet loss, huge delays, didn't get to finish a ssh handshake). i got more packets through by picking up 4g at 4000 meters altitude
anyway hola spain. i'm passing by again
co2 levels went down to 2800 right after i posted that pic and stayed in the range 1400-1700 during the flight. not as horrifying as i expected
but yeah trying to make internet work where there's a small chance is a reliable way to get me to have a bad time
this airport is brutal, you got these signs saying you gotta walk 30 mins to reach zone B
ah, a classic: delayed by 1h55m (not two hours because they'd have to handle more passenger rights)
it's definitely over 2h now but we're boarding yay. apparently "the plane broke" but they found a replacement plane but the crew went home before that and they had to call them back
ah heck people started caring again about enforcing mask rules so i was asked to downgrade my hf-800 (valved) to an aura ffp2
hiiiiiii i just spent $1160 on two burgers
my parents are shorter than me now???
the airport bus is weirdly similar to the munich buses, probably literally the same model, with the biggest difference being that this is shaky as hell because the roads are bad
my mom said that they started skipping dinner to which i reacted nooooOOO
but it turns out there's one meal at 6pm that stopped being a thing when i moved to europe because we have dinner around that time, so this changes nothing i think
all the ads on this subway are by the city, not any private company. this ad is trans
also they added some really useful stops to line E!!! going from retiro to independencia used to suck
also both buses and trains have signs on the windows saying that they open the windows to improve air circulation, which, whoa, i thought no one in charge of public health picked up on that yet
it might seem like public transport improved a lot since i left but actually i left right before they finished all the good shit
oh right, people selling stuff on the train are extremely common here, not sure i've seen that anywhere else with this intensity?
and it's weird to hear them say "one chocolate bar for only 500 pesos" like i knew the currency went to shit but damn i really gotta treat pesos like yen. my 5/10/20/50 pesos bills are now pretty much coins (if they aren't that literally already)
some of my relatives asked open-ended stuff like "what do you like/dislike the most about germany" and damn those are hard questions. i don't really care about germany it's just the place where i happen to live
(but i told them i'll think about it and have some stuff to say the next time we meet (which might just be tomorrow, it's mother's day))
also i meowed a lot. my parents already got used to it
woke up 2am to drink water, noticed room co2 went down despite door/window being closed. rooms here really are Built Different huh (for summer not winter)
yeah no i didn't miss the mosquitoes
talked to my dad for one hour and he's already given me, unprompted, three different reasons to be concerned about things that might kill him and/or set the house on fire
my sister took me to a "chino" to buy a lint roller for cat hair. "chino" used to mean "chinese supermarket" and now chinese people expanded to "random cheap misc stuff" shops, and as usual, chinese shops are one of the few that are open on sunday
i still don't have cash (going to a cave on tuesday) or cards (going to the bank tomorrow), but so far every shop we visited takes mercadopago, you scan a qr code with your phone to pay
a "cave" ("cueva") is a currency exchange shop. you give them cash in usd (and maybe eur), they give you approx twice the amount of pesos you'd get with official rates. it sounds and often looks shady but it's legal. good country, good economy
currency exchange shops everywhere in the world: a way to make tourists lose money without them noticing
currency exchange shops in argentina: mostly used by locals, but if you're a tourist and know about a legit one, a really good deal
having fun noticing all the weird quirks my parents have. just now: my mom offered me a glass of water because she's thirsty therefore *i* must be thirsty
morning! i'm trying out this wild concept of waking up with sunlight and going to sleep before midnight
having those "OMG dad that's SO cringe!!" moments but with his electrical installation
this is the plug of the washing machine, a normal grounded plug. it goes into a two pin groundless adapter, for the purpose of removing the ground
this is because the motor of the washing machine gets wet, connecting live to ground. which is "not a problem" if ground is floating
to make this safe no one else is allowed to touch the washing machine
(but also he installed brand new differential breakers last year, which are probably better than the ones from 40 years ago, so it should be fine)
took the train, it costed 17 ARS (0.05 EUR). the subway costs 0.14 EUR
done the two pieces of paperwork i needed to do here in less than 10 mins! first one was like "oh yeah it's done already we synced it from a government database and never told you"
ah yes, following local traditions by taking a three hour nap after lunch (what they call "siesta")
aside from minor details like "tap water is not drinkable" and "my parents and sister share a phone just for carrying outside so in case it gets stolen they don't lose their main phone" and "the local maker shop is out of stock on almost everything",
i kinda like it in here
i'm still pretty much in doll mode (no money, no keys, no thinking about food or plans), which is comforting for a while but i'll probably want to go back to being free soon
proud of my mom for how she runs her yoga classes. doors wide open even in winter (if it's cold people gotta wear more clothes), everyone masked, co2 between 450-500
i bought the aranet4 co2 meter mostly as a gift for her but given this, it's not that relevant (still leaving it here as a general purpose tool i guess)
thing i learnt today: different dollars have different value. there's "big head" dollars (new) and "small head" dollars (old). you get 5% less if your dollars have a small head