dx �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
i love cats so much
the cat just asked me to push the laptop away from my lap to get on there. this is just like my wife (with a different color scheme)
that was the least cave-like cave i've ever been to. it was well lit, well ventilated, and had cleanly painted white walls and floor
went for a walk to the prettiest place i've seen so far here and most photos are crap because it's mostly cloudy today. and most days are sunny i just picked a bad one
after moving to europe i kept seeing my argentinian therapist through whatsapp video calls, with a very convenient time slot (8 or 9pm) which almost never got in the way of other plans.
now that i'm back here it's at 4pm *and* i gotta go there physically ;_;
therapy is another thing argentina is really good at. cheap, accessible, plenty of supply, not stigmatized. it's the reason i'm Normal(tm)
yay, moved the therapist appointment to 7pm. so i'll be at http://nerdear.la on thursday! let's hug, if anyone is there??
something about the network setup of this house is cursed aaaaand it's up to me to fix it. welp
people trying to find something to talk about and asking "how's work?" and all i can say is "i don't know, haven't been there for a couple of months"
got keys to the house, got cash, i am free now
there's therapy (talking to a person you pay to listen to you) and there's therapy (spending time with my family and resolving stuff that felt pending for years)
going to nerdearla today!
i'm at this weird sleep cycle where i still go to sleep 5-12 europe time (0-7 argentina time), which is very convenient when i actually gotta wake up early like today. i forgot to set an alarm and didn't need it
had to go back home from the train station and change clothes because 18 C 89% humidity doesn't feel like 18 C
you'd think allowing google to know an excessive amount of information about my location would mean i wouldn't have problems like "the weather app keeps doing geoip and concluding i'm in the UK because i'm roaming" but welp
[totally in the UK voice] congrats to our new prime minister the lettuce
i am now legally required to say the following: "las malvinas son argentinas"
note how i have perfect mobile data reception here, underground, in buenos aires, unlike certain "first world" cities
i'm in and no idea what to do in a tech conference if there are no friends to cuddle