Good Friday

Today is a nationally recognized holiday here. In fact, everyone had yesterday off, too. People kept asking what our Easter plans were as its common to leave town for a weekend retreat at one’s estancia aka ranch/farm. Unfortunately our plans are nothing so glamorous. Today we moved all of our worldly belongings to a new apt. One we’ll be at for 6 months. This past week has been a bit stressful and frustrating. For anyone that prefers to imagine my life as a long term holiday full of cavorting, shopping and eating empanadas with the model beautiful locals, you might want to stop reading and return in a few days to a new post. For those interested in the good, bad and ugly of this town – let me describe a few experiences to illustrate why although BA looks, smells, tastes and tries to act like a sophisticated European city, it can be as third worldly as Tijuana, Mexico.

A week ago, we found the apartment of our dreams. Nestled in the finest neighborhood in town - Recoleta, across the street from the British embassy, situated in the back of the building so quiet as can be, furnished by a gay man in the most tasteful, chic Parisian style and plenty of space for all three of us. Even had a lovely terrace for Udita to sun herself in the morning while we read the Buenos Aires Herald and drink café con leche. The price was steep for BA but not too outrageous given the swank location and size. We offered a bit less and asked for the owner to throw in expenses like internet, phone, utilities and maid service. He agreed (through our agent) and we stopped looking for an apt. 3 days later our agent called to tell us the owner changed his mind and also didn't calculate his expenses accurately. Now, he wants an additional $150 per month even though we already had a deal and agreed to the price. ughhhh. we hem and haw then stupidly agree. but no, that's not all. he wants all 6 months rent paid up front in cash the day before we move. and.....even though you can only withdraw pesos from the atms, he wants to be paid in dollars which means we lose money on both exchanges. UGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! So, we are two days from being evicted from our apt with no options except this guy that is now royally trying to screw us and a real estate agent that is leaving town for the easter holiday so hands us over to her lackey assistant that speaks like 10 words of english. So, I spend two stressful days online (had to go to internet cafes since mysteriously our wifi stopped working at the apt) and on the phone with 4 different agents trying to find us a new place to move into. just yesterday afternoon i wasn't sure if we'd be literally homeless. Fast forward....the very first place we looked at almost two weeks ago was still available so we jumped and moved in this morning. It's in a very nice neighborhood. Still Recoleta but further east, not as close to the parks as our supposed dream apt but a nice plaza a block away and the famous Freddo's gelateria around the corner. I'll post some pix of it in a few days. It's on the top floor of an old style building in the back so its also very quiet.

2nd incident of the week: when we thought we were moving to the other place, we went to the local Citibank branch to meet the woman who helped us open an account (through our attorney here) and to withdraw some money. We take the elevator to the 4th floor - we step into a swank lobby filled with mahogany chairs and elegant decor. A big sign says "Citigold Wealth Management". I feel rich for a second. yeah, this is our life. here, we're serviced by "wealth managers"...right.

We meet Daniela - our branch rep. She pulls up our account info on the computer and voila....seems we have a zero balance. hmmmm, wait just a goddamn minute. ok, heart beating fast, mind spinning. is this what happened in the crash of 2001? you went to the bank and they smiled and just said too bad - the govt took your money, ciao. two weeks before i left sf, i made multiple trips to the Citibank branch on Market street. They knew me by name. I gave the branch manager flowers the day before I left to thank her for all the hassles. I had wired $25,000 US dollars to the Buenos Aires branch. I had a notarized apostilled letter from the sf branch manager attesting to the transaction. I had a print out of the confirmation of the transfer. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN WE HAVE A ZERO BALANCE? Well, several calls with our BA attorney Rodrigo. One hour in the posh wealth management office on the phone with Citibank US (that say the wire was made) and then another hour later in the day in a international phone booth to Citibank International Wire transfer team later, still no resolution. Yesterday, our lawyer tells us that Argentina has changed the rules - now its impossible to wire money into the country as we thought we had done. It's now against the law unless you've lived here at least a year. Something about "criminales". Great, well then where is our money? It's in the "grey zone" he tells me. We'll coming from financial services, I'm not comfortable with the whereabouts of my hard earned dinero being referred to in shades of grey. In the good ole USA, it's pretty black or white. He assures us that because it's the same bank, we will get it back. It will be put back into our account in the US. Then we'll just have to access our money via atms as we've been doing. I don't know whether this is good or bad news. I'm thinking now, actually pretty good news. If the money's not here in Argentina, they can't move it into the "grey zone" again.

vacation is over. real life has begun.