Officially an Expat in Argentina

Its Sunday at about 5:30 pm and the weather has turned cold (about 65 degrees in the middle of summer) and windy. Funny thing is yesterday it was humid and hotter than hell, so this is a relief for me.

We landed in Ezieza airport on February 1st and could feel the heat the minute we landed, not to mention having to personally load around 10 pieces of luggage through the airport screeners, which luckily let us right through without asking us to open all of our bags individually like the people behind us. My cousin Sebastian asked my uncle Tito to come meet us at the airport since he was off duty at the Hospital where he works 48 shifts at a time. When I saw him he was still in his hospital scrubs and was driving a Renault Cleo which is a tiny car about the size of mini-cooper. No way our luggage was going to fit so we called a van to take us to our Thrifty rental car office about 10 minutes outside of the airport. My wife and I got a bit nervous when the driver pulled of the autopista into a small, sort shady, at least to us, residential neighborhood. It turns out the the Thrifty and rented out a home and turned it into an office from what the driver told me is that there is a law that all rental car companies must have offices within a certain distance from the airport and that's the best they could do. The car that they gave us was a small Peugeot 206 and it seems that all the cars here are tiny because of the gas and parking situation. Luckily we now had two tiny cars so I put all our luggage in the rental and kamani and the kids drove with my uncle. I couldn't believe all that luggage fit in that car but we did it and we were off.

On the way to our apartment rental I noticed that Argentina in the summer is beautiful because the skies are crystal blue and the land scape outside the city is full of trees, fauna and lush green grass. The apartment we rented was in Belgrano which is about twenty minutes outside Downtown and the same distance from our kids school. The apartment had no parking so we ended up having to spend an additional $200 dollars a month for a parking lot (Cochera) which is right down the block. The place has two bedrooms, a/c, kitchen, pool and parilla on the roof, and a great view of Rio De La Plata (La Plata means Silver, but most of the time the river just looks brown during sundown when the sun hits the water just right you might see a sparkle of silver). I would recommend this rental because it is very well kept, close to everything and the owners are great. Our coffee machine broke down and Virginia the owner personally replaced it the next day! Please don't take this for granted because the customer service in Argentina is horrrrrrible so if you can find people like this you have better become their best friend.

We have all been adjusting to the time change and we are exhausted, but fortunately the great food has kept us healthy enough to take care of business. The kids have only been off for one week and are already back in school. The Escuelas Lincoln is the only American accredited school and it has been a blessing for the kids because they love it. The first day of we met the Principle of the Middle School Jeff Voracek which happens to be very close to my wife last name Vorachack and he was great. All the teachers speak English and the school grounds are huge. The setting which is right along the River is absolutely amazing. My kids have already made friends from Canada, Denmark, Colombia, Venezuela, Australia, California, China and Sweden. The other day we were invited to a birthday party in a beautiful gated community along the river called San Isidro Chico for a kid in my sons class. The kids parents are originally from Brazil but were relocated down here because the father is the VP of Procter and Gamble for all of South America, sounds like allot of hobnobbing but they are really mellow and down to earth. They offered us some Brazilian "cochinas" (Brazilian chicken empanadas) with hot sauce and a cold Corona. The parents at children's parties here have it made in the shade because they just rent out entertainment that actually takes care of the kids the whole time for about for about $60 bucks!

US Realestate Boom or BUST?

Yup! It looks like the home prices in the States are starting to decline according to this article http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060824/ts_afp/useconomyproperty_060824212809
from yahoo news.

We luckily sold our home in 2005 for $950k that was purchased in 2003 for just $650K! It was difficult emotionally to sell, what at the time was our family dream home but looking back, my wife and I have finally come to terms with it. The big question for us now is do we buy or rent in Argentina and is there a bust brewing down south. My uncle happened to come across 8 blocks of land in a place called Maradriaga which is about 4 hours away from BA and a short drive to the beach for only $25,000. I am wondering if those bargains are still out there. On the other hand living so far away from the infrastructure of BA would probably not be a good idea for us since we have kids and my wife and I are fairly young. I guess we could take advantage of those prices by making a purchase by the beach a vacation home. We will just have to wait and see.

Just got back from Buenos Aires

If you plan on visiting Buenos Aires, make sure you plan on staying a minimum of 3 weeks, otherwise you will feel like you got off a 15 hour flight (from LAX) just to get right back on! Other than that, my wife and I had a blast and loved seeing a restaurant bill of only $20 for my family of four. Its amazing how far the US dollar will take you in Argentina when you veer off the tourist spots like the famous Florida Street.

We plan on relocating our family there in July, which by the way was all my idea, so you can imagine how good a sales person I needed be when convincing my Laotian American (english speaking only) wife to sell our house, furniture and most all our belongings and move to a third world country to start my own business. Its been difficult a times, but it seems like she is finally OK with the plan. Thank God because I really couldnt do this without her. My kids are a whole other story which I will get into at another time.