My girlfriend and I sat in a local restaurant serving a typical Argentina menu of pizza, milanesas, hamburgers, and lomitos.
Y a tomar? Said the waiter inquiring what I wanted to drink along with my lomito.
“Agua” I replied and instantly his expression changed into one of pure confusion, the likes of which I’d never seen at such a simple request.
He wrote what appeared to be 3 full sentences on the mini pad he used to record our orders.
I was recently interviewed by an expat portal regarding my experience in Argentina. Below is the interview.
Who are you?
My name is Damon. I’m 33 and was born in the United States in the San Francisco bay area in a city called Santa Rosa. For the last 10 years I have lived in San Francisco which continues to be my favorite city in the world.
I’m an industrial engineer by trade and after working for a large IT consulting firm in the US I now work for a startup software analytics company managing our large accounts.
I’ve landed in Córdoba, Argentina and objective numero uno is finding a long-term place to stay.
Living in a hotel still feels like a vacation and until I get settled into an apartment of my own it won’t feel like real life.
Before leaving for this country I put in a good amount of work trying to secure a place and found one that was incredible. I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
My search started with the local newspaper (La Voz inmuebles) which has classified ads online like Craigslist but with less features and less crazy people. Here you can find temporary apartments for rent although the quality of the photos listed on this site baffles me. While most have a few grainy photos of one room in the apartment, many are listed without photos making the search from abroad quite difficult.
However I did find a very nice 1-bedroom apartment in Nueva Córdoba for a reasonable price. My girlfriend went to see it and confirmed it’s awesomeness so I told her to put down the deposit.
As I mentioned last month I’ve started a series of monthly financial reviews to track my own progress.
August Monthly Financial Review
August – Assets +1.87%, Debts 0%
With an upcoming trip to Córdoba, Argentina my single biggest financial goal has been saving cash. In August I was extremely fortunate as I was able to essentially double my cash holdings. I received a quarterly bonus at work and also had my Argentina trip officially approved meaning that several of the expenses that originally came out of my own pocket were reimbursed.