The hardest thing for me about living in Buenos Aires has been the fact that since I am in the southern hemisphere, that means it is winter. Even though I am not a fan of the cold, the cold has been the least of my concerns- it doesn’t get very cold in Buenos Aires. The biggest challenge of winter is that the sun sets at 5:50pm.
I thrive in the sun. I am the kind of person that stops in my tracks while walking to bask in the warmth of the sun for a few extra seconds before continuing wherever I need to go. Also, my Airbnb apartment is in a huge apartment complex surrounded by other huge apartment complexes and I am on the second floor. This means that there are precisely (I’ve timed it) 10 minutes in the day in which my apartment gets direct sunlight. There is a tiny space between the two tall buildings in front of my apartment in which the sun peeks through for those glorious 10 minutes.
Now, I thought, maybe if I fixed my sleep schedule to wake up with the sunrise, I’d be able to stretch out the amount of sunlight I have in my day. Unfortunately, this ended up with me waking up far earlier than the sunrise. The sunrise isn’t until 8am, and being up before the sun just felt wrong. No matter what, there would only be a little under 10 hours of sunlight in a day. Between lunch and about an hour commute to most tourist sites, I often arrive wherever I’m exploring around 2pm, giving me only 3 hours to sightsee before heading back home. And the thing is, just because I wake up early, doesn’t mean the city does. Buenos Aires and Porteños thrive in the night time, but now, as a solo female traveler abroad, I don’t feel very comfortable venturing beyond my immediate and familiar neighborhood after sunset. This limits the kinds of activities I can do because so many classes and social events are in the evenings, but without having at least that one other familiar person to accompany me, venturing to an unfamiliar environment alone at night in such a big city like Buenos Aires often feels like too much.
Now that I’ve complained for probably far too long about the lack of sun and light, let me share with you the list of Argentinian things that make me happy (this has been a growing list on my notes app).
My commute to my host organization takes me a little under two hours by bus so the important thing is to hopefully be able to quickly snag a seat on the bus and get comfortable. The nice thing about this particular bus route is that most of the passengers tend to be older women or women with children so I typically end up seated next to an older woman and they have always been the sweetest towards me. It makes me happy when they call me “mi amor.”
This might not be unique to Argentina, but when on a tour of the country in San Antonio de Areco, I saw beautiful butterflies while horseback riding. Whenever I see a butterfly, it always reminds me to be grateful for everything. Butterflies and horseback rides make me happy.
Beginning the second day after my arrival, I’ve been consistently working out at a gym 3 blocks away from my apartment. And something that makes me happy is familiarizing myself with my gym crowd. I may not know their names, but their familiar faces bring me joy, specifically a girl who looks about my age who dances a bit between sets. I often find myself holding back from doing the same thing and seeing someone else really dancing makes me happy.
When I first arrived in Buenos Aires, Jorge quickly introduced me to two of his favorite and regular restaurants: Tilo and Dos Escudos. Specifically, Dos Escudos was the place we’d go to for breakfast as it was a cafe and bakery type of restaurant. There we each ordered a breakfast combo that included the breakfast food item, freshly squeezed orange juice, and a coffee, except I don’t drink coffee and when I heard Jorge replace his with “un submarino,” I quickly followed suit AND THIS WAS THE BEST DECISION EVER. I am not a big fan of many drinks in general and even less so of warm drinks that I never have the patience to let cool enough for me not to burn my tongue, but these submarinos have been the best drink I’ve ever tried in a long time. Maybe I’m overhyping them as submarinos are essentially chocolate milk, except that they bring you the hot milk with two large chocolate bars that you place in the milk yourself. The chocolate just tastes so rich and delicious and the warm milk they bring you is just hot enough to warm your cold toes, but not hot enough to burn your tongue. Submarinos make me happy.
Finally, I know I said I’d be done writing about the sun, but seeing the limited amount of sun I have has made me truly treasure those moments when a ray of sunshine lands perfectly on my face and I get a little extra warmth. It has also made me appreciate and make some use out of my balcony. I often go sit out there and read (I’m working on my Spanish reading skills and I’ve read two books in Spanish so far!) The sun and my balcony make me happy.
