A Most Interesting Day

Yesterday I went exploring downtown and had quite an experience. First, I took the subway, which was relatively easy to do and at 2:30 in the afternoon was fairly crowded. (Although I did not really know crowded until my ride home at rush hour. More about this later.) When I emerged from the subway at the corner of Cordoba & Callao Avenues I realized I was truly in the city. The skyline had grown (though not as high as Miami's, still more of a concrete canyon feel than I had in the Palermo area where I am currently staying.) My first order of business was to locate the apartment building where I am going to be staying the next 3 weeks. I did. It is on a very busy street and accessed through a door slotted between shops on the Avenue. At this point I began observing that all the buildings, downtown as well as on the busy commercial avenue in the area I am staying, appear to be apartment building, or office buildings, above the first floor. All the street level facades though are retail establishments, with the occasional door that obviously provides access to the upper floors. Definitely an urban setting and one which I am not used to, but will be experiencing the next 3 weeks. When I later located the language school, it is the same type setting, apparently on the third floor, accessible through a single street door, in a very busy section of town.

I realized I have never lived in a downtown setting before in my life. I was raised in the suburbs, attended college and seminary in city residential neighborhoods or suburbs, and lived the first 15 years of my career in small cities, in Elkhart, Indiana and Melbourne, Florida. Also, since my move to Miami, I am again in the suburbs. I have often thought I would like to live in a city environment and now I get my chance. I am not sure I will like it. But I will definitely find out. An unexpected learning on this sabbatical. A good chance to experience something that I may or may not want to experience in retirement years (though they are still a few years off).

After finding my next home and having a very late lunch, I embarked for the Bus Terminal to try to check out my transport options for going to Cordoba and Bariloche later this month. It was a bit of a walk (actually a long walk) to a very busy, crowded, unsettling area. The bus terminal is between the train terminal and the seaport. The train terminal is huge and the bus terminal, though smaller, is still very large. They are engulfed by masses of street vendors and other market-type shops all set-up for the tourist. Although the people, masses of them, I saw going in and out of the two terminals did not look like the average tourist. I encountered the largest number of young people I have seen so far, plus people who appeared not too well off (not poor, exactly, but definitely working-class folk). I hate to say it but I would have to say I felt somewhat class conscious for the first time in my life. Quite a shock for me who considers himself an average Joe and a friend of the poor. Anyway, the bus terminal turned out to be a learning experience as the ticket windows for the various bus companies did not provide any readily helpful information and the one window I stopped at to try to get some information the woman did not seem to speak English and it went no where. So, I will return to the Internet later to try to arrange my transport. I definitely need to learn Spanish!

I then walked back downtown, up a hill (first real one I have encountered here) through a park and a couple of plazas, encountering someone soliciting money to feed the poor Argentine AIDS babies, who was very friendly at first, but then became quite upset with me when all I offered him was 2 pesos (he is correct, that is not very much, about 70 cents U.S.) But I am used to street hustlers from 28 years as a pastor, and though Jesus says to give freely to anyone who asks of you, he does not say to give generously. So I gave, a pittance, yes, but I really doubt that the money will feed any Argentine AIDS baby. God forgive my cynicism. A little later I was asked while waiting to cross a very busy street, by some young girl, for the rest of my candy bar (at least I think that was what she was indicating, though again, in Spanish which I did not understand). Again, an experience of begging I have not had before, very different from the approach of the street people in the U.S. who just ask for money, spare change, etc. I did not think I looked that much like a gringo tourist, but I must!

Finally, after some more long walks (I have discovered that the blocks are very long here and the distances on the maps deceptive in their length. What appears to be only 7 blocks is actually a rather long walk.) I got to the subway station to head back to where I am staying. It was 6:00 p.m. on Friday, obviously a prime time for train travel. I waited for at least 3 trains before I attempted to board one. They were all packed full of people and at least the first two I know I could not have gotten in. When I did finally brave it, having moved to a different place on the platform where there seemed to be less people waiting to board, I did get on as several people got off. I was amazed when after getting on in rather close quarters, yet still standing near the door, five more people actually got on the car after me! They just pushed their bodies in, not using their hands but definitely pushing in their bodies and I was pushed further in, closer to the already too close people until we were squished in. I could not hold onto any handrail, but there was no need as our bodies were so closely packed in that we held one another up despite the usually swaying of the subway. I was further amazed at how people actually were able to shift positions in the crowded car so that they could get next to the door to exit as their stop came up. I would say that experience qualifies me as an actual Buenos Aires porteno!