Got done with class and tried to figure out how to get money into this country. This country uses the US Dollar as the backbone to its economy but the US Dollar is illegal here. Additionally they have a fixed rate so if you withdraw from a bank ATM or have money wired here they give you money in Argentine Pesos using about a 4.3 rate. As in they give you 4.3 pesos for every US dollar. However there is a black market for dollars that pays around 6.2, that most people trade on. Quite a large difference in purchasing power. The trick is to just get the US into Argentina and then you can exchange on the market like everyone else, but getting US is tricky/impossible in Argentina. I am hoping to buy a bike and need the money so I looked at opening an offshore account in Uruguay where I could withdraw US money and then take the ferry back into Argentina but that looks just about as complicated. Thats the route most expats take here. We'll see, I have the rest of the weekend to research.
Headed to the gym and got a fantastic workout. Afterwards headed to dinner with some friends. We went toSiga La Vaca which is this Asado place (Famous Argentinean BBQ, very similar to the parrilla). Great night. $21 US gets you a table, bottle of wine per person and all you can eat salad bar and asado. Needless to say since we came straight from the gym we turned this into the biggest deal on Earth. Its buffet style so there isn't any wait time between courses and we still managed to turn this into a 3.5 hour dinner. The waiter spoke very broken english but was a stud. You could tell he was very worried about his English ability, and the fact that he had been given the American table so we received the best service I expect to receive this entire trip. I took a million great pictures but in keeping with photo of the day:
Needless to say we took very good care of our waiter but by our standards still tipped less than a tip would be for that class of restaurant with that level of service in the states. Regardless he was very happy and shook our hands numerous times. He was astounded with how much we ate, which says a lot coming from a guy who works a buffet! As we were leaving he told me, "Goodluck in Argentina, you will do very well for yourself. You are large with blue eyes and blonde hair and everyone here will love you for it." This is the fourth time in the last two days people have pointed out that I am one of the only people in this entire city with the blue/blonde combo! Anyways overall great dinner experience!
After that we walked for what turned into probably five miles. I got invited to a Google birthday party from the girl I met on the plane ride into BA. Apparently we were within one block but couldn't find the place and our all phones were out of credit so eventually we called it a night and headed back to our homes. Probably a good thing, we were so full/tired at that point.
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