In the words of Marvin Gaye: "Ain't nothing like the real thing baby"

Contrast of the villa and metropolis

I found De Botton’s first chapter on the anticipation of travel extremely interesting, because in the months leading up to my departure for Buenos Aires, I constantly tried to both imagine Buenos Aires and imagine my life here. I tried to draw upon my previous travels in Latin America, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, but while they’re both Latin American countries, they are Central American and extremely underdeveloped, as opposed to this South American metropolis.While I had heard so many great things about this city from many people, about how I was going to have a wonderful time, the fact of the matter was that I didn’t really have a concrete image of this city, just that it was going to be great. I pictured only the good, and in many ways, idealized this place. I’d dreamed about coming here and been excited for so long, that I just assumed that I would be happy and everything dandy the moment I stepped off the plane. However, the first day I was in the Capital Federal I began to realize how much I had idealized Buenos Aires and thought it would be a perfect place. This is an incredibly imperfect and unequal city and country. There's a constant struggle between classes (the poor in this country are actually referred to as "los negros de mierda" i.e. the “blacks of shit”) as well as a lot of open racism. One of the rich “barrios” wants to build a wall between their area and a “villa miseria” (shantytown). Additionally, while Buenos Aires is a full-fledged modern city jam-packed with chic boutiques, incredible restaurants, and limitless cultural diversions, Argentina is a 3rd world country and the wealth distribution is horribly skewed, both geographically and per capita. While all of this is obviously bad, learning and seeing these things has vastly deepened my understanding for my new home. Now, having been here for a month, I finally have my mental image of Buenos Aires, and while I will constantly be updating it for the next 10 months, it’s a good start. All in all, I'm becoming settled here, in my new Argentine lifestyle. This place is incredibly unique, in both good and bad ways, and all the experiences I've had, positive and negative, have been extremely thought provoking and educational.