A Typical Day

Sorry guys, I have been a bit lax on the blog posts lately. I spent the last weekend in Córdoba visiting my cousin Melissa and just got back last night. Will try to crank a few blog posts out in the next couple days!

This one is easy, perhaps of interest, and way overdue. What does my typical day look like here in Buenos Aires? I am very predictable, so almost every weekday that I am in the city has looked like this:

8:30-9:30 AM – get up. I hardly ever set an alarm, but my body is remarkably consistent. For most of my time here, I woke up between 9:21 and 9:25 AM no matter what time I went to bed (could be 9:30 PM, could be 3 AM). Lately, I've been waking up closer to 8:30; I think I'm finally catching up on all my lost sleep from the school year...

Eat breakfast. This consists of tea, one piece of bread, several cookies, and a little bowl of cereal with yogurt. For those of you who remember one of my early posts, this is a big step up from when I first got here!

9/10-11 AM – gym. I do pilates, yoga, and muscle toning classes.

11-12 PM – shower, get ready.

~12 PM – go out for my "morning" activity. This is usually comprised of some errand (in the first few weeks, often something related to trying to get the money my parents sent me) or visiting a government office or organization here. Most of my non-worker interviews have taken place during this time. Mondays I often spend the time emailing contacts and searching out new places to visit.

~3 or 4 PM (whenever I finish my morning chore) – interviews with workers. I generally do one, occasionally I get in two. The vast majority of my interviews are obtained by soliciting workers as they leave the health care provider building near my house. Here in Argentina, different sectors often have their own little health care providers, rather than providing insurance for private hospitals. The main building for domestic workers just happens to be about a 5 minute walk from my house here (I am so lucky, honestly). I stand outside and pretend to be waiting for a bus, then ask people as they come out whether they would be willing to do an interview with me. I get pretty good results – very few people brush me off entirely, as would definitely happen in the US. More often, people are too busy to do an interview as they have to pick up their kids, or return to work, or head to a different branch for an appointment. I have estimated that for every interview I have successfully completed, I had to ask about four people, and also watched about 10 pass by without asking (because they were obviously in a huge rush, had small children with them, or were in pairs). So my 20-ish interviews completed equals a lot of approaching people and soliciting!

~5:30 PM – head home. I usually tell myself that I will work on transcribing interviews until dinner. But to be perfectly honest, that does NOT happen on a typical day! More often, I spend the time checking new emails accumulated during the day, writing blog posts, and gchatting people.

7:30 PM – dinner. This is super early by Argentine standards, but I appreciate it. Especially because as you might have noticed, I didn't mention lunch. I do sometimes eat lunch (especially if I do a hard workout in the morning), but I just as often subsist on the abundance of tea and coffee I drink doing interviews, and the occasional croissant.
Dinner is the only time I spend really interacting with my host mom. Although she never eats dinner, she will sit with me and talk about whatever for a couple hours. I usually really enjoy this time, although the food leaves something to be desired.

~9 PM – back to the computer. Sometimes I actually do some transcribing, or I watch TV on Cuevana (awesome free website here with all the movies and TV shows you could imagine)

~11 PM - midnight (or whenever I feel like it) – go to bed.

There's my day!! The only real variation I have is where I go in the mornings and occasional night activities. My mornings have taken me all around Buenos Aires and the surrounding areas, so I never get too bored with locations. And I probably average once or twice a week going somewhere at night: going to a movie/concert/ballet/tango show or hanging out with SIP people at someone's house or a bar.

In all, I lead a pretty easy life here. I get as much sleep as I want, exercise, eat mostly healthily, and talk about interesting things with interesting people :)

Today marks the end of week six in Buenos Aires. Exactly two weeks left!