Cerca mi apartamento

Translated: "near my apartment," but you probably picked that up if you were thinking about it.





This is the view from the front door of mi edificio (building) looking left towards Avenida Santa Fe. That's the very end of Avenida Santa Fe at the left-ish of the picture, which is also the very end of Palermo (I think). On the other side of the subway station is the Belgrano barrio. Couple things to note here: the trash cans are ubiquitous, yet not ubiquitously utilized. That's a definite negative about this place: the main streets (Avenidas) have a bit of trash on them. Also, the cars are much smaller than in the US, especially Houston, where we have a much higher percentage of truck and SUV ownership. Here, a Ford Focus is normal, or possibly slightly on the big side.


This is the entry to my building. You can see the flash and reflection of me taking the picture. That's the elevator on the left, and the end of the hallway is the stairs. Here, you call someone by pressing the button for their apartment. Then they come down and unlock the door. Note that this means that to let someone out of your apartment, you always walk down with them (usually you ride the elevator; I take the stairs) to unlock the door. Then you do the abrazos y abesos (hug and kiss).


This is my call box. I'm not sure why I took a picture of this. You can see this callbox on the picture above.




This is Avenida Santa Fe. I am standing near the Subte entrance, so I'm basically at the very end of the Santa Fe. That's a taxi on the left, and in the center of the road, is the street. You can't really see the street because it goes down below street level, underneath the train tracks, and then on the other side it becomes Avenida Cabildo (which is the beginning of Belgrano).


This is the Carranza stop, which is about 100 yards from where I live. If you look at the previous post, you can see this sign from my balcony. One thing to note: the train tracks are not the Subte. The subway is actually down the stairs in front of you, and then down way more stairs. I'm not entirely sure what these train tracks are. I think it may be a commuter rail of some sort. Also, I think sometimes commercial freight trains run on it, because at night (10pm or so) there is a really freaking loud train that comes by and is very annoying.

Having the subway so close is very convenient. I'll probably post on el Subte (subterranean) another time, but the subway is good for getting into downtown, to Recoleta, an to La Bombanera (the stadium where Boca Juniors play. Literal translation: the chocolate box. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up). Also, the subway is like $0.27 USD per ride. Bueno. However, as nice as it is being close to the subway, the train noise...well, it doesn't annoy me now, as I sleep just fine, but it might annoy me in a few months.

On the other hand, I'm only here til June 30th. As great as this place is, I can find more for less, I bet. Plus, it'll be exciting to move around a little bit with the Recoleta/Barrio Norte/Palermo/Belgrano neighborhoods. Although I'm pretty firmly convinced that Palermo Hollywood is where it is at, so I may not stray too far.