Off to Buenos Aires: Hunting for an Apartment and Spanish School
I’m sitting at the San Jose International Airport, waiting for my flight to Dallas, and from there to Santiago then to Buenos Aires. I’ve been out of blog posting mode for the last couple of days, spending much of my time with Andreas, while I prepared for this trip. But as I’m waiting here in San Jose for my first flight, I want to highlight two important things that I did before this day that I hope will make my experience in Buenos Aires as fantastic as possible: (1) getting an apartment and (2) enrolling in Spanish classes.
1. Because I will be in Buenos Aires for four weeks, it made sense to rent an apartment. I have a good friend (Cali) who had spent three months in Buenos Aires. She was quick to recommend the family-owned short- and long-term fully furnished apartment rental agency MySpaceBA. The rental company has a clean and streamlined website, with an easy-to-use search function that has price, neighborhood, and number of room filters. Since I knew very little about Buenos Aires before I planned this trip, I sought the advice of Cali, who recommended enthusiastically that I live in Palermo, as it was a safe neighborhood with many cafes, bars, and restaurants. My price range of $700 in the Palermo area brought up several apartments in the search. But just to make sure, I e-mailed the agency my price requirements and the location that I was interested in; I also name dropped, and mentioned that my friend Cali had rented from them and had raved about the agency (it couldn’t hurt, I thought). I received a prompt response to my inquiry, with a list of apartments that met my requirements. I settled on a lovely furnished studio in Palermo near Plaza Serrano, for $650 a month. The apartment comes with a cable TV and Internet.
The process to rent the unit was painless. To hold the unit, I sent a deposit of $150 through Western Union to the owner of agency. I would also pay (in cash) a refundable $450 for a security deposit and the remainder of the cost of the rent once I got to Buenos Aires. MySpaceBA also arranged for a transfer from the airport to the apartment. One of the downsides of renting an apartment is not being able to meet other travelers as readily as I would if I’d chosen to live in a hostel. The upside of renting an apartment is the tremendous financial savings and the experience of “living” in Buenos Aires.
2. One of the ways that I plan on building my social circle while I’m in Buenos Aires is through Spanish classes. Even though I’m only in Buenos Aires for four weeks, I intend to maximize my time there and learn as much Spanish as I can. Doing a simple search online for “Spanish classes Bueones Aires” yielded an immense amount of results, and I found it extremely challenging to gauge the quality of the programs. I discovered a large amount of ads on Craigslist for private and group lessons. I also went through the suggestions of Spanish programs in my Moon: Bueons Aires travel guide (a guide that came highly recommended by my friend Cali), but was ultimately disappointed to see the extremely high costs for a month’s worth of classes at the places the book suggested. The organizations running many of the language courses mentioned in my travel guide are probably priced high for tourists. I thought that I’d never find a reasonably priced course until I found a glowing recommendation – just what I needed to read at the time – about the language school VOS Buenos Aires in the New York Times travel section, specifically the Buenos Aires Attractions page. The student praised the language school for incorporating language studies with cultural activities and for positively shaping her experiences in the city. Her love for VOS felt sincere and really came through in her review. I immediately visited the school’s website and found it well-organized and very informative. The school works around students’ needs and schedules. The school offers an intensive course that meets for fours hours a day, five days out of the week – too intense for me. I was, however, interested in the regular course that would meet Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays for three hours a day (with a cap of 8 students in the class); the schedule would give me time to explore the city on my days off or even take a long weekend out of the city. Additionally, there’s the option of private lessons, or even lessons through Skype. VOS has a neat blog, and a Facebook and Twitter presence. I was sold. I sent a letter of inquiry to VOS and got a prompt reply. My e-mail contact at VOS was kind and professional, and she answered all of my questions with detail. The price for the four weeks of language course was extremely reasonable for my budget: $375 (plus 6% fee if you are paying by PayPal).
I start the day after I arrive in Buenos Aires!
