First Week

I have settled inside an art nouveau apartment on the edge of Almagro, just north of Palermo. Although the presence of Palermo is not felt here, it’s refreshing to be near there. I am mostly in a middle-class neighborhood.

The rent in the apartment where I am staying is low when I compare it to the dollar, but I am always reminding myself that their wage is paid in pesos so that I don’t sound snotty. The difference in the value of notes makes this neighborhood expensive. Sometimes I feel that the cost of living and the taxes tearing away from their paycheck are the only topics of conversation I have. And the government does take a lot of money from the people.

At my apartment, I ask my roommates (in English) what is expensive for cheese. He tells me that all cheese is expensive here. Cheap, expensive clearly are relative. In this “expensive” neighborhood, people can hardly make ends meet, and they wouldn’t be able to buy anything in Palermo, but love to visit, to walk around and dream about all the beautiful things that nouveau riche would buy.

I could picture a map of BA with “expensive” areas shaded in by different economic classes. I suspect that the whole city would be covered. Undoubtedly, “cheap” hoods would produce likewise results.