Don’t get my wrong, I love Buenos Aires and actually found it pretty easy to live in, considering its size and problems. I think the reason foreigners idealize it so much is exactly what I touched on above: Select parts of Buenos Aires are really, really similar to New York and other cosmopolitan cities around the world that rich people like to travel to. Many of these people do not prefer to venture far from their comfort zones, so they go to destinations that have essentially the same amenities as they’ve grown accustomed to, but with just a dash of local flavor. This way, their ideas about life, people, and the world will not be challenged by experiences that fall outside their preconceptions.

But, I can’t really talk shit on Cafe Margot, because the banana licuado con leche is pretty damn good.

Excellent investigative journalism work. I always find a dearth of paranoia getting in the way of my drive to sleuth. If “Jeff,” as we’ll refer to him, is truly an undercover NY Times agent trying to make me feel grateful for being mentioned in such a prestigious publication (albeit with factual errors), it was really a wasted effort because I already felt grateful, as stupid as that may sound. That’s one of the reasons I used my friend’s words to criticize the paper instead of my own — because I didn’t want to seem too much like an ungrateful bastard, because I’m not (much).

Thank you for your continued interest, Mr. Walner. You’ll begin to receive an endless stream of Grating Space promotional materials soon.

~Pam

Thanks for the kind words. As far as moving down here: Just tell enough people that you’re going to move to Buenos Aires and eventually you’ll feel so much social pressure from people to whom you told that, you’ll be forced to follow up on it or be deemed an “all talk, no action” type of person for the rest of your days.