Lines
It's pretty amazing, that in a country with so much rich history, there's such a dichotomy between people when it comes to forming, waiting, and utilizing the efficiency of a line. The bus system is a prime example of societal organization - there are no ropes, no painted lines on the sidewalk, nothing... People just 'line up' at the bus stop and wait, patiently and orderly, for their bus to arrive. It's amazing - the German influence in this societal norm seems to be apparent. This is something you can see on almost every street corner, as most of them do have a bus stop (the bus system - Los Colectivos - is a different post entirely, as it could take someone YEARS to figure out how many different routes there are and actually get to all the locations). Compare this, to say, the lines outside of popular nite spots - there is absolutely no order whatsoever - it's a total free for all, and it reminds me of the floor of a trading exchange (CBOT, CBOE, NYSE, etc)... We've had our share of experiences thus far, but none worse than trying to get 20 people in to a club to reach our private table that was awaiting... It took more than 90 minutes, and by the time some of us reached the front of the 'line,' the club expected us to pay an additional entrance because the tickets we had paid for 90 minutes earlier were no longer valid... I almost lost it, having to go off on the guy in Spanish, which I'm sure he enjoyed, in order to gain entrance... A little efficiency, some security, and some ropes/barricades always do the trick... C'mon people, efficiency - oh wait, we're in Argentina, but... hmph.
Babies
The phenomenon of a baby is pretty amazing, it's even more amazing to compare the differences between the cultural treatment of the little boogers. In the US, parents, more or less, stop their own lives for the 'betterment' of the newbie in the house - sometimes, for years! They stay home, or on the oft chance, the hire a sitter, but rarely are babies, much less toddlers, part of the entourage at a dinner... Now, consider this, people here just do things differently... That said, a baby over a shoulder at a dinner that finishes at 1a (which could be early in some circles down here) is a totally regular thing to witness. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but it's clear that children are trained for the late dinners, all nite affairs from a VERY early age. What I am a fan of is the lack of coddling, babying, and total change of life's priorities, as the baby is part of the family, and the family has a life outside of the home, so wny not bring the baby along?! Think about it...
Hours
This is more or less a perfect segue in to the concept of time... As I had previously mentioned (in one of my first posts), being 'on time' is a bit of a farce... If someone suggests meeting at 10p, it really means 10.30p, at the earliest, which of course, is amazing for me (and, for Shindlers in general, though my parents probably won't adjust to well when they visit)... But, the fact that, even after daylight savings time has gone in to effect (which means the sun is now going down an hour earlier), people are still dining at 11p (starting!). Maybe it's just our group, but I'd like to think that we at least have a sense of US-based normalcy when it comes to retaining a regimented - I use this word VERY liberally - schedule (read: dinner at a normal hour, wake up to be productive in the morning, etc), and we still eat out late wake up reasonably, and at least try to function normally... It's just really difficult!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
CUI...
Fue hace seis semanas hasta empecí clases de Castellano, y con cada día, lo ha mejorado... Había buscado que necesito practicar hablando más, obvio, pero, es fácil para pasar el tiempo con amigos quienes hablan en íngles... Aunque tratamos hablar en Castellano, toma más tiempo compartir ideas, sentimientos, etc porque no estamos hablando con fluencia todavia... Ahora, estoy tomando clases cinco dias cada semana, por 3 horas cada dia en el grupo, y habîa tomado clases privadas este mes para ganar más cómodo cuando charlo en Castellano (y, necesito un repaso sobre los basicos, aunque yo sé y yo entiendo la gramatica más complicada). Tengo una profesora por la escuela, y una amiga me recomendó un profesor de historia y economía que fue un profesor a La UBA hasta empecî una escuela de Castellano tambien. Pensé que si tendrîa otro profesor, aprendría maneras diferentes para charlar para ganar fluencia mejor. Por eso, este mes está grande para mi, porque tengo gran planes para aprender el idioma más rapido así puedo haber menos extranjero... Tengo una manera larga para ir antes tengo fluencia, pero cada dia, lo ha mejorado...
Luego!
Zé
Luego!
Zé
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Why am I here?
This seems to be the question that I have received most frequently from people I have met... It's a pretty natural lead in to a conversation, considering the next answer to the following question is, "I plan on staying for at least a few years"... This response seems to shock the porteños WAY more than it shocks the ex-pats...
So, to save you all from a long-winded, detail-oriented story that I am typically very good at giving (sometimes to the bore of others), I visited a buddy (Sasha Willimann) who was studying here for one semester during law school - to this day, I still don't know how he convinced the curriculum people at Harvard Law School to let him study at a public university in a 2nd world country, but, it's Sasha, so we don't typically ask questions... ha! So, when I was here, I had a job lined up back in Chicago (which obviously didn't pan out - thank you Jesus!), but had finally felt like I had been to a foreign country/city where I felt comfortable. When the job didn't pan out while I was in NYC (details about that job aside, just go with it), I took the opportunity to pursue a dream of mine that I've had since I was much younger - seriously! To live abroad and learn a language... So as I went thru the rigors of deciding where to land, BA ended up being the easy final answer... I had a few friends here (both Sasha had introduced me to, and those who I had on my own), and with the various business contacts made over the years, realized that I would have access to a much broader social and business network of people... Done and done - the rest was history... Sorta...
I still had to deal with studying/taking the GMAT (what a pain!), finding a place to live, signing up for classes, etcetera, etcetera... Having followed the hotel business for some years now, and citing the brief experience I had while visiting Sasha, i realized there was certainly an opportunity to enter the market as a young, American ex-pat, with only the sky as a limitation. I obviously didn't understand the nuances of the market, the language, and/or the culture (the jury will be out for a while on these points), but it was a very easy decision to make the jump to the Southern Hemisphere. It would be up to me to develop my own social and business networks upon arriving, understanding that money doesn't grow on trees, and I'm not a trust fund baby (sometimes, however, I do wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing), so I'd need a way to sustain my living expenses while being here...
Once I arrived, I had a few meetings (see earlier posts), was introduced to a few individuals, and learned some basics about how business is done... Since then, I've actually met 'real' people with 'actual' projects in the pipeline, which has been great (not only did I find some of these people on my own, but some have found me!), and I've been able to get myself tied in to the network pretty easily. Specifically, the whole, 'A Small World' thing has been quite interesting (I was actually granted access by a friend/colleague, so I'm now part of that crowd, ha), as it seems to me that the entire community is linked by only 3 degrees of separation, at most!
That all said, the market here is pretty interesting... Setting aside the financing parameters that have been placed on transactional opportunities as a result of negligent economic, monetary, and fiscal policies, the service industry is totally fractured... This could be a huge cultural component, but as service-oriented as people are down here, I have found it to be as a matter of convenience. Employment laws differ drastically from the USA, where almost all issues favor workers (part of the Peronist strangle-hold on power), so there are not built-in incentives for the workers of the service industry to actually provide a 'high' (relatively speaking) level of service. This, however, does not suggest that places with exceptional service do not exist, but on the whole, even 'nice' restaurants that appear to be of a distinct level are usually not all that great... I probably share a similar vision as my ex-pat counterparts on this front, as we all seem to have shared opinions regarding the opportunity to provide much better service to travelers (corporate, leisure, local, etc).
So with that, I'm here looking for ways to provide a better, more high quality experience than currently exists, in a manner that is both fundamentally more astute, and practically delivered, with the hope of becoming a liaison between the 'money' from the North (and/or elsewhere) and the execution of hospitality in the South...
So, who's in?
So, to save you all from a long-winded, detail-oriented story that I am typically very good at giving (sometimes to the bore of others), I visited a buddy (Sasha Willimann) who was studying here for one semester during law school - to this day, I still don't know how he convinced the curriculum people at Harvard Law School to let him study at a public university in a 2nd world country, but, it's Sasha, so we don't typically ask questions... ha! So, when I was here, I had a job lined up back in Chicago (which obviously didn't pan out - thank you Jesus!), but had finally felt like I had been to a foreign country/city where I felt comfortable. When the job didn't pan out while I was in NYC (details about that job aside, just go with it), I took the opportunity to pursue a dream of mine that I've had since I was much younger - seriously! To live abroad and learn a language... So as I went thru the rigors of deciding where to land, BA ended up being the easy final answer... I had a few friends here (both Sasha had introduced me to, and those who I had on my own), and with the various business contacts made over the years, realized that I would have access to a much broader social and business network of people... Done and done - the rest was history... Sorta...
I still had to deal with studying/taking the GMAT (what a pain!), finding a place to live, signing up for classes, etcetera, etcetera... Having followed the hotel business for some years now, and citing the brief experience I had while visiting Sasha, i realized there was certainly an opportunity to enter the market as a young, American ex-pat, with only the sky as a limitation. I obviously didn't understand the nuances of the market, the language, and/or the culture (the jury will be out for a while on these points), but it was a very easy decision to make the jump to the Southern Hemisphere. It would be up to me to develop my own social and business networks upon arriving, understanding that money doesn't grow on trees, and I'm not a trust fund baby (sometimes, however, I do wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing), so I'd need a way to sustain my living expenses while being here...
Once I arrived, I had a few meetings (see earlier posts), was introduced to a few individuals, and learned some basics about how business is done... Since then, I've actually met 'real' people with 'actual' projects in the pipeline, which has been great (not only did I find some of these people on my own, but some have found me!), and I've been able to get myself tied in to the network pretty easily. Specifically, the whole, 'A Small World' thing has been quite interesting (I was actually granted access by a friend/colleague, so I'm now part of that crowd, ha), as it seems to me that the entire community is linked by only 3 degrees of separation, at most!
That all said, the market here is pretty interesting... Setting aside the financing parameters that have been placed on transactional opportunities as a result of negligent economic, monetary, and fiscal policies, the service industry is totally fractured... This could be a huge cultural component, but as service-oriented as people are down here, I have found it to be as a matter of convenience. Employment laws differ drastically from the USA, where almost all issues favor workers (part of the Peronist strangle-hold on power), so there are not built-in incentives for the workers of the service industry to actually provide a 'high' (relatively speaking) level of service. This, however, does not suggest that places with exceptional service do not exist, but on the whole, even 'nice' restaurants that appear to be of a distinct level are usually not all that great... I probably share a similar vision as my ex-pat counterparts on this front, as we all seem to have shared opinions regarding the opportunity to provide much better service to travelers (corporate, leisure, local, etc).
So with that, I'm here looking for ways to provide a better, more high quality experience than currently exists, in a manner that is both fundamentally more astute, and practically delivered, with the hope of becoming a liaison between the 'money' from the North (and/or elsewhere) and the execution of hospitality in the South...
So, who's in?
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