Back in December I posted some pictures from our little flat which we landed in here. We moved house into our own rented accommodation four weeks ago, so here is the guided tour. If you like what you see, good rates are available for visitors....
We are in a quiet neighbourhood called Pilar. Many of our neighbours have lived here for many years.
If you look up the road to the left it looks like this:
If you look down the road to the right it looks like this:
Next door but one there is a little plaza where the children play:
It would probably be in breach of all the health and safety regs in many countries of the world, but the kids here enjoy it, and there are never too many dead bodies left at the end of the weekend.
Looking over the road it looks like this:
Sometimes I'm not standing there, but our neighbours' houses seem to be a fairly long-term fixture.
And this is our house.
We like to sit outside the front, particularly at the end of the day, drinking something hot, cold or alcoholic, (depending on your churchmanship...) and watching the world go by:
But enough of this frivolity, let's go take a look inside....
This is the front door, it opens up to a big room like this:
We haven't figured out what to do with this room yet, so it's used for storing bicycles and building furniture in, hence the bed which has now gone to live in the spare bedroom.
Off the entrance room there are two exits. The first one takes you to a little corridor:
The first door on the right is the spare bedroom, only we have to keep the door shut because the dog likes to sneak onto the spare bed when no-one's looking:
Next to the spare room, through the other door, is our bedroom:
Opposite the bedrooms is the bathroom:
This is a civilised country, bidet comes as standard. Our shower on the other hand does have a personality of its own. Plumbing is not Argentina's strongest suit.
If you go back to the entrance room now, and take the other door out, this will lead you to the kitchen:
Carry on past the fridge, and you find a dining area:
The dining room table is probably the most important item of furniture in an Argentinian house. Everything happens here: We meet, we eat, we entertain guests, we work, we study. Lots of people, us included, so far at least, do not have sofas or easy chairs in their houses, but everyone has a dining table. Most people will have their TV set up so they can watch it from the dining room table. We don't have a TV yet, we're still deciding whether we need one. Right now I am at the table, putting this piece of writing together on the laptop.
Carry on through the dining room, and you find a washing area:
The drain underneath this floods if you put a whole bucket of water down the sink at once. More plumbing! The road outside also floods when it rains. You get used to this after a while.
On the other side of the washing area is another room:
We haven't really done anything with this one yet either, but we're thinking it will probably be an office, when we get round to buying a desk and a bookcase or two. On the other side of the window is a little patio:
Landscaped features include pole, and potplant. At the other end of the patio however is the other most important feature of an Argentinian house, the parilla, or barbecue if you're English:
The word barbecue does no justice to an Argentinian “Asado”. An asado is a social occasion for inviting friends and family. We calculate half a kilo of beef per person, (beef's just over £2 a kilo around here; anyone jealous yet?) and that is not including the chorizos (sausages) or morcilla (black pudding) all served up with salads, bread, and Quilmes, (the most popular beer), or a red wine. All the main food groups are covered, particularly salt and cholesterol. There is often ice-cream to finish off with. Asado is an art-form that Argentinians are particularly proud of. It is also very much a male domain, and everyone has their own secrets for that perfect steak. Martin has now done two asados with expert assistance from various church members, he's been told he'll probably have passed the course after the next one....
And that's us. From here we are about two minutes walk to the main “Avenida” where the local businesses are found, five minutes walk to church, fifteen minutes cycle ride downhill to the city centre, about 45 minutes cycling north and west to our main places of work e.g. the churchplant in barrio Sacchi, and a bit over the hour by bike for Martin to get to his Spanish classes. Cordoba is a big city. Luckily there is also an excellent public bus system which we also use, particularly when it's raining, or when the bike needs fixing, or if we have lots of stuff to carry, or when we've had enough of cycling up hills. Photos of the above to be posted in due course.