The thing about Argentina…

Happy February! How are your New Year’s resolutions working out so far?

Thanks to those of you who joined the You Have Homework community this past month. ¡Bienvenid@s!

This month’s newsletter includes:

🧳My thoughts about the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina

🗣️ Understanding their particular way of speaking Spanish

💸 Money in Argentina

🎶 Two playlists for your Valentine’s Day

🧳There’s something Bueno in the Aire

What an enchanting city! I spent a spectacular five months here and was absolutely charmed. The layout of the city, the Parisian-Madrileño-New-Yorker architecture, and the ground-to-roof street art made my jaw drop on the ride from the ferry station. As I got to know the city more, I also got to see the city’s quirks better.

If you love artisan and flea markets, put Buenos Aires on your travel list. Or better not, because you’ll spend all of your money. Original art, copper cookware, tea cups, jade bracelets, modern lighting fixtures… Can’t beat it.

Porteños (how people from Buenos Aires are called) love a fragrance. I’ve never seen so many perfume stores in my life.

Another superlative for Buenos Aires is that it’s the bookstore capital of the world, according to The Guardian. With 25 bookstores per 100,000 residents, these people love a libro.

Quite a few bookstores I saw have a window that passers-by could stop and order a coffee + alfajor. Yerba mate may have originated from the region, but porteños are avid coffee-lovers. (There was a coffee shortage when I left a few weeks ago, by the way.)