Expat Gadgets You Can't Live (Abroad) Without

When sitting in my apartment, it is pretty hard to tell I'm in Buenos Aires and not Texas. OK, as long as you don't go into the bathroom and spot the bidet. And as long as you stay away from the windows so you can't here the resonating traffic and screeching from all the buses. (We don't have buses in Texas... jut really big pickup trucks.)

It certainly seems like home because I watch TV from Texas, chat with all my friends from Texas, read the local news form Texas and listen to music from Texas. Life without Lyle Lovett and Stevie Ray Vaughn? No way.

It is only when I step outside that it is obvious that I'm in a big, thriving, foreign capitol halfway around the world. Oh, and the fact that I can't find Tex-Mex food.... hell any spicy food here, but that is another post.

The reason? Modern technology and the internet has made it almost impossible for an expat to miss home. The following is a list of my favorite gadgets no expat should be without.

Skype

With Skype, I pay $60/year for a Skype-in phone number. It is a local 817 number for my friends back home to call and it costs them nothing. The call is routed over the internet to my apartment here in Buenos Aires. Now anytime any of my relatives needs to borrow money, they just pick up the phone and call me... just like before and it doesn't cost them anything.

I also have Skype-out which allows me to call out to any number in the US ( or the whole world) for just 2.1 cents a minute. Both Skype-in and Skype-Out are invaluable if you have a teenage girl. Teenage girls normally don't like being uprooted from all their friends and moved halfway around the world.

Skype Phones

Some people don't like Skype because they are uncomfortable talking into their computer. Depending on your computer setup, you may have trouble with the mic or sound quality. Skype phones eliminate all that and give you something you are use to talking into.

We have the Netgear Duel Mode phone system with three extensions. The phones work and sound great. It is not the most stylish system though. There is also a great dual mode system from Philips. I'd look into that one over the Netgear.

With the Netgear, there is a small base unit that plugs into our internet router and also has a jack for our land line phone connection. The three extension phones all connect wirelessly to the base unit so we can put them anywhere we want in the apartment.

We receive and make Skype calls as well as regular local calls over the phones and the quality is no different than a regular phone. Pretty cool stuff according to my daughter who is constantly on the thing talking to her pals back home in Texas. Just like at home.

Slingbox

Last weekend, I kept walking around the house mumbling, "College Football. Must have College Football." - I admit, the closer it came to Texas-OU weekend the more I started questioning this whole Argentina move. There was nowhere in this town to get my college football fix. I guy with a name like "Longhorn Dave" can't go without watching the Texas-OU game. It just isn't allowed.

We'll as it turned out, I have some really great friends back home that surprised me by buying me a Slingbox to hook up to their cable TV so I could watch all the games I wanted from back home. They bought it Friday before the big game and we had it up and running Sat morning with plenty of time to catch all the great pre-game shows.

Slingbox is now my favorite expat gadget. I get to watch all of my cable channels from back home anytime I want on my computer and it is pretty good reception too. We watch the 10:00 news, our favorite shows and of course all the football and baseball we want.

iPod

No matter where I go, I always have my favorite Texas music by my side. Lyle Lovett, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Tish Hinojosa, Spoon and all the other great Texas artists go with me no matter where I go.

There is nothing like music to transport you back to a place. You often will hear some great Texas music blaring from our apartment. Not that my new favorites like Tanghetto and Gotan Project don't get equal billing.

Also, the iPod is a handy tour guide. You can now download guided walking tours of Buenos Aires right to your iPod. OK...maybe it won't put Diva or Robert out of job, but it is still pretty cool.

Now if they would just invent a gadget that could send the Green Chili Enchiladas from Uncle Julio's over the internet I'd be really at home here.

Falling in Love with Belgrano

My wife and I have decided we want to move to Belgrano. With the speculation and resulting run up in apartment prices, we think we are going to forgo buying for now. Especially considering our place in Texas has not sold yet.

Instead, we are are going to rent our house in Texas and turn around and put the money down on rent in this beautiful tree lined barrio on Buenos Aires northern end.

Here are a few pics from there that I took this week.





Belgrano's main advantage is it is much closer to our kids' school yet still in the city. From Belgrano it is easy to catch the subway, train, or taxi to any attraction in the city. For our kids, it should cut back on her morning commute to school. We can even take a cheap cab to get her to school. The hired remis (car service) was $30 pesos (US$10) each way.

Belgrano is totally different than the rest of the city. Many areas feature houses with Anglo-Saxon designs mixed with modern high rise apartment buildings. The apartment buildings are spread apart and are not side-by-side, offering a lot of light from all four sides.

The streets are picturesque tree-lined avenues that are very tranquil. Quite the opposite of where we live know.

Belgrano even contains the city's Chinatown. The chinese food here is good and has the spice we crave. And Las Cañitas is in walking distance. It is an area of town with over 100 restaurants. What more could we ask for!

Hope to share more pics soon. In the mean time, check out some more Belgrano pics from Buenos Aires Dialy: here, here and here.

Let Them Eat Wii!

We were shopping at the Paseo Alcorta shopping mall the other day and we noticed a Nintendo Wii in the window of a store. We about passed out on the spot. The price was a mere AR$3,000. That is $1,000 in US dollars. It was not some ebay scam. It was not due the some crazy inflation rate. That is the actual retail price here.

I love my Wii. We can't imagine life without it. I don't know that I would pay $1000 for one.

It is not just Wii's that are priced so crazy. All electronics here are priced through the roof due to huge import duties. Just the other day I was offered a handsome sum for my video iPod. The offer was more than double what I paid for it and it is even a couple of generations old now.

Most things in the store are made here. The government since the time of Peron has really pushed Argentine economy to be self sufficient. And that policy has helped employ a large number of people. However, this gringo feels they are getting a raw deal.

The stores are filled with inferior goods. We went shopping for baby strollers last week and were looking at paying $200 for a stroller that was not even to the standard of the $19.95 version at Toys R Us. Why? My guess is that the market isn't being allowed to work freely and efficiently and the manufactures here have been insulated from any real competition. Plus the raw goods are harder to come by and more expensive from the duties placed on them.

Another example. My daughter started school way out in the suburbs. Which means she (and we) must get up at the un-Argentine hour of 6:00 to get ready for the bus that comes by at 7:00. Time to get an alarm clock. Only there are none to be found in the stores. At first I thought this was a cultural thing. Why would a country that prides itself on never being on time for anything need alarm clocks? OK, it may be partly due to that. But in reality with limited pesos, why spend money on the overpriced item when the alarm on your cell phone will work just fine.

We were told in our expat orientation meeting at school that if you want to find good quality goods go out to the Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart! Something is seriously wrong with this place if I have to go to Wal-Mart to find "quality".

If they opened the markets here and eliminated the tariffs, prices would come down, the economy would grow the quality of life would increase along with the quality of goods. Sure some local manufacturers would have to close due to the pressure to compete globally. But, BustBuy, CompUSA and the new Argentine equivalents would trip over themselves opening new stores employing more than the factories that did have to close ever did.

Then every boy and girl would be blessed with Wiis and life would be grand. I say let them eat Wiis! Wii tennis anyone?

Spring Is Almost Here...

Well, not quite yet. It has been cold and rainy the last two days. I snapped this photo from our balcony yesterday after the rain had stopped. It's raining again today. I can't wait for warmer weather to see this wonderful city at its best.

It is weird getting use to spring falling right on the heals of our hot Texas summer. ( Remember the seasons are reversed down here south of the equator.) It has been a very cold winter here in Argentina. The cold was a wonderful change from the August heat back in Texas...at first. It's novelty has worn off.

Although it hasn't been that bad since we landed. The weather here is a lot like Texas in that it can be frigid cold one day and 82 the next. In a few months, I'm sure I'll be complaining about how hot and humid everything is... Just like back at home!

Where We are Living Now...

Sorry we haven't posted in awhile. We've been spending all our time looking at apartments and getting our daughter setup for school. Everyone back home is requesting I take more pictures and I hate to say I've slacked off on that too. However, I thought I would share a few pics of our new neighborhood.

We are setup in a temp rental for 2 months or so in the Recoleta. It's a 968sqf, 2 bedroom apartment that suites us just fine for now. It's furnished nicely and has everything we need to function.

Our Temp. Apartment

It is a little tough going from 3,600 sqf to 968 sqf and we are getting use to having everything on a much smaller scale. You should see the size of the bathrooms. My wife about died when she saw the size of the washing machine ( you can see it in the last picture peeking out from behind the bottom cabinet).

It is in a great neighborhood though. The Recoleta can be a little on the touristy side, however it works in our favor since most employees in the shops and restaurants are use to customers speaking English.

Our New Neighborhood

Here are a few shots of the neighborhood. Most people give me a "Yeah Right!" look when I tell them Buenos Aires looks a lot like Paris. Let me know what you think.