Still just arriving - San Telmo, Buenos Aires January 2007

It’s time to go back to the tale. Lise and I had just arrived in Buenos Aires. 

I was in a crisis. Mostly with my Anthropology studies, but in some way it was on a more existential level. Anthropology is a beautiful and very sympathetic science, where the value of the unique and local is central. Where deep understanding and profound respect for the studied culture is necessary. I had been studying for 1,5 years at that moment. It had gotten to a point where I found it difficult to see myself being an anthropologist. In the beginning of my studies I was so ready to go out and build schools and wells in Africa and thought I’d found my call. But little by little it was shown to me how difficult it is to help other cultures, to interfere without destroying, without colonizing… Also the relativism in Anthropology became harder and harder for me to deal with, it made me doubt my own values and beliefs too much. On the top of all this I was also in an urgent need for being more creative. The academic life had suited me well. I’ve always loved to go to school and to learn in general, but my need for not only reading and studying was remarkable. And I was very confused about where and how to canalize my creativity. 

Buenos Aires made a very lazy and hot welcome. I remember feeling so free. I don’t know if it was the temperature, the excellent company of my other four Danish friends, the city or the fact of being in South America again. I had spent six months in Venezuela and Ecuador when I was 19 and it changed my life. Something had been awakened during that trip, and Argentina off course pushed that trigger again. It was January and nothing happened at all. At that time Buenos Aires was a lot more empty during the summertime. But we didn’t know that, so we didn’t really understand what was going on. We were a bit disappointed and to be honest also a bit worried, because five months could be a quite long time in a place without any nerve. That concern is really fun to think of now! I think I’ve never been in a place with as much vibe as Buenos Aires. 

We found an amazing apartment on Defensa in the historic center of San Telmo. It had three rooms, 2 dorms and a living. It was the perfect setting with an old, French bohemian style and made us feel as explorers in an exotic country in another time. The only thing was that our college was in La Lucila so we had to travel 1,5 hours or more each way. But we were completely sold to San Telmo and there was no way that we were going to live in the upper class neighborhoods that surrounded our school.