The second missive from my cousin George, who has left his job as a television producer and his life in New Orleans for the boulevards of Buenos Aires.

Right now I´m reading apt. rental information en espagnol. Difficult, because you are looking at abreviations of words you might not understand anyway.

It´s possible I could find a decent studio in a good neighborhood for about $300month. If I can pull that off, I might be here through December.

I am going to be talking with a tv producer in a few days (or maybe a couple of weeks, not sure due to language issues). Apparently he did a pilot on UFO sightings, and other “creative” projects. Fortunately, I am going to have my current roommate translate for us. I can be a little shy, so I´m having to “just say yes” to whatever. I need to meet as many people as possible. I would love to do some production work. A lot of the terms are basically the same as in english: producer, director, cable, etc.

BAians are walking dichotomies (sp? I am on a Spanish computer right now and it doesn´t know what the hell I´m writing). On the street they have a frigid demeanor. They won´t even look at you. However, literally as soon as you are introduced to one via a friend, they kiss you on the cheek. And men do too. No wonder the flu loves BA. What good is a mask if you are going to shake hands and kiss everyone you know, you know? At the airport it was a joke. The customs officers were sort of wearing the masks. Some were around their necks, etc. In the states we have 6 degrees of separation of people you know. Here they have 6 degrees of people you´ve kissed. And everyone kisses someone who kissed the pope sooner or later….

ANYWAY…..I keep reminding myself that “Wherever you may go; there you are.” People are people no matter what the culture. It can be intense here, because there is serious poverty and when crime hits, it´s vicious, and complicated. Not as much as in other South American countries, but apparently there are occasional kidnappings and these are used to get ransom. As a result there are private security guards in every single apt. building and even cafes have security. One plain clothes guard was staring at me today from outside a nearby cafe while I worked online. He was looking at me for so long, I had to ask my usual waitress to let him know I was ok. I guess my sunglasses and wool cap make me look like IRA or something. My street cred just took a big jump. I´m a suspect!

And then everyone you meet wants to help you out and convince you what a wonderful city it is. A lot like New Orleans, I guess….