After a little more than two weeks here in Buenos Aires, we’ve already established a routine of going to certain places on certain days of the week: Jobs with all the exchange students every Tuesday, Salsa on Wednesdays, Party every Friday & Brunch with the girls on Sunday. Besides those set dates, our first days in the city were also filled with special events and shows, so that we had something going on every single day of the week. I should mention at this point that our amazing tutors from the university are truly doing a great job at keeping us busy with fun international meet-ups, Raggaeton-parties and all kinds of activities. While we’re still getting used to our new sleeping rhythm of going to bed between 3-5am, getting up around 1pm, then napping from 9-11pm, before going out again, going to class hasn’t been much more than a minor activity on the side, that sometimes feels like a little punishment for having so much fun and getting so little sleep the rest of the time. 

While we are enjoying our exchange student lifestyle and living life to the fullest right now, it’s amazing to see how our Argentinian class mates seem to function on an average of 4 hours of sleep, while having classes as early or as late as 7-9am or 9-11pm, in order to be able to fit in a part-time job in between. Although they might not go out as much as we do, you won’t see any Argentinian students going to bed before midnight or leaving the house before that time to start a night out with pre-drinks. Invitations for “Previas” (Pre-drinks) starting at 1am don’t surprise us anymore, and we’ve given up on making it to the club before 2:30am to get free entrance. The Argentinian rhythm really is a little different from what we know from Germany or the Netherlands, but as masters of adaptation, we’ve quickly managed to blend in, and are now regularly enjoying our late night power-nap until 11pm before putting on our makeup to go out and dance the night away in the clubs of BA.

If we actually manage to leave the apartment around midday, we use our daytime to attend events or do something special, and we take every chance we get to try new things or do something with the other exchange students, or our Argentinian friends. The “Fuerza Bruta” and “Bomba del Tiempo” shows were some of our favourite activities from the past weeks. We already heard about these events from the previous exchange students from Maastricht, and even after arriving here, they turned out to be the must-sees and all-time-favourites of anybody who visits Buenos Aires.

Fuerza Bruta

• ​​ 1-hour artistic show including dancing, music, singing and audience interaction
• $300 pesos (€15)
• at the “Centro Cultural de Recoleta”

“Fuerza Bruta” is an incredible experience with lots of surprises and special effects. The audience is standing for the entire time and has to move every now and then to make room for the artists or some stage props. It’s hard to describe what actually happens during the show, so you should just go and experience it yourself. Let me just say this: one second you’ll feel like dancing in a club, the next you’ll flinch from a gun shot, your hair could get a little messy from the wind machines, and you might not be able to leave the show with dry clothes.

Artists flying above your heads at the beginning of the show

At one point, a giant pool is being lowered right above the heads of the audience

Enjoyed the show with these lovely people: Johanna (my flat mate here in BA), Alejo (our Argentinian tutor friend) and Ludovica (our Italian exchange student friend)

Group of exchange students and tutors with whom we went to the show

Bomba del Tiempo

• 2-hour drum show, every Monday 20-22h
• $150 pesos (€7,50) – online tickets are available at a discount ($120 pesos = €6)
• at Konex in Balvanera (close to Recoleta)

“La Bomba del Tiempo” will fascinate you from the very first impulsive drumbeat until the moment two hours later when the crowd is screaming for just one more song. During the improvised show, the drummers and conductors continuously switch places, and with each new leader comes a slightly different style and sound. Together with a flashing light show and the oh so familiar smell (from back home in the Netherlands) of the green smoke hanging in the air, the sounds of the drums and percussions create a unique and thrilling atmosphere that’s not going to let you keep your feet still. Officially the show starts at 19h, but it’s perfectly fine if you arrive 30-45 minutes later since the show won’t start before 20h, anyway. It’s also easy to buy tickets at the entrance, but I would recommend buying them online beforehand in order to receive a small discount. Some words of advice: the snacks at the Konex are terrible and overpriced, and only consist of hotdogs, empanadas and nachos. Before or after the show you can buy much cheaper and better food outside the entrance.

And don’t miss out on the after-parties: Bracelets and vouchers for a bar serving free pizza and free beer, as well as a night club are being handed out before and after the show. Grab some and party on all night after the drum show has ended – after all, as a true Argentinian, you couldn’t go home before 3am, anyway.

Jobs Bar

• giant bar with all kinds of games (ping pong, pool, board games, beer pong…)
• horrible pizza – decent drinks
• location for our weekly Tuesday-night exchange student & tutor meetings
• conveniently located only 15 minutes walking from our apartment in Recoleta

Every Tuesday night, many of the exchange students and tutors from the UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires) meet up at Jobs to play games, meet new people, exchange stories, eat cheesy & greasy Argentinian pizza, or – like Johanna and me – to improve our pool skills. Since these meetings happen on a weekly basis, and bars like Jobs can be found all over the city, our mission shouldn’t be hard to accomplish within the next three months. At some of these places you have to pay an entrance fee of around €2,50, but you can usually use that amount to buy drinks or snacks inside. In my opinion, these types of locations are a fun alternative to regular bars, they’re especially great for large groups of people, and we’ve always really enjoyed our Tuesday night reunions at Jobs so far. Stay tuned for the development of our pool, table tennis and foosball skills!

A round of pool at Jobs: f.l. Ludovica, Johanna and her Argentinian tutor Michael

Working on our skills

‘Who am I..?’ with my tutor Micaela and Johanna

Johanna’s tutor Michael is THE tutor and basically organises all the events for us exchange students. We got really lucky to have him around so much, since we never miss out on any news, updates, or parties!