Life Without Cellphone

Before Brandon and I arrived in Buenos Aires, and even for a few weeks after, we had planned on purchasing cheap cell phones and talk/text via the pay-as-you-go method, which is a pretty common thing to do, even for porteños. That all changed as quickly as the rest of our lofty Buenos Aires plans—we’ve been cellphoneless for over two months now. TWO MONTHS WITHOUT A CELLPHONE! THIS IS UNHEARD OF!

It’s not as difficult a transition as it might seem. True, I’ve had a cell since junior year of high school, but I don’t really have many people to call here. Actually let me rephrase that: I don’t have anyone to call. Brandon and I are almost always in the same place, so I wouldn’t call him. MAYBE once or twice I was walking Luna and thought of texting him, but of course it would have been something gratuitous and silly (like, omg I just saw a 96 yr old woman on a bike with her little yippy dog looking scared for his life on her lap!). Our friends here either live with us or we easily communicate with them over email/facebook. The general pace around Argentina is much slower than in the states, so it’s never an issue. Plus, one of our best friends here, Michael, lives in our neighborhood, so we run into him sometimes and end up hanging out on the spot. I love that kind of spontaneous social event, anyway.

When I lived in Spain for 4 months, I didn’t bring a laptop with me because I didn’t have one. When I needed to use the internet, I went to campus or an internet café or the library. You’ll probably never guess what happened with that—haha—my internet usage dropped by about seventy-five percent. At home with my host family, my options were always to watch soap operas (ok ok occasionally news) with them or to read. I read Moby Dick, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Catch 22, several Hemingway titles, and many other classics (checked out from the campus library). It didn’t hurt that the library only really had classics available in English, but that’s not the point.

I guess what I’m saying is what you might have thought I was getting at. Maybe I’m kind of a United States brat, but it’s nice to live without constantly checking my phone, wondering what all my friends are up to all the time, at least for a little while. As a result, I spend more time reading, writing, watching movies with Brandon, and just effing relaxing and soaking up everything around me (which I think ends up benefiting my writing). Luna and I walk through Parque Lezama, a large hilly park with lots of benches and trees, almost every day. And except for when it is raining, there are always people just sitting on the benches, not doing anything really, just watching the world go by. They look so happy. It’s rare to see that in the states. 

just effing relaxing

Before leaving for BA, I started to picture myself with an iphone. I think when I’m back in March, I’ll be perfectly ok with a more regular phone, qwerty keypad will do just fine.