This is my first post in Journaly. I really hope not to bore you guys, I would like to share with you all my experience as a foreigner in Buenos Aires.

WHERE TO GO?

As it is shown in my profile, I am Venezuelan and I came to Buenos Aires on April 11th of 2017. It wasn't very well planned, but it definitely worked out.

After finishing my studies in medicine, and living in a country with many many problems like Venezuela, deciding where to go wasn't an easy task.

First of all, I had to pick a close destination. And I wanted a close destination because I didn't want to be far from home. I thought about Colombia, but after a research I decided it was too expensive and complicated to work as a doctor (may be it is not for many people, but in that moment it was for me).

Then I thought to go to Brazil, but the language barrier was too big, given the fact that I wasn't a good portugese speaker, besides it would take long time to finish revalidation of my title.

There were moments of desperation, and anxiety, when I realized that many of my friends and collegues were moving to different countries, and only a few were staying, and I hadn't decided my final destiny yet.

I started looking at countries that a lot of friends had chosen (Ecuador, Chile, Spain) I still wasn't convinced, until I talked with a good friend who was living in Argentina. To be honest, I never thought about coming here, in fact Argentina wasn't in the list of countries that I planned to investigate.

But after a long talk, I decided it was worth it.

Argentina is far away from Venezuela, and it is contradictory; because I wasn't looking to be far away from home. But there weren't a lot of Venezuelan coming here in 2017, the chances to revalidate my title were more realistic than in other countries, and I had a really good friend here.

So on march 30th of 2017 I was buying a flight ticket to Buenos Aires, thanks to the goodness of a friend who lend me a credit card to buy it, with the promise of paying back after finding a job in Argentina. I have to say that, that is something I will be grateful forever. It is not easy to find people who help like that these days, and even more so when talking about a country like Venezuela.

My flight was from Manaus to Amazonas - and then Sao Paulo, to Buenos Aires (The city where I used to live in Venezuela is about 12 hours from the frontline with Brazil, and then 3 hours from Boa Vista. And from Boa Vista to Manaus about 12 hs more) So, as I had to go to Brazil first in order to arrive on time, I had to travel a few days before expected.

And, on april the 08th of 2017 I was leaving my home, my family and everything I knew. Starting a journey that would change my mind, my points of view about a lot of things, and definitely my whole life.