Working at a hostel in Buenos Aires, despite being 32 years of age, will probably be when time fades the bad parts, something I look back on as one the best times of my life.
Now I can really appreciate it as I sit at Starbucks in Morumbi mall São Paulo - a Gringo English teacher (once again) surrounded by office workers from international companies. I´m waiting around for several hours until my next class. It isn´t hanging round with my mates making jokes in Spanish and having a couple of cold ones - but it isn´t hell either.
tWith a break of 10 weeks in which rented a room, I worked and lived at a hostel in downtown Buenos Aires from July 2010 to August 2011.
The deal was two eight hour shifts (later three) for free accom in a room shared with two other guys working the same system. I shared the room with an American guy of Mexican descent. The other guy in the room was in Chile on holiday when I arrived.
My first night staying at the hostel was pretty fun, I met some people and went out with them the following night. The day after, Saturday, I started on reception at 4pm. All went well until my second night on the job ~ a guy rang saying he was from Cordoba and wanted to make a booking. He ended up being a crook and broke into and stole stuff from lockers in the dorm he was staying. I was stressed after, not so much for the guests - their ipods and money, but more that I was going to lose my job - because this happened when I was working. Of course the owners didn´t get very worked up, this kind of thing had happened countless times before. The lockers in the hostel were all dented and twisted from being forced in the past.
After that things went pretty well for a while. However, the same thing happened again some months later - a girl checked in while I was on reception and this time stole a Russian girl´s passport. The Russian girl had to go back to Russia to replace it so she was pretty livid, as was her husband. At least I got the experience of going to make a statement at an Argentine police station! Yea really enjoyed that! Felt guilty about the whole thing because I didn´t check the thief´s ID when she checked in, but it wasn´t really the policy of the hostel to do so anyway.
On the hostel computer there was folder in outlook called the black list. It contained information about crimes committed at hostels all round town and BA has a lot of hostels. It made excellent reading.
The best story being about some old Spanish (or Argentine pretending to be Spanish) guy who invited tourists for a cup of red wine. They all woke up without their wallets in Parque Lezama some time later. I actually think I ran into the guy one day down in Barracas...some things an old dude I bumped into asked me seemed to be similar to the approaches described in the story.
The thing that made working at the hostel great was not so much the guests but the others working there. And there was very high turnover.
Initially most of the guys who worked at the hostel were Argentine, but the owners eventually wanted to save money and hired all foreigners to work there in exchange for accommodation.
This is a partial list:
Ray: American guy former real estate agent from Portland, lost 1 million in 2008 crisis, worked in American bar by night, slept during the day. Very nice guy 31 years old, Mexican Descent, intermediate Spanish. Very into exercise as used to be very fat.
JP: Chilean doing a psych master´s, notorious for sleeping 14 hours a day. Great guy. Into a poetry group called poesia bajo la autopista. Shag anything that moved. 25 years old. Some Portu and some English.
Johnny Fresco: Socialist, 30 year old perpetual uni student. Always ate Milenesas a la Napolitana. One day came in with cut knuckles after a fight between socialist factions at the Universtiy of Buenos Aires. Rather rotund and jolly. Pretty good British style English.
Gladys: Peruvian cleaning lady. Thought she owned the place - could be your worst friend or best enemy, a bit sadistic. Would enjoy hiding cooking equipment if she felt receptionists had been too messy.
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