la boca, buenos aires
put me on a local bus through an african desert with scant legroom and i'll offer little complaint. give me a seat and slow service at an andean restaurant and i'll patiently bide my time before the food arrives. but i become the most bitter-tempered man when inside a bank or any other western-descending (or appearing) institution, no matter which continent i am on. maybe it's the flourescent lighting, the professional dress, or the austere cleanliness of everything that makes me expect efficiency. i tend to experience the opposite and today provided another example.
saturday was going to be my third or fourth withdrawal from a cajero automatico since i arrived and i chose to do it at a bank in the northern neighborhood of belgrano, right after a meeting. the machine took my card, i entered my pin, and then it informed me that the largest denomination was unavailable and that i should choose a smaller sum. i chose a smaller sum and then the machine told me that my tarjeta had been retenido. this was saturday, so i got to wait until this morning for the bank to open in order to retrieve it.
i arrived this morning after an hour bus rideto have the teller tell me that they would be unable to retrieve my card until manana. please? manana. then i asked if she could provide an advance on my credit card. no. so, i flashed those puppy dog eyes, told her that i was going to have to live off 4 pesos (slight lie, i had around 5) for the night, and would she try again for the advance? she whispered to the teller next to her, who kindly retrieved my card from the machine a few minutes later.
so, card in hand, i thought it would be better to not use the same machine that made me supplicate to friends for money over the weekend. that's why i walked a few blocks to the bancopatagonia, where i inserted my card and had to relive the identical process.
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