Window in the well

There are no yards in Buenos Aires in the usual sense, and the view from the window is a separate privilege for which you have to pay when buying or renting an apartment. If you have not earned for expensive housing yet, your windows will go out to Pulmon - a narrow well between standing houses. Solar light barely comes here, but clearly visible and heard by the neighbors

Exactly at 5:30, half an hour before dawn, when in the summer it sleeps especially tightly under the rustle of the fan, several residents of one of the houses along the street of the year at once-Cruz in Buenos Aires were awakened by loud sounds. Slapping, groans, rhythmic blows of the bed against the wall and passionate cries. The neighbors listened with curiosity, smiled, tried to understand what floor they were noisy on, and, having come to terms with the fact that they could not fall asleep again, went to work earlier than usual. My friend Elena was not needed in the office that day, so she had to enjoy the “sounds of nature”, with short breaks, until 11:00. Unknown lovers were distinguished by endurance.

The next day, everything was repeated. The awakened Elena recorded an erotic audio performance to the recorder - in case the hostess of the apartment decides to raise the rent again and will praise the silence of the district. In the nearest pharmacy, the demand for Berushi jumped.

On the fourth sleepless morning, immediately after the start of the usual fuss, one of the windows opened with a noise. An elderly lord appeared in it in a bathrobe and yelled: “Hey Basta! Stop already! Shut up! How much can you? " The bed hit the wall again and froze. Lovers caught by surprise hardly wanted all the neighbors to be aware of their sexual life.

It’s easier to be in a similar situation in Buenos Aires than anywhere else-and all thanks to the specific design of local multi-storey buildings. The houses are so built that half of the residents are forced to see and hear each other much more often than they would like. This is the Spanish heritage: Argentine cities, as at the time of their foundation by the conquistadors, continue to be built up with square quarters with a side of about a hundred meters. In Spanish they are called "Mansa".

Pulmon photo: from personal archive

Buildings in the Mansa are built close to each other. If they are the same height, then the wall often separating them is generally one into two. There are no yards in the Russian sense in Argentina. In Buenos Aires, the first residential buildings above three floors appeared during mass emigration from Europe at the very end of the 19th century. And, of course, every developer wanted to build the maximum number of suitable for the sale of housing on the purchased piece of land. To do this, architects began to make something like narrow mines inside the buildings where the windows of the rooms located in the core of the house come out. Correctly, such a mine is called “Trroder” (in Russian “Board of Way”), but in everyday life the Argentines use the word “pulmon” (in Russian “Light”).

The most expensive apartments look at the windows to the street, the cheapest are located on the lower floors of high -rise buildings and overlook all windows to Pulmon. There is a minimum of daylight and fresh air. The eternal need to delay the curtains and the treacherous echo. Crying children, howling dogs, scandals, parties. In cases where the Russians knock on the neighbors on the batteries, the Argentines shout into Pulmon. The owners of such real estate are most often handed over to residents or under medical and lawyer consultations.

Before moving to Argentina, I did not think what to see from the window the sky, people and cars could be privileges for a separate price

I spent most of my life in the Moscow Odinoshka. The view of the Dmitrovskoye Shosse and the wasteland, in the place of which this year was opened by the Seligerskaya metro station, was not particularly beauty, but was attached free of charge.

Yards in the Russian sense in Argentina do not have a photo: from a personal archive

I was ready for difficulties in the new country, so without much drama I accepted the fact that the first couple of years I would have to live in an apartment, all the windows of which go to Pulmon. Through this, many of my friends and acquaintances went to Buenos Aires. In addition, the district was excellent, the price was moderate, and the floor was the penultimate, so my husband and I still received a vital dose of the sun and fresh air. From the very beginning, I tried to treat what was happening as a social experiment on myself. And now, three years later, I can summarize its results.

Pulmon changes: eliminates old habits, helps to acquire new ones, turns the idea of ​​personal space and suggests the idea of ​​submarines. First of all, I forgot how to look out the window in the hope of understanding what the weather is on the street. A little later, she began to automatically pull the curtains, going into the shower, and watering flowers on the outer windowsill only after midnight, when a crazy neighbor, obsessed with mold and dryness of the walls, went to bed. And thanks to the Venezuens, who opened the windows on the weekend and turned on the music at full volume, I have always been aware of the innovations of Latin American popes.

Once we woke up on a bed, covered with ash

I thought it was an apocalypse, but it turned out that one of the tenants fried with friends on the roof and guessed to shake the burned coal into the pulmon. Our dog Simon loved to climb the sofa and follow the neighbors. He “commented on” his observations with a muffled growl, stinking or indignant barking. He especially did not like the cleaning lady in the apartment opposite, which once a week thoroughly washed the windows with a yellow rag.

Pulmon has a minimum of daylight and fresh air photo: From a personal archive

Pulmones create stories. And the most happy of them was told to me by a husband of a husband named Lucho. In his student years, he, along with classmates, shot a “three -year -old”, from whose windows there was a beautiful view of the living room of the apartment where two girls lived. One of them - she had a magnificent figure - loved to pace the house in a T -shirt and underpants. At first, young people watched the neighbor secretly, but, having mastered, they began to applaud with every appearance. The student did not insult and did not upset such a reaction. Everything turned into a game, thanks to which the neighbors met and began to go to parties together. As a result, one of the classmates Lucho fell in love with the “girl in my underpants” and married her. More recently, they became parents.

Argentine pulmons - as communal services and hostels, mystical and cinematic spaces. To spend life in them is hell, and a couple of years is an unforgettable experience that helps to feel the value of the most common things. Today, from my window you can see the sky, roofs of houses, birds and planes. And believe me: this is absolutely incredibly and fantastically beautiful!

Argentina is such an alien emigration