Cultural Blending 1102

1)The most useful item I brought to Argentina has most definitely been the "skinny jeans". For our dads: skinny jeans are jeans that are tight all the way down to your ankles. This is how the girls wear ALL of their pants. You can spot a foreigner from a mile away if you see that they're wearing boot cut jeans.

2)I can't get a cup of coffee "to go" to save my life! When I ask the response is either that of a frustrated "no you have to drink it here" (this happens in more touristy areas b/c clearly they've heard this question before), or utter confusion at the idea of ordering coffee and then leaving before you've drunk it, but taking it with you...what??? At UCA, the coffee is served in styrofoam cups b/c all of their food is served on disposable ware. It still has never occurred to the local students that this could lend itself to taking it with you somewhere b/c they have no inclination to do so. You can spot an international student if you see that they've taken the styrofoam cup as a cue to carry their coffee with them.

3)We joined a gym...Just imagine all the instructions on the machines being in spanish, weights and distances being in the metric system, and to add to the anxiety you end up on a treadmill in between two girls who are each the size of one of your thighs. But then we had the satisfaction of realizing that we could run faster and farther than these girls, but only b/c they are mostly likely smokers with mild cases of anorexia(both epidemics in Buenos Aires that I can confidently say will not affect Caitlin or me-note the two jars of peanut butter emptied since our moms sent them in the mail)

4)Just something funny: A man at our gym who recognized the fact that Caitlin was not from Argentina (que extrano!) struck up a conversation with her today. He asked the usual questions: What are you doing here? What are you studying? Where are you from? When Caitlin told him she was from Georgia, his response was "So you are a Georgia cracker?" (imagine this being said in a hispanic accent)

5) The other day, I sat outside of the wrong classroom for 20 minutes waiting for the rest of my class and the professor to show up. I didn't think to check that I had the correct location b/c I've been conditioned to think on "Argentina time". So, it seemed pretty normal that everybody else would be 20 minutes late. While I was waiting, though, an Argentine student struck up a conversation and we ended up passing the time. Caitlin and I have come to understand that everyone here is very aware of and passionate about all things politics. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that they are all too aware that they can't afford to be at the mercy of their government, so they stay very well informed. This particular guy asked me who I was voting for in November before we knew eachother's names.
*Also an interesting thing to note: His name is Emmanuel. Now, as if it wasn't bold enough for someone to name their child Jesus, someone went as far as Emmanuel, "God with us". Pretty serious title to live up to.

6)Salsa Golf, we now know, is nothing more than a mixture of Mayonaise and Ketchup. This may not be significant to you, but we've tossed and turned over that one for 6 weeks now, so it seemed blog-worthy.

7)Contrary to what our Spanish teachers taught us, when asked your nationality, you are not to say that you are American. This is highly offensive considering that, technically, everything from Canada to Argentina is "America". One person told us that they think we should come up with another adjective such as "United Statian"

8)The mullet is an art form down here. There are so many different variations that we're going to have to start classifying them further.

9)Everyone has Thursday through Monday of Holy Week, or Semana Santa, off from work and school. Pascua(Easter) is a nationally celebrated day, and yesterday as we were walking around our neighborhood, the streets were deserted and we ran across three wooden crosses erected in one of the parks. Argentina is not immune, however, to the commercialization of religious holidays. Chocolate eggs that range from the size of your fist to larger than your head dominate the windows of every store whether they sell groceries or children's shoes. These are the traditional gift on Easter.