Argentina is special! I’ve only been here for a month, but here’s what I’ve come up with

• Mate. They love it, they drink it constantly. Hot days, cold days, in the park, at home, in the car.. Mate etiquette: it’s passed around in a circle; saying gracias when someone hands you the gourd means you don’t want it.

• Tango. duh. The music is everywhere, they dance in fería squares, this is so obvious I don’t even feel like writing about it.

• Caaarrnne. Asado. Argentinean meat is HEAVENLY. My first night here was spent getting drunk and eating asado, and that is pretty normal and great. I can’t really tell you what the different kinds of meat are, but I eat them all and sometimes my digestive system can’t handle that!!! It would be hard to be veggie here!

• Vos. They use it instead of tú, and that felt pretty awkward at first, but now I like it. It feels sort of poetic and rolls nicely off the tongue.
• And while we’re talking about Argentinean español, lunfardo. It’s their slang, and it’s fun. Well, from the small number of words I’ve learned.
• Vino. Also obvious, sorry. The difference between wine in the U.S. and wine here, from my experience, is that a cheap bottle of wine here is YUMMY, where it is often pretty gross up north. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to franzia. Also, Mendoza = wine capital of Argentina! Right across the Andes from Santiago and Valpo!

• Mayonesa. That means mayonnaise. A real popular condiment here. I admit I’m starting to like it more…
• Staying up late! I wasn’t completely prepared for this, but I got into it! Especially in the city, people stay up literally the entire night. In Buenos Aires, I never went to bed earlier than 4 or 5, and sometimes as late as 9 or 10. This is something that apparently only happens during weekends and vacations, but who knows! I’m always on vacation so far!
• Vaccine scars. It’s really strange, but everyone here has these small round-ish scars on their upper arms from a triple vaccine they got when they were kids. It’s like the mark of Argentina. 
• Peronistas. Correct me if I’m wrong, but they’re the dominant political party and supposedly everyone just calls themselves peronistas regardless of their actual political views and how much they align with Peron’s.
• Machismo. Yeah, the expected latino macho bullshit applies here. From my experience, this means that men are really forward. Sometimes that’s cool, other times it’s really uncomfortable. Usually the second. They’re also full of chivalry which almost always makes me feel strange - like, what are they gonna expect in return?!!
• Helado. It’s disturbingly good here, supposedly because of the Italian immigrant population (same goes for the pizza). Creamy and dulce de leche and super dulce de leche and so many flavors I’ve never heard of that I WILL try.
  

• Pizza & empanadas. They are also damn good. And usually cheap!
• Patagonia… The Argentinean south. It’s got mountains and lakes and glaciers and is fucked up beautiful. I don’t want to leave!!! I’m pissed there’s not enough time/money to go further south, like to Ushuaia or Chalten or Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. But it’s breathtaking here, and I really love the hiking.

• Quilmes. Argentinean PBR equivalent, but better. It’s still not “good” but it’s not so bad! I went to the town where it was originally manufactured (Quilmes), right outside Buenos Aires, which everyone has since made fun of me for because apparently it’s lame.

• Alfajores! multi-layer cookies with dulce de leche fillings, usually coated with chocolate. Me likey.
  

• Shaved head with dreads. What the fuck? It’s some kind of weird hipster hairstyle - basically they shave the sides and then have really long dreads usually worn in ponytails that are on top and go back like a weird dinosaur-y crest. I’ve never seen anything like it…
• Fernet. This weird herby/perfumey alcohol that they are all obsessed with. It’s decent, usually mixed with coke.

What am I missing???

1. the-junk-drawer liked this
2. rockcollections posted this