lessons

today i actually have done nothing. i have been picking at the remainders of three cakes we have in the fridge and trying to write an essay. however, while i was running, i came up with a list of things i felt like i should blog about to show how different life is here.

argentinos need to learn.... the mantra that the customer is always right. for example, in the grocery store. you'll be looking for onions, a general staple that most stores have. no onions? we don't have them today, you'll have to come back later this week, an employee will say to you. want that shirt in the window of the store? sorry, it's only in that size and we only have that one left. do you want this gift wrapped? no? well, i'll gift wrap it anyways for you. sorry, we don't have pizza tonight. we also don't have three-quarters of the menu available for tonight, we only have two salads and three sandwich options. these are some very real, very experienced things that are not uncommon in argentina. what i have seen is that there is no inventory or stock in clothing stores, what they have is what they have. there are no "back rooms" where they can dig out another color, size, or style for you. same goes with the groceries. no onions today? come back tomorrow and we might have some. the customer is never right and never will be in argentina.

americans need to learn... how to live humbly. i type this as i'm sitting in the dining room, looking into the patio. my host family's house is small, but cozy. there are three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, a den, and two areas to dine, yet the floor space is quite a bit smaller than my house in the states. there is no upstairs or downstairs, just enough room for everyone to have their own place. it takes my host mom a little over half the day to clean the entire house (all rooms) because it's so small. it keeps the heat out in the summer and lets the sun in during the cold winter. it's not unnecessarily large like most houses in the united states, and none of the houses here are like that. the houses are efficient and very modest.

argentinos need to learn.... how to dress for the summer. putting on a floral patterned sweater or long sleeved shirt does not mean spring is here. spring and summer are for cute sundresses and no sleeves. instead, people here wear jeans, even though it is 90 degrees out. argentinos also do not know what sweat is.  they will bundle up in sweaters and long pants and boots (boots!) in the morning when it's 80, and then "delayer" to their long sleeves by mid-morning when it hits 90.


americans need to learn... how not to be obese. i don't know what it is here, but i have not seen a plethora of overweight people like i do in the states. argentina has a very high rate of eating disorders (specifically anorexia), but most of the people here are pretty healthy looking. however, this condition must be genetic because all people eat is white bread, sugar, and salt. and alfajores. the women and girls here will walk daintily, or occasionally rollerblade, around the lake while i slog through my hour and a half running workout. it has to be genetic.

argentinos need to learn... how to eat properly! their body types do not match up with what they eat here. my host brothers will gobble down sleeves of cookies before dinner and then not eat dinner. julían doesn't eat vegetables, so his version of "pizza" is just melted cheese on bread (sound familiar...??). no tomato sauce. facundo is obsessed with mcdonalds, and my host dad loves to pile rice and potatoes on a large slice of bread and eat it. thankfully, my host mom likes salad (albeit, smothered in salt and oil), so we will have that sometimes. i am starting to really miss the options at the bowdoin salad bar.....

americans need to learn... that we actually are not the center of the world. argentinos actually don't really like americans because they think that we muddle in everyone else's business (true). on all of the buses i've traveled on and all of the tv shows i watch here, they choose to show the most prototypical image of america ever. like a movie about how to assassinate the president of the united states and launch a terrorist attack on the white house. or a history channel special about how much oil the united states uses every day. i watched the history channel episode with my host dad and he was disgusted. needless to say that was pretty awkward.


argentinos need to get.... better music. some of it is great. the music you hear on the main radio stations all sounds the same. you could definitely say the same thing about american music, but music in argentina actually uses the same instruments and beats. it also uses extremely inappropriate english words, but i guess that doesn't matter because people don't speak very much english here. for example: this song is popular in the boliches: Loca People. people will sing this in the boliches at the top of their lungs. they will also wear clothes with profanity on them, except they don't understand that the words are actually bad because they don't speak english. 

argentinos also need to get.... better vocabulary words. granted, their dictionary takes up two "dictionary" sized books, but the colloquial words are very repetitive. for example, the word linda/o can be used to describe anything "pretty". how was your day? linda. that hot guy on the bus? lindo. the lunch spread your host mom lays on the table? linda. the cute baby you see in the park? linda. however, in english, your day would be "good" or "fine", the guy "hot", the food "delicious", and the baby "cute". another popular word here is feo/a, literally "ugly". you had a bad day? feo. spoiled food in the fridge is fea. made a mistake on your homework? feo. if you're sweaty after a run you are  feo.

americans need to learn.... baseball as a national sport sucks. not only is it boring, it is made up of slightly overweight steroid addicts occasionally running around a diamond. soccer, or fútbol, is 100% better. as the national sport, it literally unites argentina. you are bound to see soccer games in the streets, in the park, and in my house with my brothers. whenever there is a big game, buses will drive around with people hanging out of them screaming and yelling support for their respective team. it can also be dangerous though; some teams can't even fans at their games because it gets too rowdy (people actually die i've heard), so they play in an empty stadium and the game is aired live on tv. soccer here is like sharing mate, anybody and everybody can play.