Argentina, Week 1

I was on a roll posting the second question that I received in my e-mail (see "From the bottom up"), so I thought I'd just write about my first impressions of Argentina immediately.

I left on Saturday, August 2 to begin my long journey to Argentina (29 hours from arriving at Philly airport to the time I arrived at my homestay in Cordoba). After 3 flights, 2 of which were delayed fairly heavily, I finally had arrived in tango land.

When I saw the city of Cordoba from the air on final approach for the airport, I really didn't think that it looked that great. Not like a ghetto or anything, but perhaps it seemed a little drab since it's a bit chillier and there isn't any really green land at the moment to brighten things up. I then learned that the phrase "Don't judge a book by it's cover" really lived up to it's meaning.

First of all, I learned that many Argentines are very friendly. They always greet you with "Que tal?" when they wish to speak with you, and then "Chau" to bid farewell.

Secondly, Argentina is fairly similar to any European city. This would make sense since it was the Europeans who colonized South America and essentially exterminated "las indigenas", or the native Indians, like the U.S. did to the Native Americans. Europe and Argentina also share the goodbye kiss, you know...that little gesture when both people simply touch cheeks and make the kissing sound? Yeah...that. It doesn't matter if you're with a group of 1 or 20; you do it with everyone, which can make for a fairly awkward farewell when leaving a conversation at a table.

Third, just like Americans have their accents in different regions, Argentines have their slightly different dialect of Spanish (not 'Spainish' Mom...). For reasons of difficulty, I won't try and explain their accent in text. It must be explained through someone's voice.

Fourth, the tango is BY FAR the most popular dance in the country. If you can't dance the tango and you live there, you better learn.

Fifth. Argentines run on slightly different schedules. In the U.S., I typically wake up, eat a big breakfast, have a smaller lunch at around noon, and then a bigger dinner at about 6 or 6:30 at night. Here, you wake up, have a few pieces of toast with jelly (coffee or another beverage too), eat lunch between 1 and 5pm (siesta time), and wait for dinner which is held around 9pm. Therefore, you don't have to try really hard to stay up late and go out. I had to adjust a little to the eating schedule, but I don't have a problem staying out late. :-)

Sixth. To me, it's funny to watch how the men act towards women because they have a lot of confidence and machismo. It's very common too. For example, I was walking to a "milonga", or tango club, with my female roomate at about 11:30pm one night. One two occasions en route, a man or men basically howled, woofed, barked, whistled, you name it, at my new friend. Who knows, maybe I'll go to school after I come home and have a lot of "confianza", or confidence, to do that to an American woman. I want to find out if it'll end up with a slap in the face or not.

As far as the language goes for me, I think I've been picking it up a lot. At first, I had a lot of trouble listening because of the faster pace at which they speak. However, as I went to a few Spanish classes at my school here and spoke with some native speakers when I went out, I began to adjust to the speed and thus I can comprehend what they're saying. Speaking and knowing what to say has never been my problem, it's the listening that's the toughest.

So, for only being here for a few days, I think I've seen, learned, and done a lot. I can't wait to see what the next 2 1/2 weeks bring. Unfortunately, I can't post any pictures from my digital camera because I did not bring the cable to connect it to the computer. However, I might be able to go to a Kodak store to get a disposable camera and put the pictures on a CD when I'm done with the camera.

That's all for now folks. Chau!