ten points if you can place the song lyrics. without googling it.
tomorrow marks the day that i have been in this country for three weeks. as such, my lovely friend, nicole, and i have come up with a list of survival tips should you ever choose to come visit argentina (which i highly recommend you do...)
tips to survive argentina -
rule 1. if you are trying to cross the street, do not ever try to cross when the light turns yellow. in the states, cars will continue to speed through. in argentina, when drivers notice the perpendicular light turning yellow, they go. if you try walking, you will probably get hit.
rule 2. carry change - no one ever likes giving you change and taxi drivers especially get frustrated if you don't have small bills. some of the very sly ones will take the $100 or $50 (pesos) you pay with, swap it super sneakily with a counterfeit bill and tell you that you've paid them with fake money. then they proceed to show you how to tell if the bill is fake to prove to you that your bill is fake. then you are forced to pay them with a new bill and they make about a $100 off you foreigner.
rule 3. bring hot sauce with you.
rule 4. girls can get into boliches for free if you say you're from the states and you don't speak very much spanish (;
tips to survive boys in argentina -
rule 1. no eye contact. ever.
rule 2. do not, under any circumstances, look up when you hear honks, whistles, cat calls. do not look up even if they tell you that you're 'la reina de mi corazón" (the queen of my heart) or if, in english, they ask you to marry them. (yes, this has, in fact, happened to me).
rule 3. in bars or boliches (dance clubs) or after sundown, always travel in groups. (this is probably also a survival tip...)
rule 4. when in a boliche, keep your hands fisted at all times. better yet, pretend you don't have any hands and hide them. less chances of a boy trying to grab your hand to 'dance' with you.
rule 5. make your favorite refrain 'no, gracias"
experiences.
1. there is quite literally a panederia (sweet shop/bakery) every two or three stores. it's really hard to resist the delicious facturas (which are kind of like croissants except sweet) when they're stare at you out of the majority of the store windows that you pass and only cost about .50 cents a piece.
2. a few friends and i went to this group called 'english and mate.' mate is the tea that they drink here and everyone kind of sits around in the evening and drinks mate in the park or on porches so someone came up with the idea of getting a group together to speak english and drink mate. afterwards, we have cervezas y español. all of these people who are trying to learn english show up every week and it's composed of the most diverse people i have seen in this city yet. i met so many wonderful people - people from the states who are just backpacking through argentina, an englishman who worked here for a year for an ngo, argentines who took some english in elementary school but want to learn to speak it functionally, study abroad students from france, someone from berkeley who fell in love with the city and decided to move here permanently. it was pretty much precisely the kind of cultural experience i have been looking for this entire time.
3. yesterday in class, we spent the morning class (2.5 hours) discussing the economies of france, argentina and the united states. approximately half of my class are french exchange students and two of them in particular and i have such a deep seated interest in each other's cultures and socioeconomic/political spheres. it was probably the most stimulating and culturally rich conversation i've had since i've been here. and it was all in spanish!
4. today, we met our "speaking partners" - argentine students at the university who are interested in learning english. essentially, each date, we choose a language to speak so both of us get practice and grammatical corrections for our respective languages that we're trying to learn. my speaking parter is such a sweetheart and she is so interested in language and culture - she, of course, speaks spanish but also reads/writes/understands english and japanese but is a little shy to speak those languages. i'll break her in yet (:
- also, fact that i found out yesterday - it is legal to drive in argentina after drinking up to a blood alcohol level of 0.3% ... my road crossing rules are therefore even more important to follow!
*visit the facebook to see pictures of what i see on my daily walk to school!
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