1. "ponete las pilas" a saying meaning for people to "put the batteries in" because here, they don't sleep. Portenos wake up, go to work, come home, rest, have dinner from 11pm-1am then go to the boliches(bars/clubs)starting Thursday nights (from 2am til 6/7am). This is the norm in this city...something I am still STRUGGLING to get used to. I value my beauty sleep ;)
Fearsome Fivesome at a Boliche...after "putting in the batteries"
2. Kids wear white lab coats over their uniforms- they look like little Einsteins. They also never seem to be IN class because there is a constant yelling and screaming coming from each school yard.
Little girl in her lab coat...
3.BESOS (Kisses): Men kiss men, women kiss women, women kiss men, men kiss women. With every single greeting (first time meeting someone or greeting your novio(boyfriend of ten years) portenos kiss each other on the right cheek. It's actually pretty adorable. No matter what age, size, color, race, sex etc...portenos will still greet in this way. I LOVE it, especially when I meet the male Argentine gods of the city! I am still accustomed to shaking hands, but it feels very stiff to shake someone's hand these days...almost feels stand offish(am I transforming into a porteno?!!). Regardless, I'm bringing the kissing back to the States!
4. Trash diggers. This is one I still can not figure out. On every city street there are BAGS of cardboard and TONS of trash that locals must put out there. In the wee hours of the night, men and women(who must be very poor) snatch up all the trash and load their carts with it. They must make money off doing this because it's a risky job. Numerous times I have seen people pushing their carts FULL of cardboard and bottles, just missing getting hit by cabs. Something, yet again that is normal here and very foreign to me.
5. Los Perros! The dogs here. Dog walking is not a chore, but a way of life, a respected job to say the least. I have seen young, burly Argentine men running up and down stairs, waltzing through the parks, dodging people on city streets, meandering through city markets, you name it! All awhile being accompanied by ten to twelve dogs. The dogs are all trained extremely well because it is rare to hear them bark or growl or fight. There are pure breads, muts, HUGE dogs and itty bitty dogs all walking together, doing their thing. It is cute to hear the walkers speak in Castellano(Argentine Spanish) to the dogs because it just confirms that the pups are all portenos themselves. Every time I walk by I whisper a sweet, high pitched "hola" to the little critters. When the walkers aren't walking los perros, the dogs are tied up to trees, tied up to benches by cafe's or tied to gates in front of museums. I can not figure it out. It's almost as though the walkers do all their chores while walking the dogs, even if that means stopping for a cafe con leche (which brings me to my next bullet point).
Los Perros:
6. Cafe con Leche is my new obsession. Argentine's love sweets and here in BA you can stop for coffee on almost every single block to grab a cafe con leche( coffee with milk, very similar to a cappuccino). With every cafe con leche the waiter brings out a small treat; small piece of cake, dulce de leche(caramel tasting piece of heaven on a cookie), piece of chocolate...you name it. They also bring out a shot glass filled with water to help the intense caffeine rush move through your blood. Grabbing a coffee in Buenos Aires is beyond different than it is back home. I recall, leaving my cube at the Discovery Channel to RUN to Starbucks, order my "tall, sugar free vanilla skinny late please!" put some splenda in it and then RUN back to the office in fear I may have missed some pressing issue that was so important that the whole of Discovery could have changed in the ten minutes I was gone...no(I wasn't THAT important..oops!). This is the issue with Americans- rush, rush, rush...EVERYTHING IS SO IMPORTANT that we can't even leave for a few minutes to ACTUALLY take a coffee break. Now, I'm not blaming anyone here, this is just the way it is back home. It's a mentality of "whats next? what else can I do with every free second?" Adjusting to the laid back lifestyle here is STILL hard for me. I am two months into my experience and every time I sit alone at a cafe,(one of my favorite things to do here)I truly enjoy the cafe con leche for a good 20 minutes, mainly because the waiters take forever to bring la cuenta(check), but mostly because I am TRYING to adjust to "la dulce vida" lifestyle that these portenos value so much.
Cafe con leche:
This is my list of interesting, different, dulce(sweet) things that I have observed thus far in my time here. I know there are a few I am missing, and MANY I have not written about yet. Stay tuned for whats next; trips to the grocery store, the strong, tan, Argentine men who seem to come out of the wood work to give you a helping hand etc...and of course the rest of the tempting things of Buenos Aires. It is truly the city of indulgence. If you're reading this, thinking "hmm...I think I would like relaxing in a city, enjoying coffee breaks, getting whistled at by every attractive man in the city, shopping, eating sweets all the time, yet walking it off by touring the city" then book your flight. Now. COME. This city is infectious, it sucks you in and takes over your whole being with all it has to offer. I may sound ridiculous, but this is true and if you do your research, I am not the only one who feels this way ;)
*UPDATE*
4. I have since found out from my dear friend, Teresa, who the "trash diggers" are. I quote Teresa here: they are called
"los cartoneros, they are a huge thing. There's always one train that goes from the city to the outskirts and it's all dark, none of the doors close properly, and there are no windows. It's the saddest looking thing in the whole world because that's the train that all the cartoneros are on. They are taking the junk out from the city towards the suburbs where they get maybe one cent per item"(Teresa B).
Since finding out the truth about los cartoneros, I did do some of my own research and was truly saddened and shocked at all that I read. For those interested, here is a link I found: http://www.worldpress.org/photo_essays/cartoneros/
Don't forget to check out the pictures at the end of the article. It's a very sad way of life...
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