First, they drink a WHOLE LOTTA coffee - and I think my teeth are going to be brown/black by the time I come home in a year. For example, this morning I had instant coffee with my host mom around 10:30AM and then I took the underground to orientation, where I had a 5 minute oral exam and then I went and ate an empanada and drank a coffee with frothed milk (which is how they always serve coffee with milk here) around 12:30. I then went back to orientation and had another break after only an hour and a half and I went to a different cafe and drank another cafe con leche. You'd think that after 3 cups of STRONG coffee in one morning/afternoon that a girl wouldn't be able to sleep - but this is not the case. I walked home from orientation with a friend, approximately 35 blocks, and as soon as I got home I fell asleep for half an hour before I woke up at 8:45 to eat dinner. I think thinking/speaking/listening in Castellano (the type of Spanish they speak in BA) my brain gets incredibly tired and it's easy for me to fall asleep regardless of caffeine stimulation.
Second, it is a very machisto (male dominated) culture - if you're walking alone or with one other girl down the street there are guys who whisper/say all sorts of things. Some whistle, some comment on your body or face or general appearance, or else they ask if you wanna "blah blah blah" with them. Typically I just ignore them (chances are that if I'm not paying attention to the person speaking I'm not even going to understand what they are saying). It doesn't bother me too much because I don't know what they're saying but it is annoying to have creepy old men trying to talk to you on the equivalent of the subway. I dunno if this guy this morning was just trying to be nice but I felt like he seriously invaded my space, so I went to the other side of the underground car - and obviously no one is going to bother you in a seriously crowded subway car if you move away.
Third, I have serious issues with the bathrooms here. My toilet in my bathroom (the one with the bidet, remember) has a button above it on the wall for flushing and for some reason I don't have the magic touch of my host mom Sara and every time I try to flush the toilet, the water runs. So I try to let it mellow if it's yellow, as the rule goes, but my host mom also cleans my bathroom and bedroom every day, so it doesn't really work, since she just flushes it. As far as the other bathroom issues go - I think the plumbing is very sub-par because in all of the other bathrooms I've been in, I've seen signs asking people to put their used toilet paper in the trash instead of flushing it. Anywhoo, I can't really complain because I'm just glad that traveling didn't mess up my digestion for too long and I can happily report that I have been having healthy poops every day!
Hmm, lets see...
My first real day here (Tuesday) I took a bus with my host mom to the "Italian Circle" where I have orientation and our colectivo (the word for bus) got into a very minor accident with a motorcycle. I can tell you that I learned a lot of good swear words in the 5 minutes of bickering that ensued.
They serve huge sized beers in the bars, and strong ones at that. I ordered an Argentine beer last night at the bar and they gave me one that was 500mL and 7.5% alcohol (kinda a lotta liquor for ordering one beer) - and that's all I drank in the two hours that we were there and then I took a taxi home with some other girls.
Future plans - buy a pair of knee high leather boots this weekend! They're very in right now in Argentina and they have wonderful ones EVERYWHERE for CHeAP CheaP CHEAP! I have Saturday and Sunday free so I'm going to the zoo and botanical gardens, which are next to my apartment building, also there is a rural exhibition in the building immediately next to mine. I'm for sure going to have to check that out, since I guess its realllly fun. Other plans consist of going to a dance club for the first time tomorrow night and just walking around the city - which is great exercise.
p.s. I think that Argentines don't sleep and they also don't really eat (only 1 real meal per day)
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