Interesting experiences in BsAs...Random thoughts

Even though I speak the language quite well and I blend in here, there are daily experiences that remind me that I am a foreigner and that this place is quite different from home.

Note: I'm writing this in a bar/cafe while drinking a beer at 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday. The place is totally full and everyone is having their snack to tide them over until dinner at 10 or 11. My companion here...a kitty curled up for his afternoon nap. Only in Buenos Aires.

-One of my favorite things here is riding the bus. I ride the bus to and from school, to friends' houses, to bars...you name it (I swear I am going to find little bus tickets in my pockets and purses for years to come). In one bus ride you past parks, wealthy residential areas, run down areas by the train tracks, businesses...everything that is Buenos Aires. You also are bound to get caught in the traffic here. Where cars make up their own lanes and squeeze between trucks and buses and anything goes. On the way home from school one day, our bus driver decided he was fed up with waiting in traffic and flipped a U in the middle of a busy 4 lane street. He basically made up his own route for that afternoon to bypass traffic.

-Some of our professors (the same ones who pound it into our heads that the US is the oppressor of Latin America) have taken to calling us by our countries rather than our names. the only time it's cute and almost funny is when it comes from our ANCIENT, white haired Political Economy professor.

-There exists a great divide between the gringos studying abroad here...those who speak Spanish above a third grade level and those who don't/don't even try. We have been going to deal with our student visas in large groups of exchange students and we are split down the middle in this way. Those who actively try to speak spanish are ashamed to be around the loud, mostly American, english speakers who refuse to speak Spanish. It is very apparent that the American "well people speak English everywhere" attitude is alive and kickin'.

-Let's talk fashion. I thought that Buenos Aires, being the Paris of South America, would wow me with it's style...not so much. The every day joes seem to be holding up the punk trend that the States is just starting to get over. Everyone rocks Chucks and with EVERYTHING...hi tops with skirts or tights is commonplace. People here rock denim on denim like it's there job. The mullet has taken on MANY variations here. Some a little more business in the front...others way more party in the back. Don't get me started on the female mullet. I will have to take some pictures of lovely specimens for you guys.

-High rises here are the norm rather than the exception. There is a little house I can see from one my classroom windows that is a brick litle cottage thing with a cute yard. What's so special about this? It's stuck between two HUGE sky rise apartments. This has become quite the battle in BsAs and houses and residential areas are taken over by looming sky scrapers. One thing that is helping the sky rises win is the fact that most robberies occur in the normal homes. Sad as the houses here are super cute.