Aquí en Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires on Thursday to find Dan's friend Miguel waiting at the airport.  Since then we have had the whole Buenos Aires experience.  We have drank Fernet which is a popular Coke and Fernet (Italian liquor) drink. We have shared maté (pronounced mah-tey), participated in an all day (and most of the night) barbecue, have tried two of the three "best ice cream places" in Buenos Aires, sat in many a corner cafe and drank really good coffee with medialunas (croissants with a sweet sort of glaze), crossed the widest street in the world, went on a tour at the Teatro Colón. (an amazing opera house), went to a tango show, and it has not even been a week.

Buenos Aires has a very European influence, due to a massive immigration from Europe in the late 1800's. So pasta, as well as the famed beef, are common dishes here. In fact, Argentinians eat twice as much meat per capita as people from the US do. So we are getting used to new meal times here. People don't eat lunch until 1-1:30pm, and then restaurants close shortly after. You never catch people eating dinner before 9pm, and a 10pm or 11pm dinner is normal. People go to sleep late, but they rarely start work before 9am.

The Argentinian accent is also something that has been really difficult to get used to. First, many of the Spanish words I have learned for things are not used here. Fresa (strawberry) is frutilla. Carne doesn't mean meat, it means beef. Spanish isn't even español, its castellano. On top of that, they make a "zsh" sound for any "y" sound. So "yo" translates as "sho" and "pollo" translates as "poeshoe". It's been really difficult to understand people, so I hope its just a matter of getting used to it. But that is why we're here.  

Our first weekend here, Miguel took us to his parents country house in the pampas (grasslands) where we relaxed, went swimming, and hung out with some of his friends. Our all-night barbeque consisted of building a fire in a dug out pit, then placing a rack that resembled a medieval torture device, with meat strapped to it, next to the fire to slow-roast it. We probably didn't eat until close to midnight, but the array of steak, and sausages, really good baguettes and some salad and Argentinian wine was pretty amazing. The next morning we had a funny experience. Miguel loves pancakes so he bought some Aunt Jemima pancake mix and wanted us to make them. They stood around watching us make them wide-eyed like we were some culinary geniuses. Since Miguel lived in the US for a year, he was excited, everyone else didn't know what to do with them. One of the girls made a face and politely declined them. They also pointed to the syrup that Miguel bought and asked what flavor it was and the closest translation was dulce de leche, which people are crazy about over here. We hope to make authentic "not from the box" pancakes for them eventually.

When we got back, we mastered the subway (with some help from the locals) and ventured downtown. There are some amazingly beautiful old buildings and we toured the even more amazing opera house. I have never seen anything like it. We also got to see the president's house or Casa Rosada (The pink house. Yes, it's actually pink.) Since we are not city go-ers these days, one of the things that surprised us was the many air conditioning units on the side of downtown buildings (no central air I guess) that constantly shed their substantial amount of condensation.  As a result, you are forced to dodge a shower of "street water."  I'm sure it's clean enough but it doesn't feel that way.

We have had an incredible first week here in Argentina and this would not have been nearly as enjoyable with out Miguel and Flor's hospitality.  Not only have they given us a place to stay but they have taken the time to show us around, translate, help make reservations, given us free Spanish lessons,... the list goes on.  They have been great and we only hope that we can one day return the favor.

Yes, this is Dan making Buffalo Wings for Miguel, Flor and some family.