So, since I´ve been living here for about two months, there are a ton of things I now take for granted, that had surprised me at first, but I didn´t get the chance to blog about them or anything.
First up, read this from
http://craventurasenargentina.blogspot.com/2011/08/25-lessons-learned_28.html because I like it.
Other stuff:
This is a school bus.
I posted a picture of the Mate plant a few days ago without actually talking about what it is. It´s basically the Argentine equivalent of... actually, not sure if there´s an equivalent. It´s their way of chilling and socializing with each other. The drink is basically tea, only more with the properties of coffee (apparently mateine, a chemical in yerba mate, has a stronger effect than caffeine.) What people will do is hang out with their friends and talking, all drinking from the same pava/termo, which is basically a nifty little cup, with the same bombilla, which is a special metal straw. So I guess it´s kind of like sharing a joint. At least, how sharing a joint is portrayed in pop culture. But anyways. You´re supposed to fill the termo about 3/4 full with the herbs, usually dried and packaged, and fill it to the top with hot water (some people carry around a thermos for the hot water). The neat thing is that this is apparently something that EVERYONE, regardless of age, gender, or wealth, takes part in. The reason for that is because it´s very cheap, and also very calming and envigorating.
http://www.mateargentino.com.ar/cebarmate.htm
The street signs here are weird, because they´re (from what I understand) funded by the phone company Claro, and work as advertisements, pointing out nearby Claro stores from where you are. Sometimes there are other cell phone companies, but it´s mostly Claro.
Without these, there are occasionally some signs attached to buildings, like the Prometeo sign I posted earlier. There are never signs hanging from the traffic lights like in the US.
Food stuff, since when I last posted about it I had a very vague idea of what everything was called.
alfajores (pronounced like alpha WHORE es) are flaky cookie type things with dulce de leche (or sometimes another sort of cream) sandwiched between. They´re usually coated in chocolate or powdered sugar. They´re incredibly sweet.
I already explained Submarinos, and I´m pretty sure I explained empanadas. Also, best flavors of empanadas are the carne picante (spicy meat). It´s not spicy, but it´s so good. It´s basically how the ground beef stuff they serve at Taco bell is, only made with real meat and not sawdust. Also, on a related topic, they add hard boiled egg bits to a lot of things, including empanadas, tartas (basically a mix of a pot pie and a pizza, served in slices like a pizza), pizzas, and they generally just eat more hard boiled eggs than I expected. Random, but oh well.
Caitlin (my housemate) loves this food called zapallitos rellenos (filled or stuffed little shoes). It´s green pepper slices wrapped around some kind of chicken salad filling, only less disgusting than chicken salad. It´s absolutely amazing.
Asado/a is basically barbeque. Nothing too spectacular about that, just that the place where you go to eat asada is called a parrilla, and the asada itself is either the meat, the barbeque device used to cook it, or the action of barbequeing it. Also, they eat really weird parts like the intestines and blood sausage, and I have no idea about the different cuts so you can go look it up for yourself.
These guys eat pomelo (grapefruit) like no one´s business. When I first got here and heard there was grapefruit flavored soda, I was kind of disgusted because the grapefruit in the US is really bitter and nasty. But the grapefruit here is much sweeter, but still has that weird tangy taste. It can be refreshing in a soda or licuada (milkshake).
Bored of stating obvious stuff now, maybe I´ll continue later when I have more time/think of more stuff.
