Let's All Be Amigos

¡Hola che! I am feeling a bit worn out from my flights out of Chicago and Miami (3 hours and 9 hours), but they went as smoothly as I could have hoped for considering it was my first time flying without my parents or teachers. I flew with my new friend Monica from Madison and it was nice to have someone to talk to and share cookies with :) I sat next to a man named Tomás on the 9 hour flight and it was quite joyous. He’s from Buenos Aires and was visiting family in Orlando. At first I was having trouble communicating a full sentence in Spanish, but after a little while I was speaking pretty fluidly. When I get nervous, I forget everything all at once! I need to work on confidence with my speaking. I told him that I am a vegetarian and asked if I would be outcasted in Buenos Aires (that’s what my culture book on Argentina told me), but he said his sister doesn’t eat meat and vegetarianism is actually very common, despite all of the beef craze here. Argentina has the largest per capita meat rate consumption in the world! And I’ve noticed that within the few hours I’ve been here.. Parillas (grilled beef restaurants) are on almost every corner!

The first thing that I really took in about Argentina is that everyone is so incredibly friendly. Waiting in line for customs, Monica and I met a wonderful man named Leonardo, a PhD student at U of I who is visiting his family in Mendoza, Argentina. We spoke in Spanish for a half hour and understood each other without any problems. I noticed a bit of the Buenos Aires accent in his speech, but it wasn’t as strong as most of the people I have met here. For example, when you ask  “¿Dónde está la calle?” (where is the street?), instead of pronouncing calle, “cay-yay,” the Argentinian accent switches the “ll” to a “j” or "sh" sound, and it changes to “cah-shay.” It’s really lovely sounding and once I am more comfortable with the Spanish I know, I hope to pick up this interesting accent. Their inflection is also really Italian-sounding in the way that it rises and falls, which makes sense because the majority of the Buenos Aires population is comprised of Italian immigrants.

But back to everyone being friendly.. Two women and a police officer offered to help us when we couldn’t find our specific cab stop outside the airport. While many people here speak at least some English, they seem to genuinely appreciate it if you make the effort to speak Spanish. They won’t laugh at you, and they will try very hard to understand what you’re saying. Since there aren’t many indigenous people left in Buenos Aires, everyone is a mixture of everything and looks different from each other. This is interesting and surprising because I never know if the next person I see on the street is going to open their mouths and speak English, Spanish, or a number of other languages that I can’t even place. When I interact with people, it is comforting knowing that they can’t immediately determine where I am from based on how I look. This is helpful because it makes it easier for me to improve my Spanish since people don’t just make assumptions (like when a waiter gave my family and I forks and knives at a restaurant in Japan).

After the long period of standing in lines, we experienced a fast-paced cab ride with a man named Luis who kept up a lively conversation. He didn’t speak any English and we managed for the most part. Occasionally there would be a slight miscommunication, but that’s when I just smile and nod and change the topic. At the end of the ride, he gave us his card and told us that if we ever needed to go anywhere or even if we just needed advice about Buenos Aires or finding novios (boyfriends), we should give him a call.

After dropping off our bags, we left the hostel with no particular direction in mind, wandering the cobblestone streets of San Telmo (one of the many barrios of Buenos Aires). After walking only one block, we ran into artisan tents bursting with scarves, blankets, mate cups, jewelry, leather goods, photography, and paintings. In the middle of the tents, there was a plaza where a man and a woman were tango dancing to music on loud speakers. It was 10 in the morning and Buenos Aires was already alive and bustling. I felt like I was reading stories in my culture book and imagining them really vividly rather than being somewhere where these cool things actually happen. Before I knew it, they started playing “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” in Spanish.. A lovely song from the musical “Evita.” Aside from the kindness that people have shown me, another factor about the culture that has made me feel welcome here is the clothing style. While at home I might wear a pair of cheetah tights and a bright blue skirt and look slightly out of place, I saw a middle-aged woman wearing exactly that this morning and no one gave her a second glance! There are lots of crazy dresses and loosely fitting rainbow pants. I will definitely be taking a pair of those home.

It’s a bit frustrating to speak Spanish with American friends because you know that they will understand what you mean so much better if you just explain yourself in English. I hope that after some time of being around Spanish constantly, I won’t feel the need to resort to English when something gets too complex. Right now my body and mind are completely drained and I am really looking forward to sleeping in my hostel bed. We are sharing a room with two other people, so that will be an interesting experience. Then tomorrow I will try to purchase a local phone so I can call people here, and then I get to meet my host family! I hope we get along well and can share traditions and smiles so I can learn more about them and Latin American culture.