Our Gent, Tina

Why is Tina a gent despite having an overtly feminine name? Don't worry about it, it's just a mondegreen.

In other news, I'd wager I'm in a different hemisphere than a good 90% of people who will read this, thus the impetus for the revival of my blog. You see, I'm partaking in a once in a lifetime experience called "studying abroad." I am in Córdoba, Argentina, taking classes at la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and living with an incredibly hospitable host family. Let's rewind.

How I Got Here
Life has taught me the conversational norm of relevance, that being, most normal people don't mention things in conversation that isn't germane to the current exchange. Therefore, I won't bother with the first 20 years of my life, and I will instead focus on my trip itself. Besides, I'm long winded as it is, and neither of us have enough time to write/read all that foolishness.

Anywho, I had no travel horror stories. I illegally kept my cell phone on during my flight until I had confirmation that the Mavericks punched their ticket to the NBA finals. After that, I slept for 98% (rough estimation) of my flights. This, while beneficial in passing the time, eventually bit me in the butt as I consequently was not served any free food for quite a long period of time.

I buddied up with three other guys from UT with whom I had the same itinerary during the four hour layover in Santiago.

We got to our hotel/hostel (adjacent ones) and walked around the city. We ambled upon street comedians who were doing a show in a plaza. Jonathan, the one of us who normally looks the least touristy, decided to buck that image, took his camera out, and started to film the show. Shortly, the presumably quick witted actors singled him out, and after a "¿De dónde eres?" probably relentlessly made fun of him. This of course is speculative, as I could not fully understand what came out of their mile-a-minute mouths. However, the crowd's laughter did not allay my suspicion that we just became comic fodder. Tail in between our legs, we retreated back to hotel. After watching Chicago choke away their game five lead, I retired for the night.

I will continue my two weeks later, but first I will highlight some cultural differences.

• Argentinians do things much later than we do. In almost every regard. They eat later. Dinner here starts at 10 pm, right about the time my dear old father normally crawls into bed. People are late to things. The earliest my linguistics professor has been to class is five minutes late. The latest? 16. If you see someone on the street, and you are running late, you are expected to stop and talk to them for a few minutes. Finally, the nightlife starts late. The "boliches" don't start hopping until 2am. They go strong until 5am. Some dedicated people will have after parties that go until 8am. They embody Kesha's dreams. They literally don't stop until they see the sunlight.
  
• Argentinians can not stand the cold. For instance, today it was 75 degrees outside. Not a single native I saw was wearing short sleeves or shorts. When it is 55 degrees outside, they dress as if it is 35 degrees outside. No word yet on what they do when it is actually cold.
• For you ignorant racists that think all of Latin America has food like Mexico, you're painfully wrong. Argentinians hate spicy food (at least Cordobeses, there is supposedly some spicy food in the northwest). They also don't use that many spices/herbs in cooking. Thus, some would say (me included) that their food can sometimes be bland. Their worst food? without a doubt, pizzas. They add no discernible amount of tomato sauce. The rest consists of almost entirely cheese (but not the cheese we put on pizzas) and ham. Olives are then put on, and occasionally hard boiled egg slices. They incorporate eggs into many foods as toppings, but find eating eggs for breakfast laughable. They (or at least my family, the sample size here may not be the best) hate peanut butter. My family rarely eats out, and the food casera is very healthy. Breakfast consists of a factura or two and milk. Thus, it is very light.
• When they go clubbing, they actually dance. (note: grinding is not dancing). They have strengthened my notion that most countries besides America have an innately dancing prone populace. Also, they don't necessarily go just to get shitfaced. The city's favorite drink is fernet con coca (Fernet with coke). They could not have chosen worse. Fernet is as alcoholic (45% by volume) as it is shitty. It is remarkably bitter. No amount of Coca Cola can salvage this monstrosity. I talked to a local with whom we went dancing, and he told me that it's a drink you normally have after you've already had a few.
• Students actually go to class to learn. For the most part, students don't shop online in class, sleep, facebook, etc, but pay attention to what is educationally valuable to them. Ironically, while being told this in our orientation, I was asleep.
• Greeting girls is done with a kiss on the cheek, where you don't actually kiss their cheek, but do the cheek to cheek deal. Also, you always go to the left with this. At first, my inclination was to go to the right, which would result in an actual kiss. I have narrowly escaped this fate at least 3 times. Important to go left.
• This isn't really a cultural difference, but whenever I go into a foreign country, I always find myself having more pedestrian standoffs that in the US. Right now I'm averaging about 3 a day.

More to come. As they say here, "Chiau."

Toodles.