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Different Things in Argentina |
Note: This is from the perspective of an American missionary,
showing the cultural differences between the U.S. and Argentina.
We love both countries, so remember that the list is only to help us remember
what it was like in Argentina and is not in any way intended to degrade
or disrepect Argentina.
Transportation
Exciting Taxi rides
Whole family on a bike/moped
Bottle on top of "for-sale" car
Keep headlights on to keep the battery warm
Driving at night without headlights to save the battery.
No right on red
Semaforos that go green, yellow, red--then yellow, then green again.
Peugots, Renaults, Fiats, New Ford Falcons, Citroens
Ghostbuster ambulences
Honk horn\flash lights instead of stop sign
Hanging on the outside of a bus because it is too full
Packing 150 people on a bus.
Jumping off a moving bus because it doesn't come to a full stop where
you want off
Cars grounded with rubber strips hanging from rear bumper
Nationality
Industria Argentina Products
People asking if you are a Karate expert (tip: always say 'yes')
People asking if you are CIA
Las Provincias vs. Los Portenos
Health
Liver attacks (Baja presión del higado)
Te de limon as a cure
Bad food combinations : milk after eating watermelon, cold water on
hot day
Prescribed carbon pills (charcoal) for stomach upset\diarrhea.
Food
Milk in a plastic bag
Lunch meat with eggs in it
Coke in glass bottle
Alfajores, empanadas, dulce de leche, facturas
Liquid Yogurt
Cow parts (tongue, utter, stomach)
Mate and all its aspects
Eucalyptus used as a candy flavor, not a cough medicine
Chinchulines (intestines)
Asado and chimichurri...
Dulce de Membrillo con queso blanco.
Oil on mashed potatoes instead of gravy.
Amargo Serrano.
Raisins with seeds in them.
El Dulce de Alcayota.
Las Tortas Fritas.
Milanesa a la Napolitana
Soda (seltzer) with EVERYTHING drinkable!
Jugo fuerte de naranja y manzana
Locro
Asado
La Palangana
Helado! (dulce de leche granizado was the best!)...but only in the summer!
Dulce de batata and Dulce de batata con chocolate
Bread with every meal
Peeling fruit with a knife
Chorri Pan vendors
Empanadas Riojanas (Deep Fried!)
Language/Communication
Clapping hands instead of knocking
Shaking forearms
Ton of hand signals
Kisses when greet/leave
Borrowed English words (groggy, pullover, jogging, snakbar, jeans, poster,
sticker, standard, feeling)
Saying Viste after every sentence.. Viste!
Kids coming up to you on the steet and saying "How do you do?"
"jopovepenepes hapablapando epen jeperipigoponzapa" (jovenes hablando
en jerigonza or Spanish pig-latin)
Kids shouting english swear words as you ride by.
"Y, que te parece..."
As you walk down the street young people say "chi chi chi" to get your
attention
Animals/Bugs
Dogs on the roof
Dogs without hair
Horses, cows, chickens in the street
Espirales burning for mosquitos
Religion
La Virgin
Steps to pray: 1. Permiso, 2. Our Heavenly Father...
The kids are turned out to play right after the sacrament
Si Dios quiere...
Difunta Correa and San Seferino pictures in everyones houses.
Household
Shower in a box (calefon)
Squeegee floor after shower
"Waterfall" Toilet
Bidet (see above foto)
Thongs in shower
Sidewalk cleaning everyday
Cement 1 room house with color TV and remote
Little "peek" doors in the middle of a big door
Water tanks on top of each house
All houses brick or cement
House names
Keep plastic on picture frames, remote controls, chairs
Bars on windows
Tile sidewalks
Mud ovens
Broken glass on top of fence
Grapes in courtyard
Colored plaster hiding adobe bricks inside
No carpet
Women sweeping dirt
A propane torch pointed at the shower pipe for water heating
Toilet paper is not soft.
Washing clothes by hand with jabon blanco; hanging them out to dry
No garbage cans...all garbage tied up in little plastic bags
Trash Baskets on a pole
Pillow cases with two open ends
Sidewalk polishing
Mothers breast feeding anywhere
Common wall between neighbor's houses
Business
Personal grocery bags
Convenience stores (Kiosco)
Street venders (bread, newspaper, tupperware, knife sharpener, vegetables)
Gift wrapped all items bought at farmacy or bookstore
Publicity cars/airplanes with huge speakers on top
Candy, aspirin, stamps as currency substitutes
Chickens, goats, pigs in carniceria with heads and feet still on.
Buying shampoo out of a 50 gallon drum.
Salesmen on buses
Tossing bricks (bucket brigade style) up a multi-story building.
Government
Uniform for school (guardapolvo)
Central Park (plaza) in every city with cathedral
Street names the same in every city
Las Malvinas/ The Faulklands
Street watering machines
Limited list of possible baby names
Mandatory Servicio Militar (or "COLIMBA," from COrrer, LImpiar, and
BArrer)
Entertainment/Holidays
4th of July type Christmas Eve and New Years
Boca vs. River
Sit outside and watch TV inside
Basketball on smooth slippery tile
Old ladies with deadly water buckets during carnival.
Sexy girls in bikinis with water balloons during carnival.
Grown people enjoying Xuxa.
The football matches - wow!!!!! And the football songs - melody and
lyrics!!!
Raton Perez
A "cancha de futbol" on every corner
La Cumbia!
Other
Mixing cement in the streets
Long legal-size paper
Small part of tie longer than thick part
Siesta
Palo Borracho trees.
Items made from Palo Santo wood.
Martin Fierro.
Big phones that eat "fichas"
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