10. The language - There are some languages where everything sounds angry. Saying "I love you" in German sounds like "I hate you in any other language. Spanish isn't like that. Saying "I hate you" sounds seductive. I've seduced a couple of women with a well-placed "Te odio."
9. The meat - I didn't even eat red meat before I got here. You guys all know me; I hadn't had a hamburger in 5 years. But it's all better here. Even Burger King is bomb (except you have to get down on your knees and beg for ketchup).
8. The women - Everyone is in perfect shape. It's not that they're any prettier than any other people in the world; it's just that they're all in tip-top shape. You can't walk down the street by day without seeing at least a couple 10's, and you guys know that 10 in the metric system is like a 15.
7. The TV. All the time they show solid movies. Not like classic movies, but solid movies. You know, Paul Walker is the lead in about half of them. Movies like that. I've watched the entire Fast and the Furious trilogy (yes, even Tokyo Drift) and I got myself all hyped up for the 4th one. And, since they're all subtitled in Spanish, it's a learning experience and I don't have to feel guilty.
6. 3.8 to 1 - That's the current exchange rate. Everything here is really cheap. But every time you get a bill, for just one second you think it's in dollars and you freak out. But then you remember that it is in pesos, and you feel really good, and it's all worth it. It's not as fun as in Chile though, where everything cost in the thousands of pesos, and you could go out and get a beer and end up paying $1,200. There's nothing more fun than throwing down a thousand spot on the table. You feel like the monopoly man.
5. The beer - I'm not sure how that got into my top 10. I hate Quilmes. It tastes horrible and it's served everywhere. It's not as bad as Milwaukee's Best or anything like that, but the US doesn't hold up Milwaukee's Best as a national mark of pride.
4. The flush - This is a lie, the toilets in the Southern Hemisphere don't flush backwards, and I don't know why this is talked about so much. I also wonder how toilets right on the equator flush. I guess the same way as everywhere else, since once again, they do not flush backwards here.
3. The little things - The elevators are all those old fashioned elevators that you have to pull the doors closed, our houses' door knob is right in the middle of the door for some reason, and the toilets all have flushers mounted in the wall that are like valves you push into, and all the electronics are second-rate because there's a big tax on them. Sometimes I wake up and for a second think that I'm in America, and then I see all these things and it serves to remind me where I am, and it's great.
2. Stoplights - When you have a green light you drive, then it turns yellow and you must slow down, then it turns red and you have to stop. Just like America right?? Here comes the kicker. When you're at a red light the light will then count back down, turn yellow to let you know to rev your engines and get ready to take off, and then turns green. It makes so much more sense to warn you when the light is going to go green, and it makes everything seem like a drag race. Unfortunately it's also not easy to tell if the light is going green or going red so sometimes our taxi drivers end up accelerating at a red light.
1. The night life - Dinner is at 10, you hang out till at least midnight, you go to a bar till 3 am, and then the night starts. We were drinking with some Argentines one night and there was no sense of urgency about going out until it hit 3:30, and then one of the guys goes "You guys want to think about heading out soon?" This is as opposed to America when people are always getting mad at me for being late to things and not starting the night before 10. I like a country where you can't possibly be late for anything. It does make the mornings hard, but numbers 2 through 10 make it all better (with the exception of number 5, the beer, which definitely makes the mornings much worse).
I know lists of 10 are supposed to have 10 items, and nothing more, but I have to give an honorable mention to two things. The first, Apple Gatorade. That's right, Gatorade has 500 flavors in the US, but they don't have apple, whereas there are like 5 flavors here, but they don't need any more because apple has already landed. The second thing, empanadas. I know what you guys are thinking, they're just glorified hot pockets. You may be right, and I don't care. For all you soon to be unemployed college graduates, hop on it now, and help me start an empanada restaurant in New York City. The empanada was made for New York, and I want to let them know. In five years I see it being bigger than falafel.
And of course I owe a special thanks to the Argentines. They're friendly, they always enjoy chatting, and they put up with my poor-quality Spanish like real champs.
With a special shoutout to wineandbowties.blogspot.com. I gave you a list of 10 good things about Argentina, wineandbowties is an everyday list about everything good everywhere
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