Memory Scrapebook

My Life, Travel

A few little differences between home and Argentina:

The sidewalks seem to be constantly under repair here. There’s a new construction crew every few feet.

The butter that comes with your bread is almost always flavored with something: thyme, sundried tomatoes, rosemary.

The women do more primping in the public bathrooms. You can be at a coffee shop at 11 a.m. and there’s always someone at the mirror re-applying lipstick and fluffing their hair.

Everyone thinks Hank is a girl. I know this because they’re forced to choose a sex for their adjectives, “Que hermosa! Que bonita!”

The red lights turn yellow before going back to green.

There’s lots of graffitti with messages to girlfriends. “Happy Anniversary! Manuela, I love you!”

Our bathroom has a bidet and two new brushes so we can scrub under our nails when we wash our hands.

In modern buildings, I keep shoving my hands under sinks expecting them to work automatically. They don’t.

Our cab from the airport smelled good, like tea, and they still play Milli Vanilli on the radio here.

People, completely sane strangers, stop to kiss the baby or touch his head.

Published

26 thoughts on “Memory Scrapebook”

  7. Shouldn’t you put your hands under the faucet instead of the sink to wash them? Just asking. 🙂 Before I completely read your observation on the sinks, I was wondering if you were feeling under them to see if Argentinians put gum under them or something.

    Like

  14. It’s a hispanic thing, the excessive baby touching. They’re saying that they think your baby is cute, sweet, or anything positive, but by thinking that they are giving your baby bad ju-ju (like murphy’s law) so they touch him to cnacel out the bad ju-ju. We get that a lot here in San Antonio.

    I find it refreshing; better than giving you nasty looks for daring to have a baby around them.

    Here’s some fun advice: tell some Argentinians you are a huge Manu Ginobili fan (he’s a Spur) and see their fantastic reaction…

    Like

  17. Yeah, it’s called “The Ojo” kind of the “evil eye” around here, the need, well requirement really, to touch the baby if you’ve admired it’s cuteness. The lore says that if you don’t you’ll make the baby cranky and give him your bad jealousy spirits. And then the only way to get rid of it is to rub the baby with a raw egg and say some voo doo type stuff and once you crack the egg in a bowl and leave it by the baby the yolk takes the spirits and makes an eye in the egg. I’m sure you could find some more details on the internet if you’re interested. Or, I could just let you talk to my mom, totally your call.

    Like

  22. my sister has been living in guam for the last 7 years. found out that it is GOOD if people come up and hug/squeeze/grab a hunk of sweet baby flesh. they believe it brings good luck and keeps the baby healthy and safe. squeeze on!

    Like

  24. Yeah! We just came back from out 2 week honeymoon in Argentina (Patagonia & Buenos Aires) – and you’re so right about the flavored butter. I loved it! Thanks for making me smile this morning.

    Like

  26. That’s one bad-ass spam up there!

    Anyhoo, about the excessive baby touching to cancel out the bad ju-ju. It’s good that they only touch the baby’s head, here in the Philippines, they smear a bit of saliva(!!!) on the the baby’s belly to cancel out the bad ju-ju (called ba-les). Eeeewww, right?

    Like

Comments are closed.