Hmmm....

Okay, so after 2 weeks in Argentina I can finally sit down and write my first blog post from here. I had the unfortunate incident of finding out while here that my cats chewed my laptop cord to the point where it no longer got power, hence being MIA. The good news is that another is en route!

I feel like I have experienced so much since being here that I would need a novel to write it all. So I thought I would share a list of the things that have happened to me that have made me go {hmmmm}

1. The news plays Top 40 music in the background. No matter how serious the topic or hilarious the newbit, there is always some random song playing in the background. If the story is sad or serious, they pick like a Whitney Houston song. Hmmm....

2. From what I observe, it is not typically frowned upon to interrupt someone while they are talking. Tv show hosts do it to one another, and so do news anchors. And even more {hmmmm} worthy is the fact that the original person hardly ever stops talking.  So you end up with one conversation, 2 simultanous speakers. Needless to say, despite being fluent in Spanish, I often lose my place in conversations.

3. The sharing of Yerba Mate is so culturally embedded, that they were shocked when I confessed I did not like the idea of sharing the same bulb with 5 other people. It was explained to me that even though germs are a concern, it is not enough to make someone reject the offer of drinking from their mate bulb. I also dont enjoy the bitter taste of mate but realizing how important it is for people, I never say no anymore.

4. The first time I spoke with my husband on the phone/chat, my tongue had momentarily forgotten how to form English syllables.

5. Yesterday at an artessans fair, a small child got lost. Everyone around him started to clap rhythmically so that the parents could find the source of the clapping and thus find their child. What a brilliant idea!!!

6. You have to have a special activation on your landline to call mobile phones.

7. There is apparently a shortage of coins so every time I go buy something and they owe me coins as change, they say they will pay me back later or give me more and say, you owe me x next time. All I can think of is, you don´t know me! But they trust me anyways :) I owe the baker 50 cents right now.

8. The mail only comes when there is enough mail to make it worth while for the postman to take the trip. We got mail for the first time in 2 weeks today.

9. Books are super expensive!!! 30 bucks for a novel. And the library is only open 3 hours per day.

10. Since everything shuts down at 1pm for siesta. You cannot run errands or do shopping at this time...learned that the hard way.

So far 10 is all I can come up with but I will be keeping track of everything ´{hmmm} worthy to share here.

Overall I´m having a great time living at the hostel. People from all over Argentina come and go and I get to hear about cool places to visit or how it is in other parts of the country. I get the sense here, that like Canada, you need months to travel all over Argentina to truly enjoy all it has to offer. Maybe on another trip down here, I will tackle the challenge.

For now, this small town is keeping me plenty busy!

Chau!

-Vivian-Sofia