10 Things I Love About Buenos Aires
Things have been WILD lately.
Between parciales (AKA midterms) and other crazy daily life things, I feel like at times of been letting myself getting a little too caught up in the stress of the moment, which also means that I haven't been able to vlog it up and add to my youtuber portfolio.
(More coming soon, gang. I promise.)
So, it feels like the right time to take a break and briefly review all of the things that make me love this life.
Brace yourself for the positivity:
1. Getting lost
You know you’re in a good place in good people when you look forward to things going wrong and needing to depend on the people around you.
Like I talked about before in my first vlog, every time I have to ask someone for directions in Buenos Aires, my faith in humanity is restored.
It doesn’t seem to matter where I am or who I ask, for some reason every stranger is always willing to help, sometimes even in spite of the fact that they actually have no idea where you’re supposed to be going either.
But by then they’re already so emotionally invested that they’re also looking up directions on their phone too.
2. Meat
Good thing I’m not living the part-time vegan life anymore.
Not that it’s not possible for vegans and vegetarians to live a good life in Buenos Aires, but, just not as happy and full of a life as the rest of us carnivorous monsters are living.
Eating in Buenos Aires is a lifestyle.
And, if I had to put numbers on it, that lifestyle is made up of approximately 30% red meat, 20% empanadas, 40% ice cream and 110% happiness.
Asado or parrilla culture dominates Argentina food culture. Parrilla is often described as or compared to barbecuing, but the word “barbecue” just doesn’t express the emotions you experience when eating a steak so tender you can cut it with a spoon.
Or the fact that you can get meat on the street that is cooked to 5-star level perfection.
And don’t even get me started on provoleta...
Why did it take me almost 21 years to realize that grilling entire slabs of cheese is the actual key to happiness?
3. Bagged Milk
Is it weird that I feel like even grocery shopping is more fun in Buenos Aires?
Maybe it’s just the bagged milk here that really gets me every time.
You think it’d be inconvenient, but bagged milk has really become a part of who I am now – bagged milk is also a lifestyle. And it’s what I most look forward to when I have to go grocery shopping.
That, or maybe the entire aisles filled with mate and dulce de leche. Or the candy.
But seriously, pouring milk out of a bag for my cereal every day is thrilling.
4. Ice cream
When the Italians immigrated to Argentina, they brought their gelato with them.
Grazie a Dio. And now, Buenos Aires is thriving with the best helados (or at least top 10) in the entire world.
(@me Italian study abroad students. I dare you.)
Even National Geographic is on my side, fact check me.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/ice-cream-parlors/
(Heladería Cadore, te quiero.)
So of course, para aprovechar de la cultura, it’s acceptable that I’m eating ice cream every day, right?... right?
I really need you to tell me that I’m right.
Also, someone tell the U.S. that I can’t come back until they take notes from Argentina and make it not only possible but, standard to get two flavors in a small cone.
5. Castellano Rioplatense
This needs way more explanation than I am able to communicate without speaking so, expect some elaboration in future vlogs, including but not limited to: the infamous “shh,” “vos” and lunfardo.
But, long story short, Spanish in Argentina is otro mundo compared to Spanish in most other places – especially Spain. It’s more than just a different accent or slang. .
It’s undeniably distinct so, as a developing Spanish-speaker, you essentially have two options: you can futilely try to resist it or you can embrace it.
I probably don’t even have to tell you that I’m definitely embracing it.
6. Merienda
(Author’s note: really struggling not to make everything about food, I’m sorry)
Café culture is alive and well in Buenos Aires and my bloodstream is approximately 67% café con leche because of it.
One of the most beautiful things about the eating schedule in Buenos Aires is the existence of la merienda, which is essentially an institutionalized snacktime around 5-6pm to hold you over from lunch at around 1-3pm until dinner around 8-10pm.
The classic merienda consists of un café and something sweet AKA a pastry like a medialuna (AKA the superior croissants, literally translated as “half moons”) or an alfajor (an adorable little sandwich of two cookies, typically filled with the Argentines’ drug of choice -- dulce de leche).
So, obviously I am embracing merienda with open arms in my daily routine.
If you’re in need of something savory to accompany your 6pm caffeine pick-me-up, tostadas (essentially a grilled cheese from heaven) are also popular, but how am I going to fuel my sugar addiction with that?
7. Affection & Kissing Strangers
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again: I. Love. Affection.
And Buenos Aires is full of it.
I might be a bit of an unusual case (in more ways than one), but kissing everyone (on the cheek, of course) hello and goodbye will never get old. Kissing my family, friends, classmates, professors, and strangers I’ve been introduced to just a couple seconds beforehand. I love it all.
So you can bet that I will definitely be bringing all of this love and affection back with me and will definitely be making it part of my everyday life.
Get your cheeks ready, my friends.
8. Mate Culture
(Mate selection in the grocery store)
You cannot live a life in Buenos Aires without mate. It’s impossible. Mate is the culture.
Pronounced like “mah-tay” (or ˈmä-ˌtā, for my friends who like phonetics), the taste of mate/yerba mate is similar to that of a strong green tea, but made from a different plant, and its per capita consumption here rivals that of coffee.
Drinking mate is an integral part of life in Argentina partly because of its ritualistically specific way of being prepared in a single cup (which usually is or resembles a small gourd) and then shared between multiple people.
And because of it, the first time I felt truly porteña was when my classmate handed me the communal mate without even hesitating.
Life goals fulfilled.
Mom, I made it.
Here, the spirit of community trumps all germophobia.
9. Riding the bus at 4am with just as many people over the age of 50 as those under the age of 30
I don’t think this one really needs a lot of explaining.
And this will never not be amusing to me.
But I don’t think there’s much better proof that Buenos Aires is the city that actually never sleeps.
The night is just beginning here in Argentina way past our American bedtimes and the norm of eating dinner anywhere from 10pm-12am definitely helps to full the masses – yep, even the masses well over the age of 50 are up and dining until midnight.
If you want to go out and hang with local friends, plan on taking a power nap and don’t even expect to leave the house until 1am. And if you feel like dancing, the doors open at 3am, so be prepared to literally dance the entire night away.
But it’s honestly more practical because then you get to end the night with breakfast at the bakery instead of an empty stomach.
Priorities.
But actually, why is literally everyone awake and still walking their dogs at 4am?
10. Togetherness
Last one best one and what I feel like is the underlying thread that really ties together the millions of tiny moments that make me fall in love with this place and these people more and more every day.
“Togetherness” might not be the most perfect word to describe the emotions that I’m feeling (my English seems to be escaping me at the moment), so I’ll try my best to illustrate the feelings more than explain them.
For example:
The feeling when you’re smooshed into a subway car with what feels like a million hour at the busiest time of day, and literally every part of your body is touching the people on every side of you, but that fact doesn’t bother anyone at all. #nopersonalspacenoproblem And for some reason you feel so at peace being in (very much) the same place at the same time, so close to so many people you’ll never actually know.
That feeling when you recklessly throw your body into a closing elevator door, even though you know that you shouldn’t, and a very large man, as a result, laughingly throws his body in the elevator door at the same time to save you from your own stupidity.
That feeling when you lose your balance on a moving bus, because you think you’re well-balanced enough to avoid holding onto one of the poles next to you, but three different hands around you suddenly appear to catch you.
That feeling when food and drinks are shared with you, without hesitation, amongst friends and family alike. When they insist on pushing more food onto your plate, or give you absolutely no other choice but to take the last galletita that they have.
That feeling when you’re waiting to cross the street with a bundle of strangers, and even though the light is telling you not to cross, one person sees a gap just big enough in the traffic and decides to go for it, so, without any verbal communication, everyone decides to risk it together and sprint in front of oncoming traffic.
(Because if they’re going to hit us, they’ll have to hit all of us, and they wouldn’t do that… right?)
That feeling when you go out with people who are way more socially connected that you (exchange student disadvantage) and you meet their friends for the first time. The way their faces light up when they recognize you as someone that they haven’t met yet, but the way that they still embrace you and kiss you hello with the same warmth as if they’ve known you for an eternity and didn’t just meet you seconds ago.
Those feelings. All at the same time.
That feeling.
That feeling of being so very much here.
And so very happy to be.
That’s what I love most.
Thanks for putting up with all the reading material that I’ve been giving you lately.
I promise that I’ll give you a break from reading super soon.
Hasta luego.
Un beso grande,
Hannah