I was asked one evening at dinner what was weird (culturally different) for me in Argentina. I actually had to think hard about this because after 10 years of visiting this country I think that I now just accept things the way they are – es normal. Anyway here is my list and a brief explanation as to why para mis Argentinos amigos. It is not in any particular order, nor is it comprehensive.
1. The national anthem is played on every TV channel and radio station at midnight, every night. It’s not that I don’t respect this (I do), however in comparison it is we only hear the Australian national anthem at official events or international sporting games. The words are actually pretty cool hearing it sung with Argentinian passion is great – Coronados de gloria vivamos, ¡o juremos con gloria morir! (Crowned with glory let us live, or we swear with glory to die!)
2. Water bottles on top of cars to signal that the car is for sale. I’m told that you also have to put a sign / sticker on the window but I still see bottles on car roofs. Also there are some bottle that have been on cars for decades – the car itself is in a completely dilapidated state and nobody in their right mind would buy it.
3. The amount of old, broken down, crashed, dilapidated, rusted out old (and newer) cars that are abandoned on streets is unreal. We don’t see cars just left on streets to grow old and decay – neighbours would complain to authorities and they would be removed.
4. Milk is sold in bags. Ok, there has been a transition to using PET bottles and long life cartons (Tetrapak), but you can still find it in bags in many supermarkets. How do you pour it and store it once open you ask – simple you buy a reusable plastic milk bag holder.
5. Mate – not your friend, yerba mate the drink. Argentines it seems can’t get enough of this stuff. You can see it being drunk everywhere and I mean everywhere. They even have bags made specially to carry your yerba, porongo and thermos. People even take them as carry-on luggage on planes.
6. Sidewalks are very bad, like up there with worst in the world. You can read my other blog post for more of my thoughts on this topic.
7. Road surfaces are horrible and not maintained. Ok, some of the Romanesque bluestone paved ones are visually pretty, but horrible to drive on as they are poorly maintained.
8. The tiny thin pieces of paper that are passed off as napkins in pizza shops & ice creameries especially are ridiculous.
9. Security is in your face everywhere. Bars on windows & doors, glass shards on brick fences, security guard boxes on street corners, electric wires, cameras, razor wire, alarms, security guards in apartment buildings, fences around monuments and statues, guards at schools that open and shut premises doors…and the list goes on. Most houses will have multiple security measures implemented and it’s a bit confronting to see this and hear stories of short term kidnappings, robberies in driveways etc.
10. Electrical street and house wiring is pretty chaotic. Not as bad as in some Asian countries I have visited (e.g. Thailand, Vietnam) but it’s bad. The power plug type is the same as in Australia but that is where the similarities end as I doubt any house would meet Australian standards – from what I have seen there is no common earth wire run to lights and sockets. It’s also not uncommon to see cut wires just hanging off poles or buidings.
11. There are people called Cartoneros that pull / push a cart around the streets collecting cardboard out of bins & off the sidewalk to recycle for money. We don’t see that anywhere in Australia.
12. Garbage is collected everyday and there are posts with baskets on top of them to put your garbage bags in. Sometimes the garbage bags are just tied up on trees or poles. Garbage is collected once a week in Australia (both normal and recycling).
13. Everything is sweet – for example a ham & cheese croissant has a sweet glaze. Also we don’t have dulce de leche to put on everything. Dulce de leche is amazing though and we can find it now in Australia.
14. Knives – every restaurant and home has serrated steak knives as standard cutlery. It’s a meat lovers paradise here but not every meal involves carne! Also, when attending an Asado in the countryside you people will bring their own “cuchillo de campo” to dine with – this is a traditional Gaucho thing.
15. BBQ cheese – yes they put cheese on the barbie, and it is good, like really good! You need to try provoleta a la parrilla.
16. It’s very rare to see a gas barbecues here, 99% use use charcoal – see my other blog post on Asados. Also the amount of meat consumed at an asado is impressive! And it’s not just men that eat a lot of it – I’ve seen a 45kg women eat at least 3/4 a kilo in one sitting! That’s just impressive.
17. Villas – everywhere else in the world you think of a Villa as a very nice house, however in Argentina the word refers to a suburb / area that houses very poor people. They resemble shanty towns built from whatever construction materials can be scavenged. Some historically popped up around major construction projects and were never demolished.
18. Soda water obsession…Argentinians are slightly crazy when it comes to sifon de soda. Read my other blog post about this one.
19. There is an ozone layer here! Who would have thought that a white guy like me doesn’t need to put on sunscreen every morning in order to go outside on a sunny day. I don’t burn in the sun here (I don’t really tan either though). How is this possible?
20. Nicknames – it’s not like we don’t have nicknames in Australia, we do and we are good at giving them to people. Ours usually consist of either a shortening of someone’s name or adding to it. Rarely do we call someone a name that is not related to their actual name but in Argentina that is exactly what happens. I’ve met people with sobre nombres cebolla (onion), pollo (chicken), enano (midget), polo (his real is Ezequiel), el tio (the uncle, who wasn’t an uncle when he go this name), mono (the monkey), gordo (fat guy), flaco (skinny guy), and the list goes on. I’m called “el gringo” here (the foreigner) – I suppose it’s better than skippy.
21. Siestas – it seems that they don’t just exist in Spain, they are here as well. Most shops in the suburbs shut between 1-4pm and most restaurants are also closed on Monday. I’ve been caught out by this on numerous occasions as it’s probably the one thing here I haven’t got used to.
22. WhatsApp – this messaging app is so pervasive here that even companies prefer to do business via WhatsApp. It’s not just text and photos that are sent, voice messages are prevalent and it is not uncommon to see people with their phones sideways to their ears listening to them on 2x speed – yes the even speed them up. I guess that this is mainly due to iPhones being super expensive here, Andriod is the main phone platform so iMessage never took off. There is even a verb for using WhatsApp here – Whatsappiando…
3 meses en Argentina 
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