Well, here we are: Saturday night and we’re all absolutely exhausted—or as some say here, “planchado” (ironed) after an absolutely full day. We spent our afternoon touring Tomás de Prat Gay’s family winery. Tomás was a member of the BUMC last fall, when he came from Argentina to Baylor to study for a semester. With the help of his friends and neighbors, we were served a veritable feast.
We saw even more beautiful sights as we toured the land.
Afterwards, we all came back and sang a concert in downtown Mendoza for the church of Paul and Laura Shelton, the missionary couple who have spent the entire week doing an incredible job taking care of us.
Afterwards, we all went out to dinner at a familiar restaurant… but more on that later.
At this point, we’ve come to the sad realization that the trip is almost halfway through. It’s amazing how quickly time flies. Having been here a week, we’ve got a little bit better of a handle on how things work here in Argentina as opposed to the States. While there are almost inevitably several more social faux-pas to come, we’ve learned enough to avoid most of them.
First off, here in Argentina, relationships are everything. Part of the beauty of the social culture here is the way that everything centers around enjoying and being grateful for the people in your life. For example, when saying goodbye to someone, you don’t say “adios,” but “hasta luego,” because it leaves relationships open: “see you later” instead of “goodbye.” Another lesson we learned is that meal times aren’t so much about food. As Laura Shelton explained to us, a lot of times we go out to eat in the United States in order to “not be hungry.” Here, meals are about taking time to be with friends and family. Lunch can stretch on into dinner if you like, and a waiter will never come ask if they can get you anything—doing so would be an interruption of your company. Speaking of restaurants: there are no free refills, and most of the time your drink comes in a chilled glass bottle which you then pour into an actual glass yourself. There’s no drinking out of your bottle: doing so will mark you as a foreigner. Also: no ice… that is, unless you’re at McDonald’s, which the group actually experienced tonight. We were surprised to find the burgers and chicken a higher quality of meat—and better cooked—than in the States. A few of our friends told us that when McDonald’s first came to Argentina, people started getting sick from eating their food. After that, they were forced to slow down their service and cook everything more thoroughly. Since then, it hasn’t been a problem. Also, their sizes were all one smaller than in the USA: that is to say, their large is the size of our medium. Another small side note about meals in Argentina: due to the European-style dining etiquette, most people don’t bring their utensils from the plate to their mouth while eating, but vice-versa.
Greetings in Argentina are far more personal than in the USA, we’ve found. People don’t scream their friends’ names when they see them from far away—they walk up and say hello to their face. Whether saying hello or goodbye, people rarely shake hands. Rather, it’s a light touch on the arm and a “kiss” on the cheek. It’s not an actual kiss, however: you simply touch cheeks and make the sound of a kiss. On the whole, a lot of us are still getting used to “kissing” total strangers… but it’s a nice change to be made. Dr. Bradley remarked earlier that he wondered “how things might be different in our own culture if we hugged and kissed each other more often.”
Our Spanish-speakers have had a time adjusting linguistically as well. To start, rather than pronouncing the “ll” as “Y” like most people in North America, the people here pronounce “ll” more like the second “G” in “garage.” To further complicate matters, we’ve also been told that young people—as well as everyone in Buenos Aires, where we’ll be at starting Monday—pronounce it as a “sh.” Also, rather than saying “tu” to indicate the second person, people here say “vos.” While I’m sure there may be other differences, my extremely limited Spanish-skills keep me from remembering anything else. Apologies!
We’ve all had to adjust somewhat to what it’s like driving, as well. We were told “if you use the rules you learned in Driver’s Ed, you will have a wreck.” People here don’t actually stop at “Pare” signs—they yield. Pedestrians don’t have the right-of-way, but they still run out across the street fairly often. And if you do have a wreck, be prepared to get out of your car and engage the other driver in a shouting match… then see them in court within 24 hours. The former is convention; the latter is law. Thankfully, we’ve been in the hands of some very capable Argentinian drivers the entire trip, and we’ve only hit two people on the road.
… Kidding.
At any rate, the greatest thing we’ve noticed here is that, everyone we’ve met has been great. All of the people have been extremely friendly and helpful; and if you show them that you’re at least willing to try Spanish, they’ll guide you as far as you need to go. When we’ve eaten at people’s houses, they’ve refused to let us leave feeling anything less than stuffed—which has led several of us to renewed dieting pledges after we return home—and almost everywhere we’ve been has given either us or Dr. Bradley some sort of gift to thank us for coming. Whether it’s a late lunch at an outside café where the tablecloth matches the trees’ yellowing leaves, a homemade dessert after touring the winery of our good friend Tomás, seeing the magnolia sun peek over the Mendoza skyline or emerge from the clouds above the highest peak in the Americas, we all agree: Argentina is a truly breathtaking country, and to do anything less than savor our remaining time here would be a gross mistake.
Stay updated: I’ve no doubt there are many more adventures to come.
Braeden Ayres