Awkward/Hysterical Occurrences in BsAs

1. Concept of Space.
Latinos in genral are known for having smaller spacial boundaries than Americans. However, besides the constant cheek kissing, I hadn´t really noticed this at all. Until I decided to go to the gym at 8:30 pm. I was sitting on a weight machine waiting to start my second set, and not one person, but 2 people, decided they would like to use the machine I was on. I´m not exaggerating - both of them also decided to wait within centimeters of me. Their sweat was dripping on me. Unfortunately, "Could you please back up, I´m already sweating enough because there´s no air conditioning in this gym, it´s 100 degress outside, and I have two more sets to go" is not something I can just spurt out in Spanish yet (but I´m going to learn, don´t you worry) - so I just got up and let them fight over who would get to sweat on who next.

2. Coin Shortage.
Yep. Argentina has a shortage of coins. The smallest bill is the $2 peso, and the buses only take coins (they will kick you off if you don´t have them). So, everyone tries to hoard their change so they can take the bus. About half of the time, when you buy something that´s $1.50 or $1.75 they will round up and keep the change just because they don´t want to give up their coins. Seriously? Why would you be short of coins? It´s the easiest solution ever - make more. I still don´t understand what the buses do with all their coins...

3. Fake bills.
Argentina also has a huge problem with counterfeit money. If a porteno gets a fake bill, his solution is to deceptively get someone else to take it off his hands. Even the banks are in on it. ATMS occasionally spit out fake bills too. The banks´response "We have no proof that you got those fake bills from our ATM." Oh, really? Then who put them in the machine? Maybe it was the same person who stole all of your country´s coins?!

4. Beautiful People in Dangerous Places.
A couple of days ago I was running on the treadmill at the gym, and there was a quite large woman (yes, they exist in Argentina, even though it´s the anorexic/plastic surgery capital of the world) running on the one next to me. There´s also a beautiful Argentine man that mans the gym floor every day, and every girl that walks in goes up and gives him a kiss on the cheek. So this woman is running next to me, and all of the sudden she trips and lands on the moving belt. The belt shoots her off the treadmill, and she smacks into the wall behind us. EVERYONE in the gym stopped what they were doing and stared, incluiding all the judgmental plastic women. The beautiful man ran over to help this woman up, and at that low point in my life, I actually glanced down at my treadmill´s belt and contemplated how badly it would hurt to "trip."

5. Bomb threats.
Hmmm...just saying bomb in an airport in the US would get you locked in a detention cell for a couple hours of obnoxious interrogation. Not in Argentina. Apparently, bomb threats are a frequent tactic that Argentine students use to get out of exams they aren´t ready for. Atleast, that was my teacher´s explanation when someone stormed into our classroom and told everyone to get out of the building. Her reaction was "Ugh, otra vez..." ("Not again..."). According to her, this happens atleast once a semester.
One of my friends´teachers was new and didn´t know that the threat was a fluke. A guy came in her classroom and spurted out something about bombs in really fast Spanish, but none of the students understood what he was saying. They got the hint when their teacher RAN out of the classroom without a word, leaving them all there to be blown up. After the entire class evacuated the building she tried assigning them homework before they went home - they just laughed at her and said there was no way they were getting homework after she left them to die.

6. Words on the street.
- An "emo" kid = a Flogger (because they have foto blogs of dramatic pictures of themselves)
- A gothic person = a Darkie
- A rock n´roll fanatic = a Rolinga (from Rolling Stones)
- Gangs = tribus urbanas (urban tribes)