some impressions of Argentina thus far

Friendliness
I always thought porteños were gonna be like Londoners or Parisiens or any other inhabitants of a major capital - always in a rush and with no time for foreigners. But in fact they´ve been much, much friendlier and more helpful than I ever expected. I´ve even walked around town in my Chile top and no one´s had a go, or even batted an eyelid, hehe...

Beef

Well, it´s true - they do eat as much of it as you´d think! Amusingly, el Che himself would never touch chicken, lamb or pork because he couldn´t bear the animals to be killed, however he had no problem with beef, which was apparently "different"...! And yes, the vast majority of the stuff we´ve had has been superb.

The Malvinas aka Falklands
They still want ´em! Actually, it´s probably worth them having another go, what with the British being pretty busy fighting in lots of other places at the moment... (joke!!!!) On a serious note, it seems like the war vets from that conflict (who had mostly been under-equipped teenage conscripts, from what I gather) have had a pretty raw deal - you can see them in the Plaza de Mayo demanding recognition, seems like they´ve been pretty marginalised by successive governments...


Crossing the road
Really don´t know how more people aren´t run over here! You more or less have to take the plunge and battle your way across the road when you get the green light. Pedestrians really aren´t a priority, it seems.


Dogshit

There´s a hell of a lot of it about in the streets here. They could do with sorting that out.

Queues at banks
There´s been a lot of this - have still to figure out quite why they´re so huge (Jesus, the one in Cordoba the other day was MASSIVE! It was like a queue for Shakira tickets or something.) We thought to our horror that it was the queue for the cashpoint, but thankfully it wasn´t.

Rubbish

Also have yet to figure out what the deal is with all the people sorting through it in the streets all night long.

Graffiti

It´s striking how much of it there is of the political variety - support for political movements and parties (especially Peronist ones) is emblazoned all over the place, even expressions of support for movements as far away as Honduras and Colombia... this is something you don´t see much of in the UK! You get the sense this is a highly politicised country still.


Football
Matches are on ALL THE TIME on TV. Any day of the week, any time of day, seemingly, a match will be on - in the bars, in restaurants, bus stations, wherever. (I have no problem with this of course!) It seems you don´t specifically have to go to a pub which has rights to show football and have the obligatory pint to watch your team in action over here. (By the by, they seem very pleased over here with their World Cup draw.)


Schoolgirl uniforms
Surprisingly short skirts! I mean, I know it´s a hot country, but come on, it´s verging on Britney Spears territory...


Begging
You get used to people (often little kids) coming up to you while you´re eating, or on the tube, but generally they´re at least trying to get you to part with a few pesos for SOMETHING, be it a token cutesy card or a cheap notebook or some household item... It also seems to be the norm here for people to actually dig into their pockets and help out, rather than ignore them - even those who don´t look that well-off themselves. It´s a bit of an eye-opener.


Coffee
...has been surprisingly good. I wasn´t expecting much, probably because it´s generally so crappy in Chile!


Change
No one seems to have much of it. Retailers look pretty anguished if you ever try and pay for anything with a 100 peso note. And if you give them any coins, they seem absolutely delighted. Totally love it.


Climate change
EVERYONE is obsessed with it over here - apparently the weather really has changed drastically in the last couple of years. Is this a Southern Hemisphere thing perhaps? We´ll see if there´s as much talk about it in the next countries we visit...


Accent
Thought it was gonna be a lot harder to understand, but it´s been OK, as it goes. As for the language, it seems the particular Argentine way of distorting verbs (eg "vos tenés" instead of "tu tienes") is actually official - they get taught to speak this way at school! Should the Chileans get in on the action too and make their way of speaking "official" as well??