(no subject)
A few things about Buenos Aires/Argentina:
a) For some reason they apparently love cover songs here? Literally, the chance of me hearing a cover of an American song during the day is greater than that of hearing the actual song. Queen seems to be a favorite for covering, but just now in the supermarket I heard a lovely Barry White-style cover of Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are". The funny part is that sometimes the covers are almost exactly like the original, so there seems to be no reason to prefer the cover. I'm thinking that perhaps the covers are usually done by bands more popular in Argentina? The only problem with this is that once I heard a cover of a Queen song and the Argentine guy next to me was like "Oh, I love Queen!" He clearly had no knowledge that the song was a cover, even though it was obvious to me. Oh well. Whatever makes them happy.
b) Here, Duracell, not Energizer, is represented by a pink bunny. This bunny bears no resemblance to the Energizer bunny, but instead just kind of looks like a cuter version of some dude dressed in a bunny suit that just happens to be pink. Still, it's a little weird. I took a picture of a package of batteries with the Duracell bunny on them, and will post it later in facebook. I just want to know if the pink Duracell bunny has anything at all to do with our Energizer bunny.
c) I feel like the common person in Buenos Aires has NO idea of how food is supposed to taste. Obviously there are cultural differences, but this is not me being like "ew, I would never eat goat stomach!" or not being used to a certain spice. This is me saying that the average dishes cooked up by a lot of the host families here are just...not supposed to be food. I think the problem is that they have very specific ideas of what ingredients are "delicious" and the philosophy is that the more of those ingredients you put into a dish, the more delicious it will be. This is NOT how cooking works. So for example, a few of the ingredients that are universally considered delicious are: Hard boiled eggs (oh my god hard boiled eggs are in EVERYTHING here), olives, ham, basil, mayonnaise, squash, ham, peppers, tuna, ham, "salsa golf" (will explain later), onion, and oh did I mention HAM???? Also, seafood is considered to be the height of sophistication. They like putting a mixture of these ingredients together in tarts for dinner, or combining them with undercooked rice and mayo. Sound delicious? Oh trust me it is. Perhaps you are looking at that list and thinking "oh, some of those things together would actually be pretty good". Banish that thought. Any combination you might find up there that could be considered edible would never be considered by housewife in this city. So a normal meal will be a heapin' plate of rice mixed with hard boiled egg, tuna, mayo, ham, tomato and olive. Good times.
I think that will be all for now. Tonight I leave for the weekend to go to Iguazu falls with a friend. They're apparently breathtaking and reported to be cooler than Niagra. I wouldn't know, I've never been to Niagra (well, technically I have, but I think I was three). I've got to put that on the list. As soon as I get back I'm going to the airport to pick up my mom! I don't want to know who she had to kill to get the money to come here, but I'm so excited!
a) For some reason they apparently love cover songs here? Literally, the chance of me hearing a cover of an American song during the day is greater than that of hearing the actual song. Queen seems to be a favorite for covering, but just now in the supermarket I heard a lovely Barry White-style cover of Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are". The funny part is that sometimes the covers are almost exactly like the original, so there seems to be no reason to prefer the cover. I'm thinking that perhaps the covers are usually done by bands more popular in Argentina? The only problem with this is that once I heard a cover of a Queen song and the Argentine guy next to me was like "Oh, I love Queen!" He clearly had no knowledge that the song was a cover, even though it was obvious to me. Oh well. Whatever makes them happy.
b) Here, Duracell, not Energizer, is represented by a pink bunny. This bunny bears no resemblance to the Energizer bunny, but instead just kind of looks like a cuter version of some dude dressed in a bunny suit that just happens to be pink. Still, it's a little weird. I took a picture of a package of batteries with the Duracell bunny on them, and will post it later in facebook. I just want to know if the pink Duracell bunny has anything at all to do with our Energizer bunny.
c) I feel like the common person in Buenos Aires has NO idea of how food is supposed to taste. Obviously there are cultural differences, but this is not me being like "ew, I would never eat goat stomach!" or not being used to a certain spice. This is me saying that the average dishes cooked up by a lot of the host families here are just...not supposed to be food. I think the problem is that they have very specific ideas of what ingredients are "delicious" and the philosophy is that the more of those ingredients you put into a dish, the more delicious it will be. This is NOT how cooking works. So for example, a few of the ingredients that are universally considered delicious are: Hard boiled eggs (oh my god hard boiled eggs are in EVERYTHING here), olives, ham, basil, mayonnaise, squash, ham, peppers, tuna, ham, "salsa golf" (will explain later), onion, and oh did I mention HAM???? Also, seafood is considered to be the height of sophistication. They like putting a mixture of these ingredients together in tarts for dinner, or combining them with undercooked rice and mayo. Sound delicious? Oh trust me it is. Perhaps you are looking at that list and thinking "oh, some of those things together would actually be pretty good". Banish that thought. Any combination you might find up there that could be considered edible would never be considered by housewife in this city. So a normal meal will be a heapin' plate of rice mixed with hard boiled egg, tuna, mayo, ham, tomato and olive. Good times.
I think that will be all for now. Tonight I leave for the weekend to go to Iguazu falls with a friend. They're apparently breathtaking and reported to be cooler than Niagra. I wouldn't know, I've never been to Niagra (well, technically I have, but I think I was three). I've got to put that on the list. As soon as I get back I'm going to the airport to pick up my mom! I don't want to know who she had to kill to get the money to come here, but I'm so excited!