‘Mericans at Dinner
There are many things that make one feel “so American” when one is living in Buenos Aires, such as, inadvertently slamming taxi doors, failing to execute the hello or goodbye cheek buss, failing to effusively greet or depart from acquaintances, using tu instead of vos, shopping at the Jumbo… .
Then there is the grand daddy of them all: showing up at a restaurant ten minutes before it opens, lurking outside, peering in the window like a starved big cat pacing its cage. Or my next favorite, going to a restaurant at between 5:00 pm and 6:30 pm (during tea time) and asking them if the kitchen is open enough to actually cook something. That was our modus operandi tonight.
This evening’s meal involved us going to our local corner cafe and pleading our case for some hamburgers, even though the rest of the citizenry was taking their tea time meal: coffee with a cookie or a tostado. To top it off, we were playing pickup sticks in the middle of the table, which really had the waitress rolling her eyes.
To recap: hungry family with young children begging for food at 6:30 pm and playing pickup sticks while they waited — it doesn’t get much more ‘Merican than that!!
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1. dan said….”oh that is sooooooo going to be us!”
2. we LOVE pick up sticks….let us know if you need a new set as one in our family (no names mentioned) seems to like to stab things with the pick-up stick and break them…you may need new ones. however, with only girls, you may be more fortunate than us.
3. we so enjoyed part II of the apartment info…actually found apartments that looked good. hmmmmm…
thanks for all you do (keeping us informed).
Meg,
I forgot to add that we were surrounded by packages of ketchup. They normally bring us one tiny package per person which must be rationed across our entire burger and our fries, which clearly just isn’t enough! So, we ask for extra, and consume them all, leaving a pile of dead ketchup packages and further cementing our American-ness.
So glad to hear you love pickup sticks. So far, the set has been handled with kid gloves by the girls, and it hasn’t occurred to them to stab things with them, although I’m sure it’s just a matter of time! *sigh*
I’m so excited you found some good apartments and that our two-part monster apartment posts were actually useful!! Let me know if you have any questions as you dive further into your search.
a blaring texan accent would’ve put you riiiiight over that edge.
Hey, I can do that…my time at the University of Texas will finally pay off!