four things to love about argentina.

My, how time flies when you're having fun.  The past four days have been something of a blur, between class, teaching, lesson planning, a fútbol match, going out, and weekend homework.  I used my weekend to get behind on sleep instead of catching up, so we're gonna make this post a quickie.  I've been collecting an array of things in my head that I love about Argentina, so here they are, in no particular order (thus far):

1.  The men here, or at least some of them, are confident enough to give each other kisses on the cheek as a greeting.  This is a typical salutation between girls or girls and guys, but for two men to do it takes some guts, I think.  No one in Spain or Mexico dares to do it.  I've noticed that it seems to happen when the two guys are good friends, or maybe relatives.  Either way, nice show of no-homo affection!

2.  Empanadas and facturas.  Actually, make that all the pastries here.  And the bakeries they come from.  SO GOOD.  I don't know which group of European immigrants influenced the country enough to have a thriving pastry appetite, but I owe 'em one.  Empanadas are small, fist-sized pastried filled with savory delights, like corn, cheese, spinach, squash, or several types of meat if that's your fancy.  The dough is light and slightly flaky, with a nice balanced saltiness to it.  The facturas, on the other hand, are the sweet treats.  They're essentially half-moon croissants, made with sweet, flaky dough.  They come in various sizes; some are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, while others are a good seven inches long.  Yum.

3.  The weather.  It's sunny and warm here, with the occasional thunderstorm.  Sure beats snow...

4.  The nightlife.  Granted, I've only been out one night thus far, but it was one of the best nights I've had in a long time: sangria and word/card games at Kate and Aminah's apartment (they are CELTA classmates) with other CELTees as well, then heading to a rooftop bar with a cool vibe around 2 am and staying there until sunrise, then heading to Alec's apartment with him and Brian (the CELTA comedians) to play guitar and sing for a while, then walking home with Brian (he lives across the street from me) talking, snacking on empanadas, and getting lost.  All told, I finally crawled into bed at 9:30 on Saturday morning.  I had no idea I could stay out that long, and it won't happen very often, but it was a great introduction to nightlife in BA.

That's all I care to come up with right now, but rest assured that more comments about Argentina and BA are on their way.  For now, I'm off to dream land...