Argentine Eyes

Dial "M" for Maternal (chapter 10)

And then there is a really important one that we learn as kids, look two ways before crossing the street. But I want to revise that and say look ALL ways before crossing the street. Left, right, up, down, taking that extra second may be quite effective in keeping you from making your maker earlier than you expected when crossing places like 6 lane Avenida de Julio, the widest street in the world! You'll understand after you hear this next story that i have to tell you....

My first Christmas in Argentina was when I found out the horrific way that Argentines gain their drivers licenses. The friend who I am staying with had come of age (18 is the legal driving age) to be able to learn to drive. What simply happens in Argentina is that the parents teach their children to drive and then they go buy a license. There is no official driving test you have to pass. This haphazard system lacking any kind of standardization has resulted in a nation where one of the most dangerous things you could possibly be is a pedestrian.

I walk a thin line here between wanting you to be smart and stay informed at the same time while not wanting to instill fear into you.  In Victoria, B.C. if I walk across the street and I don't see a car coming, the car will do all it can to slow down. However in Buenos Aires if you don't see a car coming at you, the car will simply keep going at the speed it is going at and simply honk to signal to you to get out of the way.

I don't want to deter anyone from visiting this magnificent country. Thousands of tourists come and go every year and have a great vacation and I trust you will too. But it is important to keep in mind that Argentina is unlike the other destinations in latin america like Costa Rica or Mexico where the country is accustomed to tourists and everything has been set up so that things are quick, easy and convenient.

In fact, one area where Argentina lacks is in the area of customer service. In North America all the staff now at coffee shops and retail outlets are trained to greet you with a fake polite smile and appear happy. In reality i don't think alot of stores care so much for your happiness and welfare...they just want to make sure that you're not going to go the the store across the road where their staff seem to have shinier merchandise and bigger smiles.

In Argentina, things are very different.  As you go to the check out to purchase your groceries, the cashier shoves them into a plastic bag without care about how many plastic bags she is using and causing harm to the environment. It could literally be your last day on earth before you shed your mortal coil and be on your way and the cashier couldn't care less. She would continue to shove your groceries into a plastic bag without so much to ask about your well being or how you feel about this being your last day on earth..  That is because the cashier at the checkout in Argentina is basically counting down the minutes to when she can be out of there and go have a maté and an asado and giggle in spanish with her girlfriends.

I almost felt like celebrating with a maté and an asado when I finally began to have the mystery of Marisa's behavior solved. Well, part of the mystery anyway. Now I knew why Marisa kept gazing at me and the expression on her face does a 360 degree turn but she hasn't got the least idea that she's doing it.  So it wasn't because she had been trying to flirt with me in any way. So she was right when she told me that her feelings were plutonic.  But that didn't erase the fact that her countenance keeps changing and every now and then she has this unbroken gaze. So even though it wasn't a romantic love, there was still something very deep inside her that was going on. But what? I closed my eyes and thought, and thought, and thought...

I thought about the way that when someone asks me a question in spanish, she jumps and and answers for me, It was almost as if she were protecting me. I thought about several of the affectionate gestures she had given me, like gently putting my head against her shoulder, as if she were wanting to lay me down to sleep. I thought of how she was the only person that seem to be having a difficult time dealing with my separation from her while in Canada.