Visiting with families

When visiting with family members throughout the trip, the group has learned a lot about the culture and and way of life here in Argentina. The following points are not necessarily related, but all relate to their culture.

• Girls at the age of 15 have big parties to celebrate their birthday. They wear fancy ball gowns and decorate the party in the same color scheme as the birthday girl´s dress. 
• Dulce de leche, or what we would call caramel syrup in the U.S., is very popular in desserts here, and they even eat it on toast for breakfast. 
• When talking with the kids about school, they told me how they attend school in the morning, and have an hour lunch break where they go home to eat, then English school is held in the afternoon. One girl told me that of the 28 students in her class, 18 of them went to English school. It appears to be at the decision of the parents if the kids go to English school or not, but over half of students go. 
• When visiting to others, they kept refering to university, which we call college. Buenos Aires holds a high percentage of the countries population, so they have more options for colleges or universities, as they call them. Smaller cities do have colleges, but they have few major options for students to choose from. 
• On the note of universities, they call their major agriculture, while we have several different agriculture major options. All students in Argentina interested in agriculture take the same classes and obtain the same major, while we have options like: Ag Business, Ag Communications, Ag Systems Technology, etc. 
• For the holidays, they celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, just like we do. The funny thing is, they also have white Christmas trees to resemble ours in the U.S. They watch movies with snow and like the white Christmas idea, so they decorate like we do. 
• When planning a house, one thing they have to plan for is a BBQ area outdoors. The BBQ area would have a fire place type grill, and areas on either side to store wood. They come in all types and styles, but some have a covered picnic tables in the same area, and others do not. 
• "Mate" ( prounced matay) is a common loose tea drink, and the locals drink it often. When talking with family members, they say they drink four or more "Mates" a day: one in the morning, while making lunch, in the afternoon most likely with a friend, and for a hot drink after supper.

Other observations:

• Our food is more seasoned than their food is
• They love Mayo, or a Mayo-Ketchup mix (they put mayo on pork sandwhiches, bread, french fries, etc.)
• they have toll roads everywhere 
• they also listen to American music
• lots of people ride motorcycles to get around
• road lanes are more like suggestions, sometimes they drive right down the middle of the lane
• license plates do not have provinces on them, all look alike
• they farm road ditches, and that is very common 

It was very fun to visit with families members throughout the trip, and it put another angle to the trip than just a tour guide would. The group appriciated meeting these families and cannot thank them enough for their time. 

written by Kelsi Pringnitz