I’ve been in Buenos Aires almost two months and I’m beginning to feel quite at home, something that mostly happens after having made some friends. The daily greetings of the security guard at the corner and pizza man and meeting the girls of “my” bar and the Napolitan granny of “my” laundry service give me the idea that I have been here for ages (especially because with the people of my neighborhood in Holland I barely have any contact).
With an Argentine co-worker and her friends I went out to eat ‘empanadas’ and pizza. Empanadas are a kind of pasties/little calzoni, filled with for example minced meat, ham and cheese or vegetables. I think we started our dinner round eleven and it took a little while before I finished my plate. That happens to me often here, and that is because my Argentine table mates often talk a lot during dinner, and I naturally don’t want to stay quiet then myself. (I won’t tell them that there are Dutch families, especially those before my generation, where speaking during meals is forbidden.) The restaurant was still crowded at that hour, also with little children fighting against their sleep. My mother always got angry when she witnessed this at the camp site in Italy, but also here it’s normal to introduce your little ones to the nightlife at an early age.
In The Netherlands going out often means visiting a bar, restaurant or cinema but here I immediately went to the theatre and a concert of classical music. The cousin of an Argentine friend goes to a “musical high school” and performed in a church in Saveedra, a neighborhood in the north of the centre. The church was full of proud family members who with the help of their mobile phones and cameras fought against the passing of time. The serene atmosphere in combination with the clear tones was touching. It was a pity though that the Argentines, who I think are capable of speaking from the moment they are born, also had to do it at this moment. Their social character also has it advantages. When I saw someone passing by with ‘mate’ (a kind of herbal tea, the national beverage) I told my friend I still hadn’t tried it yet, of course so loud that the boy could hear it and had to offer me his cup.
At the foundation I’m also very culturally involved. Friday the 16th of November, in a language institute in Recoleta -a chic neighborhood in the centre- took place ‘Global Village’. This is a cultural market that is organized annually and all over the world by AIESEC, the largest student organization in the world that helps students find a challenging internship. The goal of this market is simple, bringing the locals in contact with others cultures. These kinds of things always attracted me, besides I would like to collaborate with AIESEC and embassies in the framework of my project to attract more foreign interns to Argentina.
The participating countries (among others Holland, Finland, Czech Republic, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, India and China) that were represented by mostly associates of the concerned embassies had a booth with information, objects and delicacies from their country and held a presentation with a video. I learned that Brazil had the biggest African and Japanese community (besides those countries) and that Colombia is one of the countries in the world with the biggest biodiversity. I tasted Indian vegetable-anise pastries and saw in a video how German Brazilians dressed in ‘Lederhosen’ (‘leather pants’) partied in the streets of Rio during their ‘Oktoberfest’ (beer feast celebrated in October). In Latin America culture is not so tied to national boundaries as in Europe. I also got the address of the best Mexican restaurant in Buenos Aires. The sound of the old-fashioned –and because of that funny- video about The Netherlands didn’t work well, so the girl (in the picture on the right) had to comment it herself. The ‘kruidkoek’ (‘herb cake’) made by the Dutch mother of an Argentine girl of AIESEC made it up. The Argentines were mostly impressed by the flower fields and ‘hagelslag’ (‘little chocolate spaghetti’), and learned that my country is not some kind of Sodom or Gomorrah but that our drugs and prostitution policy in fact prevents bad conduct.
In The Netherlands going out often means visiting a bar, restaurant or cinema but here I immediately went to the theatre and a concert of classical music. The cousin of an Argentine friend goes to a “musical high school” and performed in a church in Saveedra, a neighborhood in the north of the centre. The church was full of proud family members who with the help of their mobile phones and cameras fought against the passing of time. The serene atmosphere in combination with the clear tones was touching. It was a pity though that the Argentines, who I think are capable of speaking from the moment they are born, also had to do it at this moment. Their social character also has it advantages. When I saw someone passing by with ‘mate’ (a kind of herbal tea, the national beverage) I told my friend I still hadn’t tried it yet, of course so loud that the boy could hear it and had to offer me his cup.
At the foundation I’m also very culturally involved. Friday the 16th of November, in a language institute in Recoleta -a chic neighborhood in the centre- took place ‘Global Village’. This is a cultural market that is organized annually and all over the world by AIESEC, the largest student organization in the world that helps students find a challenging internship. The goal of this market is simple, bringing the locals in contact with others cultures. These kinds of things always attracted me, besides I would like to collaborate with AIESEC and embassies in the framework of my project to attract more foreign interns to Argentina.
The participating countries (among others Holland, Finland, Czech Republic, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, India and China) that were represented by mostly associates of the concerned embassies had a booth with information, objects and delicacies from their country and held a presentation with a video. I learned that Brazil had the biggest African and Japanese community (besides those countries) and that Colombia is one of the countries in the world with the biggest biodiversity. I tasted Indian vegetable-anise pastries and saw in a video how German Brazilians dressed in ‘Lederhosen’ (‘leather pants’) partied in the streets of Rio during their ‘Oktoberfest’ (beer feast celebrated in October). In Latin America culture is not so tied to national boundaries as in Europe. I also got the address of the best Mexican restaurant in Buenos Aires. The sound of the old-fashioned –and because of that funny- video about The Netherlands didn’t work well, so the girl (in the picture on the right) had to comment it herself. The ‘kruidkoek’ (‘herb cake’) made by the Dutch mother of an Argentine girl of AIESEC made it up. The Argentines were mostly impressed by the flower fields and ‘hagelslag’ (‘little chocolate spaghetti’), and learned that my country is not some kind of Sodom or Gomorrah but that our drugs and prostitution policy in fact prevents bad conduct.
Noortje Peverelli, Dutch intern
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