The happy dogs of Argentina...

...and other things I´ve observed and learned

Lots of Argentines seem to have dogs - and, like in the United States, many of them are large. Not the little dust bunnies that the Europeans favor. Megan and I have noticed that the dogs of Argentina are very happy, at least most that we see. We know there are also sickly and malnourished dogs, but that doesn´t seem to be the norm.

There are dogs on leashes, and then there are dogs off leashes - roaming the city or countryside, in packs of four or five, with their tails high and confident and broad canine smiles on their little faces. I know, packs of loose dogs in a city are not particularly safe for dogs or humans, but - Megan and I have both lived with dogs and we agree that these loose dogs look absolutely joyful. They trot through the train station, large and small dogs travelling together, looking so self-assured and businesslike. "Ok boys, we need to check out that trash bin on Platform 7, and then head over to the plaza to drink from the fountain. Let´s get cracking, we´ve got a lot of work to do today."

Sometimes we take pictures of the happy dogs. Just looking at them makes us happy.

Other random observations...

Argentine red wines, unlike most American ones, do not give me headaches.

Chicken is not necessarily considered a meat here. Neither is ham, it seems. Several times Megan has confirmed that something is "sin carne," only to receive a meal full of ham or chicken. Despite the abundance of pasta, this is not a country where it´s easy to be a vegetarian. That wasn´t a surprise, really, but it´s odd how ¨meat¨seems to mean ¨beef or pork."

Sometimes I think that Argentina and the United States are like two alternate realities of the same place. You know, like the Star Trek episodes where they somehow find themselves face-to-face with themselves in an alternate reality. The two countries have a similar geography - coasts, mountains, plains, desert and red rock canyons, expansive wetlands, humid green zones. They also have a similar history, with an indigenous population that is now small in relative terms, a population mainly of European descent, substantial waves of European immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and even waves of immigrants from Asia. They have rich natural resources. So it´s almost like seeing how a country evolved in a different dimensional reality - not better or worse, just different.

This last one is just for the linguistically geeky (you know who you are): Megan´s landlord came by right before we left BA to check on the malfunctioning Internet connection, and he speaks no English but does speak both Spanish and Italian. It was completely liberating - the ability to use whatever word came to mind, without having to think about whether it was Spanish or Italian. Gleefully, giddily, my brain spilled out whatever it could grab onto, and speaking was no longer an effort. "Si, Megan esta aqui, pero cambia i suoi vestiti," I explained confidently. "Ayer, la internet functionaba, pero oggi non fa niente!" If only more people spoke Spitalian, I could communicate more globally.