Differences

One of the great things about exploring a new world is taking in the subtle differences that makes it distinct from your homeland.

Here are a few key cultural idiosyncrasies.


1. There is no consistency in building materials. Houses are made of red brick, covered in cement block, plaster and spray-painted corrugated aluminum. Sidewalks are a madman's mosaic of slippery sleet, street stones, Lego blocks and holes. It's like they patch up anything with whatever is around.

2. Everyone jaywalks. This makes complete sense to me. Everyone, everywhere should jaywalk.

3. In Buenos Aires, you pay for your fruits and vegetables separately from your groceries at the corner store and market.

4. You can't take a step without fearing for dog poo.

5. Everywhere you look, you see over-tanned former beauty queens.

6. None of the streets run parallel but off in their own directions with no regard for an overarching order.

7. Here, you'll see five workers and twenty pedestrians watch a man in a green vest climb through trees and swing from power lines like a monkey, cutting down branches with a chainsaw.

8. There are mist machines in park. These things rule. We need some of these in Canada. Another good idea for kids: Fenced in sandboxes around playgrounds to keep them in and the kittens out.

9. I stumbled across a youth gang smoking cigarettes, drinking beer by the litre and trying to look bad-ass downtown. They were about 10. Adorable. I took their photo, but they didn't really like that.

10. Couples necking on park benches. They're everywhere. Where else do you see that? When do you use the word necking?

I dig it.

In a phrase, Buenos Aires is More Mad Max than Mexico.