Amusement and men.

Warning: There are some things I really want to tell you, but they might not paint me in the best light – or, you might not care, so consider yourself warned… haha. Read with humor and lightness…

So I have tried to notice a bunch of things that I love or dislike about each day, and I might share them with you sometimes. For today:

I am extremely amused by men´s reactions to us here. Argentine men DO show their appreciation of women in various ways – classic whistles, hollers, the always uncomfortable up and down look (which is done without any shame here), the despised hiss, a very warm ¨hola¨, kissing noises, or just walking right up to us and offering to take us out for chocolate. The last one is my favorite.

While we know it´s just a tease, and have heard from everyone that Argentine men will say anything, I must admit that we use it to our advantage almost daily. Argentine and Chilean women intimidate us (although we´re learning how to crack their stares), so we pretty much always 19 ask men for help, directions, language questions, food or music suggestions, and, well… everything. Even cheese.

Before leaving Santiago, I was in a grocery store and had questions about cheese. Without thinking, I scanned the store for a man, and told Katie I would go ask him instead of the woman, who was closer. As I walked away, I realized how automatic my decision was, spun to face Katie and said, ¨Katie, this is horrible. I´m using my sexuality to buy cheese!¨

Bad news. I know. But it´s super-humorous.

Other thing on this subject: While hanging out with female travellers is great, we´ve met more fun guys - again, the women we´ve met here are intimidating! (Except our Israeli friends who were both just so cute and fun). So we decided instead of ignoring guys on the streets, we should try to meet them (but only if they aren´t creepy)! This morning we spent a good amount of time working on smiling as we walk down streets, making eye contact, and saying a friendly ¨hola¨ to people who pass and take note of us as gringas. Bariloche is filled with fun travellers, and we want to meet them! Haha… don´t worry. We´re being safe. And smart. But we´re amused by all this…