I totally agree with Nikad - I am also an Argie living with my American boyfriend here, and from every Argentine friend of mine I’ve spoken to, I can tell you: telling them that you’re here for a fixed amount of time (with no ties to this land and without knowing if you’ll come back again soon) is a total turnoff for most of them.
Another thing to take into account is that dating relationships here start sort of in a different way than in the us: from what I know, in the US it’s more like “hey, we like each other –as “friends”-, let’s do stuff together and see if, over time, we like each other for more than that!”. Here, just meeting new people from the opposite sex in a new town for fun (and if you like them more, maybe dating) is not something that most Argentine woman are accustomed to or can even think of. As most people don’t really make new friends from the opposite sex after a certain age (childhood or high-school), I’d argue that more or less every approach you make to a woman in her 20’s/30’s is regarded as a sexual/dating approach from you! Also, most people don’t move around towns, so most times they don’t have a completely new social group that they made in the last few years.
For all this, the mind of an Argentine woman may be in other places when you’re having your first couple of conversations with them, and this can change the whole perspective of the first couple of conversations you have with them.
Also, for this same no-friendship between men & women issue, Argentines tend to not go out in groups of friends from different sexes (except if they know each other from childhood, or if something else bonds them –like, if they’re coworkers-). So, if you try to go out with them and her friends, with a group of your friends, right after you meet them, they totally don’t get the message that you’re trying to date them or flirt with them. It can be even worse if you only invite her alone (and not her friends) to the group get-together: she may think you’re too serious with her, and she might even freak out! Introducing your date alone to friends is something that an Argie does only after a couple of dates, when the relationships get more serious, so introducing her to friends so soon will get her confused. Conclusion: no friends involved in the first couple of dates is better!
I’d think of dating in Argentina as a more “traditional” way of dating. The first few times you’re talking to her she might be thinking of you as a prospective boyfriend (maybe far in the future, but still) you might want something serious, and any further attitude that contradicts this view may get them confused.
So my suggestion would be to try to meet girls who are looking for foreigners (in conversation clubs, in hostels, etc), that are more open to other dating styles; or to act having in mind the Argentine could-we-be-serious attitude.
Hope this was useful!
Still, I had to get my hubby to open the doors for me, and pour the wine **sigh**
