My list of “normal” after two months in BA:
1) Walking up six flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator to get in a little extra exercise since my diet now consists of mucho pizza, empanadas, ice cream, steak, medialunas, dulce de leche and wine.
2) Testing ice cream from a different heladeria several days a week and finding every one to be as delicious as the last. (I may never be able stomach American style, soft-serve frozen yogurt again.)
3) Buying good (but cheap) wine for the equivalent of about U.S. $2-5 a bottle, and “splurging” on something really good is still less than $10 U.S.
4) Seeing 3-4 buses lined up in a row with the same bus number heading down the street together and the bus drivers chatting to each other when they are stopped at the lights.
5) Three lanes of cars lined up at the traffic lights where there should only be two (or one.)
6) Traffic lights that flash a yellow before turning green.
7) Walking down streets near my house that I thought I’d been down before and discovering a mercado, heladeria, cafe, rooftop park, etc. that I never noticed before.
8) Feral cats climbing in my lap while sitting in the park.
9) Families sleeping on the sidewalks, parks and median of 9 de Julio. (While it is normal to see, the sight of homeless children still doesn’t sit well with me.)
10) Being told I am crazy for moving here by every single Argentine I meet.
