Argentina: Part 4 - Marble floors and barred windows: Daily life

One of the perks of visiting a foreign country with someone from that country is that I got to see more of people's daily lives than the average tourist sees. Instead of stopping at the front doors, I was able to enter people's homes, eat at their tables, and observe family interactions.

For most of the trip, we stayed with Diego's mom and her sister in the apartment their parents bought years ago. I would guesstimate that it's in neither a rich nor a poor neighborhood. They live comfortably yet economically there. It stayed pretty cool in there in both the daytime and the evening even when the days were hot outside. The apartment had marble floors, which helped with keeping temperatures down, and wooden shades could be rolled down, covering the outside of the windows and patio doors. The wooden shades seemed to serve a dual-purpose: temperature control and security.

To prevent break-ins and burglaries, most windows and doors with glass panes had either wooden shades, iron bars, or both. The bars - which ranged from merely functional to highly decorative - remained on the windows at all times while the shades could be pulled up or down from a rope on the inside. It also seemed that people kept their doors locked at all times. When we would leave the apartment, we would have to unlock the door with a key from the inside in addition to locking and unlocking from the outside. I kept thinking how dangerous it could be to be locked in if there was a fire. Perhaps the danger of break-in is more prevalent though.

Functional window bars:

From Argentina Nov 2008

Functional yet decorative window bars:

From Argentina Nov 2008

Notice the glass shards at the top of the wall to keep intruders out

From Argentina Nov 2008

Another common feature of the Argentine home seemed to be the bidet that sat next to the toilet in every bathroom. I should have realized that's what it was when I first saw it, but I'm just not used to seeing bidets period. Diego and I had a conversation that went something like this:

me: That's interesting that there's a urinal next to the toilet.
Diego: Umm... that's a bidet.
me: Oh, right

Silly American.

Despite the ever-present bidets, I opted not to use them during my trip. I'm sure they're just fine, but I couldn't quite convince myself that they're sanitary. Plus, it's just not part of my bathroom routine, and if I ever considered using it, I just imagined the whole thing going awry and me ending up with wet clothes.

The other bathroom/plumbing related thing was that instead of H and C on the faucets for hot and cold, the faucets are labeled C and F for caliente and frio. Good do know in case you thought a cold shower might be nice on a hot day. The C wouldn't work out for you very well in Argentina in that case.

caliente y frio

From Argentina Nov 2008

Up next: "America" in Argentina

I swear I'll wrap this up soon. Thanksgiving just got in the way. Hopefully you're enjoying the posts, but there are other (current) things I've wanted to blog about and haven't since I don't want to lose all momentum on the Argentina stories.