The schedule of Buenos Aires is nothing like what I have experienced before – fast but slow, energetic yet sleepy. I wrote four short pieces dedicated to the hours of this incredible city and my adjustment to them.

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Each morning I wake up to my alarm, always groggily rubbing my eyes regardless of how many hours I slept that night. With my wooden window blinds closed, I feel like I am in a cocoon in my baby blue room with my warm bed trying to lull me back to sleep. Despite how tired I feel, I resist with thoughts of the multitude of barrios (neighborhoods) and parks that await my exploration.

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The Argentine eating schedule is as follows:
8-9 AM: café con leche y tostados (coffee with milk and toast)
1-4 PM: café con leche y medialunas (coffee with milk and croissants)
5-6 PM: mate (mate—a highly caffeinated tea that decreases the sensation of starvation)
9-11 PM: actual food—an average-sized dinner

Fortunately, my host parents are veterans when it comes to working with foreigners and study abroad students, particularly American college girls. Thus, they know that I actually need more substance in order to survive and they provide food accordingly. Nevertheless, my body and mind are still very confused with these eating habits, and they are continually bantering about whether I am full or ravished. (By the way, they do not use the expression “I’m full” in Argentina. Go figure.)

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On the streets of Buenos Aires at midnight, couples and friends are finishing their dinners at outdoor tables on sidewalks. They have had a bottle of wine, or two, and you can tell that the night is young. Once the check is paid and the last bit of postre (dessert) is finished, the older crowd might meander back to their apartments while everyone else gets ready for the next locale – a friend’s living room or a bar – for another couple hours. The final resting place for the night will be at a boliche (club) for dancing and partying until the not-so-wee hours of the morning. At 7 or 8 in the morning the porteños (Buenos Aires residents) will find their way back to their beds for a long hibernation. As an early bird who loves to get her worm in the morning, I’m not sure if I will ever embrace this night owl lifestyle. Right now, I think having a “porteño night out” once a month will be perfectly sufficient for my cultural education.

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In the midst of the bustling city, many leisurely hours and lazy Sunday afternoons are passed over mate. Armed with a gourd, filtered straw, and a thermos of hot water, friends and families gather around the kitchen table, in a plaza, or on a park bench and pass the bitter tea around, each person sipping a gourd-full of steaming mate. The custom almost seems like a hippie group from the 60s sharing a psychedelic experience, but the innocence and inclusive nature of it makes it a beautiful aspect of the culture that I would like to embrace and bring back with me to my life up north.