The main objective: to “hang out”

I had some comments on the DNI-complaints post that people would have a hard time understanding why I still choose to live in Argentina. Hence, I feel urged to describe some of the reasons to avoid any confusion =) Apart from the most obvious reasons such as “love concurs all” (my Pablito) and that I (luckily) had not foreseen all the problems I would run into, an important motive for choosing to live in Buenos Aires is its social life, to hang out… It seems that here you spend more time with “your people”. There is no excuse too small for a social gathering… Again, I need to underline that I am basing this merely on my personal observations, but I have a hunch that I am not very mistaken.

Let me give an example to be clearer. One of the most obvious cases is how you celebrate your birthday here in Argentina. EVERY birthday HAS TO be celebrated, not only the children’s, and EVERYONE has to come. As I see it with my foreign Swedish eyes it is basically a perfect excuse for friends and family to get together. What is more, at all (?) birthdays there is Happy-birthday song, cake with a candle and the photo taken while blowing it out. Grown-ups and kids, they all do it. This is perfectly illustrated in the photo here from my first birthday party in Buenos Aires. The cake also serves as a norm that lets you know when it is ok to leave the party/gathering. Leaving before the cake is served is “mala onda” (not really bad manners, more like bad “spirit” – any translators around to help me out here?).

Another maybe more creative interpretation of mine concerning the reason for the birthday gatherings would be the celebration of one’s self, the right to take up other people’s time etc. This is something Swedes in general are not so good at with the “Jantelagen” hanging over them. One point that leads me in this direction would be the omnipresent Freud and that a great part of the (middle class) Argentineans has been psychoanalyzed at some point in life. However, to me, the Argentineans’ “buena onda” (good spirit) and need to hang out outweighs any other possible reason for the birthday gatherings.

There are of course many other gatherings as well such as the family pasta on Sundays, girls’/boys’ night out usually on Thursdays, etc. But THE gathering , one of the most common ones and maybe the one most known internationally is – the ASADO (Argentinean barbecue). I will not go into details here concerning the “ritual” per se, it will come in a future post as it requires its proper space, but I can say as much as it occurs every weekend if you are very lucky.

According to my "observations" there are some facilitating conditions that make these gathering possible. For example, the children tag along and are left sleeping on chairs or alike during the night, and you can actually invite a lot of people over without being very pretentious about it. Ordering in take out, such as “empanadas” (pirogues/pasties) is a more than valid option. And finally, the only valid excuse for not attending these events if you are not already booked on another one, is if you are ill. “I do not feel like it” does not work - that is merely “mala onda”.