Hoy empieza la primavera
Sep 21st, 2007, 11:32 pm
Spring is in the air.
After nearly two weeks of dark days and cold rain showers, the weather’s finally clearing up and getting warmer. I don’t have a thermometer built into my brain, but I’m guessing the high was 65 °F or so. Pretty flippin’ sweet.
Thousands of high school and college students and probably some junior high kids too were out and about for Día del Estudiante, or Student Day, which is held every twenty-first of September, the first day of spring. With no classes, they were swarming the sidewalks in large droves, walking towards the nearest parks to hang out with their friends and possibly get drunk and/or high. Some snack vendors were out, and I saw a reggae band performing. Interestingly, reggae seems fairly popular down here. What’s more interesting is that you see a lot of Rasta-looking white guys with dreadlocks.
Two of my friends and I took a quick stroll through Bosques de Palermo, a big park full of trees, bushes, lakes, and other goodies. Since we’re American, we spoke English to each other, which draws attention here, especially when it’s spoken by two Bangladeshis and a black girl–you know, all Americans have blond hair and blue eyes. My friends, both Muslims and hijabis, tend to draw a lot of attention since there are very few blacks, desis, and women that cover their hair in Argentina. A group of three or four guys in their late teens or early twenties was walking behind us, staring and grinning. One of them kept saying to his buddies “A ver” (”let’s take a look”). Then they started saying stuff like “I love you” and “welcome Argentina” in their very limited English to my friends. Then I turned around and said “Hablamos castellano también” (”We speak Spanish too”) just to show them that we understood everything they were saying when they spoke among themselves. And then one of them said “te quiero” (”I love you”) to the girls. Ha ha ha ha ha. And then they offered them beer since they were walking around with at least one bottle of Quilmes. Fortunately, they drifted away after following us for a few minutes.
Argentine guys are so bold. How did they know I wasn’t with either of the girls? You hardly find guys in the US that are brave enough to say stuff like that to random girls, especially when they’re with other guys. Yes, they were probably drunk, but many Argentine guys do stuff like that when they’re sober. They often give random girls piropos, or flirtatious comments, even when they’re with a dude. They range from sweet to really vulgar and everything in between. You know what they call really vulgar piropos back where I’m from? Sexual harassment.
Luckily, I’m a guy and don’t have to deal with creepy men. Ugh, creepy guys ruin everything for the non-creepy ones like me. Why are so many guys like that throughout the world? Creepiness among men transcends nationality, race, religion, ethnicity, politics, and economics. I hope it’s not genetic.
A little video I took:
It got a bit racier a few minutes afterwards. The guy that pulled his shirt over his head pulled down his shorts and boxers and almost showed his, uh, yeah…
What a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of spring.