Milk bags and other favorites

Today I started making a mental list of all of the things that first annoyed/aggravated me when I arrived in Buenos Aires and that now I don't want to ever live without. Here are a few:

1. Milk bags (and yogurt too)- people here by plastic bags of milk, snip a little hole in the corner and then place the bag into a colorful plastic pitcher that takes up tons of room in the fridge and tends to get knocked over, or fall out of the broken refrigerator door that is always packed with at least three half-empty squeeze-bags of mayonnaise, an old lemon, and a damp cardboard container of orange juice, all of which are held in place by a rickety bar, fastened with a rubber band. It's messy, but milk bags simulate an udder-type experience. I like them. The milk is so processed it never goes bad.

2. Light your own stove (I don't know the actual name for it)- every time I make tea I have to turn on the gas and snap a lighter towards the jet. At first my thumb would catch on fire. Now I can do it without looking.

3. Nescafe- sooooo much easier than brewing coffee!

4. Bidets- obvious. It still blows my mind that we don't really have these in the states.

5. Waiting for 20 minutes after you order a coffee- I get to strike up conversations with other patrons and ogle the pastries oozing behind the glass cases.

And of course there are things that I loved instantly, that are perhaps the reasons why I came here intuitively and then came BACK on a love-crazy, passion-induced whim, which has turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made.

1. Heladerias- like getting a pint to share with your boyfriend-- bitter chocolate, dulce de leche and marscapone-- and sitting in the park while the sun goes down.

2. Asados- meat, tender, salty meat that is so delicious you want to cry. All day long.

3. Malbecs- wine that is sweet, full-bodied and fierce a woman you love but could never live with.

4. Dulce de leche in plastic tubs- three in the morning, "just one spoonful never hurt anybody"

5.Terrace parties- perfect for feeling like your out of the city, drinking white wine...

6. Words like "A full," "Che," "Boludo," and just the conjugations of you, "Vos sos..."

7. Botanical Gardens- a magical place full of fountains, marble sculptures, and best of all, hundreds of cats....I still don't understand how this happened, but the garden is basically a cat shelter. They are beautiful and well cared for. People treat them like gods.

8. Book stores- they are eeeeeverywhere. A dream come true.

9. Cafes- so many beautiful places to have a cafe con leche and people watch.

10. Men with babies...Argentine men in general- I hate to generalize, but Argentina really does have the highest concentration of beautiful men in the world. And it is common to see them holding babies, or taking walks with their families and looking genuinely happy.