My Roommate

I know I’ve been terrible about blogging about Argentine life, but it’s because I’m living it (anyone? No? Understood). But just to give you an idea of my life here, I wanted to write a quick post about my roommate. I have a fantastic apartment in Palermo (pictures on facebook), and I live with one other person. Who is that lucky lad? Him:


You're welcome.

Kissing in the Workplace

I’m sure you are all wondering what this post is about. So in different cultures there are different customs. And in Argentina, it is customary to kiss someone once on the cheek when you see them. I’m totally fine with kissing my friends when we see each other, but then you kiss on the cheek goodbye too. You also kiss people that you are introduced to (friends of friends), and really, anyone you sort of know. Again, fine with all of this.

Recently, however, I started teaching English at another company, as I’m beyond broke. They were beyond desperate because they hired me on the spot. Seriously, I can PR myself anywhere. So I started the next day. Cut to the next day: In walks my male boss. And, you guessed it - he kisses me on the check. Little project: everyone imagine walking into work on Monday and kissing your boss. This is even more understood if you are female and he is male (glass ceiling, I know). It’s weird! It’s just weird. And, of course, we had to kiss goodbye as well. Now what makes me so giggly about all of it is that every time it happens (twice a day Mon-Fri), I picture this custom in the US. Specifically with my former male boss and it makes me laugh.

But no, it’s totally normal here. Sidenote: our neighbors just came over to see our kitchen (or something, it was all in Spanish), and I kissed the man too. I guess the handshake just never really caught on here…