Or as I like to sometimes call them, DYKs. Either way…After spending almost 6 weeks in one place there are a few things that you can’t help but notice about a culture while also picking up some random trivia along the way.
The first thing you will might notice upon your first visit to Argentina is that it won’t take long to begin wondering why everyone in Argentina gives you funny looks when you order “Pollo†in the typical Spanish dialect pronouncing it ‘poy-yo’. You then find out that in Argentina and most of Uruguay they refer to their Spanish as Castillano, where the “ll†is pronounced with a ‘sh’ sound. In these two cases ‘pollo’ would be ‘posho’ and ‘castillano’ is ‘castishano’. Any ‘y’ is pronounced the same way. For example, we hear ‘To-sho-ta’ quite a bit when locals are referring to our Toyotas. Grammatically speaking, this specific dialect also utilizes saying ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’.   Again, you will find yourself receiving odd looks for replying with “muy bien gracias ¿Y tú ?” when a locals asks “¿Cómo estás?”
There are roughly 13 million people living in Buenos Aires and they’re known as “porteños”, meaning ‘people of the port’.
Avenida 9 de Julio, which bisects Buenos Aires, is the widest street in the world boasting 16 lanes of sheer madness! – We drove it of course!
When visiting Buenos Aires you should also be aware that 100 peso bills are the most common to receive out of an ATM, however you will find that no one will have the change to be able to break that bill. Try paying for a 10 peso cab ride with 100 without getting some serious attitude from the driver-if he even has change at at all. Also, it appears that the coins are more valuable than their paper money.  So you can consider yourself a superstar for ever having correct change! Otherwise, you’re most likely to get some attitude yet again. For example, you might think you have lucked out when you have a 20 peso bill in order to buy something that costs 11. Well, not quite, because you will get asked for that one peso coin so that they can give you a 10 back instead of having to dole out their coins and for some reason “No, no tengo nada mas. Lo siento.†doesn’t really cut it. But you’ll get used to it and as your confidence grows (after about week 4 or so) you can give your cab driver or the lady at the market a hard time right back. You’ll see…!
The President of Argentina is Cristina Kirchner. She is the wife of former President Néstor Kirchner. While she is the country’s second female President she is the first woman in history to succeed her husband as President.
One of the world’s most famous football clubs, Boca Juniors, calls itself after the porteño neighborhood in which it was born, La Boca, situated at the mouth of the river on the southern edge of the city. The ‘Juniors’ was added to make the club sound more regal by simply adding an English language word.  The team is known for wearing blue and yellow but this was not always so. In the 1920s they wore black and white like another porteño club (no longer around) until one day the two teams squared off to find out once and for all who would get to sport those colors. Boca, being the losers, decided that their new colors would be the same colors as whatever country’s flag was hoisted atop the next incoming ship. That ship was Swedish.
