Its a whole different ball game here

When we first came to Argentina we were told over and over how beautiful the women look, but what about the men?! While, I have a great guy back home (: I cant say I haven't at least taken a glance at these boys. I've decided that besides the men with VERY strange haircuts, the other men have beautiful hair. It just looks very soft and wind blown. Now where am I going with this? Well Id like to talk about this friendship thing between boys and girls.

Here it is practically nonexistent. I was quick to notice that when people have boyfiends or girlfriends, they spend most of their time with them going to parks, and shopping, and eating out... this is not too unusually from the US. But what is different is that Im not sure my sisters have really close guy friends. When we go out to eat or out to socialize we only go with girls.... or with a girl and here boyfriend, but never a big group of guys and girls. Now this isn't a bad thing but its just different.

I've noticed that if we sit at a table with Argentine boys here the boys only talk to the other boys, almost ignoring the girls. If they ask us a question, and even if the girls is the first to answer they instinctively look at the boy for an answer. The idea isn't to ignore the girls, but I think if they take the tiniest interest in a girls, like talk to them, or look at them, it is seen as they are looking to date them.

Even when we are out and about, I don't feel like the guys are "checking us girls out," like they do in the U.S. Most people avoid eye contact, but maybe this is just a "big city thing."

We were asking a student ambassador named Brian about all of this and he said if he saw Devin and I out to eat, and we both have bf and gf back home, that he would assume we were dating. At home I don't know that this is the case. I feel like I can get a bite to eat, go fishing, or go to a store with a guy friend, and maybe some, but not EVERYONE assumes we are dating. It's okay to be just friends with guys back home.

I really like my male friends at home, but I can see how the "system" here is maybe a bit more clear-cut. Here they don't really have to worry about whether this "just friend" is really just a friend or if they really would like something more.

Some of my best memories at home have been in big groups of boys and girls together, and I would never trade my guys friends for anything, but seeing this cultural difference is very interesting to me! :)