I teach one class on Tuesdays; it's a speaking seminar with about 10 students. Since most English majors here are girls, I'm the only guy in the class. The main assignment for today was to watch some episodes of the TV show Friends and compare that culture to Argentine culture. Pretty harmless, right? Well...someone in the show (David Schwimmer's character) mentioned how small another character's feet were, and this sparked a discussion. "Why would he comment on that?" they asked...
The teacher then explained the...estimation system that some people have to relate penis size to shoe size, and of course I had to verify that this existed in my culture. That was the first time I turned red in class...Then, we started talking about other features that people use to guess what someone's packing in their trousers (nose, hands, etc.), and I learned that in Argentina they use height as the main estimate. They called it the "L" rule, since if you make an L with your hand, your thumb...well, it points out. So, now I'm even more worried about being 3 inches taller than everyone else.
Well, after class and a little grading I hopped on the number 2 bus home. About halfway through the trip, the bus driver stopped and just waited for ten minutes. Then, without any explanation, he got up and got off the bus. It was at this time that I looked over and saw that on the other side of the road (which is the main highway entering Río Cuarto, mind you) was another driver; it was time to change shifts, apparently. Then, I was treated to quite a show as I watched each of the two men scramble to avoid heavy traffic in order to cross.
Oh, Argentina, you're the wacky aunt in my family tree.
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