Dog walkers, PDAs, half covered bellies, and other BA quirks

Before I leave BA, I wanted to post a compilation of quirks, oddities, and other unclassifiable things that I have been witness to during my nine days here:

-Perhaps it is just a summer fashion statement, but nearly every pregnant woman I have seen on the streets or bus wears the same type of tight fitting tank top that covers exactly the top half of their bulging belly. The bottom half is open to the elements, letting the little one get a head start on the sounds and smells of the city.

-The subway here is great, on one line most of this seating is almost couch-like, with velvet upholstery. Also, the windows are left open, something you would never see in the lawsuit crazy USA.

-Seemingly all the locks in the city are opened with really old style keys. They are the type that are a couple inches long and look like they were used 300 years ago.

-Because of the heavy Italian influence here, they take their ice cream seriously. There are helado artesanal shops on every other corner. You can choose from eight different kinds of chocolate alone!!

-The nightlife here gets going at a rediculous hour. Many clubs do not open until 2am, this would probably explain why the bus I took home earlier this week at 1am was so crowded I could barely find a rail to grab onto. Supposedly even the Brazilians (notorious partiers themselves) think that the Argentine nightlife is crazy.

-Public displays of affection are commonplace. Yesterday on a packed bus, I gawked literally 2 feet away as a standing couple, each with one hand grip on a rail, proceeded to slobber on each other for about 30 seconds. It is so accepted here not even one person (besides myself) appeared to be bemused by the show. Compared to someplace like Thailand where holding hands in public is about as risque as it gets, this is quite scandalous.

-Finally, there are the dog walkers. I think this is my favorite BA quirk. In some neighborhoods (mainly the more upscale ones) you will see dog walkers walking anywhere from 10-20 dogs together at the same time!!! Amazingly, most of the time these are rather large dogs. I wish I had a picture to show what this actually looks like.