Most taxi rides in Buenos Aires are routine affairs. You get in, go from A to B, and get out. Nothing exciting - completely forgettable.

On the other hand, if you take enough cabs, you will have a few rides that are exceptionally memorable.

On one late-night taxi ride, I had a driver, who I’m pretty sure was drunk, talking at me in rapid-fire Castellano for the whole trip. He had no idea that I didn’t speak his language, and politely kept steady eye contact with me, breaking it only to make the sign of the cross and whisper a quick prayer each time we passed a church.

I was puzzled after the first prayer, but after it became clear that we would not be stopping for intersections, red lights, or pedestrians, I understood and was thankful for it. Rather than stop at these places, he would tap the horn a few times and speed through. I can’t complain, though. I made it home in record time, and I learned that I can continue to be a good listener even when I think I’m about to die.

Also, taxi drivers here speak English more often than you’d think. One morning, as my driver and I were sitting in rush hour traffic, the driver threw his hands up and said “Do you believe this? Same shit, different day. This traffic was the same shit yesterday. Always the same shit at this time!”

The traffic was, in fact, worse than usual because of a protest* going on, and he started to rant about the President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: how she’s an idiot, doesn’t know anything about the country, doesn’t care about the people. And then he remarked, “But you know about that! You have Bush! He’s the same shit. The same shit as Kirschner. Everywhere, it’s always the same shit! What do you think about Bush?”

I let him know that I didn’t vote for Bush and quickly changed the subject to the weather, which, for July, was unseasonably warm. “This is our winter!” he said, “Do you believe this! Here, it’s this hot in the winter!** It’s very nice; look at what I’m wearing in the winter! Not like where you come from, right?”

“Well, as a matter of fact,” I said, “I came here from Miami.”

“Oh!” he said, “it’s the same shit there! Always hot! Same shit as here!”

Yep.

But wait a second.

I think warm weather is nice. He had just said he thought so, too. I wouldn’t think of two places that have warm weather as having “the same shit”. Traffic problems - sure. Incompetent politicians - of course. But nice weather? I’d call that having “the same really good thing”.

And then I got it: he thought that “the same shit” simply meant “the same”.

He’d probably heard one of his passengers say “same shit, different day”, didn’t recognize the phrase, and, when he asked what it meant, was hastily told that it just meant “the same”.

I didn’t have it me to correct him, and I don’t mean to make fun of the guy, but I did tip him especially well because I knew I’d definitely get a lot of mileage out of this story.

*North American protesters should take a trip to South America to learn how protesting’s done. Here, you’ll find none of this “honk if you support workers’ rights” garbage. We get all-day events, parades with dozens of giant marching-band drums, abandoned trucks blocking major traffic arteries. One group came up with a catchy song and sang it from the back of a vegetable truck with a microphone, huge speakers, and full-band accompaniment. This is major-league protesting. I don’t how effective it is in terms of getting what they want, but, in terms of performance, these protesters commit.

**Not usually. If you’re coming in July or August, bring a coat. You’ll need it.

Just to your right, you’ll find my brand-new Twitter feed. You’re all welcome to follow it; you’ll have to join Twitter in order to do that. If you don’t want to, don’t worry, the three most recent updates will always appear on the front page of this site.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m proud of myself for getting Twitter up there.

Right now, I’m working on my own Wordpress theme that will fit more closely with what I originally wanted this site to do. Until I’m finished (which by the looks of things, could be a really long time!), I’ll be using this new theme, which I like a lot.

It’s called “Journalist” and it was designed by Lucian E. Marin. I think it’s cleaner and easier to read than the last one was - my only complaint is that my links aren’t categorized anymore! I bet we can handle that for a while, though.

If you have your own blog, and liked the previous theme, it was called “Neonglow”, and can be found here.