Odds are… Part II
I wandered up about 10 blocks to the north of here to check out the neighborhood I’ll be relocating to. Walking along Rodríguez Peña on my way back I spotted a pub called the Shamrock. Sounded englishy and thought I might run into some Irish, English or American patrons.
I asked for a beer in Spanish. I didn’t fool the bartender into thinking I was a porteño, and she replied in English that they were out of that particular beer. Fine, then. I’ll have a Stella instead… Their happy hour runs until midnight. Two for one (12 pesos, or about $4 USD for two pints). Try finding a place like that in the US!
She asked where I was from. Part of my explanation was that I had lived in Boulder, CO for a few years. Turns out she had lived there as well, for school. Wow, isn’t that a coincidence?
I further explained that I’m not really from Colorado, originally I grew up in Wisconsin.
“Wow, me too!” she replied. That’s more coincidental.
“No way, where about?”
“Appleton,” she says. My eyebrows lifted in astonishment, because that’s where I’m from.
I almost never run into Wisconsinites in my current residence of Connecticut. If I met someone from Appleton in Connecticut, that would be quite notable. But in a random pub in Buenos Aires?? Wow. Turns out she moved to BA two months ago, not knowing much Spanish. And now she’s serving porteños beer. She proves that it’s possible to learn functional Spanish in a short period of time.
