ArcaMax

The thing about traveling abroad is that suddenly the way you do everyday things turns out not to be the way everyone else does those things, and the mind is blown. Or at least opened a smidge.

So allow me, if you will, to describe a few things that folks in Buenos Aires do differently from us in the States. Starting with ... coffee breaks.

I was invited to speak at a conference on "Sustainable Cities" sponsored by the Institute for Future Urban Challenges of the Buenos Aires City Legislature, CAF - Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, and the United Nations. Thrillingly, they wanted to hear how making kids more independent fights childhood anxiety and makes cities more inviting. Having kids out and about means a city is safe enough for everyone else to be out and about (and independent and less anxious) too.

But personally I was really happy just to partake of the conference beverages. At the start of the day, they of course served coffee. But during the coffee break? Big pitchers of ice-cold Coke were set out for us all. That's a first step to making a city more sustainable to ME. I love Coke!

As for lunch? (Yes, this column is mostly about food.) You should know that in Argentina, the sandwiches are served without crust -- another big plus in my book. And two-slice sandwiches are so USA. In Argentina, the ones I saw had three layers -- but the bread is sliced thinner. So there might be ham between two slices and cheese between the two others. The idea of a two-slice sandwich now seems ... provincial.

Another lunch option is to go to an empanada restaurant. (Empanadas are the original Hot Pockets.) A group of about 10 of us went to one of these and ordered big platters of empanadas filled with meat, corn, cheese. The fluting on the edges is different, depending on what's inside, so you know what you're about to bite into. Usually.

And not to dwell on food, but, well, what the heck. If you go out for pizza in BA (as Buenos Aires calls itself), you might want to get it with "faina." Pronounced "finer," faina does indeed make your pizza better: It's a thin, triangular piece of crunchy chickpea-flour pancake. You place it on top of your pizza slice and voila, you have a sort of pizza sandwich: dough on the bottom, cheese and tomatoes in the middle, crunchy triangle thing on top.

I did not count calories on this trip.

Besides the different food, there were the greetings: Locals don't seem to nod or shake hands. Even when meeting someone for the first time, you embrace them with your right arm and kiss them on their left cheek. It's just the polite, normal thing to do. And it sure makes a person feel welcome!

Another bit of everyday intimacy is to share yerba mate. That's a drink that tastes a lot like tea that many Argentinians drink all day. You prepare it by pouring some dry mate (which looks like crumbled tea leaves) into a carved-out gourd about the size of a tennis ball.

Then you pour in some hot water from the thermos you always have at hand, then sip the brew through a steel straw that has a little filter at the bottom to keep the leaves out.

All day long you refill and sip, refill and sip. And if you're with friends or family members, you pass it around and they drink from your straw too.

The buzz is enough to keep you awake for dinner, which starts at 8 or 9 p.m. (Unless you are a wimpy tourist, eating at 7 p.m. in an almost empty restaurant.)

Long story short: Travel is broadening because you see other ways of living life.

And also because of the empanadas and pizza.

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Lenore Skenazy is president of Let Grow, a contributing writer at Reason.com, and author of "Has the World Gone Skenazy?" To learn more about Lenore Skenazy (Lskenazy@yahoo.com) and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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