Mate (pronounced MAH-tay)

You might be tempted to associate dancing the Tango with Argentina, but in fact very few people dance it.  (People enjoy listening to the music and singing it, which generally tells of some tragic love story), but the dance is not universally popular.

Mate, a tea-like drink with a special cup and shared straw, is quite popular.  I love it, not for the taste, which took a while to acquire, but for the social rythmn that is implicit in sharing a mate.  Walk around any park in Buenos Aires and you'll see people carrying a thermos and a herb-filled gord with a silver straw (called a bombilla).  Sharing a cup of coffee means having your cup of coffee the same time someone else has theirs.  Sharing a mate you literally take turns, each person gets a cupful of hot water poured over the herbs, and they drink it until you hear a sound (the air, meaning that you've finished the water), then you pass it back to the pourer, who fills the cup and passes it to the next person.  Yes, you have to ignore the whole sharing a straw thing.  

I love this tradition, because it's a way of connecting with people, who love to sit for hours chatting and drinking mate.  Although I didn't like the taste at first, I adjusted to it, to be part of the whole culture.  Thank goodness I never smoked -- if I did, I'd probably be the one passing out cigarettes to experience the same sense of sharing.

So Hugo and I share a mate every morning (meaning, one thermos of hot water poured over the herbs, about 14 small cups in total, back and forth).  And I'm always pleased when I'm with a group of people and I'm offered a mate, the movie two nights ago, or playing frisbee, or wherever.  With the exception of Pablo and Hugo, it's been hard to make any real friends here, but sharing mate with folks, even folks I barely know, definitely gives me a comfortable feeling of being connected.