Experiences of an Expat: International Potluck
Writer’s note:The life of an ex-pat can vary from person to person. Many ex-pats hunker down in little ex-pat communities, surrounded by specialty stores that sell all their favorite goods and live next to numerous people who share their language, customs and culture. My question: what is the fun in that? This Travelations series is dedicated to my desire to occasionally be confused for a local.
One of the greatest things about being an expat is experiencing all the tiny differences between your culture and the one you are surrounded by. However, I have discovered that being an expat is almost like being a part of an awesome club; one that involves a vast network of other expats from all over the globe, all living somewhere else for their own reasons.
When I lived in the US I really loved having dinner parties, especially of the potluck variety. Going out to eat is expensive, cliche and worst of all, you can’t hang out at the table for hours afterwards unless you want to severely tick off your waiter. A few weeks ago I decided it was time for me to bring the potluck tradition back into my life and this past weekend I hosted my first potluck dinner in Buenos Aires.
Photo by Jorge Farah
The get together started small, I invited a few friends; nervous that in the end only my two closest friends would show up and I would be a social failure. However, as the dinner drew nearer, the guest list grew. My fear of being a social failure was replaced with being a failure as a hostess, as I have a very limited amount of seating and an equally pathetic collection of cutlery. The differences in social etiquette also began to worry me. I was well aware that some of my guests had never really attended a potluck before. I feared that no one would bring food and I would have nothing to offer my guests past a single stuffed red pepper and a glass of tap water per person. I also wondered about the arrival time. Argentines are a notoriously late-running group of people, anything within 30 minutes up to an hour of the planned meeting time seems to be acceptable in this culture. I decided not to put my peppers in the oven until my first guest arrived. I also made a last minute run to purchase dough, sauce, and cheese for an emergency pizza back up plan and bought several more forks, cups, and plates. Excessive? Yes, well, perhaps a little.
My first guest arrived only shortly after 8:30, my scheduled start time. As a Canadian expat, she was also quite worried about when she should arrive. I relaxed even more when my next guests arrived and admitted they had debated on when to show up as well. Within 30 minutes my get together was in full swing. My fear of having no food or drinks was completely ridiculous; we all ate like royalty. I was so engrossed in my tasty meal that I completely forgot to take photos of all the dishes. I simply sat at my table, looking around at my guests and smiling at the eclectic group of friends I had assembled; representing Canada, the United States, Ireland, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Sweden. I realized that only an expat could be so lucky as to enjoy such an ethnically diverse dinner within her own home.
Photo by Jorge Farah
Once we had all stuffed ourselves full of pasta, salad, empanadas, stuffed red peppers and various delectable desserts we continued to enjoy the abundance of wine, liquor and beer that had also made its way to the table. Everyone sat around, speaking in a mix of English and Spanish, trying to figure out everyone’s story and how we all came to find our lives connecting in Buenos Aires. Between watching funny videos online and passing a guitar around, we chatted, drank and paid no attention to the passing hours.
After dinner sing along
I am thrilled to have succeeded in my first event hosting endeavor here in my new home. I feel like I got much more out of this experience than I expected; I in no way planned for this to be such a diverse group, but I realized that having weird and interesting groups of friends is just one of the many perks of being an expat. Every day is a chance to meet someone with an interesting history from a place that may sound exotic to you, but to them is simply home. While I still love to feel like a local, I have realized that sometimes, being an expat is a culturally eye opening experience in itself.
Read more about Rease’s life as an expat: Experiences of an Expat: Education Full Circle.
Rease Kirchner a staff writer/Travel Adviser for Travelated. She is a US citizen currently living the ex-pat life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is bilingual and an experienced traveler. She loves gaining and sharing knowledge of local cultures, customs and adventure. Her blog Mi Vida en Buenos Aires documents her life as a foreigner.
