El Cine

Look at how fancy the McDonalds isNormally you wouldn't consider going to the movies a "cultural" experience, but going to the movies abroad is. A couple of friends and I decided to go watch "Confessions of a Shopaholic" (don't judge) a couple of weeks ago which is hilariously translated as "Loca por las compras." We all meet up at 10 to go inside the fabulous movie theatre, which is right in front of the famed Recoletta cemetery and has it's own cafe and a very large bookstore. Just in case you decide to get your knowledge on or sip on a cup of coffee and eat a media luna before the movie beings. We ride the escalator to the boletería to buy our tickets and the lady, in spanish, asks us which seat I'd like to sit in. I was a little confused because I didn't think that this would be a decision I'd have to make so soon. We ask the lady if there's anyway that we could sit together and she arranges our seating next to each other. She told us the area that we were sitting in but it didn't really make a difference to me at all. We were about 30 minutes early, and normally we're used to just being able to waltz into the theatre and sit and relax. Here, you have to wait for your theater number to be called. While we were waiting I kind of started walking around, not doing anything special, and I saw that at the concession stand you had the option of buying either salted popcorn or caramel popcorn. I noticed that a lot of people opted for caramel flavored popcorn over the salted. The portions also seemed a lot smaller than what's served in the states. I had an alfajore in my bag and some water so I thought I was good to go. Our theater number was called and we go inside the theatre. It was just like going to a play where you look around hoping to find your seats, obsessively checking each seat you pass as to avoid any awkward conversation with someone claiming you took their seat. We all sit in our assigned seats and wait for the movie to begin. In the states most theaters tend to have previews before previews where they'd show triva or play music or infomercials of the sort. They didn't have that here so 3 minutes into sitting down I got bored and decided to whip out my alfajore. I don't think I like alfajores that much and so I gave it to madmadmad instead and watched her eat it. The previews started and it was funny to me that there was 1 Argentine movie among the 6 movies from the US. When watching the preview for the Argentine movie and hearing the crowd erupt with laughter, kind of like how some say that it's difficult to "get" British humor, I wondered if I'd be able to get the humor. The movie started and I really enjoyed watching it with the Spanish subtitles. I also loved that the audience thought the movie was funny and laughed at the same jokes that I did despite the language barrier. All in all it was a good time and now I know how to say Confessions of a Shopaholic in Spanish.