Jargon jargon

Now that I only have about a month and a half left, I have started to think "back" on my experience here, and (re)evaluate how things have played out. One component of my time here that is constantly on my mind is, most obviously, language, and the frequency with which I think and speak in Spanish. (Actually, here, porteños don't actually consider their language 'Spanish,' but rather Castellano, and it's impossible to convince them that these languages are, in fundamentals, the very same language with differences only in slang, pronunciations, and various dialectical discrepancies.) Anyway, on our program we were instructed to only speak in Spanish while here. And while of course that "rule" is followed in class, in our homestays, and on the streets, I have found it plain old silly (if not impossible) to only speak in Spanish with other American students, especially those that I have only recently met and am still getting to know.
Even if we speak Spanish at a uniform level, there are some barriers that completely obstruct full understanding between two people speaking their common second language. Except for cases of full fluidity, which I think I could maybe acquire after living here for five years, it's unfeasible to express myself and be comfortable in all of my syntax and connotational choices. The ability to intuit and express connotation naturally is automatic in English for me (and I think for everyone,) but this key to communication is lost in translation, and difficult to acquire. Talking with Argentines is different, and communication with them in Spanish is much more successful than with other Americans. Since we both need to speak Spanish to interact, I find I can convey my message more effectively with them. Maybe I'm trying harder to relay the information, or maybe it's just the fact that we don't both know in the back of our minds that speaking in English would just be less inhibiting, but in speaking Spanish with native Latin Americans I rarely feel as frustratingly stuck as I do when I am speaking in Spanish with other Americans.

One other thing:
I was in a dietetica the other day...the health food craze hasn't yet hit this country, so to buy anything mildly healthy - wheat bread, brown sugar, oatmeal cookies, crackers made without beef fat - I have to go to these tiny stores that boast walls lined with jars of dried herbs and teas, sacks of various flours and beans, and freshly dried fruits... Anyway, as I was paying for my dried figs and apricots, the storekeeper asked me, "who is going to win, Obama or McCain?" I replied, "Obama, I hope." His aghast eyes widened. "REALLY?! You're going to vote for a black person?!" I wasn't sure what to say. "Yeah, definitely. He has some good ideas, and he is very intelligent," was all I could muster. "I would never vote for a negro!" (The Spanish word for black person.)
So I left with my fruit and my open mind.

I wanted to find a picture of a dietetica, but all I could find was this photo of a combination dietetica/santeria. In English: health food store/saintery, aka a store where they sell sculptures and images of saints. What a gem.