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At the verdulería (veggie store):
Day 1
Me: What potatoes are better to make gnocchi?
Seller: Black potatoes - here you are!
Me: Great, thanks! 
Day 10:
Me: I need black potatoes to make gnocchi!
Seller: I have white potatoes, they are just washed black potatoes. They are the same thing, really! 
Me: Great, thanks!
Translation:. On Day One, the verdulería had too many black potatoes. On Day Ten, white ones.
A conversation I had with a pseudo-intellectual on Sunday, a woman who saw me reading The Odyssey and came up to me randomly to talk. (Translated from Spanish):
Her: Are you enjoying The Odyssey?
Me: Yes, but I'm very anxious to know, what happens in the end.
Her: Oh, Odysseus returns home from the big journey and reunites with his son and wife.
Me: Hey, I also heard about a book called 'The Bible' that has a story about a man and a woman in a garden, and I'm really curious to know, *does she eat the apple*? I wonder what happens. Do you know what happens at the end of this story?
Her: [Looks at me blankly]
Nice one Morgan!
She needs to carry a "Spoiler Alert" sign.
Wasn’t there a story about a whale? I’ve always wondered ...
Verbatim true story. Happened last night.
Taxi driver wasn’t sure how to get there, so he asked me to navigate - happens fairly regularly. “Take Independencia or Rivadavia, turn left at Hortiguera, go straight and I’ll tell you when to turn.” Fine.
On Hortiguera now, “Go straight, keep going, turn right at the next corner ...”
“¡Hijos de puta y las mil putas que les parió!”
Did we just run over a pedestrian? I didn’t feel anything ... “¡Hijos de su puta madre!”
Oh, right. We had just passed tha big AFIP office on Baldomero Fernández Moreno.
Didn't he have GPS?
They seem to be quite popular I'm told.
Didn't he have GPS?
They seem to be quite popular I'm told.
They are more in evidence, but ... Argentina, remember.
At the hardware store:
Me: Hello, I would like an adapter for the German (shucko) plug with the ground pole, but something more sturdy than the white tri-thingy.
Man: But the German plug has no ground.
Me: Yes, it has. It's the two metal strips on the sides.
Man: Not it has not.
Me: Yes, it has.
Man: There is no ground in a German plug.
Me: I am not asking, I am telling you!
Man: But the adapter is needed to remove the ground.
Me: Indeed, it removes the ground!
Man: You do not need the ground.
Me: How so?
Man: Because the socket itself is self-protecting.
Me: WTF?!
I'll just put a Gauchito Gil card next to the house mains.
For the record, no. 2 is the ground in a shucko plug and socket.
Only in Argentina heh?
I use these and they're brill.
I have one of those but there is no third prong for the Argentinian socket, I am afraid. What I need is the three prong adapter for New Zealand/Australia/Argentina. There was one on Mercadolibre for over $500 a couple of weeks ago, but I guess I'll just make the white tri-thingy work until my next trip abroad.
For the record, I need the ground because my computer is vibrating otherwise. And for safety, of course! I was almost forgetting...
In the USA most houses are wired 220 Volts into the breaker box which means you will have 2 110 Volt legs to wire the 110 Volt circuits. 220 Volts has 110 Volt between ground and and each leg, where as 110 Volt will have 110 Volt between ground and the, usually black wire, it can be wired with either the, usually white wire or the black. This is for electricians who would rather test voltage by using something other than a voltage tester.
Now, years ago, most houses just had 2 prong receptacles too run appliances. Then comes along gadgets with 3 prongs, and no way to plug them in!! Now one could either go buy a 2 prong to 3 prong adapter or just snip or take some pliers and surgically remove the round prong. This was not the best idea if one was using power tools in a damp location, but the device still worked. Circuits today will have a continuous grounding and this is what the third prong connects to.
If you will notice this adapter has 2 spade prongs, and one is slightly larger than the other, the larger prong is supposed to be inserted in the larger slot on the receptacle. Will it work if one inverts the prongs? Sure it will, but that doesn't make it right. The round hole is to adapt power cords that have the 3 prongs.
Not sure if this is the adapter you are needing, but it is the only one I have ever used. Their may also be very different wiring codes between our countries.
110 Volt single phase has to have a ground connection. This is usually at the meter through the grounding rod or the power company ground. This ground will be wired into a dwelling and is called the neutral wire.
We use mostly 2 wire with ground romex to run most of our circuits. This romex wire has 1 white (neutral or ground) 1 black (to circuit breaker) 1 bare wire (ground). Their are still older buildings around that only have 2 wire 110 Volt circuits, in this case the white wire, or whatever color, will be both neutral and ground.
