Directory: E

I thought today I'd bring you a travel-related post, since I haven't done so in quite awhile. It's not really about travel per se, but rather about a particular type of souvenir I sometimes bring back from my travels, and the meaning this kind of thing holds for me.What you see here is what I affectionately call the Wine Penguin. I got it from a cheap housewares store in Buenos Aires, sort of a dollar store kind of affair but a step up in quality. The Wine Penguin cost me about $3, but its monetary value was ridiculously disproportionate to how much effort it took me to carefully pack and transport it through 2 flights and 18 hours' worth of airports, planes, security, and customs. Why all the fuss for a cheap ceramic pitcher, you ask? Well, because the Wine Penguin falls into a very special category of souvenir for me, the Quirky Local Thing category.This type of pitcher is seen in almost every wine-dispensing restaurant in Argentina; sometime the pitchers are left plain white or brown, sometimes they are intricately hand painted, and often they bear the logo of the restaurant that uses them. It makes sense, too -- Argentina does have plenty of penguins, particularly down in the Pata...