Un Año en Buenos Aires: saca o pinta tus uñas / remove or paint your nails

I was sitting at work having a meeting with my supervisor, Jessi, when she looked down, stopped what she was saying mid-sentence and continued by saying (in Spanish), "Kate, in Argentina we do NOT let our nails look like that. Either remove your nail polish or paint your nails (saca o pinta tus uñas)." I was not sure if she was being serious or not but looked down at my half-painted bitten nails, chuckled, and said (in Spanish), "Haha sorry Jessi, I will try to do it sometime this week." She said good and we continued our meeting.

Fast forward two hours. Jessi looks at my hands again, shakes her bit while chuckling to herself, and says "Kate, vamos!". I follow her out of her office, out of the Hebraica building, and down the street. "Jessi, where are we going?" I asked. "Kate, do you know what a shtetl is?" she replied, "We are two blocks away from a modern day shtetl complete with a very cheap nail salon where I go to get manicures. We are going there to get your nails done. It only costs 30 pesos" (equivalent to about $3 or $4 American dollars). I laugh and continue to follow her the three blocks to the manicurist. "Getting your nails done is very cheap in Argentina compared to the United States" Jessi said to me "there is no excuse for not having your nails look nice...and it is also relaxing!".

We get to the nail salon. It is closed but a worker is still inside. Jessi knows her so waves at her until she comes to open the door. "Meli, I thought you closed at seven" Jessi says to the worker. "No, Fridays we close at six because of Shabbat" Meli replies. Jessi tells her that I had come all the way from America and we wanted to get our nails done. Meli lets us in and proceeds to give us wonderful manicures, all for the cheap and wonderful price of 30 pesos.