Hasta Luego Buenos Aires…Nos Vemos

I cannot believe I will be in the United States tomorrow. After living in Buenos Aires, I have definitely made some self-discoveries.

Here is a list:

1.     I am not supposed to live in a big city.
Buenos Aires has 3 million people. It was just too big for me. There was many times where I did not feel in control of the city, in fact the city had control of me. But I think it is important to learn that now than after college when I am deciding where to live. I can honestly say I will never live in New York City.

2.     Ann Arbor is the right place for me.
I always felt at home at Michigan’s campus, but I took Ann Arbor for granted. Now that I have lived in a huge city I am so glad I chose University of Michigan because it is a college town. At one point when I visited Pittsburgh, I asked myself how come I never explored the idea of a city campus? Now I feel like a city will be a better experience post-grad. I think its especially important to be 21.

3.     Patience with someone learning a language.
Before study abroad I was definitely less tolerant of someone who did not know English when they lived in the United States. Now that I have experienced this feeling I cannot believe I was so impatient. Learning a language is extremely hard! I also enjoy hearing people speak English the way they speak Spanish because I KNOW I do that with my Spanish. For example, someone will ask how are yours fathers because padres = parents in Spanish.
Adding on to that I realized I never understood cliques of students at Michigan that would just stick together because they were from the same home country. Now I completely understand wanting to stick with your comfort zone and your first language. I made some local friends, but overall the majority of the friends I made were American. Something really bonds you about experiencing a new place together. We also experienced the same challenges with the language barrier.

4.     I am not a fan of the Latin American lackadaisical lifestyle.
In the beginning some of the students really enjoyed how everyone was late and argentines have no sense of time. There was less pressure to be somewhere. But this is not for me. While I agree Americans can be extremely type A, they are extremely efficient. As my professor would always say – “This is NOT IES Switzerland.” I do not enjoy waiting 20 minutes in the grocery line for 15 items or less. I do not enjoy when the bus I need just doesn’t show up for 20 minutes and when it does it is too full to stop for new riders. I hate having to hassle a waiter to bring me a check.

5.     Argentina has some of the coolest places to visit in the world. Between Patagonia, Iguazu Falls, Salta, and Mendoza, I would definitely say Argentina is worth a visit. I can honestly say I want to go back to Patagonia in my life. I never made it Bariloche. I also wouldn’t mind seeing the Chilean Patagonia.

6.    If I can navigate Buenos Aires, I can get around anywhere. For some who has NO sense of direction, going to a new, big city is extremely hard. By the end I successfully used the subway, buses, and could pretty much get home from anywhere if I knew where Santa Fe Ave was (my north star). I even started to pick up when cab drivers were taking me for a ride.

My last weekend in Buenos Aires was very nice. I went to a parilla with my host family. I wanted authentic Argentine cuisine before leaving and what better food to eat then MEAT. I will miss that food. 

It was extremely hard to see goodbye to my host family. I could not have asked for a better family. We had a tearful goodbye. The main reason I am upset is because I honestly have no idea when I will see them again. Mariana and I promised we would invite each other to our weddings.

For my last night out, Celine, Megan, Sam, and I went to Terrazas – our favorite boliche. I will definitely miss the insane nightlife. I have a feeling bars in Ann Arbor are going to feel a little lame after experiencing one of the most notable night life’s in the world.

On Sunday I spent the day with Pochochi. For some reason I really wanted to go La Boca for my last day. I have already been but I just love the colored houses. I feel like La Boca is the quintessential image of Buenos Aires. I bought Blancanieves also known as Snowhite. The book is in both Spanish and English. We also ate choripans because heaven forbid I leave Buenos Aires without one more choripan. They were also only 6 pesos  ($1.50) and kind of hard to turn down. Any meat that cheap should be questionable. 

Goodbye Argentina…nos vemos.

El desierto de Argentina

Right now I am sitting at the airport waiting for my flight back to the United States. I cannot believe my study abroad is finally over. To kill time, I decided to wrap up my blog with two more entries.

First of all, I wanted to recap my last trip to Salta, which is located in Northern Argentina. I heard from many different people that Salta was as amazing as Patagonia. I had to see for myself.

The first day Celine and I met up with Ali and Liz to take a tour of Salta, Cafayette, and all of the towns in between. We had a hilarious tour guide who showed us amazing rocks and mountains. I felt like we were guessing shapes in the clouds with images like the Titanic, King Kong, and a woman lying down.

Can you see the woman? The head is on the right and the feet are on the left.

The Titanic

We also saw the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s throat). I swear Argentine’s just use this name for everything.

The next day Celine and I headed to a smaller town called Humahuaca in Jujuy. We explored the mountains and even created our own pathway through the dessert.

At night we asked a woman where the supermarket was and she invited us to visit her school to have an exchange with her English class. Well the class did not speak a word of English. It was almost sad to see how little resources this school had. But on the flip side, it was extremely satisfying to know our Spanish was better than their English. When I first got to Argentina, many people would “comfort” me and say “It’s Okay, we can just speak in English.” I always wanted to say – No! I came hear to learn Spanish give me a chance and a little bit of patience. Now we had to speak Spanish because our ability was better than theirs. The class laughed at me when I told them about some of the porteño (Buenos Aires) slang I had picked up on – Che Boludo! Como andas? (This means buddy – jerk, how is it going?). They also died of laughter when I said yo tambien with my Buenos Aires accent. The y and double L have distinct sounds in Buenos Aires. I guess its always-interesting when you hear a double accent. I always find it entertaining when someone whose second language is English has a British accent. Anyway, Celine and I just answered their questions about America and tried to practice a little bit of English with them. They really struggled over questions like what is your name? where are you from? 

We told the students we were heading to Tilcara and this girl from there offered to take us around. She was super sweet and a wonderful tour guide. We explored some ruins of an old indigenous population. 

The next day Celine and I went to Purmamarca. This was definitely my favorite part of the trip. Purmamarca has the seven-colored mountain, which is absolutely gorgeous. We did some hiking because the city had seven different viewpoints. We met this great couple from Tandil. It was interesting because originally they told me they were from Buenos Aires. Afterward I found out they meant a providence of Buenos Aires: Tandil. I guess technically Tandil is a providence… but it is five hours away. Since I have been there I can honestly say it is completely different from Buenos Aires. I just found it interesting because that would be similar to me claiming I was from New York City. It’s pretty much the same distance.

We ended up exploring the Salt flats with them. The salt flats were beautiful but you really only need an hour there to take creative pictures. 

The next day was Celine’s 21^st Birthday and we celebrated with a picnic at the top of the mountain. We explored the mountains and ended up a bit off the trail. This was fine until we had to go down the hill. It was too steep to walk so we ended up sliding on our butts to get down. But it was completely worth the view.

The last day we headed back to Salta and I went bungee jumping. It was definitely the most exhilarating thing I have ever done. There is this moment after you jump and before the cord catches you when your mind is thinking WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST DO? 

We headed back to Buenos Aires for one final weekend in the city.