madelineinargentina

It is hard to believe that I’ve already been in Argentina for a month. It seems like it has been so much longer, and so much shorter. One thing I have realized about travelling–it really messes with your sense of time.

So it has been a month. Yet I’m starting this blog now. This is my post prototype, my toe-in-the-water in the world of travel blogging, the post-which-in-theory-I-would-have-written-before-I-left, and the post-in-which-I-would-have-detailed-my-hopes-questions-and-concerns-about-my-upcoming-adventure-had-I-written-it-before-I-got-here.

But I didn’t.

And as a Cordobés would say: “Tranqui, che. Podés escribirlo ahora, toma un mate, no importa.”

Better late than never, in other words. Don’t worry about it. This seems to be a philosophy that Cordobeses embrace in many aspects of life–and one that I really appreciated during this first month here. It makes transitions much easier if everyone is tranquilo.

And even though I’ve been here for a month, I can still write about my hopes, questions, and concerns for this semester abroad. They have changed, of course, during this month. I’ll try to remember what they were before I got here, and perhaps compare the two.

Also, in some ways, this stage is a new beginning. We finished the intensive period of class with Spanish Studies (5 hours of class a day, with various meetings certain days a week), are more or less “oriented,” and are about to start our semester classes this upcoming Monday.

This week most of my classmates are travelling because we do not have Spanish Studies classes. However, since I opted to do the Integrated Program (and have no regrets, I think it is an amazing opportunity), I had to stay behind, as my classes with the Integrated Program started this week. (Of the 11 of us here in Cordoba this semester, 4 of us stayed behind for our classes in the Nacional with Argentinian students. There was also some multi-step paperwork that had to be figured out. Fun stuff.) On top of this, we all got sick. This did, however, make me happy that I wasn’t travelling.

Speaking of travelling, that is one of my goals/hopes/dreams that has changed since I got here. Before arriving in Argentina, I didn’t really think at all about the possibility of travelling around Argentina.I was just thinking about getting to Cordoba, speaking Spanish, getting to know some folks, etc.

Since arriving in Cordoba, however, my classmates, other extranjeros, program directors, my host family, friends of my host family, taxi drivers etc. seem to be giving me their opinion on where I should travel in Argentina, which nearby (and some not-so-nearby) places I should take advantage of visiting while I am here. Of course, much of this was solicited–once I realized the array of cool places to visit, I began asking people their opinions on these lugares turísticos to ascertain which I should prioritize. I’ve been making a list, and checking out when our breaks are to figure out where to go and when.

Along with the list of major, famous tourist sites (Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, Patagonia), there are also a lot of smaller towns around Cordoba Capital that are a bit more accessible (in terms of finances and times).

In this past month, I’ve had the opportunity to visit Colonial Coroya (with Spanish Studies, we went to a granja, ate some delicious food, and visited estancias jesuíticas), Villa General Belgrano (a German pueblo whose main street is dotted with breweries, chocolate shops, German restaurants, and heladerías (ice cream!)), and Cosquin (some friends and I took a train to Cosquin for the incredibly low cost of 6 pesos, ate lunch, and came back in one Saturday).

Anyway, this post is getting lengthy (I guess this is what happens when you start writing an open-ended post about your study abroad experience after not writing anything for a month, when on top of that you are an English major and already tend to write things way longer than they need to be), so I think I’ll change the format a bit.

Hopes before I got here:

1. That I would like and get along with my host family.
2. that I would enjoy my classes and learn a lot
3. That I would make friends with Argentine people
4. That my Spanish would improve

Once I got here, another hope was that I would become familiar with the city and be able to navigate it and use public transportation (because I got lost quite a few times during the first week…all part of the learning experience).

Questions before I got here: I don’t even know where to begin with this one. I know I had a lot of questions. A lot were vague, abstract questions that I’m not sure I ever articulated. I had various communications with Spanish Studies and my university about classes, and what I should bring, and I deliberated about gifts for my host family, and how I was going to get to my host family’s house from the airport, etc…Once I got here, however, even though not all of the questions were answered, I felt that I could breathe easy. It was reassuring to know that I had made it, and I could tell myself that the details will  work themselves out.

Concerns before I got here: This goes a long with the questions…I think my main concern was that I wouldn’t be able to communicate, that my level of Spanish wasn’t sufficient, that I would be able to survive and build relationships and all that. I think, over the course of this month, I realized my level of Spanish was more than sufficient to survive for a semester in Argentina. What contributed to this realization:

1. There were two German students living in my host family when I arrived, who had no knowledge of Spanish prior to coming to Cordoba, but started classes in an intensive program at a school for foreigners in Cordoba, and are getting along just fine
2. People understood what I was asking more than 50% of the time
3. I understood people more than 50% of the time
4. Even though everyone I talked to immediately knew that I was not from Cordoba, this also happened with people who spoke Spanish fluently. The accent is a very specific one, so it is very easy for locals to pick out extranjeros

Of course, the first days were a little rough, transitioning into an almost-all-Spanish environment, and getting used to the Argentine and Cordobés ways of speaking, but now I’m getting used to it, even speaking with their accent half the time…

My spanish is a now a strange mix of influences (from my Bolivian, Spanish, and Mexican teachers and professors in the states, and a month of life in Cordoba). Funny enough, I am taking one class in the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, and the professor is porteña (from Buenos Aires). Wonder what I’ll sound like after this adventure is over!