Mid-Semester Review

It is mid-May, and I am officially more than half way to the end of my study abroad experience. At home, my friends are on their way to their homes, and the warm summer weather that awaits them. Meanwhile, here in Argentina, we still have quite a lot more to go.

So, my program and I joined together in an apartment in Palermo to discuss. Marcelo our program leader, who is very popular with the ladies on our program, sat in front of us, as various breads and croissants were passed around the room. He handed out a sheet of paper, we filled out when we first got to Argentina, which listed the goals of our trip. He asked us what we have achieved and what we have not while we’ve been abroad.

I took a look at my sheet, and made a quick analysis of how much I’d achieved.

1 - Eat everything. Check. (My host mom literally told me that she thought I had a Earth worm today because I was eating so much).

2 - Have fun and experience nightlife. Check.

3 - Stay in my long distance relationship. Check.

4 -  Take more than 500 pictures. Check. I underestimated the amount I would be taking. (I’ve easily taken a couple thousand photos already)!

5 – Travel to 5-10 places. Check. (Mar del Plata, Uruguay, Iguazú, and I will go to Salta, Mendoza, Bolivia and Chile in July).

6 – Speak at least an hour of Spanish a day. (Between my host mom, my classes, basketball and random interactions on the street, I easily do that daily.

Then I took a look at the expectations I didn’t quite meet:

1 - Do community service once a month at least. Nope! I haven’t even gone once.

2 - Work out five times a week. Nope! (Granted: That was an ambitious number to expect, but I’ve been here 3 months, and I joined a gym just two days ago…)

3 - Skype with friends every one or two weeks. Fail. I’ve Facebook chatted sure, but I’ve not had many long skype conversations with my good friends. I’m sure they understand, as I’ve been very busy here in Argentina.

4 – Have many Argentine friends. Unfortunately not as many as I hoped. (I have made many Argentine friends on my basketball team and through my classes, but for the most part I have gone out at night with just international students. This is expected since they speak the language, but for the second half of my abroad experience, I hope to increase my amount of Porteño friends.

As I took a bite into the passing croissant and took a sip of my burning maté, I evaluated how I have done on my trip so far. I am definitely having fun and improving my Spanish, but I wonder if I am culturally involving myself enough while abroad. My friends from my program and I all agree that maybe we’ve spent too much time together, going out and speaking English. As I look to the next two months, I hope to break myself from this pattern. I will make it my goal to spend more time with random Argentines I don’t know. Not only will this improve my Spanish, but also I hope it will allow me to learn more about this complicated Argentine culture.

So what do I rate my trip so far. In the level of fun, I’ll give it an A. In my Spanish growth, I’ll give it an A-. With my Cultural knowledge acquired, I’ll give it a B+. Clearly, all I need to do, is live like a Porteño, and I know I’ll leave with an A-rating.