God Bless Argentina

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I'm not sure where to begin on Argetina because, for me, it was 10 days of pure bliss. On my trip, I hoped to immerse myself as much as possible into Argetinian life to better understand how people live there. Somebody must have called Argetina in advance and told them what I wanted because, on my first day, I received a call from a friend of a friend who invited me to dinner. The next thing I knew, I had been welcomed into a group of about eight to ten 27/28 year old girls whose sole purpose seemed to be to ensure that I had a good time in Buenos Aires. I never ate alone and never went to bed before 2 am. Their hospitality was unreal.

I spoke spanish almost 100% of the time and, to my surprise, most people understood me. I was surprised to discover how satisfying it was simply to communicate with others in Spanish. For the first time since I started studying spanish in 6th grade, I was able to follow conversations, understand jokes, and even make some witty comments of my own. It was amazingly powerful to feel that I had finally accomplished a goal that I began searching for at the age of 12. There were a few moments I remember after stories or jokes that I understood when everyone was laughing. In those moments I just stopped and noticed how amazing it felt to have reached such a place. I couldn't describe the feeling in Spanish to my friends then and I'm not sure I can describe it in English now.

Beyond just the experience with the language, I managed to continue my workouts and yoga while I was there and was pleased to find a reasonable balance between the late nights and the healthy eating and exercise. I have to tell a great story about my "first" yoga class there. I walked into the "salon" and was surrounded by 15 girls. The instructor came in and started playing a techno remix of some madonna song. I turned to a girl next to me and asked if this was the yoga class. I must have misunderstood her, but I thought she said, "Si." For the next 15 minutes, I participated in the most flaming step aerobics class I've ever seen. I left at the first break. Maybe my spanish isn't as good as I thought. I did manage to find some real yoga classes later in the week and thoroughly enjoyed those.

With respect to the city and the lifestyle, I want to capture a couple of observations. First, it's a very busy city. Reminds me a lot of new york. Unfortunately, it's not very well kept. The streets are pretty dirty, there is graffiti on national monuments and nobody cleans up after their dogs. The architecture is unique and gives you a sense of a relatively historic place, but the fashion and people are very modern. This created a fun juxtaposition of themes. One area, in particular, called Palermo Viejo was very representative of this. The shopping there was amazing. Great fashion and extremely affordable for americans.

My concluding thoughts for people who might consider Buenos Aires to visit or live are these: If you are money concious, fashion concious and a single male, you would be in heaven. Especially if you keep late hours. If you are environmentally concious, health concious and keep a strict schedule, you will struggle. Interestingly enough, I think I represent all of these positions, but I hope to spend more time in B.A. soon.

Once again I am thankful for my parents whose sacrfice allowed me to attend such a great high school where I began learning Spanish in 6th grade. Even more, I am thankful for the Language department at Newman and the wonderful teachers I had there. The late Dr. Brown, Myriam Quimbay, Sra. Lopez and Sra. Klauder-Vaz. I never thought I would have been so appreciative of their teachings and discipline, but, everyday in Buenos Aires, I found myself thinking back on their classes and how much I had learned from them. In addition to them, I have to thank my friend Mia, who introduced me to such a fun group in Argentina. They really made my trip special, and I would never have known them without Mia's friendship.