a bridge between two places

“The touristic experience that comes out of the tourist setting is based on inauthenticity, and as such it is superficial when compared with careful study; it is morally inferior to mere experience. A mere experience may be mystified, but a touristic experience is always mystified…” (599)

In my opinion the act of studying abroad in itself is an attempt to circumvent the inauthenticity of travel by establishing a life which is somewhere in between permanence and transience. When debating whether or not I would spend the semester in Buenos Aires, there were two pivotal arguments in favor of studying abroad; the opportunity to learn Spanish, and the chance to truly experience another culture first hand.

After being in Buenos Aires for three months now, that preconceived notion that living here for a semester was the formula to having an authentic experience seems shallow and naive. Other than the fact that I have a place to “call home,” and have established a rather superficial routine in the city, I feel no different than a common tourist, in that I am constantly searching for that authentic experience. Perhaps it comes across in less obvious ways—but it is the same quest—whether I’m looking for the local parilla, café, bar, clothing store, or pass-time. I am constantly asking Portenos where they go to shop, what their favorite restaurants are, where they like to go out. And just when I think I’ve found a place which is “authentically” local, I will hear someone observe loudly in English, “oh isn’t this cute!” and my dreams of having found that “back region” are shot.

It’s this reason exactly that I’ve been so adamant about finding friends here in the city—friends whose lives are real unlike the one I’m living. MacCannell writes, “No one can participate in his own life, he can only participate in the lives of others.” (601) Without friends who have a permanent reality in Buenos Aires, going out to bars, concerts, clubs, festivals, can only be observed as an outsider. However, once you become an integral part of someone’s life, once they make you part of their social network, you become intertwined with their reality, and though the distinction as an outsider may not disappear, the lines are blurred enough for me.

ambar la fox (gay club BSAS)

I am still battling this authentic/tourist dichotomy everyday. Sometimes I’ll feel like i’ve done it, like I’ve connected with people here deeply enough that when we’re together our experiences are authentic, and that in sharing those moments I’m living like the portenos. But that feeling is completely unsustainable and the next minute I might think that I spend all my time in an American bubble, with only NYU students, eating in fancy restaurants and vacationing in places that Argentines would never go.

It seems that connecting with Argentine people has been the only anecdote to assuage my feelings of depression at not being able to penetrate that authentic “back region.” After a night of drinking and chatting about life in a friends departamento, followed by an early morning of euphoric dancing in some boliche (that I’ve never heard of), it’s difficult to deny that what I’m experiencing is true. It seems odd to me in fact that these sort of personal relationships weren’t even mentioned in Macannell’s essay, since they seem to be the only bridge between the two parallel universes.