hind sight is 20/20

No amount of pre-departure preparation or planning for my semester abroad could have saved me from the myriad mistakes I made, beginning the minute I set foot on foreign soil. Nevertheless I will offer some points of guidance and forewarning to future Buenos Aires students, for whatever value they might have.

Advice:

1) COME WITH A PROFICIENCY IN SPANISH: Of course it is possible to travel and party here without speaking a word of Espanol, however, for the most meaningful experience—one where you connect with the city, to its people, to its culture—it is much better to arrive already comfortable with the language.

I came to Buenos Aires after completing Beginners Spanish at NYU—desperately wishing that I had come with more under my belt—as I saw that other students were more able to engage with the city than I was. The best time to study here is when you’ve completed most levels of Spanish, and want to practice speaking, rather than coming here to learn grammatical points and vocab. Having a lower level of comprehension means that social interactions are more difficult, certain media is limited, you don’t learn as much of the language because you can’t use it as much, and your NYU course options are significantly limited (and far inferior).

2) MAKE FRIENDS WITH LOCALS—there are many New Yorkers where you came from: I spent the first month I was here under the silly notion that it was better to first solidify a few friends in the NYU program, and then branch out to the Portenos. While I have made some great friends from NYU, I can now clearly see that my reasoning was flawed, and that I wasted an entire month touring around with familiar faces, while I should have been extending myself into the city.

Bosque Palermo (Argentine Central Park)

This is where a proficiency in Spanish neatly fits in. The better you are able to speak the language, the more social you can be. While I came here with a tenuous ability to say what I did that day, or what I’d like for lunch, I lacked the ability to make jokes, and speak with nuance—the kind of conversation that makes us interesting people. In the end you must perforate the NYU bubble, and realize why you are in a foreign country in the first place, to become integrated.

3) SEEK OUT CULTURAL EXPERIENCES IMMEDIEATLY: Don’t be fooled into believing that there exists some abstract period of acclamation, in which you must forget about cultural stimulus, in order to normalize your new place of residence. To be cliché, life is short—don’t waste time. The sooner you familiarize yourself with the obvious cultural spheres, the sooner you can permeate that much more interesting underground. Otherwise, you might just find yourself at the end of the semester, not having done anything worthwhile, having shopped a lot, clubbed a lot, and eaten at many many restaurants.

4) TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CHEAP AND EASY TRAVEL: Argentina is not only Buenos Aires, and there are many interesting and wonderful places to visit within the country—as well as its neighbors, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile etc. Traveling by Argentine bus is a really unusual experience as well—though some destinations can keep you on board for up to 36 hours. At the same time, take caution that you are not so overzealous with your travel that you never secure good roots in the city. If you go away every weekend, you will have no chance of understanding what it’s like to live in Buenos Aires—a knowledge that is elusive even to those who never leave.

Junot Diaz on Immigrants: Feria de Libros

5) MAKE GOOD CHOICES WITHIN THE NYU PROGRAM: Most of the classes offered in Buenos Aires are bullshit—especially the ones taught in English. If possible only take three courses, and do something meaningful with the rest of your time. There are great community service options, art classes, dance classes, etc. that allow you to explore the city and really engage with Portenos—rather than waste time cooped up in a renovated embassy building, learning nothing. If I could do it all again, I would take one Spanish language class, and two content courses in Spanish—probably Argentine Film (great professor), and maybe the Borges and Argentine Lit. class.

Courses to avoid: Tango and Mass Culture, (snoozer), Political Economics of Argentina (3 painful and confusing hours a week), and Intro to Lat. American Studies (this course is meant for high-school students)

Home-stays: This was the first year that NYU did not allow it’s students to rent apartments for themselves—which I think was an unfortunate mistake on their part. The rents in Buenos Aires are absurdly inexpensive, and having a place to invite friends over encourages more social interactions, and a more genuine living experience. However, in lieu of one’s own apartment, the home-stay is the next best option. The residences here are a nightmare, and only foster socialization within the NYU community. Though the home-stays are kind of a coin toss (whether you will be living in rags or riches, hospitality or hostility) for the most part they are an enriching experience. (see my previous post on my home-stay)

There are hundreds of do’s and don’ts that I could come up with, but in the end, future Buenos Aires travelers are bound to repeat the same mistakes, and likely to have many more of their own. So ultimately, I guess my final piece of advice would be: consider longevity. Consider a full year instead of a semester. It seems to me that many other study abroad bloggers have said that they experienced similar periods of acclamation to their foreign city, and that it was only in the last month that they were able to live the experiences they intended—this was my struggle at least.

Studying abroad in the Spring sort of allows you to correct this little snaffou, since you can extend your semester into the vacation months. But traveling is not the same as being rooted in a city with a purpose for being there—to study. The temptation to travel, to spend those additional months on an epic tour of South America (one week Rio, 3 days Lima) is hard to resist—as is the binding call of obligation and responsibility to obtain some job or internship over the summer.

If I could undo one thing, I would have come in the Fall and stayed the whole year. I would have made the same mistakes no doubt, but afforded myself enough time to learn from them and move on—whereas now I feel like I’m leaving wanting so much more.