I found myself tearing up in the backseat of the Uber. My roommate, Juliana, and I were on our way back from my friend/coworker’s birthday at her house in Quilmes, a province outside of the capital’s center almost an hour away. As we entered the capital that night, the driver stopped one of the street vendors to purchase 2 alfajores. We continued to drive, but at the next light, he turned around with a great smile and said “Welcome to Argentina” and handed us the alfajores. We had been yapping in English for the long ride home, and he made it a point to try to welcome us with whatever little English he knew.
This made me stop and think. How blessed am I to be in a country where people embrace foreigners and show enthusiasm for people visiting their country. And not only that, but many people will try to speak in English to me. I used to get disheartened whenever I would order in Spanish at a restaurant only for the waiter to respond in English jaja. However, now I just realize how so many people just want you to feel welcomed by speaking to you in your native language. This made me sad because when I think of my home in Texas, I can only remember countless times where I’ve heard people get frustrated with foreigners or immigrants for mispronouncing an English word. I’ve experienced this myself several times growing up and so it has been quite refreshing to experience a culture that embraces different cultures. Yet, here, even though my Spanish is not nearly as advanced as many people’s Spanish, people are continually supportive of my efforts. I hope to be like Cristian, my uber driver, and take the time out of my day to welcome people.
Music x Uno Picante
Bringing a midi keyboard to Argentina was the best thing I packed. I had actually never used it before but decided I could not go 2 months without playing an instrument. With that in mind, I added it to the pile of things staring me down from my bedroom corner hoping I would make the 50lb. limit.
However, now, I can say I have no regrets. Our Airbnb host spotted my keyboard and asked me about it, only for him to tell me that he actually produces his own music. We were able to exchange our music which was so special. Check him out here @Zoca!
I have had so many songwriting inspirations while being here, and I am excited to finish creating these songs upon my return. I just love how music creates so many avenues for you to connect with people and express yourself.
We have made friends in the wildest of places. I’ve met people from all around the world (France, Italy, England, Venezuela, and of course Argentina jaja). One night we had a group of friends over, and we whipped out the midi keyboard. Our intended “game night” turned into a magical musical night uniting the most diverse room of people from all around the world. It was such a spontaneous night of music and honestly one of the most special nights of my life that just makes life feel worth living. Check out a clip here!
First time singing “candle” live w the sweetest friends <3
Now let me tell you about my favorite game – Uno Picante.
I’ve placed spicy uno before, but this beats any game I’ve ever played. With each color, you have to speak a different language (Spanish, English, Portuguese, or Italian). Granted, many of us did not know Portuguese or Italian, so at that point it was just an aggressive game of charades spitting out a few passionate words here and there from our limited vocabulary. And with each wild card played, the room turned into a group of monkeys communicating with each other. A game I will truly never forget.
Cooking Went Wrong
After our first week of solely eating out, we decided it was time to cook some food for ourselves. I am an avocado egg toast fanatic, so we decided to make some. Little did I know one of my biggest fears for my time here would come to life. I’m still not sure exactly what caused it, if it was the butter or possibly some nuts in the whole grain bread, but I experienced my worst allergic reaction to date. It was crazy because I had been incredibly careful about eating anything with nuts during my time here as I was trying to avoid the many painful nights I had at Rice in the past year. I could not keep anything down for the entire day and threw up over 15 times. I can assure you I was feeling homesick in that moment, but once I was on the other side after a few days of recovery, I felt unstoppable jaja. That definitely made for quite the memorable first week in Argentina however.
Shrek 2 at Church??
This was the first time I had encountered feelings of homesickness in my life. Granted, at Rice, I only live 4.5 hours away from my home, so this was a new feeling for me. I think I experienced a lot of homesickness because I was missing a lot of pivotal events back home. However, a place where I found a lot of familiarity in Buenos Aires was at a local church. It was so comforting to hear the same songs that I had heard all my life at church being sung in Spanish. It was beautiful, and it was a great way for me to learn new vocabulary because I knew the English lyrics.
I found an incredible community at this church. They actually did a lock in night for youngadults one night, and we ended up watching Shrek 2, which is an iconic movie in Spanish. There are so many cultural references within the Spanish version, and it was fun to be able to watch what was a childhood staple for many. This community has blessed me in so many incredible ways and I am so grateful.
Community Partner
A week before I arrived in Buenos Aires, I found out my supervisor actually resigned and the major fundraising event that I was coming so early to Buenos Aires for had actually been canceled. This left me curious as to what my experience would be like with my community partner. However, I have created an incredible bond with my coworker as we both navigate the unusualness of the changes at work. I found myself taking on independent projects within the organization and dedicating hours to making it perfect. I found myself speaking to multiple directors to get feedback on my work. Though navigating who to ask for feedback has been difficult, I have really enjoyed working with my community partner because entrepreneurship means so much to me. My community partner continually inspires me with their incredible initiatives. I was thinking back to how one of my college supplementals was about expanding entrepreneurship opportunities internationally and it has been a full circle moment to be a part of an organization who does this. I am very grateful to be a part of such an incredible mission.
Narcissistic Spanish
Every time I hear someone talk in the first person, I think I’m being summoned. It’s because “yo” in Argentina is pronounced as “Jo.” This has led me to have some unintentional moments of narcissism jaja. The dialect here is a very unique form of Spanish, but I find it beautiful. If you’re not listening too closely, it can almost sounds a bit Italian. My Spanish skills have definitely been put to the test here, but I have seen how many listening skills have improved over the course of the last two months.
Namaste
One particular interaction that made me laugh was when I was visiting La Boca and as I would walk through, different vendors would say “Namaste” to me as they tried to sell me an item. I never found this offensive but rather just very comical. It has been interesting being the only Indian person around and thinking that I may be the first Indian person many people have encountered. However, it’s also been interesting because I often feel like less of an outsider here in comparison to many American environments where I was a minority.
Aprender a Correr x Public Transportation
I couldn’t ask to live in a more ideal location. We live right next to a local park and we have a gym on the same block! Juliana and I have recently entered our running era during our time here. On a random whim, Juju found a Rotary club that was having a 3km race, so naturally we had to sign up. It was quite the adventure getting to this province, Banfield, which was over an hour away from us. We woke up at 5:30am so we could take the bus there. Even though it was a holiday for El Dia de la Bandera (Flag day), the bus was jam packed at 7am and we shoved ourselves into the corner next to the fire extinguisher and held on tight for an hour jajaja. However, it was such a beautiful drive as the sun rose and we entered into Banfield.
I have definitely never been much of a runner and although 3 kilometers is not very long, I was really proud to have been able to run the entire thing and see how I’ve progressed over our time here. It was an incredible experience with seeing everyone gather and dance together as the warmup. It was a very uniting experience and one of my favorite things we’ve done here. One of Juju’s coworkers lives in Banfield, so it was really fun exploring the city with her afterwards.
We took the train on the way back, and I have just absolutely fallen in love with the Buenos Aires public transportation. I remember I was initially really nervous to travel to work by myself. However, even though I got on the wrong bus on my first day jaja, the driver was very kind in redirecting me. I have fallen in love with riding the bus and have found so much freedom that comes in living in a walkable city with accessible transportation. I wish I could take this incredible transportation back home.
I cannot believe that our time is so limited here and I will forever cherish all of these memories. As someone who was very worried about traveling to a new country myself and now being at the last week of my journey, I can safely say I have fallen in love with Buenos Aires.