Things I Didn't Appreciate About Studying Abroad in 布宜诺斯艾利斯 Until Later

So, the day has come… you’ve stepped off the plane and into your home airport, and your study abroad experience now encapsulates incredible memories and photos that you will cherish for your life time. 当然不是 所有 of your memories will be great ones—cue that time I got so lost trying to take the 集体 (porteno slang for the city bus) to downtown 布宜诺斯艾利斯 that I ended up an hour away from my destination on the wrong side of the city—but you will still remember and cherish them 所有 the same.

I like to think I maximized my time in 阿根廷, but there are certainly a few things I didn’t appreciate while I was abroad. Most notably, the difference in education! 我是西班牙语专业的, so I like to think I’ve learned a few things about studying abroad in Latin America along the way. However, learning about a country while you are in it is so different from learning about it elsewhere. I didn't appreciate enough how enriching it is to gain a local perspective on the world around you. As I listened to my professors speaking about the history of women’s rights in 阿根廷 with their accent I have come to love (and now use myself), I did not realize how much I would miss learning from this local point of view.

我还想念什么呢? 城市的混乱. There is nothing like walking around a local ferria and seeing everything from mimes coated in silver spray paint to llamas dressed up in every color of the rainbow. My hometown farmer's market in San Diego pales in comparison. 很多天, the sheer amount of people and chaos everywhere I looked in 布宜诺斯艾利斯 overwhelmed me (how about those stuffy subway rides, where you get way cozier with the other passengers than you anticipated?), but now I find myself yearning for the hustle and bustle.

对我来说, becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable was the most important skill I developed while I was abroad. From fumbling over my words while trying to order coffee (what in the world is a 泪》不管怎么说,?) to sleeping on the floor of a bus station in the rural Jujuy province of northwest 阿根廷, I became at ease with being completely uncomfortable. 现在回到美国.S.我渴望这种感觉.

Moral of the story: studying abroad is an experience you will remember and relive in your mind for the rest of your life (I know I do), and even the parts that in the moment you wish you could forget—like that one time I got 25 mosquito bites while visiting Iguazú F所有s—will turn out to be things you wish you had appreciated when you reflect on your experience of a lifetime.