When I landed in Buenos Aires, I was lucky enough to have been able to connect with three other study abroad students who were equally confused as to what to do after we landed. Annoyingly stressful and worrying thoughts kept popping into my head while I was waiting in the extremely long line to get my passport stamped and to get through customs like, “Was I supposed to recheck my luggage when I transferred in Texas? Was I supposed to pick up my luggage before waiting in line to get through customs? What do I do if CIS is not here to pick me up and I have no phone?” Luckily for me, none of these worries ended up being a problem for me and I was able to easily find my luggage and my ride to my residency.

The long long line of people trying to get into Argentina from the United States.

Being driven through the streets of Argentina was surreal, and I was way too tired to be able to process the fact that I was in a strange land far away from home. My mind kept trying to make comparisons to places I have been before in the United States to these new places and images I was observing while being driven through Buenos Aires. The grey skies and cold weather reminded me of Oregon. Being an Oregon native, I am accustomed to seeing stores in all Spanish. This kept me from feeling too odd while observing a city that only speaks and operates in Spanish.

This statue is right next to where I live. I use it as a reference point to know when to get off the bus on my way home from school.

After being being dropped off at my residency and taking a long nap, my CIS advisor took me and another CIS student on a tour around the residence area. One thing I noticed while on my walk is that Buenos Aires does not feel like a extremely foreign country on the outside. The buildings, architecture, clothing, and advertisements are very similar to the western culture that I am used to. It wasn’t until I tried ordering food by myself that I truly felt like an outsider to the culture.

Me and Leah having dinner at a really nice restaurante in BA. This was my first Argentine meal.

One thing that really amuses me is how much culture in the United States has become infused with the culture in Buenos Aires, especially in terms of US entertainment. There are many US brands, fast food, TV shows and movies here. I was in a fancy bakery the other day and they we playing the song “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio. I was hanging out at a big billiards/bar here and 90% of the songs that they played were current pop hits and a few 80s and 90s hits as well. One of the bars that we walked by had a cover band that were doing several covers of famous songs from the US. It’s interesting how far away from home US culture has spread.

Another interesting event that happened to me was that I was able to make friends with people from a different study abroad program in the US. My first or second day here, I was able to join along with student from their program for a guided tour of a very nice Catholic church as well as one of the nicest graveyards in the entire world. The graveyard tour was definitely the highlight of my trip so far because I was able to learn about the history of all of the famous Argentine figures that were buried there (such as Evita) and I also got to observe the immaculate sculptures and art that went in to making the mausoleums that these Argentines were buried in.

Glimpse of just of few of the immaculate mausoleums that we got to see.

Picture of the pope inside of a Catholic church

This what the exit of the graveyard looked like.

The only thing that has frightened me about being here so far is that I have been repeatedly told to be careful about valuable electronics such as cameras, phones and computers. This has made me wary to use my phone to take pictures. I also brought a non-digital 35mm camera, but I’m afraid to use this camera too in case someone mistakes it for a nice camera. It also makes me look more like a tourist.

I am looking forward to the coming week and will hopefully have many more stories and pictures to share on next week’s blog!