Virginia Thomas
Buenos Aires Columnist
While traveling in Brazil over Christmas break, I got to do a lot of things I’ll probably never do again. I fished for piranhas, fell into the Amazon river when an alligator ran at me, slept in a tribal chief’s hut, drank coconut milk on Copacabana beach and got a chance to really pause and think about this seven-month adventure we call the Pepperdine Buenos Aires program.
At the half-way mark, I’m so glad I came to Buenos Aires for the whole year. I’m finally a seasoned Porteña, or Buenos Aires dweller. I’ve adjusted to taking a bus or subway everywhere, learned enough Spanish to get by, and learned to skip every Pepperdine function that’s not mandatory. If you don’t, there is hardly a single moment to actually be with Argentines, speak Spanish and be immersed in the culture.
I love living in Argentina and the eye-opening experiences it has given me. My only beef with this year (besides the fact that it costs $43,830 to live in a lesser-developed nation), has been the lack of time to do what I came to do: be here.
I found myself swamped the first semester. I learned that the only way to make a Pepperdine International program truly be an international program is to go out on your own and experience life in the country you’re in. Yes, PI programs are in other countries, but when I found myself with 22 hours of class a week for 16 credits, 10 hours per week of commuting to a university that is all the way across the city, and a different activity with Americans speaking English almost every night of the week, I looked around and saw a lot more of an American bubble than I did of Argentina.
I would have learned a lot more Spanish and a lot more about this place if I had learned sooner to let go of the Pepperdine program holding my hand. And this program, along with Lyon, are the most culturally immersing! At least we live in houses with Argentine families. I can’t imagine what my friends in Heidelburg, London and Florence are experiencing, living together in the same big mansion they have their classes in. Do they even see the outside world?
Despite my first semester grumbling, I’m actually excited for the second semester. For the first two months, classes will be held at a much closer campus so we’ll spend a lot less time on a subway twiddling our thumbs.
Also in spite of my complaints, I did have some experiences outside the bubble that have forever changed my perspective. When you live within the comforts of the United States for your entire life, that’s all you know and you have nothing to make a comparison to. It’s easy to assume that the rest of the world is like where you live. I will never forget listening to a 9-year-old Peruvian boy selling postcards in Cusco tell me that he loved school and studying. It dawned on me that going to college is an unreachable dream for most of the world. While working for a week on a Christian farm outside of Buenos Aires that takes in people from the streets, I watched the eyes of a 12-year-old girl glow as she told me that the week before, she and her family did something so exciting … for the first time in her life, she went to a restaurant! I was left without words, wondering how many factors of my life were determined solely because I was born in the United States.
I had a few other experiences that gave me questions I have yet to answer. A tourist from the United Arab Emirates asked me questions about American history that I couldn’t answer and he could. I thought about the American public school system and wondered how much truth there is to the stereotype of the “ignorant American” that knows little about history, politics and other languages and cultures. I also had a devoutly Christian father ask me if the American church was rallying to oust Bush for the “atrocities he has committed.” I wondered why in America, the pattern is that Christians are Republicans. I wondered if Jesus lived in America today, would he even choose a political party?
I have my complaints about this year. There are improvements that could be made. But what I am learning has made this year worthwhile. Or as we say in Argentina, “vale la pena.”
01-13-2005
