I am writing my first blog while I am already an "intercambio" student for more than 6 weeks. In the coming blogs I will try to give an impression of the exchange life which includes: studying in a foreign language, traveling through stunning nature, and living in one of the biggest city in the world while "exchanging" with people from all over the world.
Although it has already been a while, I will start from the beginning: Why did I choose to go to Buenos Aires? The answer to this question is actually very simple: I wanted to learn Spanish and I wanted to leave Europe. Since Buenos Aires is the biggest, most interesting, and most safe Spanish speaking city, outside of Spain, I decided to apply. Fortunately my fantastic exchange coordinator, Linda, accepted my application and that's where it all started.
After throwing my goodbye party on Thursday (7th of july) I met my fellow Tilburg-Buenos Aires exchange students the next morning at Amsterdam aiport where we took off to Sao Paolo for our connecting flight to Buenos Aires. The 1000 euro's were well spent; after 13 hours of TV series, films, and games I actually felt sad leaving KLM's Boeing 777. Since no university in Buenos Aires provides accommodation for exchange students, we had booked a hostel to give us some time to search for accommodation. After sleeping for a bit we spend the first two days sightseeing and buying necessities such as Argentine cellphone chips.
On Monday we had our intake test for the 3-week language course provided by my university, all Tilburg students, except for half-Spanish Rebecca, were put in the "slow" class. To be honest, the two Spanish courses which are mandatory to go to a Spanish speaking country are not that much and most other exchangees had a higher level than us. After the intake, we had two hours of class in which our teacher explained the main differences between Spain-Spanish and Buenos Aires-Spanish (Porteño). For example: the entire second-person form changes, instead of tu eres (you are) they say vos sos. Besides doing a lot of language, we also learned some things about Argentina culture and history. On Wednesday we had to get up early to meet our teacher on Plaza de Mayo, the main square of the city, where they set up a guided tour through the city centre.
The language class started at 14:00 and lasted till 18:00, so by the time we were done with school it was already getting dark outside. Not only the few hours of daylight were shocking, also the temperature was way lower then we were used to from the summer we were coming from. All in all there were quite a few things to get used to: the weather, the enormous city, and the language. My first impressions were: nice people, and a very nice atmosphere.
Next time I will tell about my next weeks; looking for an apartment and going out in Buenos Aires.
Chau!
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