My seventh week here has been extremely great, and I’m starting to think about how weird it is that I have to go home soon. I’ve been living in a residency with around 35-40 other people who are mostly from Spanish speaking countries. I have three roommates right now, and we all share the same room. I sleep on the top bunk. Needless to say my exposure to Spanish has been pretty intense. I also have been studying the language five hours a day, five days a week. It’s insane how much better my Spanish abilities are since I’ve come here. I wish I could stay here for just a few months more to become more fluent and make fewer errors when I’m trying to speak the language.

One aspect about living in Buenos Aires that fascinates me is the variety of reactions I get from strangers that I talk to when they realize that I can’t speak Spanish fluently. Porteños are used to coming into contact with foreigners, but most of the people they meet can already speak Spanish. Some people underestimate how much Spanish I know and they freak out when they think it will be impossible to communicate with me. Some of my friends overestimate how much Spanish I know and they end up talked way to quickly about topics that are way over my head in Spanish. In short, I’ve become really comfortable talking to people in Spanish even though it isn’t perfect and my accent isn’t that great. It’s been fun trying to trick Spanish speakers that I understand what they are saying to me, even though, in reality, I only understood a couple of words that they said.

This week was really fun because CIS took us on a trip to an estancia! An estancia is basically an Argentina version of what we in the US call a ranch. I got to ride a horse, eat authentic food while watching people dance the tango and play local music. Overall it was an amazing experience! I also loved that I had my own room with a queen sized bed. There was really good internet there too which is crazy.

The house on the left is giant and very rustic looking on the inside. There was another house on the estancia where people could sleep that was equally nice.

I got to take part in a giant maté circle at the estancia

This was our entertainment while we enjoyed a six course meal included 4 different types of bbq style meats

The horses knew to follow the leader.

There was a show involving this guy demonstrating how they train the horses by dominating them and getting them to be comfortable with human contact.