"Burb" Girl Going City

I feel like a native and a foreigner. I feel comfortable and uncomfortable. I feel at home and at a new place at the same time.

Growing up in latin American culture, there are parts of BA that are not so new to me. But like every country in latam, there are new things I’m discovering as well. For me the “ch” when there is a “ll” and the usage of “vos” throws me off in conversation, but I’m starting to understand it. Usually when they ask where I’m from they assume another Latin American country, then I have to explain I’m a first generation American that speaks both Spanish and Portuguese. My Spanish accent is definitely Mexican, and I don’t know if it’ll turn Porteno. Part of me hopes it does, and the other part of me feels like it sounds so “weird” that I don’t want to adopt it. I suppose we will see what happens with that.

So far I love Argentina and I love Buenos Aires. When we arrived our guide, Nahuel, advised us to get lost because it’s the best way to learn the city. And let me tell you something… I’m getting lost a lot haha.

I’m from Dallas. More specifically, a suburb of Dallas. I’m not a city girl, I’m a “burb” girl. I’ve never lived in a big city, so you can only imagine how overwhelming Buenos Aires can be for me (remember how i said it´s the 2nd biggest metropolis in Latin America?).

Last Friday was our orientation and with that was a tour of the city. The tour ended at the University of Belgrano, in the neighborhood Belgrano. After the tour Nahuel looked at us and said “well… adios chicos!” and peaced out. Rachel (my roommate), Eleanor, Julia, and I went to a restaurant to buy our first glass of wine. It was delicious, and we sat there for a couple hours like the Argentinians getting to know one another. When it came time to go home, we all realized we didn't know how.

Booklet they gave us to navigate Buenos Aires

This city is HUGE, and the bus system is very complex. Once again, I`m from Dallas. To say we have “public transportation” is kind of a joke, because we really don’t have a great system, it kinda sucks. Now look at that map. The little numbers listed along the streets are bus routes. An entire map of the bus system doesn’t exist because it’s too complex to map out. So im trying to decipher this ity bity map on my first day ever in a big city. Did I also mention Rachel and I didn’t have a phone yet? Yeah. So no way to call Graciela to tell her we were pretty lost.

Rachel and I begin searching high and low for people to ask directions for. It took about 5 different people to direct us to the bus stop we wanted. Looking back, I'm pretty sure the first couple people we talked to were totally pretending they knew where it was (erghhhhh). Dinner time in BA is around 9pm, and that essentially was our curfew to getting home. We didn’t end up getting home until about 9:30 and Graciela (host mom) was relieved when she finally saw our faces. She was worried about us considering it was out first day in the city. The very next day our mom made us go put credits on Rachel’s phone so we could always have a way to contact her.

It's been a week since I landed in EZE and slowly but surely i`m figuring out life in a big city. I`m definitely not in Tejas anymore ladies and gents. Before you know it I will break open from the cacoon of the suburbs and come out a city butterfly.

Con mucho carino, 

Julietta