Resumé after four months in the Paris of South America

As a foreign in Argentina and especially in Buenos Aires you face several difficulties. The fact, that the Language is really different to other Spanish speaking countries is a difficult point. People from Buenos Aires called “Porteños” are totally different to other people from Argentina and sometimes you feel not really welcome and it is not that easy to get in contact with them.

I spend mostly time with people from Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Also students who came to Buenos Aires to study. Even they have problem to get in touch with the “Porteños” and they speak the language fluently.

But Buenos Aires is a city with a lot of different sides. The city offers a a good district and two street ahead you can stand in a totally different neighbourhood and have a lot of poverty around you.

I think I never see so much poverty before and a lot of children coming to you and beg for money.

That point makes Buenos Aires sometimes a little difficult to handle. Additionally, the city is really loud and super expensive in case of grocery and clothes.

The Universidad Austral is all in all a good university and I think the whole stay here was well organized and worked smoothly. Even it was the first time people from the Macromedia University went to Argentina.

Unfortunately, the Spanish lesson was not that good. For the next semester the Universidad should improve this. The teacher was not really competent and I learned the language more during the daily life and with my Spanish friends than from the University. What a pity!

A great experience was the trip to Uruguay. The life over there is different and you feel that Montevideo (the capital) has much less inhabitants then Buenos Aires. The life is more quite and more relaxed.

I really liked Punta del Este, the tourist city at the sea. It was a relaxing balance to the crowded and loud capital of Argentina.

What did i learn from the study abroad?

After I return to Germany I think I will appreciate a lot of things i never appreciate before. For example the Infrastructure of Hamburg, even though everyone hates the HVV I appreciate it much more when I come home.

Here you literally need to jump on the street to make the bus stop. I will estimate the value of affordable and healthy food in Germany.

Now I know how lucky we are that we can call such a developed country our home.

The best thing is that I meet so many international people and made friends all over the world I can visit. That is one of the pros you can get from a study abroad.

I appreciate the whole time in Argentina even though it was not always easy to handle a completely different culture. You get confronted with so many situations you need to handle well and you learn a lot about yourself.

All in all, the experience to go to South America and get in touch with so many new impressions were one of the best experience in my life. I learned so many things about people, life and me. From this experience I will benefit for all long time from.