Where did you study abroad and why did you choose to go there?
I went to Argentina. I chose Argentina specifically because I heard that’s where you could learn Spanish the best. Learning Spanish was my main goal when I first went there but I ended up adding Spanish as a major after going to Argentina. In the beginning, I just wanted to go and live my best life, and then I came back and I said “Why not just add a major?” Going abroad for a year will, however, make me a super senior but it was absolutely worth it. It was worth every millisecond.
What was the most difficult part of your experience there?
Having to come back early. I mean, on a Saturday, around mid March when everything started getting really bad, people were starting to go home because their parents were making them come back. And then the following Thursday, we found out that all of us had to leave that week – just a couple days later. In my mind, I was fine and my parents weren’t really too worried about it, so I was going to stay. But then they said we had to leave. And that following Saturday, a week from the first Saturday, people were gone. I stayed as long as I possibly could, which was two weeks and then I left the day before the country shut down.
How did your study abroad experience differ as a result of having to leave early?
As a result of having to leave early, I didn’t get to go on two trips: Bariloche (which is the south of Argentina), and they added another one, but I don’t remember what it was. I was also planning to learn Portuguese during my last trimester there. I was going to come back speaking a whole other additional language. The reason learning Portuguese was an option is because there were a lot of Brazilians at the university where I was studying. In the same way that it was cheap for us, it was also cheap for them to study there as well. And I had just made a lot of Brazilian friends at the beginning of that trimester, right before everything started getting really bad, so I was really trying to add another language to my belt.
Did you find that it was easy to make friends there?
Yes, making friends was easy for me because I had a goal. Naturally, I’m an extrovert, and my goal was to learn Spanish, and in order to learn Spanish I needed to speak to the natives. So, I didn’t want to hang out with any Americans, and I was left with no other choice but to make those new friends. For the first couple of weeks, I didn’t do a lot of speaking. It was more of just smiling and nodding, and a lot of “sí.” The people there love ACA students (Adventist Colleges Abroad), so that also made it way easier to make friends because they were so excited to have us there. It was also great that these were people our age––they were university students, so it was also easier to connect with them.
What were some of your most fun memories there?
My 21st birthday was celebrated, a couple weeks after arriving there. And also when I went to Brazil for Christmas/New Years break––that was a great experience. For my 21st birthday, I was thrown a surprise party. What made it great was not just the party but also the fact that it was only 3 weeks into the school year and they felt that they liked me enough to throw me a whole party. Every person that I had ever met in those three weeks was at the party, and they all wore my favorite color, which is red. But, it wasn’t a crazy party. It was just a chill party with karaoke, dancing, a little music––it was good stuff. What’s different is that they sing like 5 different songs for your birthday. It’s very hype, they have several variations of the birthday song in Spanish and then a Brazilian one.
My Brazil trip was also a great experience. I stayed with a friend and she lived on the beach. It was kind of like a beach/tourist resort place. She was actually my roommate that I stayed with at the university. Two weeks into the school year she asked me what I was doing for Christmas break, and I said “I don’t know that’s months away” and then she invited me to come to Brazil with her. Although I didn’t go home for Christmas break, I was not sad because I had so much fun traveling. Spending the break in Brazil was the biggest vibe. There were a lot of beaches. My friend's place was like a cute island. We spent most days sitting on the beach, chilling in hammocks, and doing touristy things. I also went parasailing for free because her boyfriend was a tourist guide. And we also went on a standing sailboat.
It wasn’t that expensive to travel when I was in Argentina. The school paid for all of the trips that they took us on, but Brazil I paid for out of pocket. The great thing is that I was just living my best life and not counting coins.
Can you contrast your current state of mind to how you felt in Argentina?
Sure, I was learning Spanish, but it was not real school. It was like vacation, so my stress levels were negative. At the most it went up to maybe a 2, every time that I had a test. Now I’m just stressed with literally everything going on.
Can you walk us through your whole experience with learning Spanish? Are you fluent now?
Native speakers say that I’m really good. Someone actually once told me that they thought Spanish was my first language. That’s one of the biggest compliments that you can receive. After that, you literally couldn’t tell me anything. When I first got there, I understood mostly context because I was able to catch words here and there. I listened to a lot of music and different things before I went. That’s why I was able to pick out some words but I never really spoke. I would just say “hola,” “feliz sabado.”
There’s three levels of classes, Intermediate, Advanced I, and Advanced II. Because my understanding was good, I could read and write at a pretty good level, so I got put in the Advanced I Spanish class. Class didn’t consume a lot of my time so there was a lot of down time. We arrived on September 16. By my birthday, October 5, I was finally speaking but not well. It would take me some time to form sentences. By mid November, I was pretty good. Definitely by December, I was really good. Where it took off, was during the summer. The summer over there is from January to March. The campus is mostly empty, the students are gone, and it’s just the us Americans, and a couple students who are studying for their version of the MCAT. And I did not want to lose my Spanish, so I found the few people left on the campus and we became very close friends. Every day we would talk, and my Spanish went through the roof during those two months.
What advice would you give someone who was thinking about going abroad?
Go! It is a life changing experience that you won’t regret. Although not everyone may be as outgoing as me, learning a new language and being in a new environment is uncomfortable no matter how you look at it, and at some point you just have to suck it up and put yourself out there, and that is when you will truly start to reap the benefits.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.