Study Abroad Reflection

Step Reflection

Queena Prince

Education Abroad

1. My Step Signature Project was an Education Abroad trip to Buenos Aires, Salta, and Purmamarca in Argentina through the Office of International Affairs. This trip fulfills my history general education credit, and during the trip we learned about the history of Argentina and its capital Buenos Aires by visiting museums and important locations as well as having lecturers come and talk to our class.
2. Prior to leaving for my study abroad trip to Argentina, I have never traveled outside of the United States. My knowledge of other experiences in other countries was very limited, so I decided to have my first trip abroad be in a country that I had always been interested in, and that country just so happened to be Argentina. I had been studying spanish for about eight years, so I wanted to go to a spanish-speaking country to both practice my spanish and to learn more about Latin American culture.

Because this was my first time traveling to a foreign country, there were some culture shocks that I had encountered when I was in Argentina. They way that they drove, ate, dressed, and interacted with one another just showed my how much different they are from Americans. One thing that really surprised me was how European the county was. I had assumed that because Argentina was in South America, the ethnic makeup would be similar to that of Mexico or Colombia or any other country in Latin America. However, I found out that Argentina is actually the most white country in Latin America due to its major European influences, and this was very apparent by looking at the people in Buenos Aires and how they identify themselves.

3. The reason that I felt the way I felt in response #2 is because of first hand experiences and encounters that I had while being in Argentina for the first time. First I will begin with the basic differences, such as how they dress, eat, drive, etc. It was very evident that the people of Argentina, specifically in Buenos Aires, had a style of their own. It was wintertime when I visited there (because they were in the southern hemisphere, their seasons were the opposite of ours, so their wintertime occurred during our summertime in the US). Although it wasn’t freezing (maintaining about 50 degrees F) and it rarely snowed there, they still dressed in layers with boots and heavy jackets, while my group was walking around with a single layer and even shorts at times, looking like American tourists.

As for the cuisine, of course I had noticed some differences. First off, water was never free…ever. This was something that my entire group struggled with. We had to pay for bottled water to be poured into a glass every time we went out for a meal, and this expense would start to add up more than we realized. Also, empanadas were very popular there. I have never eaten an empanada in my life prior to the trip, but while I was there, I lost count of how many I ate in that two and a half week trip. Also, the way that they drive is extremely different from how it is here. They never follow the lines on the road, which means that they constantly swerve and neglect their turn signal, and I’m convinced that they way that they drive there would land them a ticket if they were to do that in the US.

The biggest culture shock for me though was how I was treated by being a black woman in a predominately ancestrally European and hispanic country. In the US, I am used to getting subtle stares at my hair and my features, and dealing with microaggressions on the daily, but in Buenos Aires, it took it to a whole new level. Firstly, the stares that I got were far from subtle. People would constantly look at me and not even attempt to hide it. I would get comments about my hair (which were in long twists at the time) and I even had an encounter on the subway where a bunch of teenagers asked to take a photo with me and touch my hair, and were amazed of how I looked and the fact that I spoke English, like I was some sort of celebrity. After this trip, I realized that perhaps some of the residents in Argentina had never seen a black person in their life, beside on TV. I did my final project for the class on Afro-Argentines, because I noticed that while I was there, I rarely–and I mean almost never–saw someone that looked like me. It was a strange and uncomfortable feeling, because I was the only black person in my group, so most of the time I had to go through the feeling of being isolated alone.

4. This change was significant for my life because it made me more aware to how different people are in this world, as well as how big our planet is. We got to travel to the Andes mountains while we were in Purmamarca, and I have to say that it was the most beautiful landscape I had ever seen in my life. But even though I’ve never traveled to other parts of the world, I know that there is so much more beauty that I have yet to lay my eyes on. This trip made me want to go on more study abroad trips and explore as much as I can, because for me, it is important to educate oneself of the world that we live in, and there is no better way to do that than to see it firsthand.