Arcos Learning Abroad

It was an amazing experience that I will take with me for the rest of my life and career. All of the excursions we went on were a breath of fresh air, they were perfectly timed with our school schedule. Personally, for me, I loved spending more time after our excursions to do my own exploring on my personal time. I got involved in a lot of clubs and activities and made some life long connections with locals. I joined my university's football team, and it was an honor to be part of such a loved sport in Argentina. I got to meet people from all over the world in my classes, and the conversation club I worked for the majority of my stay there. The classes I took were absolutely amazing! I decided to take a tango class last minute through the university, and it is a completely different world. I got to learn the inner working mechanisms of what it really takes to be a tanguero. I learned more history about Argentina in my literature class more than my own country's history. The stories of this beautiful country came alive, and I saw aspects of this history all over, and in the streets of Buenos Aires. In my sociolinguistics class I learned the origins of lunfardo and how differently people speak and that this phenomenon exists globally. In my Spanish class I was really able to apply myself to learning the language more than I ever knew possible. All of the professors were amazing, as well as my director Raúl. I learned so many things from all of them from silly conversations to life lessons. My host mom was fantastic and she had so many words of wisdom, and always comforted me when I was feeling down (and made amazing food!). I will never forget this amazing experience, and Buenos Aires will always have a part of my heart as I felt so alive and enthralled each day I was there. Studying here for 4 months was worth the whole process, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I will always remember and return, my beloved Buenos Aires.

I really loved living in this vibrant, lively city. I lived in really good parts of the city with plenty to do all of the time. I had many opportunities to better my Spanish, and I made some lifelong friends.

To begin with the positives, I felt as if this program was set-up to make sure students thoroughly got the most out of their time in Oaxaca, despite only having one month. We were able to go to all of the touristy spots, but also be introduced one where (and how to find) the hidden gems across the city! I feel like I definitely got to experience a lot of what Oaxaca had to offer within the month. And in addition to this, my coursework was very engaging and encouraged students to compare the class lessons with real life examples and current events. Through all of these experiences, it created a stepping stone for future adventures! My only issues were that some days were really packed and didn't seem like administration accounted for how tired students would be after 1 or 2 activities.