GRIP, Internships Abroad Long Term Tourist

GRIP: Entrepreneurship in Montevideo

The best way to learn more about a culture is to spend a lot of time there. I spent my summer in Montevideo, but I also traveled to other countries while I was there, and while I loved them all, I got to know Uruguay in a different way. When you spend five days in a city you obviously experience it like a tourist. You pack your day with every important site. You leave your accommodation early in the morning and you come back late at night, exhausted from a busy day of trying to see as much as you can before your journey back home. This was my experience when I visited Buenos Aires and Rio with my fellow GRIP interns. We loved those cities, but not in the same way as Montevideo.

In Montevideo I became comfortable. I knew my bus routes, my favorite cafe with the best alfajores, I came home to my host family and told them about my day. Honestly, I probably saw less of the city than I did in Buenos Aires. I went to fewer museums, did fewer touristy things. I lived there like a local. I made local friends at a thrift store and met them for dinner later that week. I sat in a park on a sunny day and spoke to street vendors. I celebrated downtown when Uruguay won the Fifa U20 World Cup. During my lunch break at work I spoke to my coworkers about the differences between Uruguay and the US. I conducted most of the market research for my internship through WhatsApp, which is very different from how it’s done in the US. When I came home I ate Uruguayan food for dinner at 10pm and discussed politics, history and religion. I was a tourist in a different way.

Global experiences like this allow people to truly immerse themselves in a new culture.  Uruguay is a tiny country, and somewhere I never saw myself going, but now I feel like I have a home there. I loved being a long term tourist. You can take things slow and learn more about the place through the people you meet and the routines you establish, rather than checking off all the main tourist sites. My internship taught me about business in a different country’s market. My homestay taught me about Uruguayan culture in the richest way possible. My fellow GRIP interns made the experience one I’ll never forget. My friends at Penn will probably get sick of hearing “in Uruguay they do this…” but I love that I know enough about the place to be able to say it so much.