GRIP, Internships Abroad What to Expect Coming to BA...and Going

Teamworks - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Be prepared to be put on the spot.
At a hectic intersection, you'll need to meet your taxi driver's questions on behalf of porteños with answers on behalf of New Yorkers. Your coworkers' American pop culture knowledge will rival yours, and you'll get your chance to sing along to Britney and to talk about what happened to Demi with them. You'll be asked who you're rooting for in the World Cup, how you stand politically back home, what you expected coming to Argentina, and how Argentinian boys compare to American boys. 

Know that you'll leave full.
The pages of the little leather-bound book you bought at a market to journal in at the end of each day might start to smudge as you scribble in smaller and smaller handwriting. You and your friends will compare how long you last before receiving the "Alcanzaste los 50 MB de navegación" (You reached 50 MB of navigation) text of the day from your data provider. You'll pit foaming waterfalls against frosted mountains against murky rivers when you run out of camera roll storage. You'll stuff your carry-on with boxes of alfajores and wonder if last year's summer clothes will still fit you when it's time to put away your winter coat.

Leave bits of yourself, but the exchange won't end with you.
Returning one last time to the colorful streets and Sunday fairs frequented by tourists, you'll realize that they have the same looks of astonishment you must've worn two months earlier. Another exchange student will choose among hand-painted signs reading "bienvenidos", learn the terms for cuts of meat she barely knows in English, half-sit and half-stand in her cheap seat at the colossal Teatro Colón, assure the museum guide that she'd prefer the tour in Spanish, ask her host mom to share her empanada recipe, and start receiving discounted subway rides because she swipes so frequently.

Remember that you'll always have Buenos Aires. 
Your new local friends will promise that they'll let you know if they're ever in the States, and they'll ask you to see them when you come back to Buenos Aires. Your host mom will tell you that the spare bedroom is always available for you if you need it one day since you've already been a part of her home. You might be frustrated that your last days in the city are rainy ones, but someone at your office will remark, "Si no hay lluvia no pueden florecer las plantas" (If there's no rain the plants can't flower). On the last day of your internship, you'll know how to answer when your coworkers ask if you think you've grown over those eight weeks, and you'll tell them the ways Buenos Aires has grown on you.