Travels, visits... and acceptance

It's been a very busy month here in Buenos Aires! Somehow amidst the stress of parciales (yes, that's midterms for you lucky ducks on vacation back home) I found time to go to Mendoza and visit Elisa, one of my friends from high school. Her sister and my friend Kristen was visiting from Santiago at the same time, so we had a lovely girls' weekend full of exploring the city and its beautiful green spaces, cooking and baking (carrot cake!) and just enjoying each others' company. It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend and I loved being able to catch up with old friends in a completely unexpected place!

This past week, my roommate Song from BC flew down from Quito to see Buenos Aires. It was so fun to have her stay with me at my host family's house and to show her the beauty that is this city. I took her to tango, which in addition to being a cultural experience, I'm hoping will give me a partner to go dance with back in Boston :) 

However, one of perhaps the more transformative moments of my experience abroad happened before all that...

A couple weeks ago, I was in one of my favorite places to tango. I had gone with a few friends to go dancing, and we were very surprised to learn that there wasn't a regular dance that night, but rather a concert by a local contemporary tango group called Narcotango. The band, suffice to say, was incredible. They began to play their version of Gardel's "Mi Buenos Aires Querido," one of the best-loved tangos of all time, and we all sat there watching scenes of the city flash on the screen in the background and listening to the music. 

And that was when it happened... something in me clicked, and I realized that I am completely in love with Buenos Aires. For those of you who have yet to go abroad, realize that culture shock is a very real experience that you have to go through. You will be very frustrated by normally small inconveniences, you will go through a couple weeks where you compare everything to home and you find it all lacking. But after that's done, you might find yourself head over heels for this crazy country you've been struggling with and living in, and that makes the whole thing worth it.