Una introducción: Wisconsin dwelling, South American daydreaming

(The Art of Travel, post 1, Introductions)

This entire winter break (so far, a month and three days in) I’ve been the poster child for apathy.  After a rough fall semester, it is too nice to sit around and not think or do anything involving due dates and specific formats.  And just like any other college kid with too much free time, I’ve become a slave to the couch and the almighty revered Netflix.  This degree of apathy has been okay, however.  I’ve actually really enjoyed it.  But it’s crunch time.  In a week and three days I’m moving myself to a different continent for Pete’s sake.  I think it’s time to switch emotional gears and potentially use my brain again, before it turns into couch potato mush (that is, if it hasn’t already, considering my break is literally a month and a half long).

¡Hola todos! My name is Meg and I think I’m finally ready to get in the mindset of ‘I’m about to start school again.’ Wait, scratch that… more like ‘I’m about to move to Argentina, live with a random family, explore a whole new city and lifestyle, and, oh yeah, take classes on the side.’  My semester in Buenos Aires will complete my sophomore year at NYU.  I’m in the College of Arts and Sciences, with so far an undeclared major, but studying something that will hopefully involve foreign languages, my true loves (I speak Spanish, French, and a little bit of Irish Gaelic, and am eager to teach myself / learn many more).  I will most definitely be receiving my minor in Latin American studies, especially with the courses I will be taking this semester (which I am very excited about. Three out of my four classes will be conducted in Spanish!).  An inevitable goal for myself, as is with many others traveling to places of a different language, is to improve my Spanish.  I really hope to be fluent by the end of the semester.

Beyond Spanish being my first foreign language and the desire to improve and use that language, there are other reasons to my deciding to travel to Argentina.  For example, why not Madrid?  I’ve never even been to Spain, but have always wanted to go.  I have been elsewhere in Europe, however (France, Belgium, Ireland), but never to South America.  Notorious journalist and author Thomas Friedman has noted that South America is rising to be made up of ‘second world’ countries (The World Is Flat), and I do not plan on missing out on its rise to glory, while also discovering just exactly why this is the case by learning more of its history, politics, culture and people.  Also, as much as I loved New York my freshman year of college, it was a fantasy.  Sophomore year hit reality, and I was close to falling out of love with the city with an anxiety to go elsewhere, for perhaps a new fantasy to begin.

My education at NYU thus far has taught me the importance of ways of looking, seeing things in as many ways as possible.  I am prepared and truly excited to see the Spanish language and Latin American culture through the eyes of its citizens, as a member of their community, but still as a scholar pursuing this new path of vision.  In the very birthplace of the tango, I long for a dance with my body, mind and spirit partnered with the history, culture and people of Argentina, where no doubt together we will grow and develop to become a symbiotic force where I absorb my adventures and education and I do all I can in return for Buenos Aires, the city I hope to come to know and love.  And now, at the end of this post, I think I’ve decided that I am definitely ready for this semester to begin.

A blog about a young college student traveling and experiencing the world! Oh, how original!

Greetings, readers (friends and family)!

¡Bienvenidos a mi blog! This will be my source for posting about my time in Buenos Aires, Argentina throughout my semester abroad (departure set for February 5th, a week and a half away). It will be sure to consist of random, daily musings and discoveries, adventures, and pictures (Facebook will most likely be the best source for all my photographs, however, as goes social networking these days). It will also consist of my formal posts required for a 2-credit course I am taking online this semester, entitled "The Art of Travel". In this class, all participants are required to create 15 blog posts throughout the semester, with guided themes and a more specific format. These posts will have the label 'the art of travel' along with the assigned theme, and will perhaps read with more formality (as I will have to include different sources and will be writing with the audience of student peers and my professor, versus close friends and family).

A little bit on why I decided to take the online course and decided to start this blog: I had a writing professor for both semesters of my freshman year (I was lucky to get her twice, her classes fill up quickly!) that changed my outlook on, well, almost everything. I've come to love writing now, an interest that was never really present in high school. I've started a personal journal for the first time since 4th grade diary days, and enjoy any excuse to write anything, from poetry to essays to... well... blog posts! I knew I would be interested in taking the small, online course, not only because it is a way to interact with other students at different NYU abroad sites, but also it will force me to write about and publicly share my experiences in South America.

Therefore, all of you will be able to see things the way I see it. Mis ensueños porteños son suyos. My Buenos Aires daydreams are yours (the word "porteño" is a special word in Spanish used to describe anything of / relating to the city of  Buenos Aires).  It is true that I will be taking 18 credits through NYU this upcoming Spring semester, where three out of my four lectures will be conducted in Spanish.  It is also true that this semester, I will not necessarily put school as my obsessive priority (as I have in years past), and professors and other staff abroad know and assume that. This is my time to move myself to a different continent, improve my Spanish, immerse myself in a whole new lifestyle, and take on as many crazy adventures as I can, while, you know, maybe doing some homework on the side every now and then.

I hope you enjoy my posts, as I plan on them being the easiest way to communicate with a mass group of people. Feel free to comment any time. I will do my best to keep this thing updated!

Thanks everyone!

Con amor,
Meg