CEA CAPA Education Abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Working at Brincar, a local nonprofit, not only gave me language proficiency, but also the valuable opportunity to do something meaningful to effect change while abroad. I learned what my limits and capabilities are, and was stretched and challenged to lead programming all in my second language. My internship also allowed me to meet and work with so many incredible locals who are making huge differences in the lives of people with Autism in Argentina. Beyond the internship, the friendships I made, both with locals and international students, and experiences I had will stay with me forever. It was totally, without a shadow of a doubt, worthwhile.
Never once did I feel unsafe when staying in Buenos Aires. Just like any city, it's good to be cautious, and I took my tips from the Argentines around me: for example, on public transportation, everyone wears their back packs on their fronts with an arm slung over it. This prevents theft. Things like that, and just being generally aware of your surroundings, will keep you safe.
Our knowledgable on-site staff made me feel safe and cared for. They were wonderful about providing information on opportunities for engagement in the city, as well as other helpful cultural and linguistic tips. They responded to emails and texts rapidly, even when they weren't in the office. They made sure we knew we could come to them with anything, from homesickness to actually being sick, to just needing to complain about how much we missed a certain type of food. They were incredible.I definitely encourage study abroad students to search out their own opportunities for language growth outside of the classroom. For me, that looked like my internship, volunteering each week, attending a local church, and seeking out relationships with Argentines.

Buenos Aires, Argentina
My study abroad experience was a once in a lifetime experience. From eating empanadas, to dancing the tango, to traveling to Brazil to see a friend. I was able to live with a home-stay, which improved my Spanish and helped me prepare for how to interact with locals. Building friendships with all the international students has to be my favorite part about the whole experience. I highly recommend to study abroad. . .maybe it should be required.

Buenos Aires really is the Paris of South America. This city has a wonderful European vibe and there are always a mountain of free activities available to its residents. Overall, I loved my time in Buenos Aires, but I do not think my Spanish improved as fast as it could have. Although my skills did increase from how they were at the start of the semester, I know they would have increased faster if I enrolled in a university for Spanish speakers, rather than decided to take classes at the CEA Study Center for American students. During the spring of 2018, the CEA Study Center in Buenos Aires only offered 2 courses in Spanish and the rest were in English. I took those 2 courses and I do feel like they slightly improved my Spanish, but the simple structure of the course work felt like a review of my high school Spanish classes, rather than a course with challenging learning objectives. The courses taught in English were rather easy too. If I were to do it again, I think I would have enrolled in a university with other native Spanish speakers.

Aside from my Spanish skills not growing as fast as I would have liked them too, I genuinely loved my time in Buenos Aires. I think this is a wonderful city and I feel like my abroad experience enabled me to mature and learn more about myself.

Buenos Aires is an awesome city with a bajillion things to do, and the CEA staff was always helpful in recommending activities and helping us check off our list of things we wanted to do. My classes were all liberal arts classes since that was my program, and they all had an immersion component, where we'd go on field trips and link the things we were learning about in class to the country we were living in.

Everyone coming to Buenos Aires should definitely go see a fútbol game, because the fans in Argentina are so incredibly passionate. You should also go to a Milonga, a tango club. The one downside of my semester is that I didn't get to travel as much as I wanted because Argentina is so huge that a lot of the places I wanted to go couldn't be visited in a weekend because the actual commute took an entire day each way.

CEA has provided us with much more than just a campus in the midst of a vibrant city -- any questions about any thing here are answered; the host home they put me in is perfect, with pets, tasty dinners, great location, an amazing host mom; every couple of weeks they take us on a CEA excursion, such as yerba mate & food tasting, a Tango dinner show, an overnight to Iguazu Falls... and so much more!
Classes are small and engaging, with various class outings and fun projects to prompt unique cultural experiences. Buenos Aires is a huge city, which could be very intimidating to study in if it weren't for the support I get from CEA and the resources they give us.. including free coffee and yerba mate to get us through the long days!

Known for its cafés and strolls down cobblestone roads, Buenos Aires left that impression on me as well, and so much more. My favorite experiences in BA was waking up early one cold morning and walking a couple miles to meet with my classmates for an excursion. Being that no one in BA gets up earlier than 9am, the streets we completely silent and all I could hear were the birds and my shoes as they hit the distressed pavement on every step. As per usual, I stepped into a random café and got myself a medialuna (croissant-like pastry) and a cortado (a shot of espresso and milk) and continued on to my destination.
Aside from giving us the chance to experience the everyday life in Buenos Aires, CAPA gave us the unique opportunity to immerse ourselves in the professional lives of Argentinians in the Healthcare field. The curriculum of the Comparative Healthcare Systems Seminar not only exposed us to their healthcare systems and how they work, but we were also given a brief history of Argentina and history of healthcare. This interdisciplinary form of teaching allows us to have a deeper understanding of who makes up the population, where they reside, and their views on health which then allows us to better absorb our experiences when visiting clinics and hospitals. This is an example of CAPA does its best to give us a unique form of immersion; informed immersion.
The one thing I liked about the program coordination was that this was very well structured but the faculty and staff were flexible as well. CAPA does its best to make sure you obtain the goals you would like to achieve while abroad. For example, I was determined to shadow a physician at some point during my trip. Even though it wasn’t originally on the schedule, our faculty were able to ensure that my goals were met and had a fulfilling experience.
My best advice would be to take hold of the reigns and be proactive in reaching the goals you would like to achieve. It may seem that some aspect of the curriculum or schedule is lacking to your interests or missing something you would like to experience, there is no harm in trying to be instrumental in the programs’ service to you. CAPA is always willing to hear your voice and to implement change.

I really loved studying abroad with CEA here in Buenos Aires. The staff is really great and helpful, and go out of their way to help us find activities to participate in, great food to eat, and fun places to go in our free time. The study center was kind of strange, because it was very different than a normal campus feel that I am used to. That being said, we had a lounge where we could hang out with free coffee and tea, a more quiet computer lab/study room with several computers and free printing, and a place to store things during the day if we needed to. I enjoyed the classes as well, because I honestly knew close to nothing about Argentina before coming and I feel that I have learned a lot. We went on several weekend/day trips, some with CEA and some on our own. I felt like a lot of planning went into these CEA trips and I really appreciated that! As far as enjoying my time in the city or travelling on my own, that was totally up to me. The staff did a great job of keeping us informed about what things were happening in the city so that we could always have something to do. I know that some of my friends here complained a lot about the workload and that we always had so many assignments that we did not have any free time, but honestly that's not true!!! I really feel that the workload was completely appropriate for university level courses.

Before going abroad, I wasn't quite sure about the academic rigor abroad. I didn't know it would be similar to American style of classes or of it would be something completely different. To my surprise, I actually liked the Argentinian style of academics. On Monday through Thursday (didn't have school on Friday) I would wake up around 7:15am for a 20-40 minute commute to school. I would generally end the day around 3:00-4:00pm. The great thing was that my weekend started at 12:30pm on Thursday so I could use the weekend to travel. I like the style of school so that each 3-credit class would be held on one day. However with this method, I had to make sure to stay on top of my studies because only having class once a week was way different then I was used to. In addition, college in Argentina is way more independent in a lot of ways. Most students live at home so the whole sense of college being a community, that is fostered in America, is quite foreign to them. That being said, there are many extra curricular actives or even a traditional campus in that sense.

The international classes in English were relatively the same amount of work as my home university. Much of the workload consisted of readings. There was rarely homework which may come to a surprise for some. Although many may favor this, it may be difficult for some to adjust to because of the amount of self-discipline and self-management it is. I enrolled in one direct enrollment class within the University. The class was in Spanish for 4.5 hours every Thursday. The great part the class is that I learned a whole new host of business jargon and acumen in Spanish. Like most classes, the grades consisted of two major test--the midterm and the final. That being said, students are given to pass if he or she did not perform well the first time.

My program director gave an immense amount of support. She was very hands-on and made sure that I was always doing well. She assured me that it would take some time to get used to the new way of schooling but that I would pick up on it soon enough.

For those concerned about living conditions, if you are independent and social, I would definitely recommend staying with other international students or having your own place. While a home-stay is ideal because it generally comes with prepared meals and stability, I think it took away from me fully being able to experience the culture with people my age. However, my host-mother and I always engaged in great conversation about Argentinian politics and pop culture over dinner. I would have rather lived with other international students to learn more about their culture and their abroad experiences. I think you will find that going abroad is much more of the norm in other cultures than it is in America. For many students, Argentina was the last place in their expedition of Latin America. If you would like to rent apartment, they are relatively cheap in comparison America and often come with amenities included.

If you love great beef and empanadas, you are in for a treat. Much of the food has European influences. There are a lot of options ranging from pasta, pizza, asado (grilled beef and chicken), excellent wine, medialunas (croissant like pastries), and sweet alfajores. It may take sometime to get adjusted to the lack of typical American food, but there are a few good wing and burger spots throughout the city. Argentina has some of the best beef I've ever tasted--no seasoning needed. Their artisan style pizza, consumed with fork and knife, may not be your typical experience eating pizza. Take a chance and venture our to the local parillas and fine dining locations. The shawarma may just be your favorite late night food too!

I felt very integrated during my trip. In actuality, it was harder dealing with reverse culture shock upon my return to the States. I met many new people, whose I still communicate with every day. Being a black man, I felt more respect there than in the US in many instances. The culture is laid-back and relaxed, correlating to the slow place of life. The nation is heavily bound together by its love for soccer. As seen during the World Cup, avid "fútbol" fans too the streets to celebrate after each victory. The culture is fun and hip with the nightlife extending early into the morning (around 7:30-8:00am. The people are warm hearted and brought a gregarious side out of me I never knew I had.