Six amazing months
Aug 19th, 2007, 06:52 pm
You know what’s crazy? I’ve been down out of the good ol’ US of A for over half a year! Tomorrow marks the twenty-sixth week of my study abroad adventure. If you do the math, you’ll find out that by October 1, my twenty-second birthday, I will have spent 4.17% of my life in South America. Wild.
Let’s do a recap of February to July: I barely understood Spanish my first month in Argentina; met some cool people; met some not so cool people; got stopped by the cops in the subway station for doing nothing and asked to show ID (maybe I was just too brown for them to be a legal resident); saw some amazing mountains and waterfalls; penetrated the Argentine Muslim community; met more Bangladeshis that I had expected; struggled with my classes due to language difficulties; was shocked by all the racy magazines kept in public at newsstands; went to Bolivia and Uruguay; was really uncomfortable in my first host family’s house; had to get used to the lack of spicy food; learned to converse in Spanish; was asked about 3,852 times about my ethnic origin; got used to besos (I’ll talk about those in a bit); ate really good sushi; felt good that a lot of people asked me for directions on the streets because that meant I looked like I belonged; was fascinated that Argentines ate so much beef; used to get offended when people talked to me in English because I thought they just didn’t think I understood Spanish, but then I realized that I’ll probably talk to Hispanics in the US in Spanish when I go back, and they’ll probably get just as annoyed with me; tried asking the study abroad people if I could live alone second semester, but they were stubborn and wouldn’t let me; was amazed that such a high percentage of Argentine girls are so good-looking (I still can’t figure out how this is possible); realized that people you would have never expected to show up later in your life do; and was astounded by the power of American culture worldwide.
I feel I’ve grown so much as an individual since the day I got here. First of all, because I left my family and friends behind, I basically had to start a new life from scratch. It’s actually pretty nice to have the opportunity to “start over.” If I had desired, I could have theoretically made up everything about myself, and people would’ve believe it. Second, living as one of very few Bangladeshi American Muslims in a predominantly white, Spanish-speaking, largely non-practicing Catholic country on the other side of the earth makes you think about your entire being. Taken out of my comfort zone, I reexamined everything about my life, such as the things I should’ve done, things I should’ve not done, my family, my friends, and my country. Plus, I realized just how Muslim and American I really am. I may be desi, but I still love my oatmeal breakfasts and hip hop. And finally, I’ve learned to speak my mind and not to bottle up my feelings. If you piss me off, I’m gonna tell you. I may appear calm and unexpressive, but I’ll say what’s on my mind if the circumstances call for it. Although I left for Argentina with the intention of learning Spanish and experiencing life in another country, I’ve benefited in far more ways than I had expected.
Speaking of Spanish, I can speak it fairly decently now. Because I hardly ever practiced speaking Spanish in situations outside of the classroom, I could barely put together a sentence my first week in Argentina. However, now I can even make witty remarks and crack jokes once in a while. Still, I have much to work on. Learning a language takes time and patience.
And what’s Argentine culture like?
Although Argentine culture is similar to that of the US, it’s still pretty unique. You can write books on the differences between the two cultures, so I’m just gonna talk about one of the most obvious ones: the beso (kiss). When greeting friends and family members, Argentines typically put their right arm around the person in front of them and place their right cheek on the other person’s and make a kissing sound. People do this with members of the opposite sex as well as members of the same sex. Even guys do it with each other. What I’m about to say is gonna make me sound like a bad Muslim child: I like giving and receiving besos, whether they are with guys or girls. Handshakes are so cold, and waving is even colder. Besos force people to come closer together. In the US, if you’re at a gathering and have to leave, you can usually just say bye and wave to everyone. Here, it’s more common to go around the room and give besos to everyone. On my first day in Argentina, I was a bit uncomfortable with besos simply because I had never grown up with them. When you’re American and South Asian and Muslim, your greetings tend to be damn cold, especially when they’re between members of the opposite sex. But after living here for more than six months, I’m quite used to them. In fact, I think I’m gonna miss them when I return to the motherland. When I’m back in the US, don’t be alarmed if I instinctively lean forward when we greet. It’ll be a habit that’ll take months to get rid of. Now I understand why Argentines find American-style greetings so impersonal.
One thing I need to make clear to all of you is that Latin America is not homogenous. (In case you didn’t know, Latin America consists of the parts of North and South America south of the US where Romance languages are spoken.) So many Americans and many of you think that everything from Mexico to Argentina is the same. Well, it’s not. First of all, not everyone speaks Spanish. In fact, the biggest country in Latin America, Brazil, is mostly Portuguese-speaking. Second, the cultures vary immensely. For example, Argentine culture is more similar to Italian culture than Bolivian culture. Third, there is no such thing as a Hispanic “race.” It’s really misleading how the term Hispanic in the US has been racialized. If you’re Hispanic, that just means you speak Spanish or come from a Spanish-speaking background. It doesn’t denote physical characteristics. Come down to Argentina, and you’ll notice that this place is super white. If you’re dark, poor, and Latin American, you’ll probably face just as much, if not more, racism here than in the US. And finally, not everyone in Latin America lives in the jungle. It may come as a shock to you that my host family doesn’t live in a hut with chickens running around. Got that?
That’s it for now. I have some stuff to do right now, so I’ll share what’s been going on this semester in my next post. ¡Cuidáte!
