After spending a semester abroad in Argentina my position of the country has changed from my original thoughts. Before going to Argentina, I didn’t know what to expect, I had no idea where Buenos Aires was or what the city was like and had to offer. I thought that I would be going to this country that was in the middle of nowhere, with people who don’t speak English and I would be forced to speak Spanish to communicate with people. But once I got there I was pleasantly surprised, and my position of the country changed greater. I was happy to see that the city was similar to New York City in transit and the large population of people and the fast-past society. I was also surprised by the number of people that knew English, it sometimes became hard to practice at restaurants because once the waiter realized that the I was American they would automatically switch to English for the rest of my time at the restaurant or café. I think that my identity has more of an influence on my experience of the world and my perspective that I have as I walk through this world. I that everyone experiences the world differently because we all have such different identities. I think that my identity surrounding my intercultural, interpersonal and listening communication and that of others are very different and we all approach the world and the interactions that we have differently. For me, the way that I interacted with people in Buenos Aires is I tried to assimilate to their culture and communicate in a way that would be normal for them and the way that they communicate. My perspective of my host country was that it had a very European way of living, it was fast-pasted and also laidback at the same time. I could see that there was a lot of poverty within Buenos Aires and a large disconnect between the upper-class and the lower class. I also noticed that the economic/ political status within the country was very unstable and this impacted the society a lot. I think that my identity and the way that I grew up had a large impact on the way that I interacted and perceived Buenos Aires and the people as a whole. I think that everyone has an identity that brings a specific/different perspective to the world that we live in and that it is a good thing that we all view the world differently and are able to share those different perspectives through blogs, photos, and even journals.
