Today marks our first day in Buenos Aires! It was so exciting to land in a new country after a long overnight flight. Driving through the city I made a lot of observations and some were consistent with what I had previously thought while some challenged my previous notions.

Some things that were consistent with what I previously thought were the fact that stray dogs do live in some of the grassy areas of the city. It is also a pretty dirty city with a decent amount of trash on the street. I was also correct in the assumption that there are very distinct class levels with the majority of white people being upper class and the indigenous population being more middle or lower class. I was also correct in the assumption that a lot of the houses in the suburbs of BA are Spanish style with the red tile roofs and warm earth tones. I was also right on the fact that there are tons of fresh fruit, vegetables, and meats available almost everywhere at good prices. I can attest that the plums, kiwis, and grapes are very good. One other thing I was right about is how many looks we would get on the street from locals when they hear us speaking English.

There are a few things about Buenos Aires that were different than what I expected. Firstly, I didn’t think that the city was this flat with almost no hills or mountains. I also didn’t expect the streets to be so packed with houses and apartment buildings. There is hardly any space and everywhere you look there are buildings jam packed together. I also didn’t think there would be this many trees and green spaces in such a populous area around our hotel. I was also a little surprised at how diverse the population of Buenos Aires is. There is such a range of skin tones and backgrounds that I wasn’t quite expecting. I also didn’t expect to see so many buses in the city. I guess it makes sense to cut down on the amount of cars and it would be cheaper, but I saw so many more buses than I expected to see. It was also funny to see so many pigeons on the streets of the city. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I guess I didn’t think Argentine pigeons existed.

I would love to explore more about the distributions of what people do for a living in Buenos Aires. For such a big city with tons of apartments, I feel like I didn’t see that many people out and about. That makes me wonder if they all commute to offices or work from home since the pandemic. I would also love to explore more about the fresh produce and meats that are offered everywhere in Argentina. How do they get such amazing food seemingly year round? Why do we have to make everything FDA approved and organic in the US if it tastes so good when it’s fresh and untouched in Argentina?

I have been thinking about whether the locals are solely intrigued by us students or are annoyed by us. We do get stares everywhere we go, even in small groups. I can’t tell if this is from sheer curiosity or if they think we are obnoxious and out of place. I feel like it might be a combination of the two but I will continue to observe the reactions we receive when in public.