IES Abroad Buenos Aires

I absolutely loved my time in Buenos Aires! The IES staff was extremely helpful. Let's face it, studying abroad can be challenging. Living in a foreign country and being away from family and friends can be scary. The IES staff made the transition as easy as possible. If you had a problem, they would do whatever they could to help you out. For example, when I had issues with one of the local bus companies while traveling, Florencia, one of the Student Affairs coordinators, became my advocate. She went above and beyond to help me solve the issue. As someone who isn't great at Spanish, that meant the world to me. The entire staff is like that. The field trips offered by IES were really cool! They offered different trips and activities that exposed us to different aspects of Argentine culture. We took tours of Buenos Aires, attended rugby matches and saw musical acts. I highly recommend the trip to Salta and Jujuy. It is expensive but if you can afford it, it is totally worth it. The trip exposes you to the Argentine countryside and life outside of Buenos Aires. I really enjoyed my classes as well. There were a lot of reading assignments in my courses but overall the workload wasn't unreasonable. My professors were extremely knowledgeable and were more than willing to help you. Overall, I loved my time in Buenos Aires. I of course had some bad days along the way, but the good far outweighed the bad. I would highly recommend this program to anyone who wants to experience life in the Paris of the Americas.

When I studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I went out of my comfort zone and got the most out of the experience. I learned about the culture in Argentina and how people there are so passionate that it brought out a side of me that no other experience can. I learned so much about how Argentina operates on a daily basis. I was able to see many differences in lifestyle and norms in society that made me appreciate what I have in the U.S. and what I grew to love in Argentina. I developed so much more as a person where I could express myself in a different setting through the Spanish language and understand life in Argentina. I learned the most from my host parents who taught me how to get around the city and to travel to places in and out of Argentina that would be worth seeing.

One of my best memories I have is going to Iguazu Falls to see one of the seven natural wonders of the world. I went to the falls with a small group for a weekend trip towards the beginning of my program when it was still warm there, but not overly humid and tropical. I spent one full day in the Iguazu Falls Park with my group of friends and that was enough. We went up to the top of the falls at La Garganta del Diablo and went below the falls and explored other parts of the park on the Argentina side. The falls separate Brazil and Argentina and it was amazing to see it all. One reason why one day was enough for me was because of the coati animals that live in the park. The coatis are kind of like raccoons, except they have really sharp claws and can open backpacks and steal food. There are many signs in the park warning you that they can scratch or bite you. When we first saw them, we were so excited to see them and got as many pictures as we could. But towards the end of the day there, as we were on our last hike down a trail, we were tired of them after they swarmed us when we were having lunch. We shooed them away and wanted to get out of the park. With all that happened, from taking in the spectacular views to fighting off the coatis, it was well worth the trip especially bonding with my friends there in the park and on our 20-hour bus ride there and 20 hours back.

Studying abroad in Buenos Aires through IES Abroad was an amazing experience. I learned so much about the culture and history of Argentina and about myself. I have a better understanding of what my interests are and what I value. I feel more confident and adventurous after spending time traveling and living in Argentina. IES Abroad’s staff was very helpful and supportive. The courses I took through IES were interesting and appropriately rigorous, though they were easier than most of my classes at Rice. My abilities reading and writing in Spanish improved greatly because of my classes, and my speaking abilities improved from speaking with locals everyday. I feel like I quickly integrated into Argentine culture, but I thought it was somewhat challenging to develop friendships with locals. Buenos Aires is an amazing city, and it’s full of fun things to do and experience. I am very happy I chose to study abroad there. Studying abroad can be challenging at times, but it was a really positive experience overall.

Studying abroad in Buenos Aires has been an experience that, at the risque of sounding cliché, changed me and made me grow as a person. Argentina is an amazing country, and since the first day there, I feel like I had found my home away from home.
My first night in Buenos Aires, my roommate and I decided to go out for a little exploring adventure. After walking around for hours and being fascinated by everything around us, we finally settled to go have dinner in a small yet charming restaurant. It turns out that this restaurant was also a Jazz club, and so our dinner was beautifully serenaded by a Jazz band, who were incredibly good. This is just one of many examples of the things you can encounter in Buenos Aires while not expecting it. While you may think you are going to a nice walk in the street, you will encounter ferias and street shows as every corner. While you think you are simply going on a run around los Bosques de Palermo, you will end up having a conversation with a stranger.
Argentina has been a way for me to open up as a person, and grow in ways that I would never have suspected I would have. Thanks to IES, all of our courses were supplemented by field trips that allowed us to engage and get discover more of the cultural aspect of Buenos Aires, but also that gave us a better overview of the country that I grew to call my home away from home.
Without a doubt, I would do it again tomorrow if it was an option!

One of the benefits of taking a class at a local university is that you can join their sports teams. Since I play at my university, I decided to join the UCA volleyball team. We had practice 2 times a week and games every Friday night. Not only did I get Spanish practice and made some of my favorite memories but I also made some of my best friends there, and they were Argentine!

At the risk of sounding cliche, Argentina completely stole my heart. The city itself is one of the most beautiful and unique cities I have ever been to. What makes Buenos Aires, and Argentina as a whole, unique is that it maintains its European influences, while also having many traits specific to South America, especially when you leave the city and enter the countryside. The city is beautiful and teeming with liveliness, but I also enjoyed being in the countryside. I got to go paragliding and horseback riding through the Andes Mountains in Mendoza; I saw countless Orcas in the waters of Peninsula Valdes; I got to play with the penguins in Punta Tombo, home to one of the largest penguin rookeries in the world; I rode the white waters in Bariloche, Patagonia; I hiked for days in the beautiful and quaint El Chalten, Patagonia; and I climbed to the top of one of the largest glaciers in the world in El Calafate, Patagonia.

IES does a good job of striking the balance between making sure we engage in academics, while also giving us the tools and opportunities to travel and explore.

The semester that I spent in Buenos Aires, Argentina was by far the most memorable and valuable experience I have ever had.

I lived in Argentina from July to December of 2013 with an Argentine host family who were spectacular. Along with my host family I was assisted by IES with getting accustomed to the city and learning how to be successful through my language immersion. I was most impressed with the IES orientation that occurred the first two weeks of classes; it allowed for me to thrive in the city of which I was totally unfamiliar with because I am from a very small town.

In addition to my courses I was able to travel through Argentina throughout the semester. My most memorable trip was a 3 week backpacking trip in December throughout Chilean and Argentine Patagonia.

Words cannot describe my experience in Argentina nor could an essay. It was the best time of my life and I owe a lot of that to the organizers of my program.

My experience in Argentina was five of the most exciting months of my entire life. I was able to backpack in Patagonia, hike the desert landscape of the Salta region, enjoy a quirky twist on Oktoberfest in Cordoba, and learn to tango in Buenos Aires. Argentina is a unique, and diverse country filled with a proud and resilient population. It was so hard for me to leave Argentina that I change my flight to leave a month after my original departure date. The time spent in Argentina hs altered my life forever.

I chose IES, because I wanted a program in which I would be able to improve my Spanish and fully immerse myself into the host country's culture - Buenos Aires proved the perfect vehicle for just that. Buenos Aires is an exciting and vibrant city, I loved that each barrio (neighborhood) was uniquely distinct from one another, and that simply walking a few blocks could transport you into a dissimilar subculture within the larger context of the city. IES helped ease us into the foreign culture by providing field trips to local estancias, museums, nearby towns, etc. IES helped make Buenos Aires feel like home within a few short weeks.