Keagan’s World

I leave in less than a day. Tomorrow at 8:46am.

Crazy to think about, yet it hasn’t really hit.

Anyone else get that way? Like you know in your head you’re about to do something absolutely crazy, start a new chapter of your life, or otherwise just shake things up in a major way… but it just feels like another day? It’s weird man. First time I ever noticed it was when I was headed to college.

I knew when I said bye to my friends one-by-one that it was the last time many of them would be a present in my life. I’d probably see a lot of them at some point, but I knew it would be in passing. Very few would stick around.

Yet it always just felt like any other day.

And it’s not like I didn’t like these people or anything like that. I enjoyed growing up in Byron Center. I had great friends, a great high school experience, a comfortable lifestyle.

And it’s not like I wasn’t looking forward to college either. I was going to my dream scenario: a big D1 school with a school full of people who I could befriend from all over the world. I was looking forward to it so much so that I put together a frickin pool party the weekend before move-in for people in West Michigan who were also starting at Michigan.

I only knew 1 person going. But I had like 25 people over that I found using social media.

So weird of me, I know. But it was fun. And like I said, I was looking forward to school.

Yet it just felt like another day. Like it does now.

So I’m gonna try to make it sink in here by sharing w/ you what I’m looking forward to in my first leg of the trip. I’ll be writing about these things a lot I imagine so you’re probably gonna get sick of hearing me talk about ’em.

6 reasons why Argentina will be sick

1. Becoming conversational in Spanish
2. Making new friends
3. Yerba mate + coffee culture
4. 9 months of summer
5. Steak and malbec wine
6. Becoming more than just a tourist

1. Becoming conversational in Spanish

I’d be disappointed if I didn’t accomplish this. I’m living with a host family, taking classes 20 hrs/wk for 3 months, and coming in with 7 years of Spanish classes under my belt.

But it’s still sick.

I still gotta learn the notoriously difficult accent, Portuguese influence on the dialect, and general slang + expressions. So it’s not gonna be a walk in the park by any means.

If I’m being honest, I’m just excited to be able roast all you fools in Spanish without you knowing what I’m sayin’.

2. Making new friends

Shocker I know.

Me? New friends? Never.

I definitely don’t thrive in large groups and chatting up random people on the street *insert dramatic wink here*.

All jokes aside, I’m super amped to meet people from around the world both in and out of my program. After all, I do keep saying people make the experiences, so if I want this to be the time of my life I better find some friends! How, you ask? Don’t worry I’ve already got my lineup:

• Mundo Lingo Events: Bars hosting events for people speaking all languages and a decent way to practice Spanish
• Coffee Shops: A number of coffee shops have communal tables where people sit down and just kinda chat with each other. May have to be a little bit nosy to make this one work, but I gotta figure it out somehow. A lot of them happen to be near local universities, which brings me to…
• Local universities: There’s a ton of universities in Buenos Aires where I can seek out people of similar ages to myself. Might be able to find some sports I can join in on or something.
• Vamos Academy: My own language school of course! They got some events outside the curriculum I’ll definitely try my best to go to.

3. Yerba mate + coffee culture

I have a caffeine addiction. I admit it. I have at least a cup of coffee and an energy drink every day when it’s a gym day. Sometimes more. Luckily, Argentines love coffee & yerba mate. From my understanding, Yerba is like THE quintessential Argentine drink of friendship and has nearly as much caffeine as coffee.

So I’m making lots of friends (knock on wood), and a caffeinated drink associated with social gatherings is an Argentine classic…

You do the math.

4. 9 months of summer

Oh yeah, have I mentioned yet it’s high summer in Argentina right now? Just in case I haven’t, here’s the forecast for my first week:

If you thought I wasn’t going to be rubbing that in, you are, in social media terms, “delulu”.

To make it even better, I leave South America at the beginning of May just as they are rolling into fall and, you guessed it, the United States is rolling into spring/summer. If it wasn’t for my planned hike in Patagonia during April, I probably wouldn’t sniff temperatures lower than 50F (10C). Remember that while you’re freezing your butt off reading these posts.

How’s that for rubbing it in?

5. Steak and malbec wine

These are like the hallmark cuisine pieces of Argentina.

Need I say more?

6. Becoming more than just a tourist

This one is a little more convoluted, but essentially I want to assimilate into Argentinian culture. I want to follow their daily routine, customs of social gatherings, sense of humor (apparently it’s sarcastic, sassy, and a little blunt… right up my alley), etc. I also want to be able to navigate the city like it’s second nature. I’ve been lucky enough to do shorter trips to places around the world but never one place for more than a week. The closest thing I’ve done to this is moving to Chicago for my internship two summers ago.

I love Chicago, but, let’s be honest, moving there is a far cry from moving to Buenos Aires.

This is gonna be sick.

But for now, today is just another day.

I read the Morning Brew, I played my NYT Sudoku puzzles, and I started the Connections (I can’t figure out the last two groups for the life of me so if you can help me out, let a brother know 🙏). I’m gonna go for a walk, head to the gym, and play some euchre with the family.

I may be landing in Buenos Aires less than 48 hours from now, but today is just another day in the life.