BUENOS AIRES
Carne, red wine, empanadas, and the super poncho. It’s almost enough to sustain yourself entirely in a foreign country, but unfortunately, food doesn’t teach you the language. I landed myself in Argentina through a language program called GICArg. Marcos, the director, assured me I’d have a great time. I did more than that. I learned to speak Spanish.

Argentina, right now, is a great place to study and live Spanish. The accessibility of a major city like Buenos Aires, once the richest city in the world at the turn of the century, makes the transition from any other large metropolis easy. And the options for the nature lover throughout the rest of the country are vast. With the peso averaging about three to one US dollar, I was three times richer than I was in the States. With an old-world European glamour, a passion for fútbol, gastronomy and tango, Buenos Aires is a city of fine-dining, late-night clubbing, cultural experiences, and shopping. And now that I was trice richer, I could live it to the fullest.

PATAGONIA
After a 20-hour bus ride through Patagonia, entering into the vacation town of Bariloche, you feel like you’ve entered a picture from a nature calendar. San Carlos Bariloche is a city surrounded by snowcapped mountains on three sides. The fourth side sits on the coast of Nahuel Huapi lake.

Walking past pine trees set against misty mountains to the Universidad every morning made me look forward to school. This is a town of natural beauty, down-to-earth people and lots of sports activities. My new classmates that came from the city life of Buenos Aires felt at home in the quiet, picturesque town by the lake. There were two professors and we were only three students. I was ecstatic to have all of the teachers’ attention. They forced us to never utter an English word in front of them. I was speaking entirely in Spanish in the classroom, in my host family’s home and in social gatherings, which often involved my hip professors. Going from the party scene of Buenos Aires, I appreciated this quiet beauty, but I was ready to get back to the city.

LOWDOWN: GICArg (Grupo de Intercambio Cultural Argentino) specializes in intensive Spanish programs as well as other study abroad programs (in English or Spanish), volunteer projects and internships. GICArg offers programs in partnership with three top universities in Buenos Aires and Patagonia. They also have options in home stays, student residences, shared apartments, and non-shared apartments. Contact Marcos Salusso at 1-202-470-0882 or check out www.gicarg.org.

—Bonnie Yoon