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After half a summer writing to my heart's content, this blog is finally going to be about study abroad.
For now, I'm waiting at the airport for my flight to Buenos Aires. Before my study abroad program in Córdoba begins, I'll be spending a week in Buenos Aires to take flute lessons with Claudio Barile and Patricia Dadalt.
At least, that's the plan! We'll see if I can get there. The past half-week has been characterized by a flood of anxiety and sleep-deprivation, as well as wondering what on earth have I been doing since I got home for the summer.
The half-week before that, I was clinging to the last few days that most of my family was together, and honestly, I didn't want this weekend to come because it meant being alone again.
It also means leaving this lovely, diverse bubble that the Bay Area, where I've grown up my whole life, feels like to me.
As I was moving through security this morning, I noticed my backpack got pulled aside. I was trying to anticipate what I might have to say good-bye to, when the guy who was opening my bag cried out in excitement. He had seen the Vietnamese take-out my mom picked up for me on the way to the airport.
"Oh, is it the sauce?" I asked him.
"No, no don't worry," he said, putting the food back and handing me my backpack. "Vietnamese?"
"No, I'm Filipino." It slips out so easily — you'd think I'd be more reserved in austere places like the security unit of an airport.
And then he said, "Salamat."
I walked away smiling, and couldn't entirely tell if he, himself, was a Vietnamese who knew a word or two of Tagalog, or Filipino.
Of the many culture shocks awaiting me, I think this one — leaving the Bay Area's demographic for that of Argentina — might hit the hardest. It's true, I hear Spanish practically everywhere I go in the Bay, there has been a thriving Hispanic community here for ages. But the Asian American community is one I've never entirely left — even in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon has a significant population of Asian students.
Then I wonder if I myself will be perceived as Asian in Argentina. Sometimes you can't tell with Filipinos, partly because some of our surnames are outright Hispanic.
I'll be boarding soon, but here is a list of some goals for the next month-and-a-half that I'll be abroad (in the order they occur to me):
1) To dance through the night at least once (it's quite common there)
2) To play some music in public, perhaps a duet with a local
3) To understand better how native speakers use Spanish to express their realities, not the ones I impose upon it as a second-language-learner
4) To write more bilingual and Spanish poetry as a result of this understanding
5) To push myself to make friends
6) To take pictures minimally
7) To keep my heart open to however God wants to challenge me in this trip
8) Not to think too much what I present about this blog, and to focus on what's around me
And with that, I'm stepping onto that plane! For those of you who are of the praying type, I would love any prayers for safe travels, luggage that remains un-lost, and particularly #7 up there. Regardless, I hope I will have Wifi soon to write to you in Buenos Aires!
Photo above taken by my brother. (Still awaiting your venmo payment yo.)