*This blog was written while I was in Argentina and intended to be posted onto our cohort’s blog but this did not occur.

Adulting is hard. There is no doubt about it, yet adulting hit me hard here. Prior to coming to Argentina, I thought I was set. I live without my parents during the school year, I do my own laundry while at college, and I enjoy cooking. I have lived with a roommate since my first year of college and this past year lived in suite-style living with 12 other people. I knew coming into the program that I would be living in a house with four other people and I would have to prepare my own food. 

This experience has made me realize how unrealistic the American college life is ─ living in a dorm where my bathrooms are cleaned five times a week, having meals ready to go with just the swipe of my college ID thanks to a meal plan, and having entertainment right on campus. Explaining the American college life to people here sounds like the most foreign concept ever. People here can’t comprehend that I don’t live with my parents, but instead in a dorm on the college campus. One girl asked with an alarming face: When do you see your parents? Only during the school vacations?! *gasp* (note: Living on campus and dorms are not common here on college campuses. Most people live at home while attending college.) 

Cooking proved to be more difficult than I originally thought. Here they don’t sell a lot of the items that I cook with in America or they don’t sell them in the same form as in the states (I miss you minced, powered, and clove garlic). The oven doesn’t have temperature settings and turning on the oven requires the use of about five matches, four of them representing my first four failed attempts. I’m used to cooking in customary measurements, so the metric system is a bit harder to understand when transferring my recipes here. There was also no measuring cups. Cooking was challenging and nights when I get off at 6:00 pm, I certainly don’t feel like cooking. I took my meal swipes for granted and that when I am home and don’t feel like cooking, my mom will cook for me. 

Laundry also proved to be more difficult. We have one washing machine which takes 2 hours to run one load. Being someone who is highly organized with my laundry, it was a change for me here. Usually, I would never wash everything in one load but rather separate my clothes to wash them. But here? Whatever fits in one load, I’ll wash together. Additionally, dryers are not common so air drying was also new for me. Tip: do not leave your clothes out to dry when it is supposed to rain. 

However, there are some things here that make adulting easier. Pedidosya is the best invention ever. I don’t live in an urban area, so services like Uber Eats are non-existent. But with Pedidosya, one can order food from a variety of places online, pay with cash or card, and it will be delivered right to your door via bike delivery. Our house location helps, living in the beautiful Palermo Soho where there are a multitude of restaurants, cafes, and bakeries less than a block away. But most importantly what makes adulting easier? The help of other people. I am grateful for my other housemates who have milk when I run out (Hulices), help fix our toilet (thanks Kevin), and people to cook dinner with me (Chef Abby). Humans don’t like to admit they depend on other people, but I gratefully admit that I depend on my housemates. There are nice strangers to help you when you get lost or our in-country host person Debora who is our like our Argentina Siri.