What started out as a group of acquaintances quickly turned into close friends after a few weeks away from their home on the other side of the world. 

As a part of a study abroad partnership with SE Campus, five students from Argentina visited Texas from Feb. 9-28. This was possible through a partnership with San Patricio Language Institute outside of Buenos Aires. SPLI was founded over 50 years ago and people of all ages attend the institute to learn English. 

“Nowadays, we have students from kindergarten level until well from old ages. We have groups of kids, groups of teens, groups of adults,” travel coordinator Tomás Nielsen said. “Facundo [Capra, one of the students] has been studying with us since he was 9 years old. So, you can basically spend your childhood and your adolescence there going through different levels of English.” 

The students attended classes and SE Campus events as well as visited the local area. The location most of the students enjoyed was the Fort Worth Stockyards. While not every student went to a rodeo, they all went shopping and experienced the famous cowboy culture.  

“My favorite place is definitely the stockyards because I feel like it’s the heart of Texas, you know?” student Celeste Ilabres said. “Like, it’s your culture, and that place is where you can be closer to that because if you’re not in that place, maybe you lose some of that.” 

As well as a student, Ilabres works for the institute as an English teacher for young children. She said she was surprised to make friends in America because she expected everyone to be serious and quiet.  

“I will miss definitely the people that I met because I was expecting to not make friends, you know?” she said. “Because in Argentina, we are very warm. We are friendly, direct, and here it is very different.” 

Each of the students stayed with a SE faculty member, creating lasting relationships.  

“But I had the chance, the opportunity being with a family that is very lovely, and they are very kind to me,” Ilabres said. “They are like family to me, and we are like best friends now. I love them.” 

As well as her host family, Ambar Pajon said she will miss shopping as well. She said everything was cheap. She bought 11 bottles of perfume and countless pieces of clothing. Many of her fellow group members did the same.  

Capra went all out and purchased a full Texan outfit with boots, jeans, a belt with a buckle and even a cowboy hat. He purchased most of his things from the stockyards but also from his favorite place, Sixth Street in Austin.  

“That’s more my vibe,” Capra said. “They told us to go to Sixth Street because I’m totally into heavy metal, rock and all that stuff. And I bought some pretty cool things there.” 

He said it was weird adjusting to the drinking age of 21. He just turned 19 and said he was slightly bummed since he always drinks on his birthday. For him, it was definitely a culture shock he was getting used to.  

The biggest culture shock for most of the students was the lack of public transportation. They now understood why cars are so vital to America.  

“The whole culture that surrounds cars, it is not as big in Argentina. The fact that you don’t have developed public transport system. Yeah, I basically came here to try to understand those systems that you have here,” student Leonel Valdiviezo said. “It is a system that was developed because of the way of living here. That basically life revolves on the consumption of fast food.”  

Nielsen said that in Argentina he likes to drive his car, but in America there is too much driving daily.  

“Here, nothing is walkable. There are no pedestrians here. Everyone just drives your car,” he said. “And I like driving my car but at the same time, if I want to take a walk, that’s almost impossible or when I ride my bike. You have no public transport here.”  

One thing the students hope Americans will learn about Argentina is that it’s not like Mexico. Nielsen said that when Americans think about Latin America they typically picture Mexico, he said that’s not true. Argentina has a large amount of diversity.  

“Even Argentina people are very different from people from Bolivia, from Chile, from Hawaii,” he said. “And so, it’s a huge diversity. Not all Latinos are the same.” 

Capra also said he ran into many people who assumed Argentina was like Mexico.  

“That we’re not like Mexico. I’ve encountered many Americans that they just think, I’m not mad about it though, but that all South America is just like Mexico,” Capra said. “We’re also very mixed. Like in Argentina, you can find Germans, Italians, Hispanic people, even people from Africa, Asians, all that stuff.” 

Nielsen said this study abroad opportunity was not only a great experience for the students to practice and strengthen their language, but it was also a great bonding experience. Beforehand, the students didn’t really know each other, but now Nielsen said they are all friends.  

“I think this was a really good experience for them because if they were able to understand what was going on in class and participate in class, then that shows that they can actually communicate in English,” he said. “Also, I think that the group has barely known each other. I knew some of them. I mean, I had seen them before, but I think that it is a really nice group. Like, we’re all friends. So maybe that was part of the program itself.”