Turning 21 Where It Doesn’t Matter: America Meets Argentina
While most of you are just getting settled into your new slate of classes back on the Hilltop, I am already taking midterms in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I arrived here with 36 other Hoyas two months ago for what has been quite the South American adventure thus far. Most of my friends are living the Rockefeller life at the Villa in Florence or drooling over British accents at LSE, but the largest group of Hoyas currently abroad is right here in Buenos. Most of us wanted to go somewhere Spanish speaking, but wanted a different experience than the run-of-the-mill Eurotrip. So here we are, in a land of bad pizza, tons of beef, a favorable exchange rate, and partying at boliches (clubs) until the sunrise for five months.
One milestone of junior year (for those of us who are not awkwardly young or old for our year) is the 21st birthday. Back at Georgetown, this means pregaming with your friends before getting your forehead stamped at The Tombs. In Argentina, things are different. I learned just how different they were last week when I turned 21 in a country where that means absolutely nothing. Here, the rarely enforced drinking age is the ripe old age of 18. So how was a collegietteTM turning 21 abroad to salvage her glory day? There was only one solution: an eclectic cocktail that was one part old-school Americana and the other Porteña party. Transporting myself and my abroad buds back home for one night, while simultaneously taking full advantage of the epic opportunities in our host country.
The evening began at a brewery bar before we got on what can only be described as a boat/party bus hybrid. The boat bus took us on an hour-long joyride through the streets of Buenos Aires where we danced, sang, and popped champagne all while making friends with random Argentines on the streets who were riding in cars and colectivos (buses) alongside us or just happened to be walking by. The hour we spent on the boat bus was the funniest hour I have had in Argentina thus far. Alas, we could only be stereotypically rowdy Americans on an open-air boat bus for so long, and we had to disembark at our final destination: a swanky boliche called Asia de Cuba where we were luckily able to bypass the 100 peso cover and get in for free. Naturally, the 21st birthday shenanigans continued in the boliche in true Argentine style: dancing to pop, hip-hop, and reggaeton well past 5am. An American 21st birthday with an Argentine twist may- I daresay- very well beat getting your forehead stamped at The Tombs, or at least it did for me.
Chau,
Kelly