Notes From a Southbound Airplane

¡Hola! My name is Ella Marshall, coming at you from a flight bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I will spend my semester abroad. It feels a little bit surreal that it’s finally happening. I’ve spent so much time looking forward to this, and now it’s actually here. I’ll be writing a weekly blog this semester all about my experiences, and I can’t wait to share my adventures (special hello to my friends and family who are reading this)! I chose Argentina because I wanted to go somewhere totally new and expand my horizons, as well as improve my Spanish. Right now, I would say my emotions swing wildly between nervous and excited. I’ve wanted to go to Argentina for a long time to explore the country and appreciate its beauty and culture, but this is also completely new for me. I’m far more familiar with the Cuban and Colombian dialects of Spanish, so I am sure Argentine Spanish (or Porteño Spanish, as it’s known) will have a learning curve. I also do not know anyone in Argentina and am only going with one other USC student. Being an out of state student, I’m used to being away from home for long periods of time, but six months is the longest time so far. Luckily, my parents promised to send lots of pictures of the dog. 

Today’s story actually begins a few days ago when I started packing. I wanted to start in advance so I could be done nice and early, but in true Ella fashion, I still ended up finishing right before bed last night. Everyone told me to pack light and leave lots of room to bring things back, but I am a notorious overpacker, so that’s far easier said than done. Thankfully, my ticket included two checked bags and a carry-on, so I just brought along an empty suitcase and stuffed the other two cases to the brim. One tip: try packing cubes! I will admit I was a packing cube skeptic for quite a while. I thought they just took up extra room and were only for organizing, but a couple of people recommended them, so I picked up a set at Marshalls to test them out. My only regret is not getting more! I didn’t realize how much they actually squeeze the clothes together and make it easier to fit everything (kind of like Tetris). I saw many people transferring clothes between suitcases to get in under the weight limit, so it made me feel reassured that I could just transfer a cube or two if that was an issue (I was exactly at the weight limit, so thankfully, I did not have to do that). I also swear by rolling clothes when packing. This allowed me to bring many more “just in case” outfits than I would have been able to otherwise.

This morning, my day started bright and early at 4:15 AM when I woke up. By 4:45, I was out the door, and I got to the airport a little under an hour later. I was glad we left so early; the line to drop bags off was insanely long, even with all the counters operating. It took me an hour to get through it, so the early start was well worth it. I was at the airport 2.5 hours early and still didn’t have time to grab a coffee before boarding. Luckily, after that, it was pretty smooth sailing. Right now, I’m about 3 hours out from landing, though I’ll be in Buenos Aires once this post actually goes up, as the plane does not have WiFi. I’ll be taking a language and culture class for a month starting on Monday (my main classes do not start until March, as the semester goes from March to July here), so I will have plenty more updates next week!