| The first time I came to Argentina I was sixteen years old. I was not an inexperienced traveler for my years, but I had never lived outside of the United States, and I had certainly never traveled abroad alone. It was at this point in my life that the young adventurer in me awoke, and I decided that a student exchange was the thing for me. I was sponsored by the Rotary Club from my home town in Wyoming to spend a year living in Argentina, a place I had heard of but knew next to nothing about. Of all the cities and towns in the country, Rotary decided that I was to spend that life-changing year in the small, rural town of 9 de julio in provincia. Every time I tell an Argentine that I lived in 9 de julio for a year they unfailingly respond, “a 9 de julio te mandaron?! Que hiciste ahi por un año?”, but I didn’t know the difference, and it was without question the best year of my life. I can’t say it was the actual town of 9 de julio that made me want to return to Argentina after I was sent sobbing and broken-hearted on a plane back to my home country. I had met the most incredible people, visited the most scenic of places, experienced la noche argentina and domingos en el campo. I had been wooed by dulce de leche and empanadas, fallen in love with the witty idioms of castellano, and had also managed to engancharme with an Argentine boy. I had to go back. In my search for a way of returning to what I now considered to be my “second-home”, I stumbled upon the web page for Centro Lincoln University College (C-LUC), a university program where the language of instruction was in English in La Lucila, Buenos Aires. I had returned from my exchange to finish my senior year of high school in the U.S., and now, having graduated, it was time to start college. | I had no idea what I wanted to pursue academically, and I was not at all enthused about the idea of having to pay a fortune to attend a university in the U.S. – and I wanted to be in Argentina.
So in August of 2007 I started my college education at C-LUC.Over the past two and a half years I have reaped the benefits of studying in an immensely diverse environment, an experience I feel is incomparable to the average college setting and that has proven overwhelmingly motivational for personal goals. I have met some of my best friends, and also some of the most interesting people with the most intriguing stories to tell. I have had the opportunity of receiving instruction from experienced and international teaching staff, and of sitting in a classroom with a student from Kuwait on my right side and a student from Denmark on my left side. I’m pretty sure that this type of international setting is not a reality for most college students, but at C-LUC it is an everyday occurrence from which we as students gain unparalleled perspective.
I came to C-LUC with no direction and no idea what to expect. I admit that my initial decision to come here was 99% heart and 1% head, but I have been reassured time and time again that I couldn’t have made a better choice. What I have found C-LUC to be is a type of crossroads for students, students like me, nómadas, stopping for a short time before continuing their journey through life a little better off, and with their eyes open a little wider than they were before. Rebecca Marcott joined C-LUC in August 2007 and left in December 2009 to finish her Bachelor`s Degree at the University of Wyoming, where she is from originally. |
