Coming home as an international student is never what you expect

Columbia always emphasizes the importance of Homer’s Odyssey in its CC curriculum: we’ve all read it (or at least claim to have). Long story short, it’s is the story of a guy (Ulysses) who spent a ton of time abroad fighting a war (CU classes sometimes feel like that too) and embarked on a journey home to reunite with his bae, Penelope. He was super pumped to go home, the only thing is, when he got there, his home is not what he thought he would return to…

Finding your own city unfamiliar

I hadn’t been back to Buenos Aires in seven months. I think that’s the longest time I have been away from home. I was super-excited to go back and enjoy time with my mom and siblings, my friends, going around BA, driving, etc. But just like my pal Ulysses, when I got there, home wasn’t really HOME.

For a week I stayed home and chilled, and let me tell you, it was hella weird. All my books, pictures and things were there but for some reason it just felt empty. Maybe it was because I didn’t have school or maybe it was because I missed Columbia…

One afternoon I drove to a place I’d visit weekly when I lived in BA. Horror: I got lost. I felt stupid and powerless. How could I have forgotten how to get to a place I went to regularly? I circled around in my car for a half hour, I was actually two blocks away… Then I got frustrated and mad: how could I be lost in my own city? I panicked, I had no idea where I was, I didn’t know what street I was on. It was awful.

Difference in nightlife

Sometimes I’d be awoken at 6am by people screaming in the street. What on earth?! They were people coming back from a night out. Maybe we’ve all become grannies at Columbia but I very much enjoy coming back at three from a party rather than six… There is something so much nicer getting a decent amount of sleep, you especially value that after starting college.

In high-school my friends and I used to wait until 2 or 3am to go to a club, now it seems unfathomable. I remember when my dad came to visit and I had my graduation party while he was there, he suggested I go to the party at 10 and return at midnight. He couldn’t understand why on earth someone would stay up until six partying and I couldn’t understand why he seemed to make me want to live in a cave without any friends.

Catching up with old friends

The day I came back my best friend Marga swung by my house to say hi. It felt like I had never left, there were no awkward silences or new secrets to unearth; we started chatting like we had never been away from each other for so long. A few of my friends went abroad to study but most of my classmates stayed in Buenos Aires. She told me about all the people that had stayed and what they were up to.

Everyone seemed to be doing the same thing. Going to the same universities, going out to the same places, dating the same people and hanging out with the same crowd (from high-school). It was strange for me because I had just come back from a college in a different country with new people, new friends and new everything to a place where time seemed to have stopped. So much had changed for me, it felt like less had changed for some people I left at home.

I’ve missed home while in the US but I’ve also missed Columbia while I was here. A week away from heading back I try to spend as much time as I can with my family and friends, try to eat as much bifecito de lomo (typical Argentine steak) as I can and use as much porteño gestures before I leave.

For all those international students out there: you are not abandoning your family or betraying your friends, and as weird as it may sound it is OK for you to feel like Columbia is also “home”.

And in the words of our dear Homer: “The journey is the thing.”