Campbell's Academic Semester Experience in Buenos Aires

My name is Campbell Gatehouse, and I'm from Orono, Minnesota, but I study at the University of Kansas. I chose Mente Argentina kind of by accident. I stumbled on it, but I'm super glad that I chose it, because by far I think it was the best program I could have done. I think it's more for people who are looking for some independence. I didn't want to be in a program with big herds of students being shuttled around, and I didn't want to be treated like a kid. I wanted more independence. I love Mente because most of the people who work there are your age or a little bit older, but they really treat you like adults. You're given all of the activities and all the other things that I looked at with other programs, but you have way more flexibility to do the things that you want as well. We have happy hour, and they're really involved. It's not just that they send you off to an activity. They're with you, and it's really fun, but they're more like your friends rather than a supervisor, which I really liked. As for Argentina, I chose it kind of at random, but I wanted something in South America with a European influence, which is something I really like. One of the negative things I was worried about was that you can't travel as much in South America as maybe you can in Europe, because there are so many different cultures. But I found out that I was seriously wrong. I've been here for a full year with Mente, and I've done so much traveling. Not only does Mente give you opportunities to travel, because they always organize trips and have all these deals, which is super helpful because sometimes they're hard to find, but you can also do a ton of traveling on your own. I've done Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil, and I've also traveled within Argentina, and I've absolutely loved it. I kind of thought it would be more or less similar sorts of things, but I've been hiking on glaciers and mountains and anywhere you can imagine. I went to the tip of Argentina, to El Calafate and Ushuaia, which is as close as you can get to Antarctica, supposedly. Chile was amazing, such an interesting culture. Brazil is nuts, and I'm actually going to the World Cup. Mente has helped me a lot with all of this. I would really recommend Argentina, because I think you get a lot of everything. It's an incredible city. Buenos Aires is amazing. I was going back and forth between a few different cities, because some are maybe more student-friendly, which I've read about a lot, but I can't imagine doing it in another city. Buenos Aires has everything, people from everywhere. I've become friends with Argentines, people from all over the world, and people from other places in South America, and it's been a really good experience with a lot of culture.