Experience report
ANR: 45785
Name: Koen Verbruggen
E-mail: k.l.p.verbruggen@tilburguniversity.edu
Exchange semester: FALL 2014
Academic year: 3
Host University: Torcuato Di Tella
Country: Argentina
TOPIC: Admission, arrival, housing
How was your arrival organized? Did someone pick you up from the airport/station? Was an
orientation or introduction activity organized? How was accommodation organized? Does the
university provide you with accommodation? What kind of accommodation does the university
provide? Did you have to book your accommodation in advance or did you have to search for a place
to live after you arrived?
I arrived a week before the Spanish language course was going to start, when we arrived ( I
travelled together with another student from Tilburg University ) We took a taxi to our Hostel
which we arranged already on beforehand. We planned to stay there around 5 days and then
search for a place to stay for the whole semester. Facebook Groups,Craigslist,Argentina4all
are websites that can help you arrange your place. University doesn’t provide accommodation
but they will help you if you have problems with finding one.
TOPIC: Location of university/city
Please describe the city you lived in. Where is the university located in the city? What is the best
place to go to eat/drink/dance/do sports/etc.? What are interesting things to see and do in your host
city? What was different than in Tilburg?
Buenos Aires is a beautiful place to have your study abroad! The university is situated in
Barrio Belgrano, very close to the River plate stadium, so almost barrio Nunez. This is one of
the more wealthy neighborhood with big houses and also very safe. The best place to live
during your stay is 100% Palermo, Palermo is divided into different parts but if you’re in
Palermo you are good and close to all the nightlife, but also relaxing parks and if you are close
to a subte station or something you will be able to get to the school in 30-45 minutes. The city
is way bigger and way more lively than Tilburg, although I do not live in Tilburg but that is
what I am sure about. There are so many things to do and see in Buenos Aires, every day of
the week there is something going on.
TOPIC: Academics
Which courses did you take and why? Which courses would you recommend? What did the courses
add to your program at Tilburg University? How does the university compare to Tilburg University
concerning the level of the courses, use of extra material, level of English, workload, etc.? Overall,
were you happy with your academic achievements during your exchange? Please describe the
campus of your host university.
I took three courses, which is fulltime workload for a exchange student ( 10 ECTS per course).
1. Historia Economica Argentina
2. Riesgo, Incerticumbre y finanzas
3. Economia monetaria internacional
Historia economica Argentina was a heavy course because of the amount of papers and books
you had to read in Spanish. Since my Spanish was not that good upon arrival and still in the
end it wasn’t that good that I was able to read very fast and understand everything. This was
quite hard to study because of this, but it was interesting to study because Argentina has the
most interesting economic history in the world.
The second one is Riesgo, abbreviated as RIF. This was a course very equal to the courses
finance and finance 2, but it do gave a bit of a other look on how to calculate things and also
highlighted other things, because of the already known information I had this course was quite
easy to pass. You also play an investment game in the course which is fun and the teacher
was very nice.
The third one was the most interesting, but also very difficult course. This was a course about
monetary economics, about what governments should do to stop a crisis, also a lot about
currency crisis. It was quite a practical course in the sense that we studied almost only
papers. It was hard because of the mathematics used, a sort of lagrange calculations which I
had never seen before. It turned out to be quite easy but if you have never seen it before it is
quite tricky.
The lessons are given in Spanish and the books and papers used are 50/50( English/Spanish)
You have 2 test moments in the semester a mid-term and final exam.
TOPIC: Social life
Which social activities organized by the university or students? Did you have contact with local
students? Did you have contact with other exchange students? How did you get along with the local
students and other exchange students? Did you travel to other places/countries during your
exchange?
The university organized a welcoming day for the students in which they explained a lot and
after that also a city-tour was organized. Pretty nice to meet the other intercambio-students.
Also there is a facebookgroup In which they post some parties or places to meet each other.
There are a lot of student organizations like Argentina4all,Bais etc who organize a party almost
every week and also a lot of welcoming parties during the first weeks. So this is really nice to
give yourself a good start in Buenos Aires. Because of these things I had mainly contact with
other exchange students, we went out together, we studied together or eat together etc.. The
best contact I had with local students was at the football team, UTDT has a own football team
which you can join, they practice two times in the week and I went their as much as possible, a
really nice experience. In class I didn’t had much contact with the local students.
About travelling, I went to: Igauzu falls,Patagonia(Calafate,El Chalten), Rosario,Cordoba, Salta
and surroundings. And after the semester I went to Bolivia ( Sucre,Uyuni,Potosi,La Paz ) and
Uruguay. Other students also travelled to Peru,Brasil, Puerto madryn etc..
Travelling is nice, you can fly quite cheaply in Argentina with your student residence, so try to
get this visa fast, although also without it is possible to travel with the discount you get when
you are a resident but this is sort of illegal. All things I travelled to were really great, very
different from each other and therefore incomparable.
TOPIC: Living costs
How did you finance your exchange period, apart from the grant you received from Tilburg University?
What were your living expenses abroad like compared to Tilburg? What did you spend most of your
money on? What would you advice future students to spend their money on? Please outline your
approximate monthly budget whilst on exchange: housing, food, textbooks, etc.
The most important thing about living costs is that you should bring either cash money
(Euro’s or Dolars ) or use websites like azimo.com. This is because of restrictions for
Argentine people; they cannot get in a legal way dollars or Euros, this created a Black market
in which you can change your money for more pesos in some illegal exchange houses.
( dolarblue.net ) (http://www.speakinglatino.com/argentina-blue-dollar-exchange-rate/)
It is really awesome for people like us because makes everything 1.5 times cheaper or
something like that!
I paid 3800 pesos for my room which is calculated with the BLUE rate about 270 Euro. I had a
small room in a big house so it might be a bit more if you get a bigger room. Textbooks aren’t
used, they just put everything on internet so that’s nice. Besides this you have Food, going
out etc.. I have no clue but everything is a bit cheaper than in the Netherlands I guess, going
out for dinner is very cheap for example. Travelling is as expensive as you make it so I cannot
really indicate something really useful for this.
Going to football matches can be expensive, but for me it was totally worth It so that might be
a special living cost.
TOPIC: Culture
Did you experience culture shock while on exchange? How would you compare your host culture to
your own culture? What did you learn about your own culture while on exchange? What was different
about your host culture than you expected? What did you like and not like about your host culture? Do
you feel you learned a lot about your host culture, and if not, what would you like to learn more? How
would you describe your host countries culture? If you travelled to other cities/countries during your
exchange, were they different than your host city/country, and how?
I didn’t experience a culture shock, of course sometimes I was surprised about habits etc, but
it takes a week and than I was used to it. They might be a bit more exaggerating and always
asking how you are doing, although not even waiting for the answer but you’ll get used to it.
Buenos Aires is a European city in South-America, at least the neighbourhood Palermo is, so
don’t expect too crazy things it is just more like Spain. Other parts of Argentina are poorer and
most of the times more traditional argentine.
TOPIC: Personal development
What did you learn from the people you met during your exchange? Would you do things differently if
you had the chance, and what would you do differently? What was your best experience, and what
was your worst experience? What will you remember for ever about your exchange period? What was
the most important lesson you learned about yourself during your exchange period?
I met a lot of people from all over the world during my exchange, of course the other exchange
students but there are also a lot of people from other South-American countries studying in
Buenos Aires. This is very interesting and very much fun as well. I can’t really think of doing
anything really different, maybe I should have looked around a bit more for my house, because
I chose the first house I saw and their might have been some better houses available. What I
would do different is that I should have put a bit more energy in my Spanish language, maybe
take a Spanish course during the semester or something like that.
TOPIC: Tips for future students
Would you recommend an exchange period? Would you recommend your host university? What
should prospective students bring with them/leave behind? What preparation is required for going on
exchange to this destination? Was there anything you should have done in preparation that you didn’t
do?
A absolutely recommend to go on an exchange period, it’s just great fun and you will learn a
lot about yourself but also about the different cultures in the world. My host university was
very helpful they had a special person who organized everything for you, you could contact
her very easily and she was really helping you out with everything. It is also a good university
in a way of the level of the courses. Make sure you do as much as possible to be well prepared
to talk the Spanish language, this adds so much value to your exchange. That is also a thing I
should have prepared a bit more, my Spanish.
TOPIC: A picture is worth a thousand words
If you took any pictures or made any videos that you would like to share with future exchange
students, please include them (or e-mail them separately). Pictures that show your daily life or
symbolize your exchange period are especially interesting for future exchange students.