Pauline Bera

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Pauline Bera Argentina’s Travel Guide WriterI grew up back and forth between France and the USA, which I suppose somewhat explains my inability to stay put anywhere for more than two or three months without getting antsy. About two thirds of my daydreaming involves being on board some means of transportation. And for the past several years, the only place I’ve really been able to call home is where I happen to be sitting at the moment.

I’m a born and raised Frenchie, though my family moved to Virginia when I was a wee child which accounts for my English. After we’d stayed long enough for us kids to pick up a Southern accent, we moved back to France where all our subsequent English classes were with British teachers. Ze beginning of ze confusion. Then we lived 7 whole years in one place, Lyon, which is the longest I’ve ever stayed anywhere. Three high schools and two countries later, I’m upstate NY at Vassar, deciding to devote my college years to philosophy because, well, what could be more important than the history of human thought? If I’m paying this much money to be here, might as well make my soul the better for it. I had picked Spanish up along the way, and wanted to study abroad. Where is the best philosophy department in Latin America? University of Buenos Aires? My 8th grade Spanish teacher had ranted about the pampas, which I’d temporarily developed an obsession for as a teenager. Yeah ok Argentina, count me in, maybe I’ll run into a gaucho.

Pauline Bera Argentina’s Travel Guide WriterThat’s how my love affair with Argentina began. Now I’m smitten and I know that I’ll always be going back. After my semester abroad, I went back to finish school, work for a year as a high school Spanish teacher, and have to leave the US due to an expiring visa. So I figured it’d make more sense to go spend my hard earned dollars in Argentina where they can be fruitful and multiply as opposed to going back to France where they’d be divided and whither away. For three months I rekindled my love of Argentina and Argentineans, this time especially spending time in the Northwest. The Quebrada de Humahuaca remains by far my favorite part of the country: the lamas, the cacti, the rocks, the Quechua, the tranquility, the sky have all witnessed the passing of millennia. It’s cosmic in its dimension and unique in its atmosphere.

I’ve temporarily relocated to France, where I am focusing on figuring out how to live off of doing what I know best: speak various languages, travel, think, write. My plan is to start freelancing here, and then move back to mi Buenos Aires querido. Realistically, it might take a couple of years to work out the nuts and bolts of said project. I have a feeling I might snap beforehand though. Just buy that ticket and fly back to the land of steak and potatoes and people who are genuinely excited about people.

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