The Biggest Culture Shock of Argentina: The Schedule

By: Naomi, High School Abroad Argentina Alumni, 2024 FTT Winner

Hi! I’m Naomi and I spent six months in Argentina for my student exchange. Before leaving for my trip, I was most definitely expecting to experience culture shock. However, I was surprised by the parts of the culture that ended up being the hardest for me to adapt to. Today I want to share the most challenging cultural aspects for me and how I worked through those differences. 

Longer Days

In Argentina, the daily schedule is vastly different from what I was used to in the United States. The time you are awake is much longer and much of the “day” is spent at night. Most people wake up at around seven or eight in the morning and are awake until midnight or one in the morning. For reference, I had a schedule similar to this on weekdays:  

• 7am to 9am wake up & eat breakfast 

• 9am to 11am clean, exercise, prepare food, & homework 

• 11am to 12pm lunch 

• 1pm to 6pm school  

• 7pm to 8pm merendar (snack) 

• 8pm to 10pm sports  

• 10pm to 11pm dinner 

• 11pm to 12am family time & hygiene time 

• 12am to 1am go to bed 

On the weekends, the day becomes even longer, and it is common to not sleep much at all. People often will stay awake until 6 am and sleep for 3-4 hours before starting another day. Another distinction is that on the weekends people do not do much during the day. It’s only really towards the late afternoon and night that people will start hanging out with friends, going shopping, etc. 

For me, this routine was a very hard change mostly because I was not expecting such a dramatic difference. When I finally actively realized that my schedule was going to be widely different here and that trying to keep the same routine I had in the U.S. was not the right option, I was able to adjust much more easily. It sounds like such a simple thing, but the mental switch allowed me to seek the help I needed to adjust to a new situation. While going through this process of adjustment, communicating about how I felt was crucial. It is nerve-racking to talk about how you might feel tired or uncomfortable with people who are unfamiliar to you. Despite this, it is very important to break down that barrier and share how you are feeling, especially with your host family. Once I addressed the problem with my host mom, we were able to create a plan to confront the problem I was having and resolve it, instead of me having to suffer through it on my own.  

I was able to adjust to the new schedule fairly quickly after talking with my host mom and was able to enjoy my days a lot more. So, if you end up struggling with this new routine, don’t be afraid to talk about it with your host family. I guarantee it will help you! 

Four Meals a Day

Another difference in daily life is that there are typically four meals a day in Argentina: 

• Breakfast  

• Lunch  

• Merendar 

• Dinner  

This fourth meal is added because the days are so long that you need some extra fuel to keep you going. As in the U.S., it is common to have a snack after coming home from school, merendar is the same idea.  

Another difference in Argentina is the size of meals. Lunch is the most important meal of the day, meaning it is also the largest. It is also very common to have lunch with your whole family (similar to traditional American dinners). All the other meals trail behind lunch and tend to be relatively small and variable. For example, it was not uncommon to not eat breakfast or dinner some days.  

These differences were not as hard to adjust to. The biggest hurdle I encountered was communicating how I felt about not eating breakfast or dinner. Communicating about food or lack of food can be hard, but communicating how you are feeling about what you are eating is always the better idea. Once I asked about what meals would typically look like, I was able to feel more comfortable about the eating schedule and also plan food I wanted to eat or make on my own time, without feeling bad about it. Again, communication here is key.   

Conclusion  

Overall, I found that most of the problems and cultural differences I ran into could be solved through communicating with my host family about how I was feeling. They are your support system in-country and they want you to be happy and comfortable too. So, don’t hold back when problems arise, and good luck on this new adventure!