***Disclaimer: I love Argentina, and when it comes to college students, more things are similar than are different. Regardless of what continent you are on, everyone goes out of their way to not have class before noon and no one does the reading. However, I’ve catalogued some of the amusing differences between Middlebury and the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, for your entertainment***

YOU MIGHT BE GOING TO SCHOOL IN ARGENTINA IF…

-Stray dogs wander into the classroom and go to sleep under the professor’s feet.

-Your professor is drinking mate.

-So is everyone else.

-Your professor leaves for a 5 minute break and comes back 45 minutes later…or not at all.

-You’re surprised if class starts earlier than 20 minutes after it’s supposed to.

-Your 2 hour class routinely gets out 1 hr early.

-Your class is interrupted more than once by people organizing marches and/or selling socialist newspapers.

-Every inch of wallspace in your classroom is papered with banners advertising said marches.

-Someone walks into the middle of your class and starts ranting about police corruption and the professor lets it go on for 20 minutes before politely suggesting that he is trying to teach a class.

-You ask someone how to drop a class and they look at you like you’re from Jupiter and say “Just stop showing up…”

-There are so many desks in your classroom you can barely get in the door.

-There are no desks in your classroom.

-Students start questions with “che…” or “che profe.” (The closest English equivalent of “che” is “dude.”)

-There is only one bathroom on campus with a toilet seat.

-Young children walk into your classroom and try to sell you scented pens.

-You ask your professor when the final exam is and they tell you you can take it anytime in the next two and a half years.