- Monday, February 13th SWBA (Swarthmore Buenos Aires), Idaes, Paraná 145, 1st. floor: Arrival/Reception
- Tuesday, February 14th Orientation/Spanish level exam
- Wednesday, February 15th Orientation/Spanish level exam
- Thursday, February 16th Orientation/Spanish level exam
- Monday, February 20 st SWBA: classes begin
- April 2th – 6th Spanish mid-term exams
:: RESEARCH TRIP / LETTER FROM MENDOZA
Gavin Nurick, SPBA student for the Fall Semester ´06, narrates his research trip to Mendoza.
March 13, 2008
Dear Prospective SPBA Student:
Upon walking out of the airport I immediately noticed two distinctive natural features of the Mendoza landscape. A sizeable vineyard stretched out before me with jagged snow-capped mountains towering above the Malbec vines. While shading my eyes from the bright springtime sun, I stepped off the curb to find the closest taxi.
I asked the driver if he could swing by a store so I could purchase a converter for my computer’s plug – something I had easily found in Buenos Aires. After several unsuccessful trips to different stores, he drove me to his house, introduced me to his lovely wife, and handed me a small converter. He said I only needed to repay him by requesting his services for my return to the airport at the end of the week.
My interest in the Argentine wine industry had been spurred by my love of Mendoza and my curiosity at the sudden popularity of Argentine wines in the US.
By the time I arrived in Buenos Aires and met with my advisor, I was ready to get to work on my research on the recent growth of the Argentine wine industry. I got off to a rough start due to my unfamiliarity with the Argentine library system. Unlike in the US, where the project would have started with an online search in McCabe, I was forced to do a lot of legwork going to different libraries.
The additional legwork led to a change in how I approached the project. I suggested combining the research into my daily Spanish course. With the help of Professor Lucia de Leone, I started a bilingual blog on the research called Argenvino which would prove to be a great networking tool.
My experience in the taxi cab put me at ease in a city that I only vaguely knew from a brief trip a year before. His friendliness was only a precursor of what was to come during the week.
My itinerary included meetings with a wide variety of people in the industry: the General Manager of Wines of Argentina, the owner and manager of one of the largest wineries, a leading wine industry historian, the Chief of Cabinet in the provincial Economic Ministry and the head librarian at the National Viticulture Institute library.
A month later I sat down in a Buenos Aires café and wrote my research paper, later to be published on Argenvino. The many months spent researching a topic had introduced me to an industry that I knew so little about and had taught me many valuable research skills.
Over a year and a half later my research is still very pertinent to me. Just last weekend I tasted wine from over thirty different Argentine wineries at the New York Wine Expo. In fact, Argentine wineries comprised 20% of all of the wineries at the event. Speaking with the winemakers – some of which I had met at a similar event in Buenos Aires – I could share in their great excitement.
I would thus conclude with two pieces of advice when considering an independent study project. First, choose a topic you are passionate about. Argentines are passionate people and they will appreciate it when you show such an interest in what they are doing. Secondly, choose a topic that you can foresee having an impact on your life long after you leave Argentina. It doesn’t matter if the research affects your career choice or merely becomes a lifelong interest.
I wish you the best in whatever topic you so choose.
Best regards,
Gavin Nurick
Class of 2007
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