Check out the big brain on Sean

Teague wanted to 'walk' Sean to the bus stop.


And he's off. He hasn't been a full-time student in almost 12 years!

Sean started formal classes on Monday. He was very excited to finally get the show on the road. While most schools here began back in March, the university has pushed the start date back twice now and we were starting to wonder if they'd actually have classes this semester.

So what exactly has Sean been doing since August? His job has been to become fluent in Spanish. Fully fluent, as in, going from zero Spanish to completing a Doctorate program entirely in Spanish. Not only does he have to speak, write and present in Spanish, he actually has to comprehend the political science subject material.
He opted to do in-country language immersion rather than have us move from Tucson to Monterey for 6 months to learn Spanish at the Defense Language Institute and then move here. Moving to BA with no Spanish training whatsoever was somewhat challenging, but it really forced us to 'sink or swim'. You have to learn or you just cannot function on a daily basis. (Exhibit A: Me. Furiously dog paddling.) The added benefit to in-country language training has been the flexibility to travel the first 8 months of our time here rather than planning around Sean's school holidays and Summer break. We purposely front loaded most of the big trips before he began school for this reason.

Several times a day I am asked why we're in Argentina and what my husband does here. The conversation goes something like this:
Me: "He's a student."
Argentine: "Yes, but what does he do?"
Me: "He's in the military, but he is in school right now."
Argentine: "Oh, so he's with the Embassy?"
Me: "Kind of."
Argentine: "I have this friend who needs a US Visa..."

It's one of those questions I still am not sure how to answer. In short, he's a student. If you're new to my blog, the longer version is that he was selected for the Olmsted Scholar program and will spend 2 more years down here completing a Doctorate in Political Science. He's still in the Air Force and is still a pilot, but he is attending school at this time. Yes, he's technically attached to the US Embassy, but the only time we're actually there is to pick up our mail.

Sean has enjoyed his first week back and really likes the professors. He's amused (ok, probably slightly bothered) by the overly laid-back and completely disorganized way that things are done here.
His classmates are an interesting bunch, a diplomat from Libya, an MD from Iran, some Brazilians and Argentines, two Colombian journalists and a student from a previously unknown African country that we had to google. It's like a United Colors of Benetton ad, but mucho nerdier.