Goals going forward

Walking through town today I realized I have totally neglected blogging, whoops.  The program I am getting credit through has suggested journal topics, so I figured I would write about one as well as give you an idea of what I have been doing.

So, goals for my internship.  I have actually been thinking about it a lot because my internship is largely what I make of it.  I'm not required to work a certain amount of hours (although I have to work at least 20 a week to satisfy funding requirements), but beyond that it can be as little or as much as I make it.  My main goal is to come out of this internship with a good understanding of the following:

1. Startup culture and what startups need to succeed through elementary stages (seed funding, etc)
2. Latin American Business Culture

I feel like that is the most valuable part of the internship here, to learn as much as possible and get work experience that I wouldn't be able to back in the United States.  Besides that, I want to help startups here and the organization I am working for as much as I can by producing the best market research I can (my main project), and working to promote Startup Buenos Aires to my best ability.

My other goal is to be able to communicate in Spanish well.  The vocabulary and the accent is very tricky, but I have gotten a lot better in the 3 weeks I have been here.  I have no problems in stores, restaurants, or even "small talk" with locals.  The hardest stuff to talk about seems to be work stuff, which really sucks.  It's mainly because I didn't know a lot of the startup jargon people use in English, and translated to Spanish is even more confusing.  I'm getting the hang of it though.

Other than that, I have seen a lot of the city by now.  The food here is amazing, and the world cup has been really exciting to watch.  The bars are always packed, especially during Argentina games.  Work here has been way less productive during the world cup.  With games at 1pm and 4pm, work can end at 1pm depending on how good the game is.  Excited for the U.S. game tonight!