Quality over quantity.

I have been trying to pinpoint why I have been so sad at the thought of leaving; when I still have 2 weeks here.

When I decided to not to travel outside of Rosario with some other students in the program I really couldn’t identify why I didn’t want to leave this place. Rosario was pulling me back, whispering in my ear to stay in the city.

After reading an article that critiqued traveling, and how many people use it as an escape, or experience it as romanticized few weeks away from their normal life, I began to understand why I love Rosario so much.

 

After reading this article

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/how-to-travel-some-contrarian-advice/

(Despite being very controversial)

 I began to really think about my experience thus far.

 This quote stuck out to me most among the rest:

“When you make this distinction most of the other travel advice falls away. The penny pinching and the optimization, the trying to squeeze as many landmarks into a single day, all that becomes pointless and you focus on what matters.”

 

While here in Rosario, I have toured around a little, gone for a cruise on the river and visited a few museums. Overall however, I have done very little sight seeing and activities compared to other trips abroad. I have always had the goal to see how many places I could visit, how many monuments and cities I could cross off my list. Or even countries for that matter.

Then I began to think, what are my intentions while traveling?

Rosario is the first place I have been to where I am enjoying day-to-day life. But I acknowledge that my days are not as hard as locals living here. I don’t have the responsibility of a job, I don’t make my earnings in pesos, and I don’t have friends or family to answer to.

In many ways I have been experiencing a “romanticized version” of the city. I have been going out on the weekends, school for only 6 hours a day, and I still have a lot of free time.

As wonderful as the experience is thus far, this is the first place where I wouldn’t mind experiencing the normal things, the bad times, the times where responsibility prevails and the idea of life being one big party is far off in the horizon. Some of my favorite memories thus far have been the small ones. Don’t get me wrong, going out to drink and dance is fun. But I believe my best memories will be the moments in which I have seen vulnerability, passion, and sincerity.

These moments are the reasons I love Rosario so dearly.

 

I love Rosario because of the people. Within days I knew there was something special about this place. Not because of the buildings, food, drinking age, excursions or significant places.

Because of the people.

They have touched a part of my heart I didn’t know existed, and because of this the idea of leaving makes my heart ache.

I can only hope that others can experience the fondness I have found for Rosarinos here.

Quality over quantity, I challenge anyone to take the time to truly get to know one place instead of jam packing your trip with excursions and monuments and experiencing the "romanticized" version of traveling. When you chose quality, to truly dedicate yourself to one place you will love that place more than all the fleeting moments that tourists experience only through the lens of their camera.