Less ‘Gap Yah’, more ‘Year Abroad

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

Less ‘Gap Yah’, more ‘Year Abroad’ by James Penn (99-09)

As a French, Spanish and International Relations student at the University of St Andrews, James Penn (99-09) spent 13 months of 20112012 in Switzerland and South America. Here he shares some of the things that not even an RGS education can teach you!

Doing a working year abroad is subtly distinct from doing a typical ‘Gap Yah.’ Going to a new continent with nothing but the address of your work place for the next six months makes you infinitely more resourceful and selfreliant. The deep immersion in a society, essential for language acquisition, is only possible through an extended stay in a country and very different from the fleeting snapshot that one gets from pure travel. I divided my year abroad into three parts: two months at the Chief Executive Board of the United Nations in Geneva, followed by six months in a law firm in Santiago, Chile, then five months teaching for the British Council in Ushuaia, Argentina. Building a life from scratch in each place took time but, once you have a work routine, a weekly football team to play in and exciting plans for the weekend, then ‘home’ can be anywhere in the world!

Switzerland: Mountains, Lakes and Palaces

This UN headquarters is housed in the Art-Deco ‘Palais des Nations’ on the shore of Lake Geneva and is where the Human Rights Council (among others) is held. During my two months there, an Emergency Session was called to discuss the developing situation in Syria. However, forget the violence of the multitude of wars that are raging around the world; the most brutal conflicts are the internal ones for funding and recognition within the organisation itself.

Palais des Nations, Geneva

Geneva can be ludicrously expensive, but with a little imagination it can be very hospitable. The lake, for instance, can double as a free swimming pool since gym membership costs nearly as much as the entire UN budget. Also, if you seek it out, there is a network of kindly UN translators who are willing to rent out rooms at half the going rate. Fluency in three languages is very much the expected norm and being part of the intern community is a fantastic way to meet people from all over the world. There are rotating Wednesday lunches at each organisation (UNEP has the best food, though steak and frites overlooking the lake on the veranda of the Palais comes a close second).

Chile: Desert, Pisco Sours and Surfing

Chile is a country on the up. A country that stretches the equivalent of Edinburgh to Baghdad, but is only as wide as the UK, is now the most stable and the least corrupt country in South America. Optimism pervades the country. With a burgeoning financial and legal sector, many European graduates are fleeing their debt-laden home economies and are making the capital, Santiago, their home. With surfing on the Pacific coast to the west and skiing in the Andes to the east, people play as hard as they work. Six months prior to my arrival, I said ‘yes!’ to an extra whisky at a bonfire on the beach in St Andrews and it landed me two months free accommodation, complete with swimming pool and staff, in a house overlooking Santiago; not to mention friends for life.

Chilean taxi drivers are just as football-mad as their Geordie counterparts and will be able to reel off every single Chilean footballer currently playing in the premiership and their game/goal ratios. ‘Las Urracas’ (‘The Magpies’) have a huge fan base. At the law firm, I also learnt that it feels great to win an international commerce arbitration case even if the subject matter was a dodgy shipment of avocados. Chile is probably the most geographically diverse country in the world: ranging from the Atacama Desert in the north, the immensely fertile middle section of the country which produces the wine that is exported around the world, to Norwegian-esque fjords in the south.

Argentina: Steak, Red Wine and Skiiing

Argentina is a fascinating country. It suffered a Greek-style financial meltdown 10 years ago and is still suffering the aftershocks. Buenos Aires feels like a warmer, shabbier and more bohemian version of Paris. Argentineans do the important things in life very well: in terms of steak, red wine and company the country is unparalleled. Despite President Kirchner’s recent efforts, Argentinians themselves are incredibly hospitable, extrovert and passionate. They are family orientated and have a distrust of their politicians that would rival any British cynic. I was posted to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego by the British Council. Although this is the southernmost city in the world, it is exactly the same latitude south as Newcastle is north. Skiing during the day on mountains overlooking the Beagle Channel (named after Darwin’s boat) followed by teaching English in the evenings to Argentineans from a whole range of economic backgrounds as well as educational standards is a work/life balance that I shall aspire to for the rest of my life.

My year abroad has been a hugely valuable experience. It took over a year in the planning, with countless bureaucratic hoops to jump through, but with a little luck along the way it has meant that I now start many sentences with ‘When I was on my year abroad…’ Still, that’s probably preferable to ‘When I was on my Gap Yah…’

James can be contacted at: james.penn8@gmail.com

Photographs by James Penn

Beagle Channel, Argentina