If there’s one thing I learned during my jam-packed first week in Uruguay, it’s the value of being humble when working in a foreign country.

I like to have everything under control. But when I arrived in Montevideo two weeks ago, struggling to recall the Spanish terms for airport security, I wasn’t in control. When I impatiently boarded the 522 bus to Pocitos instead of the 149 because I didn’t trust Google Maps, I wasn’t in control. And when I was getting lunch from a corner store on Calle Colonia and I anxiously (and accidentally) ordered a well-done steak, I definitely wasn’t in control.

Walking through the neighborhood of Recoleta, Buenos Aires, I pull my jacket tighter against the cold. It is winter in Argentina, but today, June 16, the faces I pass are livelier, more excited. Excited chatter fills the streets, and from the European-style apartments lining the avenues, huge Argentine flags are hung from the balconies. In Argentina, today might as well be a national holiday: Argentina’s first game in the 2026 World Cup competition. Coming off a monumental championship victory in 2022, combined with widespread expectation that this will be Messi’s last “Mundial,” Argentina is buzzing with anticipation.