We finally made it to Buenos Aires… after a 12 hour delay in Atlanta and 30 hours of travel. The architecture of the city is very unique and nothing like any place I have been before. On the way from the airport outside of Buenos Aires, we saw a very ornate church and other cool architecture that creates a very unique vibe to Argentina. When we arrived in the city, we had dinner with our partners for the trip (IES) and ate steak and sausage with an authentic chimichurri sauce which was delicious. We are staying in the retiro neighborhood for the duration of these two weeks which has many quaint coffee shops and small convenience stores and businesses which are common in Buenos Aires. Retiro also used to be home to the widest avenue in Argentina named Nueve de Julio but it lost that title when they built a designated bussing lane. Buenos Aires is extremely busy with many people walking on the streets and thousands of cars constantly passing by.
On our first full day here, we began by going to our partner university, University of Austral. They have 3 campuses in Argentina which are in downtown Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Pilar which we are visiting later in the week. At Austral, we received a lecture from Gabriel Novick, director at Swiss Medical Hospital. Gabriel discussed the Argentinian healthcare system and details regarding financing, means of care, and problems with the system such as fragmentation which is a major issue to the Argentinian system. After Gabriel Novick’s lecture we took a quick break accompanied with Alfajores and coffee. Our second lecture of the day was given by former Director of the Argentinian National Health Ministry, Luis Jimenez. Luis Jimenez discussed many major policies that were implemented during his time as the Director between 2016-2018. One of the biggest policies he worked on was Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC) which aims to provide care to every Argentinian regardless of their socioeconomic status. These lectures were very interesting and informative as a background for the rest of the trip and all we learn because it is crucial to know the structure and problems of the Argentinian healthcare system.
After our visit to Austral University, we went to the IES center where we received a tango lesson. We had an instructor named Pablo and his partner and they taught us how to do the tango walk, square, and eight. This was an interesting cultural experience because tango is a major part of Argentinian culture. Many Argentinians go to milangos which are tango clubs to dance and socialize with other people, many whom they have not met before. The instructors also performed an improvised and choreographed tango for us which was extremely impressive to watch after struggling to do basic moves myself.
I am very excited to be in Argentina and finally get to learn about the healthcare system and experience the culture firsthand. One of the biggest things I noticed about the culture is the people that have hosted us are very friendly and quick to offer us something to eat or drink. I am excited to learn more, see many places, and get a true sense of the culture and people in Argentina during the rest of this program.
