Today was a day full of museums. We did not start until 1:30pm, which was a nice break for one of our last days of events compared to the early wake ups. What teenager doesn’t like to sleep in? Before the museums, we headed over to IES for lunch and had free time leading up to the day. Our first museum was the Museo de los inmigrantes, or the Immigrant Museum. Immigration plays an important role in Argentina’s past, present, and future. Immigration is something that is welcomed with open arms in Argentina and is not a difficult thing to achieve. Meanwhile in the United States, it is the contrary. In the United States, you must take a citizenship test, live in the country and work for a certain number of years, and our borders are nowhere close to easy to pass over. Argentina has no citizenship test requirement and is very open to immigration. We learned that the museum itself was an immigration house/pass over.  Immigrants would arrive at the port, walk up and drop their things off in a common house, then walk over and stay in the hotel. The hotel was exceptionally clean and would house these people until they got a job and somewhere/someone to stay with. The port reminded me of America’s own Ellis Island as it was also used as the immigration port. Today, Argentina still embraces immigration to make the country what it is today, while the United States cannot say the same. The next museum we traveled to see was the Museo etnografico. This museum was home to many artifacts from various years and cultures that have been through Argentina. It was so interesting to see the large Japanese prayer cabinet and the Catholic celebration cloaks. What was interesting to hear was that the building did not have central air due to the need of having a certain temperature and humidity level for the artifacts. We ended the day with an alumni dinner with Luis Gustavo Podesta and Conrad Guevara. It was so interesting to hear how their training in America has given them such an advantage in Argentina’s healthcare system. It was especially rewarding when they gave such praise to their nurses in America and how they would not be able to have accomplished so much without them. Hasta 🙂