Sol's summer healthcare course in Buenos Aires is absolutely incredible! Staying with a host family is an amazing way to get immersed in the culture, as is attending all of the scheduled activities. Raul and Rodrigo take you to so many cool sights and are so supportive; not only teaching you how to navigate the city so that you feel confident commuting and exploring alone, but supporting you as you improve your spanish, meeting you at whatever level you are at, answering all of your questions and giving you tips. Go to all the Mate Club meetings that you can! They are a great way to practice the language, enjoy local cultural and meet cool portenos! And the medical shadowing was an absolutely priceless experience. For any pre-health students, the opportunity to see socialized medicin up close and personal and shadow so many different types of doctors and medical professionals, all while practicing your spanish, is simply unbeatable. Be sure to ask the doctors as many questions as you can think of! You would be surprised what you will learn.
Private Note to Provider (optional)
Guillermina was not a good host mom. While she did provide us (Sarah and I) with breakfast and dinner and clean linens, she was not very supportive. She did not help us at all with various issues that came up, to be honest wouldn't even listen if we tried to bring them up with her. She didn't want to hear about us but wanted to talk about herself at dinner, and was very easily angered by us if we were not back at exactly the time we expected or used the wrong utensils. She all but banned us from half of the apartement, frequently locked us out (albeit on accident), and made us to feel like a burden by complaining that we ate too much food (especially me, and told me regularly that if I wasn't careful I'd get too fat, though I know that is more of a cultural quality than a mean quality) and that she didn't get paid enough to house us. She was also overtly racist as well as verbally abusive the Julia, the bolivian housekeeper. I know that she tried, but she didn't relate to us very well and we felt like we were on eggshells at times. Despite this, my overall experience with Sol was overwhelmingly positive and I am so happy that I came :)
