Eat, Tango, Study

Wednesday

Today I was determined to venture out on my own.  After my group had decided that the history of yellow fever was important, I ventured to on my own to do the research at the immigration museum.

I was able to take a rathe long taxi ride to the Immigration Museum.  The taxi driver got lost and had to ask for directions.  When I finally arrived, I got into an argument with the driver because he wanted more money for the radio.  I only gave him an extra three pesos because I was by myself and did not want to argue too much.  I told him that my maestra dice to pay only as much as the amount on the meter (I pointed to the meter for emphasis and said metre!).  I only paid 80 pesos, which is about 8 American dollars.  No tip for that fool!  Service was not good!  Had he been nice to me, I might have given him a small tip for his service.  On my return trip, I only had to pay 50 pesos, and that included a small tip.  I know this fool got lost on the way, and the meter was running when he asked for directions!  Of course, this place was so hard to find that it was not on my map!  The taxi driver should have consulted his Thomas Guide and GPS before beginning the ride!

When I arrived, I had to use my Spanish to ask directions to the museum.  When I went into in the wrong building, I think I was in the immigration line!  If I had my passport with me, I could have applied to become an Argentine citizen!  I do not think my teacher would be please with me, and I think the husband would miss me after awhile!  My husband, Pat, misses me, and I call him every morning and speak to him for about two minutes.  I have saved enough money on the rate of exchange in Argentina that I am sure that I can afford a phone call to the loving husband who is working hard every day.

The Immigration Museum was a Hotel for immigrants at one time.  The name of the Hotel was Antiguo Hotel De Immigrantes.  When there was massive immigration to the port city of Buenos Aires, the immigrants stayed in the hotel.  Most of the immigrants were Spanish or Italian between 1870 and 1930.  The immigration hotel had 50,000 people staying there, and they were all crammed into rooms with white hammocks.  I have a picture of the hammock replicas in the museum on my iPhone.  There was a black and white photo of a large car with bags 15 feet high strapped onto the car.  These were probably the bags of the people who were immigrating.  Perhaps these were the bags of Italian immigrants who had to drive a long distance to get to a port city where they could then board of steamship and endure 16 long days and night of travel.

It is hard to imagine what these people would take with them on the ship.  They might only have room for a few suitcases and would need to take everything they would need in the new country.  I imagine that they took pictures of the family and anything of value that could be easily packed, like jewelry or gold.  Of course, they may have also had a little money to take with them.  Maybe a little food could have been packed for the long journey on the ship.