One Month!!!!

I have been in Córdoba for a month!!!!! As I'm sure you can tell from my blogs, I'm really loving being here. The city has a very young feel to it (college students everywhere) and there are so many restaurants, bars, ice cream parlors (the Cordobeses LOVE ice cream), shopping, buses, taxis, museums, cultural centers, historic buildings (like the picture of the church that I put up) and more! You all should come visit and see for yourself. 


Another fabulous week has passed at Hillel. Last night was the end of the truco tournament and I made it to the semifinals but unfortunately did not win. I'm going to keep practicing and playing and I told everyone that in one year we should have another truco tournament and I will be the winner ;-)
 I've been doing a lot of translating for Hillel, translating from Spanish to English and English to Spanish, an average day translating for 4-5 hours. When I get home I'm so brain dead and all I have energy to do is veg out and watch TV in English for a longgg time. Yanina, my boss told me that next week I will work with her more on planning Alternative Spring Break because we now have a confirmed group of college students from Juniata College that will be coming in March. We are also starting to talk about planning our end of the year/Chanukah party at Hillel. 


This week at the social welfare center I've been working on organizing papers that we will give to our "clients", basically papers saying that they need to bring their medical, financial and Argentine documents in order to receive their resources (medicines, clothing, money, food...). On wednesday I worked in the ropero, organizing the clothes that we will put out for summer and putting away the clothes from fall and winter. Wednesday evening there was a party to celebrate the volunteer work that the women, "las señoras" have done through the year. What they do is get together at the social welfare center and knit blankets, sweaters, gloves, scarves ect. and donate them to poor people and to the villas (shanty towns). Last night they drank café, ate criollos (a Cordobes biscuit commonly eaten for breakfast and with tea and coffee, instead of eating medialunas) and the Tzedek group from Hillel (the community service group) came to thank the women for their hard work and then we got together and sang Hebrew and Spanish songs. The ceremony was very nice and the ladies are so cute and really enjoyed our singing. 


I had some success at Macabi this week!!!! I found 2 teens to be Global Ambassadors for Argentina. Global Ambassadors is a program through BBYO, with the goal of creating a global teen Jewish network by talking through Facebook, Skype, Messenger ect., to share how Judaism is practiced in their countries and what young Jewish life is like throughout the world. There are Global Ambassadors in the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Israel, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and more countries. 
Last week I had some of the teens at Macabi fill out applications for International Convention. I picked out 4 teens that I liked and now I will talk with the teen department at Macabi and with BBYO in the U.S. to see which teens will go (I can only take 2). 
In January there is a summer camp for 2 weeks in the Province of Buenos Aires for Jewish kids throughout Argentina. I've asked several people about how I can participate in the camp but I have not been successful in getting information (about who leads the camp and what I can do). From what I've been told, it seems like the camp is very much established and all tasks and activities have already been assigned to people to lead and take charge. I asked if any foreigners have taken part in the camp and they said that only Israeli Shlichim come to the camp to teach the kids about Israel. Hopefully I'll strike some luck and find out more information and if there is a place for me at the camp. If not, I was told that there is another camp in July (winter camp) so maybe that would be a better time to go...que se yo! December 4th is the last day of activities at Macabi before starting summer. At the meetings I've really been pushing to do an activity for Chanukah, because it's a fun holiday and any excuse to eat latkas, gelt and jelly donuts works for me :-) I think that we may have all agreed to make jelly donuts on December 4th, we'll see if that actually happens... even if it doesn't happen, at least they got excited about the idea and I think thats progress!!! 


Another interesting and eventful week in Argentina. I was told that at the end of November there will be a new holiday (I have no idea why) so I will have another day off of work. Also for 2011 the government is expecting to add on more holidays...
The other day for the 1st time I tried ice cream from Córdoba and it was goodddd, dulce de leche with chocolate chunks and brownies, YUMMYYYYY
There is a student strike going on now in Córdoba by all of the public universities. They are angry about a law towards education (no idea what the law is) so in every public university, all the classes have been cancelled and students have set up "camp grounds" in the center of the city, filling it with millions of signs, constant marches (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_raVdVKNQPQ&feature=related) , tons of speeches, chanting ect. The students have set up tents in the center of the city, sitting there drinking mate and collecting signatures to rebut against the law (I have no idea if they actually sleep in the tents at night). The link to the youtube video that I put up was actually a protest that went on right outside of Hillel the other day. We were playing truco and this was what we were listening to. Me and two people from Hillel went outside to watch a bit of the protest which was really interesting. By the way, protesting in Argentina is completely normal (and most of the time isn't dangerous). I can't tell you how many times in Buenos Aires I was in Chacarita (it's like I was in Poway/the Bronx) and I had to go downtown for class(like going to the Gaslamp/Wall Street) and the subway randomly went on strike without any warning and I missed class.
Speaking of Buenos Aires and going on strike, the domestic airport, Aeroparque is closed for renovations due to updating and construction. They say that it will be open again on December 1st...and I sure hope it will be because I have a flight booked to Buenos Aires on December 10th...(I'm going to Colonia, Uruguay for the day to renew my visa). The pilots from the airline Aerolineas Argentinas have gone on strike so this has caused some complications with traveling... 


I was invited to attend the Sefardi shul so I'll go to services and then have dinner with a family and I'm very excited for that. 


Not much else has been going on. I'm just loving la vida Cordobesa!