Heres whats been going on...
Hillel - I've been in touch with a travel agency that Yanina has worked with before to try and figure out and plan the horseback riding. They told me that they are investigating it and will email me and call me when they have more information.
- The college that will be coming in March (Juniata College) said that probably 2 or 3 more people will be coming to Córdoba.
- This thursday is the end of the year party for Hillel. There are still a few details that need to be planned but it sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun. Basically I think the idea is that we are going to rent out a "boliche", a night club for the night. I'm especially excited, because it will be a great way to meet new people (I always love meeting new people).
- This weekend the Hillel of Buenos Aires invited us to come. We still don't know if we can come (because our end of the year party ends friday morning and to get to Buenos Aires we would need to take a bus, which is about 8 hours and there may not be enough time). If we are going to Buenos Aires, I will be one of those people that goes!!! I hope that this trip does happen, because it would be great to meet the Hillel BA crew and exchange ideas (for me I would be curious to know what they will be doing for Alternative Spring Break), as well as get to know people from Hillel Córdoba better.
- More or less around mid November I was given a 37 page document to translate and so far I have translated 21 pages. On Saturday the person that gave it to me asked me if it could be done by next monday. I told her that maybe more or less it would be done by that time. The problem is that my brain can only handle translating a max of 4 pages per day (and that's a lot of pages) so I think it may take a bit longer...I just really don't want to disappoint anyone but I can't control my brain capacity and when it gets tired.
Social welfare center - On Wednesday there was a "jornada", our volunteer day event. A professor from Buenos Aires came to Córdoba for the day and spoke about the importance of volunteers, the roll that they play, how to be a volunteer, how to influence people to become volunteers, how volunteers influence the people they are helping ect. It was a very nice event, very interesting and I learned a lot. Elsa did a great job planning it. I think Elsa was expecting at least a 100 people to come, and unfortunately only about 60 people came, but never the less it was a success.
Macabi - On friday I had a meeting with Damian, the director of Macabi and he told me that I can go to the summer camp in Buenos Aires (January 4-13). What I will be doing we are still unsure about...
- Also on friday, he told me that from December 20-31st there will be a day camp at Macabi for kids ages 3-12 and he wants me to work at the camp. I have no problem working at the camp, but to be honest what frustrated me (and still does) is that I must have asked him and the roshim at least 5 times if there was anything going on at Macabi for kids during the summer and they all told me, "no, go on vacation". So after hearing this response several times and still wanting to work and do something, I contacted the NY and BA JOINT offices and they found me another job in Buenos Aires. Now, I feel like a boluda (the word that I want to use in English I probably can't, so use your imagination and substitute it for another one), for wasting the time of NY and BA, making them work really hard for me, and for nothing. I'm sure that this type of situation will happen in the future, and probably many many times so the lesson that I have learned from this is that someone may tell me something fairly important at the last minute and I just have to go with it and do it, even if it may be an annoyance and a huge inconvenience for other people. This is my job, and what needs to be done needs to be done by me and only me.
- Saturday I said a little speech to the madrijim, basically explaining who I am, telling them about Thanksgiving and how I am very thankful to be in Córdoba and have the opportunity to work and get to know them (the spirit of Thanksgiving).
- Also on saturday we talked about planning the training session for future roshim (it changes every year, so in March there will be new people). We talked about giving the candidates a sheet of paper with a topic or word and they need to write words that are related to the given word/topic, roll playing - if they were in the following situation what would they do, their expectations of being a rosh, what challenges they think they may face and how they will overcome them (that was my idea) ect. If I remember correctly, I don't know if we ever came to an agreement about how exactly the training would be, and after all, we still don't have a date to do it.
- December 4th is the last day of Macabi activities (or is it...after what happened on Friday now I'm having doubts about if it really is the last day...) and the day that the 2nd year madrijim students graduate from the madrijim school. If I go to Buenos Aires, I will be missing this (I was debating if I should stay or leave Córdoba for this, but Damian said that the Buenos Aires trip would be better for me).
Argentina - Friday night a Sefardi family (the same one as before) invited me over for dinner so I went. The food was amazing, delicious rice, tabuli, hummus, other salads that I did not recognize and...HOMEMADE BAKLAVA! I guess they realized that I really liked it, so they sent me home with 12 of them!!! Oh gosh it's sooo dangerous and I'm so tempted to eat them all in one sitting!
- Friday night at the temple a bunch of police came, which at first made me very nervous. I kept asking everyone, why are so many police here and what happened?!?! I really thought that something happened, I thought that maybe someone tried to destroy the temple or something like that, why else would all of the Córdoba police be at the temple, they are not Jewish! What I didn't know and was later told is that every year the Córdoba police are invited to the temple to observe the service. After the service, they watch a movie about the holocaust so they have a greater appreciation for the Jewish culture/religion and so that they learn more about discrimination and anti-semitism. Does this happen in San Diego? If it doesn't it should.
- Sunday I spent the day in the sierras (the Córdoba mountains) with a friend. We went to at least 5 little towns, walked around and went to a few shops. Basically each mountain town has little artesanal shops (shops with things only made in that town), that sell delicious alfajores (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfajor), honey, beer, leather goods ect, all made within the town. In the afternoon we had the "merienda", evening snack and had some alfajores artesanales and drank mate. For dinner we went to Carlos Paz, the biggest city in the sierras. It was a great day and nice to get out of the city for a little bit (although I really do enjoy the city). It's amazing how just 30 minutes outside the city you are in a different world, total peace and quiet!
- Summer is approaching which makes me very nervous. Everyone that I have been talking to has told me that Córdoba is dead during the summer: Everyone goes on vacation, many businesses will be closed, my neighborhood will be dead (it's mostly students) ect. This makes me very nervous, because I don't want to be alone in a new city. Who will I hang out with and how will I fill my time? The day camp is only from 3PM-7PM...Also, the day camp ends on December 31st, where will I go for New Years and with who? I'm VERY nervous about literally being left alone in the city.
That's basically everything I can think of for now that has gone on. Loving la vida Cordobesa :-) How was your Thanksgiving??!??!?!?!
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