Almost 2 months!!!!

Sorry again guys but I forgot to upload the pictures from the sierras. Hopefully I'll remember sometime next week and post a picture in the next blog. I just looked at the calendar and it has almost been 2 months since my arrival here, I had no idea (I got to Córdoba October 5, but I arrived in Argentina September 22)!


Heres whats been going on...


Hillel: 
- So it turns out that this weekend we are not going to Buenos Aires. It was just to difficult and very short timing, because we had our end of the year party and then we would have had to go directly from the party to the bus to go to Buenos Aires. Also, bus and flight tickets were very expensive (obviously they would be, booking last minute is always more expensive). I hope there will be more weekend events in the future because I would love to see what Buenos Aires does. 
- Last night we had our end of the year party which was great! We rented out part of a "boliche", a night club and shmoozed, had pizza and beer and just chilled and hung out. We rented the boliche until about 2AM and then we went to the other part of the boliche and joined everyone (the public) and went dancing. I left at 3AM because I had my swim class this morning at 9AM (which I'll explain later) and I'm sure that people probably stayed until 5AM...
- We had a meeting the other day to discuss the year, what were success, challenges and what we need to improve on. I obviously had very little to say being that I arrived in Argentina at the very end of the year (basically Argentina closes from December-February/March). I did think of an idea though for next year (of course I thought of it after the meeting). Many people have been telling me how they would love to take an English class because they would like to learn, or they used to speak it very well and their English is getting rusty and how they would like to practice with me. So I'm thinking, I know that the JSC fellows in Ukraine do a program called "American Coffee" and it's basically an informal English conversation class. Many people come to Hillel and just sit, chill out and watch TV. Maybe I could incorporate American Coffee into this down time? 
- No news with spring break. I am making leads on scheduling a horseback riding day trip. Now I just need to talk to Yanina about prices. 
- I have translated 34 out of 37 pages of that very long, difficult document!!!! I'm quite proud of myself because I have never done anything like that before. It will probably be done by wednesday or thursday!!!!


Social welfare: No news there but all is well. Apparently in the summer there is less work so I need to talk to Elsa about when I should come in December. 


Macabi: 
- I am getting SO excited for International Convention! Everything is falling into place so nicely and almost everything is planned! Heres the itinerary (we still need to work out some details). So the 2 Argentine girls and I would arrive in LA either the 12th or 13th of February, stay with my mom and Morgan (my 16 year old sister) in a hotel in LA and go touring until the 16th, when International Convention Starts. We will be at International Convention until the morning of February 21 and then from there we would go to San Diego and stay there till February 24 or 25 (we still don't have flights). The girls will be coming to my house in San Diego and we will go touring!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited, because I'm living here in Córdoba seeing how their community functions and how "la vida cotidiana", everyday life is and now they can see how I grew up and what my life is like in the U.S. 
- I had a meeting about International Convention with the girls and their parents. The parents told me they wish they can come too and thanked me numerous times for my hospitality, for being so responsible and for keeping and taking care of their needs and their daughters. Guys, I feel like an adult, It's kinda scaring me haha. 
- Tomorrow is the last day of activities at Macabi. It turns out that we will not be making jelly donuts which I'm a bit bummed about. I have no idea when or why it was decided that we were not going to make them, no one told me, even though I asked many times...So because we are not making the donuts I thought of a few other ideas such as playing Chanukkah songs, doing a hebrew word search to find words associated with Channukah and giving the kids gelt at the end of the day. Basically I was trying to think of ideas that the kids could take home with them and do during the holiday. I have no idea if any of my ideas will be implemented at Macabi tomorrow and again I asked many times about this...
- Tomorrow night is the closing event for the Madrijim students, where they receive their diplomas for graduating from the school and then in March they get to be Madrijim, aka lead activities every saturday for a group of kids. I will be attending that event. 
- So it turns out for the month of December I will be in Córdoba. I will be working at the day camp and then in January I'll go to the province of Buenos Aires and work at the sleep away camp in Villa Gesell, a beach town. I'm excited for the sleep away camp, to meet Argentines (and some my age!) from all over Argentina and to learn what camp is like in Argentina (it seems to be very different than my camp experience in the U.S.). From what it sounds like, I'll be working at the canteen, doing administrative work and helping the Madrijim and the Roshim with whatever they need. The camp is from January 4-13 and afterwards I'm going to work in Buenos Aires for two weeks, doing the work that I was going to do initially before I learned about the day camp in Córdoba. 


Argentina: 
- It seems like the whole world is studying for exams, aka my social life is nothing to brag about. And soon many people will be leaving Córdoba to go home to their provinces. Everyone has been telling me that my "vida Cordobesa" will really start and take off in March when the new calendar/school year starts. I really hope they are right, because although I'm really liking Córdoba, being here and the work that I'm doing, socially it has not been the best, because right when I got here is when people started studying for exams. 
- Next weekend I'm going to BUENOS AIRES! I'm really going because I need to go to Uruguay to renew my tourist visa and in order to do that I need to take a boat from Buenos Aires to get there, so I figured why not make a weekend out of it. I'm SO excited, because I REALLY miss my friends and the city. Seriously my plan for Uruguay is to get there, eat lunch, take a nap on the río de la plata, eat dinner and come back to Buenos Aires. I'm going to Colonia, Uruguay and I've been there about 6 times so I've done all the touristy things. I  come back to Córdoba monday morning. 
- So as I mentioned in the previous blog, from what everyone has been telling me, summer time is really dead here, so I've been trying to think of activities to do to fill my time. Yesterday I joined a swim club and I will be doing a masters swim class 3 days a week. I went today for the first time and it was a good workout but interesting, different than my experience swimming in the US. In total about 5 lanes were being used. Everyone was swimming and working out, but sometimes, ok many times, for example someone in lane one would stop in the middle of the pool to talk (really more like scream) to the person swimming in late five. So these two people would be stopped in the middle of the pool, on opposite sides of the pool, talking and starting conversation with other lanes!!! I felt like it was as if they were drinking cafe in the pool, and squeezing in sometime to work out. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not complaining or think they are lazy, I thought it was hilarious! I have never seen or heard of this happening in the U.S. (I used to swim a lot back in the day) and what they were doing totally coincides with the Argentine culture. I really enjoyed the workout and I will be swimming every monday, wednesday and friday. 
- In addition to swimming, I still need more activities to do so I'm looking into taking a Spanish or Portuguese class and some dance classes (either tango or salsa). 
- There is a possibility that I may be moving. I really like my apartment, its very nice and in a great location, but I've just had so many problems with it and it's not fair to me or my colleagues that I've missed/arrived super late to work waiting around for the handy man. The water in the bathroom has been leaking ever since I got here and no one knows why (people have hypothesized but someone has yet to figure out why) and basically for me that drew the line and thats when I decided that I would like to move. I will be looking at apartments probably in about 10 days or so, when everyone will be gone and if I see an apartment that I like better, hopefully I'll be moving. Honestly it's not the end of the world if i don't move, I'll just probably have to miss more work some point in the future waiting around for the handyman, which I don't want to do but if I have to I will. 
- I've said this before (I don't know if I mentioned it in my blog but I've definitely said it to family and friends) and I'll say it again, I have NO idea how Argentines are so skinny! On one of the main avenues by Hillel (Av. Estrada) there are about 5 ice cream parlors in 4 blocks and they are always jammed pack with skinny people eating ice cream. Cordobeses LOVE ice cream and could sit for hours eating it (the porteños do this with café), and everyone is SO skinny! Being that I am trying to adapt to the culture, I too have been eating quite a bit of ice cream (the many flavors of dulce de leche are just to die for). Being that it's summer, I don't know if thats the best idea (bikini season) but its so hard to think like that when the ice cream is so good! 


Anyways I think I basically summed up the week and whats been going on here. Every day I'm more Cordobesa, and I'm liking it :-)