Hi everyone. Sorry again for taking a long time to write a new blog but things have been a bit crazy since getting back to Córdoba (I'll explain more later).
So I left off at the sleep away camp…the camp ended January 13th and from there I took the bus with the porteños back to Buenos Aires to work at the JDC office with the 1317 program for the remainder of January. I arrived Thursday night, dropped my things off at Zara and Danielle’s apartment and met up with Danielle and a few of my Argentine friends for dinner. The following day, I had a meeting with Martín, the head of 1317 to discuss how I can get involved and help out and he told me that there is not much to do because they planned everything in December while I was working at the day camp in Córdoba. However, he invited me to observe and participate in the 1317 programs that take place Thursday evenings. My first Thursday (January 20th) was a regular 1317 afternoon. Around lunchtime we took the bus from Buenos Aires to a Jewish community center in Tigre, in the province of Buenos Aires about 45min from the city. It was so amazing, there were about 300 kids and millions of activities such as garage band (a room filled with lots of instruments where kids could get together and play music), swimming pool, astro jump, any sport you can think of, pool, foosball, ping pong, arts and crafts, cooking classes, dance classes and more. There were several rotations of activities and each one lasted from 30min-1hour. I had a great time, participated in several of the activities and the kids were excited to meet me because I was from the US, especially because I’m from California where all the movie stars live. The following Thursday was the NONSTOP event, basically a very long Thursday that starts at 10PM and ends at 7AM Friday morning with double the amount of activities. At NONSTOP there was a bungee jump, mechanical bull, sushi class, hair and nail salon, massage parlor, watching of “The Little Fockers” movie, dance party, foam party and more. I had an AMAZING time, I loved being with the kids, the activities were a blast and at 7AM I was still pumped and ready to work and participate in more activities (I worked the bungee jump), but at that time we boarded the buses to go back to Buenos Aires. While I was at NONSTOP, memories of my BBYO experience started to enter my brain. It was the first time since being in Argentina that I went to a teen event that really paralleled my BBYO experience and had familiarity to me. I told Martín and the 1317 staff that I LOVE 1317 and hope to do something similar in Córdoba.
Because there was not much work to do for 1317 except for Wednesday meetings (to discuss how Thursday would be) and Thursday afternoons, I returned to Baby Help to work like what I did last year. I worked with the 3 and 4 year olds and it was such a blast. The kids are so cute and I loved being with them. What I really loved and thought was adorable is that they called me Morah. I felt very old and official and it was kind of cool. Last year when I lived in Buenos Aires I worked with the 2 year olds and of course none of those kids remembered me because they are too little. It was great seeing the Baby Help teachers and other volunteers that I worked with last year. It was just so much fun and so comforting to be there again.
I returned to Córdoba the morning of February 1st, expecting to enter my apartment and see a new and improved bathroom, with new tiles. However upon entering my apartment and the bathroom, I saw that the same tiles were still there and nothing had been done. Although I was told that someone would come and work on my apartment in January, no one came and no one notified me to let me know that no one was coming, which disappointed me because I expected that something would get done and it didn’t. Oh well, there are worse things in the world right?
I started working again at Hillel but we are only working part time, from 9:30AM-2PM because it is still closed and many people are on vacation. We are ironing out the final details for Alternative Spring Break, which is going to be AMAZING. I’m so excited to meet the Hillel group from the US, show them around Córdoba and learn what their Hillel is like.
Macabi is still closed and will open around mid March. Every Tuesday I’m at the Social Welfare Center but work is slow because it’s summertime so many people (both beneficiaries, employees and volunteers) are on vacation.
What I am really looking forward to and am absolutely ecstatic for is that my sister will be coming to visit me in mid March for a week. I am excited to show her around Córdoba, what my life is like here, my work sights and what I do and to show her the city. Also, this is probably the only time I will see her during my time in Argentina so I’m very glad that we will be spending some time together.
Tonight I have a meeting with the 2 Argentine teenage girls, their parents and my colleagues from Macabi to discuss final details of the BBYO Los Angeles trip. I am SO excited to go back to the US and I’m even more excited for the girls to have a BBYO experience, meet Jewish teens their age from all over the world and that they get to know my cities, Los Angeles and San Diego.
The next blog that I will write to you will either be from California or in Córdoba after coming back from California. Be prepared, because I’m sure that blog will be very long.
Hope everyone is doing well, is not freezing too much on the east coast and I’m really hoping that I’ll have more visitors…
