Palermo, donde vivo

For now a little bit more about my living situation...

As I have said before, I am renting a room from a man named Roberto, who has also agreed to give me weekly 3hr. long spanish lessons for a discount.  The room is fairly large, I have Wi-Fi, and he gives me the run of the house as though it was my own.. somewhat different to the type of home-stay situation I was used to in Moscow.

Some more perks about Roberto- he knows many other foreigners and has connected a good number of  students to each other, some of whom were other JDC JSC volunteers and fellows taking spanish lessons.  He's a very nice man, and has two grown children, as well as a past career in economics.  Certainly this coincides with my interests, and I have asked that our lessons be themed once in a while about history and state of affairs in Argentina.  He's a very nice man, and helped me a lot in the beginning with things like a cell phone, groceries, and sube card (their metro card).  The apartment is quite big, with a terrace over looking Avenida de Santa Fe, a main avenue in the barrio of Palermo.

Palermo itself is divided into a few areas, Palermo SoHo, Viejo, and Hollywood, and I think a small area south of that called Las Canitas is also part of it. Today I let myself sleep in a bit and just walked around the area. It is definitely one of my favorites in Argentina so far.  At night there are trendy little restaurants and bars with rooftop terraces.  By day, and especially on the weekends, the area turns into cute coffee shops, boutique stores, and the squares fill up with artisans selling things like leather products and of course jewelry.

Walking around today I just wanted to take pictures of all the little streets, and all the different buildings no higher than 2 or 3 stories.  As much as the pictures may give you a sense of how things are, the best part is the wonderful smells coming from the restaurants and even the fruit vendors as well (the strawberries I bought today on the way home were awesome!)  I have to keep remind myself that I will be living here for another few months in order not to stop in everywhere to try something! I even went into a wine store where they offered me a free tasting. Will definitely go back there for the food and wine pairings they have on Thursdays!

Excited to celebrate Katina's birthday in a few hours!

The Tax(i) Man Waits for No One

Greetings from Buenos Aires!  The first stop on my world tour of volunteerism and humanitarianism.  It's been 4.5 days since I've arrived, and it already seems as though I've been here for a while.. Probably because I've been walking about 5 or 6 hours a day, seeing the sights and trying to orient myself with the city.  Luckily I have been able to do this since I am scheduled to start work on Thursday, a full week after I arrived, due to a national holiday, and Yom Kippur, which brings me to my next point..

What am I doing here? For those of you who do not already know, I am working with the JDC or "the Joint."  It is a non-sectarian international NGO which works to better international jewish communities, and other non-jewish areas where aid is needed (for example in Haiti), with the aim of helping them to become self-sufficient.  I was accepted to be a multi-week JSC (Jewish Service Corps) volunteer in Buenos Aires, and have been told that I will be working at Baby Help here.  I'm really excited for this opportunity! But more of that once I start in a couple of days...

For now I will tell you a bit about my time in BsAs.  I've walked around a bunch of areas, Recoleta, containing an amazing cemetery where Eva Peron is buried, Retiro, more or less where the Casa Rosada (the pink house, a version of the white house) is, as well as the San Telmo and La Boca Markets.  The city is spread out a lot, and the architecture certainly is similar to Paris most of the time, as I've been told, except with slightly taller buildings.  The vibes I get are definitely somewhat like Paris, or maybe even Madrid, with a twist of Miami beach.... yes I know this is odd, but it probably has something to do with the 50's and 60's -esque architecture put in where neogothic/parisian buildings are missing.

The people so far have been really friendly, but I am super grateful to the year long fellowship JDC JSC-ers, Katina and Renee!  They have been awesome to know as partners in eating, meeting new locals, and touring around. In terms of living, I am renting a room from a man named Roberto who is giving me spanish lessons as well.  The room and apartment is great and pretty large, in a 60's type building, which is more or less furnished as such. I love having a sunken floor in my room, and an old school elevator which I have to partially operate manually :)  Will of course elaborate in a later post...

For now I will leave you with a few key lessons I have learned since being here:
-Buenos Aires is filled with wonderful parks, and on the weekend they're filled with tons of people doing various cycling/athletic activities
-The weekends are definitely the time for markets, and these markets are awesome! I'm excited to explore them more- too bad they only happen on weekends and holidays.
-The locals love, I mean really love, their dogs. This is not an exaggeration, as I thought when I first heard it... Dogs are everywhere, which is great, and makes me want to buy one... But so is their poop, so I may have some animosity towards them in the near future..
-Almost as popular as dogs are horses. I went to a polo match (my first ever!) on my first day here with Roberto. Apparently Argentina has some of the best polo in the world :) I hope to catch a race at the Hippodrome some time soon.
- Finally, and more importantly for my survival, taxi drivers wait for no one. Wait make that all drivers. They do not stop while you cross the street, and are 100% convinced that they have the right of way as they turn into an intersection I have the green light on. As much as I'd like to test if they're even thinking about stopping, or are ready to at all, by attempting to dart across the street, I have a sneaking suspicion that I will lose this game of cat and mouse.

Specific details to follow after I begin work later this week with the kiddies!

So what are you doing now that you've graduated..?

Nothing is what I'd like to say, mostly because I find the answer that I give to be unusually long winded and accompanied with dubious looks of the interviewer.  But what better place to explain to the world what it is I am in fact trying to do this year than on my newly created blog.

First a little background- I majored in Government, international relations, or political science, I guess is what it's called at other universities. My ultimate goal, career wise, is to work at an international NGO (non-governmental organization) hopefully based somewhere in Europe (UK or Germany preferred, don't ask why) which deals primarily with humanitarian aid and/or maternal/reproductive health. After interning at a couple of NGOs, a more programatic position is what I'd really prefer.

In order to reach this goal, I almost certainly should attend grad school, something that I will apply for this October/November.  In between graduation and grad school I decided to pace myself, and to take a gap year. I wanted a break, I wanted life experiences, and I wanted to apply when I had my head on straight and was all finished with college.

During this year my aim is to work at different NGO's in different countries and regions.  The plan is to spend 2-3 months in South America, 2-3 months in Africa, 2-3 months in Southeast Asia.  Yes this is broad and general, but it is hopefully how I will finally decide what region or country I really want to devote myself to, and also find out what sorts of things I am good at, and what I need to get improve on.  This way, I can get in there and help people, while having experiences 'in the field' which will be useful to me when I finally get that job.

This summer I have worked odd jobs, and have saved up enough money (I think!) to actually do this crazy scheme.  The process has been long and slightly painful, physically and mentally, not gonna lie, but so far I have been given the opportunity to volunteer for 8 weeks in Buenos Aires, Argentina! There are other plans coming along, but I am too superstitious and skeptical to share before tickets are purchased.  While I'm there I plan to blog once a week to every two weeks if things get tricky for whatever reason, and don't worry, I don't want them to be too long. Even this one is a bit much... But, now that I've done two in a row, you probably won't hear from me until after I arrive in BA next week! woohoo!

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3....

For those of you who know me, tech-y things and blogs have never been my speciality.  For those of you who don't know me that well, if there's anyone who will actually read this that isn't already a friend, you will find all this out quite quickly, in addition to the fact that I can't spell. Apologies there.  If it hadn't been for the support of two of my closest friends, Christine, with her mastery of alliteration, and Ariel, with her literary approval, this blog would not have existed since I'm not even hip enough to come up with an acceptable name.  Yet, after overcoming this first big hurdle, I feel satisfied that I have finally fully committed myself to this blog thing...

After returning from my study abroad in Moscow 2 winters ago, it was difficult for me to answer the question I got from everyone... "So.. How was it?"  While I really wish that I could sum up what it was like to live for four months in a formerly communist country, I found it rather hard to so in a concise manner.  My hope, first and foremost with this blog, is that people who actually are interested in what I'm doing, and how I'm doing, will be able to keep up.  That way, those random stories that do pop up into conversation will make some sort of sense to everyone I speak with when I am back home.

In addition, I feel like a blog will be a good thing to have, a good way to remember my experiences, albeit in a public manner, and of course a lovely way to practice my tech skills and spelling!  In all seriousness though, when I grow up, and hopefully have a 'real job' at an international NGO, I plan to look back on this year, the people I've met and the experiences I've had, and use them to the fullest advantage.  Of course there is that small bit of wishful thinking that someone important will discover my blog and that I will become famous, or some one will write a book about me.... just kidding. I don't want to be too dreamy in this blog. It is not supposed to be my diary. Just a fun way to share my thoughts and adventures, a way to remember, and it may even contain some good advice for anyone who wishes to volunteer for a year abroad, or travel anywhere I wind up going to.