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!
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!
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