Fun Facts from the First Days in Addis Ababa

After a couple of days visiting relatives in Frankfurt, I arrived in Addis Ababa last Monday the 24th after a sleepless flight on Ethiopian Airlines. Having gotten my visa previously, the line was short, but I waited for my bag for forever.  Customs was a breeze and I was quickly met by Menachem, one of the other JSC Fellows here.  I live with him and another guy, Sam, in a great 2 story house.  There's a dog named Toby who likes to jump on me a lot, and we are lucky to have electricity most of the time, and a water holder so that we can use water whenever we want. Most people only get water for a few hours during the day.

The JDC office is close by, which is convenient, and Menachem introduced me to a great Sudanese restaurant as well as a smoothie place in the neighborhood.  Foul is what to get at the first place, and a mix of everything turns out to probably be the best smoothie. :)

Unfortunately Sam has been out of town this past week but Menachem has been THE best tour guide and has done an incredible job introducing me to people, places, and foods.  Since the main doctor has been out of town I am still not 100% sure of what my job will entail here, so for now I was able to go around town a bit with Menachem, helped by our taxi driver Fanta. We went to Mercato, the main market which had an incredible array of goods, spices, and chickens, and saw the main square, the university, as well as hiked a bit up one of the mountains, Entoto, to a church and village on top.  I've been having a fantastic time just checking things out.  There's a lot of info being thrown at me, and I really want to try to pick up some of the language as quickly as I can. It's not super easy, but I've got a few words down so far.

For now I guess I'll throw some fun facts out, until I have some more concrete stories about what my days are like, and can better explain exactly how things work here after experiencing it for a little bit.

The local language is Amharic and the country used to be called Abyssinia. The city reminds me a bit of what I think Cairo would be like.  Religions co-exist here in a beautiful way. Despite most people being devout Christian, Muslim or Jew, there is relatively little violent animosity.  The Christian population however definitely holds the most clout.  Ethiopia never switched to the Julian calendar, so right now the year is 2005, and the "local" time in Addis is 6 hours behind what officially is according to our system.  Walking is possible from where we are, but taxi's are pretty easy to take as long as you don't mind bargaining. Apparently the key to eating Ethiopian food (with your right hand only) is using all five fingers, but it's super hard to do so in a "lady-like" fashion.  They eat everything here with enjera, a pancake type thing. The food is mostly some sort of a stew on top of that.  So far my favorite has been Shiro, chickpea stew I think, although I couldn't really be sure what anything is.  Every Wed. and Friday is a fasting day here, meaning that people don't eat until later in the afternoon, and then it's only vegan.  Coffee here is amazing, and comes from the south.  A great thing Menachem introduced me to is called shaispress, tea and coffee mixed with sugar. Awesome.The altitude is incredibly high here, and I try to drink as much water as possible to keep from being dehydrated - usually about 2 liters!

This is all I can say for now! So many new things, places, and people! Everyone has been incredibly nice so far, and I'm excited to start working with them and getting to really know this city and the country.  (Although internet is slightly tricky for me, I will try to still blog about once a week!)

Slight Changes and Some Solid Plans

The grad school applications are done and sent, and as promised, I have finally, I hope, figured out more details of my next few months. At least for now. I have learned recently that you can never really count on things going according to plan, and that the NGO world is never 100% stable. Also, I learned that I should listen to my jinx rule that I outlined earlier in the blog and not tell the "public" what I have planned in the farther future.

The good news and the bad news: let's start with the bad.  Obviously after saying that I have a position in Thailand from which I will be returning from in May, I asked the organization about my visa, to which they replied that they were in fact closing exactly when I was supposed to arrive.  Thanks for letting me know. After a week of scurrying, worrying, and way too much planning and thinking I seemed to have resolved the problem of finding a volunteer opportunity in the region. I hope, fingers crossed, that this remains stable, but I will not tell you about it until tickets are purchased and the date gets closer haha.

The good news though is new detailed news about Ethiopia! I will be leaving the US on the 20th and am getting really excited to see how things will be in the capital, Addis Ababa, where I will be living and working. For living it seems that I will be in a house with the 2 other JDC JSC year-long fellows there, and have already been in contact with one who seems really fun and nice.  Work wise things will be very interesting and different from what I was doing in BA. I think, at least I am told for now, that I will be helping out with administrative type tasks at a medical clinic in Addis Ababa.  I will of course elaborate when I see first hand what I do.  Although my work in BsAs was very valuable, I have always felt that the health sector is most likely where I will wind up when I am eventually working with an NGO in the future.  Of course, I feel the need to see and experience all things and places hence this year of slight craziness, but deep down I think this sort of thing is what I will wind up being involved with so I am very very excited to see what this type of work is really like on the ground.  From my understanding this clinic helps Jews and non-Jews of all ages, so that should be an interesting change as well.

In other news, I have purchased my ticket to Addis, gotten my Ethiopian visa, and have become a Star Alliance Dividend Miles member.  After leaving later this month, I will be gone until probably early May, so, I plan to acquire a large amount of miles by doing some around the world flying, traveling for pleasure a bit, and hopefully seeing some friends along the way.

Not sure when the next post will be but you can be sure there will be one after Xmas when I will have already begun work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!

Goodbye Buenos Aires!... Hello turkey

Turkey the food that is... not the country.  I know it wouldn't be so odd for me to be going to Turkey, but alas no, I am leaving here tomorrow, and should be arriving in NYC Wednesday in time for turkey day with the family!

I have mixed feelings about leaving of course.  I am excited to be continuing on my world adventures, excited to see my family, but I am also sad to be leaving the people that I've met here, and the city that I've grown to know so well.

This past weekend I was lucky enough for Christine (one of my best friends living close by in Santiago de Chile) to come visit me.  Although I was actually unlucky in that I wound up getting a stomach virus/food poisoning on her first night here, I managed to 'suck it up' more or less and still show her around the whole city.  Not only was it amazing to have her here and to show her all of my favorite places, but it was also a great way for me to see the city one last time before I go.  In addition, I got to go to a lot of places I hadn't had the chance to before, especially this amazing brunch place recommended to me by one of my cousins.

I seem to be basically better now, health wise, and just finished my last day of work at the Baby Help Center.  I can't believe that I won't be going to work there tomorrow!  I am going to miss those little kiddies more than I probably even realize, and I will definitely be missing my co-workers a lot.  They are such fun and wonderful people! Today was like any ordinary day, but at the end, they gave me a little goodbye present and card - a mug with their photos on it, and a sweet sign saying to come back soon.  I definitely intend to keep in touch with everyone, and I would love to come back in a year or two to see how everyone is doing.  I know it's going to be weird to see how much the babies have grown up and changed, but I think it would be a blast. I'm not even sure they'd remember me but that's alright, I will certainly remember all of them.

Tomorrow my flight is at night, but apparently there will be a huge general strike here during the day protesting the Government.  Everyone at work told me to go sleep at the airport tonight in order to make sure I can get there.  Even if I do, I'm not sure the baggage handlers or something wouldn't be on strike as well, so I am going to take my chances and go tomorrow morning before they close the roads. I have survived riots in Moscow, so I'm not too worried about here.... also there's worse things than getting stuck in Buenos Aires for an extra night!

This will most likely therefore be my last post until I receive more updates from the JDC about what I'll be doing in Ethiopia, where I'll be living, and when I'll be going.  Until then, Happy Thanksgiving!

Quito Conference and Update

It is certainly time for an update!

After I got back from Santiago de Chile, I continued on with my work here in BsAs and with the usual routine, and forged away full force with some grad school applications.  Last Tuesday, I accompanied some young professionals from the US, as well as other JDC JSC fellows to the 12th GA of Jewish Organizations and Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean in Quito, Ecuador.

The experience itself was incredibly interesting.  The program consisted of four days, with one or two plenaries each day, and one or two blocks a day for participants to go to various panels on different topics.  Since my focus is on NGOs as a whole, I went to panels that dealt with big picture topics such as the difficulties in starting dialogs with governments, fundraising strategies, refugees, and new IT strategies. There were about 500 participants in total, but I was with an American group of about 10 of which I believe I was the youngest.  Not only was it interesting to hear the different topics, but as this was my first conference it was a very unique experience in my life, especially since everything was in Spanish.  I was able to do a little sightseeing as well, and managed to do a few things that I wasn't able to when I was in Quito 2 years ago. I now, interestingly, have a very different outlook on technology from this conference, and I also had a fantastic time getting to know Jews from all over Latin America and the Caribbean, including places like Cuba and Venezuela.  It was certainly a cool way to see how a minority group in the region functions as a collective body, and within their own countries, in combating various challenges that face them.

In addition to being in Quito, I have some great news to share.  While I was at the conference I received  an email from the JDC office in NYC that I was accepted to do another multi-week JSC fellowship, this time in Ethiopia!!  I am, as I said before, superstitious about sharing big life updates, but if all goes according to plan, I will be going to Ethiopia in late December for about two months, and will continue on to my next stint in Thailand, returning home to NYC in early June. I am as yet unsure of the details, but will certainly share them with you as they develop. This means that while I sadly only have a week and a few days left here in Buenos Aires, I will get to be back in New York for about a month, getting to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family, before purchasing an around the world ticket to continue on with my travels.  I am very sad to be leaving BA, but in light of hearing about Sandy in addition to this exciting news, I am also eager to get back to NYC and then continue on this years adventure of mine!

For more details about my time in Quito, check out my official JDC Entwine blog at :
http://www.jdcentwine.org/index.cfm?go=main.viewPost&PostID=843

Mendoza, Santiago and Back

It's been a bit longer than I intended to write this post, but that's just because I've been super busy traveling and or because I was stuck on a 20+ hour bus ride without WiFi...  But here's the update I meant to have done a lot sooner...

After Iguazu I took a plane to Mendoza.  I had found a great fare, and it beat a 36 hour bus ride.. I flew through Salta, and got to Mendoza at around 2pm.  I checked into my hostel and found it to be really great.  I was staying over a Tuesday and Wednesday night so I was lucky enough to have my own room with it's own bathroom.. not bad for 10$ a night!  I booked an excursion for 4pm that day for a horseback ride by the Andes.  The trip was incredible! 3 hours on a horse with a bunch of Germans, Australians, and Irish folks, who were all hilarious and really sweet during sunset by the mountains was an extremely memorable experience.  What came next though was certainly the highlight of my stint in Mendoza.  The hosts made us an asado (grill dinner) which was unreal and out of this world... not only was the meat incredible but the salad (a rare thing to come across in this country) and the chicken were delicious!! The chicken literally changed my world, never tasted a chicken so delicious and probably never will.  The wine kept coming from huge gallon jugs, and the songs and convos were equally as enjoyable.  The Australians I met there invited me to come with them on a bike wine tasting trip through the vineyards of Maipu, and I jumped on this opportunity.  I met them at their hostel the next day after a brief wander around the city, and we went to about 4 or 5 vineyards on our bikes, drinking and picknicking along the way.  Mendoza was a lovely time, and an incredible experience.  It was my first time really being on my own traveling, and I am proud that I fared so well, and really happy that I was able to meet some awesome people.

The next day, at basically the crack of dawn I went to catch my bus to Santiago de Chile to visit one of my best friends Christine.  Her birthday was that weekend, and I'm way too close to miss having a fiesta over there with her!  The bus across the Andes was something incredible itself.  I felt like my window was really a big screen TV playing national geographic.  The snow capped mountains, lakes, and Inca ruins a long the way made it impossible for me to catch up on some sleep. Luckily I made it through the intense Chilean customs and found my way to the metro stop I was meeting Christine at.

For the next few days we had a blast, accompanied too by a few of her friends in Santiago, walking all over the city, and enjoying local specialties like hotdogs at Dominó and Terremotos (basically white wine with pineapple ice cream in it).  The birthday festivities were awesome as well, and I was definitely super sad to be leaving.  Santiago was nice place. It was similar but yet quite different from BsAs.  I can't really tell what was different, but I think it was mostly that BsAs has a lot more small businesses and is a ton more spread out.  Santiago is a very dense modern city, that seems to care more about banks and big businesses than having the little stores and mini marts that you see in BsAs.  Still, Santiago seems quite livable, the weather's amazing, and the outlying mountains you can see are breathtaking! Especially at sundown of course.

Over the next 22 hours starting at 10am on Monday morning, I sat on a bus that worked its way back over the Andes and through the midsection of Argentina back to the Retiro bus terminal in Buenos Aires where my journey started.  I arrived at about 8am on Tuesday morning, had a quick breakfast that Roberto was sweet enough to have waiting for me, and went back to work! Incredibly enough just as Sandy was hitting NYC a huge rain storm hit BsAs as well, flooding many parts of the city, even my work.  I guess I really did luck out weather wise!

Since then it's been back to the grind.  Although I really do miss being on my adventure, and of course spending time with Christine, it's nice to be back home with the kiddies and my coworkers.

Trip to Iguazu

So, first stop of my somewhat epic road trip (if I may say so myself) is Iguazu Falls/Puerto Iguazu.

Where to begin... First of all I was extremely lucky that my Dad's roommate from college and his wife gave me a coupon for 2 nights at a really nice hotel here. Although I came off a 17 turned 19 hour bus ride, with a duffel and some things certainly awry with my face and hair after such a trip.. the hotel accepted me anyway, believing I was the person who booked two nights at this shwanky place.  Yes there were some dubious looks at first, but I have certainly made myself at home here!

Down to the nitty gritty, the extremely long bus ride was not so bad. The seats recline quite a bit, and I found it a lot easier to sleep on it, even though I am someone who has issues sleeping on planes.  The guy sitting next to me was a little scary at first, being a fanatic of the Independiente, with tatoos and all... but after a small chat, explaining who I was and promising that my cursory interest in Argentine fútbol would be directed entirely to his team, he became a total sweet heart, even buying me dinner.  He got off at some point around 1AM, but in typical Argentine man style, made me promise to let him know when I arrived safely in Iguazu, that last stop of the bus, about 8 hours away.

I fell in and out of sleep, not knowing where I was really, seeing a rain storm, and finally arriving at Puerto Iguazu at lord knows what time.  After checking in to the hotel, and finding my way at that, I managed to commander my way across to the panoramic view of Iguazu Falls.  The view was incredible, and left me excited for the next days excursion to the base of the falls.

Today, even though our bus was stuck in traffic from a really bad accident for about an hour and a half with some Dutch people and a few Brits and Aussies, we finally made it.  The coatis (raccoons with long noses), toucans, iguanas and even monkeys were running wild. Even more though, the butterflies were all over the place! Unexpected, but lovely making me feel a bit like Cinderella as I walked down the paths to the base of the falls.  The view there and on the way was just unreal.  I have been fortunate enough to also have been to Victoria Falls in Africa, and I'm not sure which I like better.  They were very different, but the falls here look the way you imagine jungle waterfalls to look like.  Not too strong, just a ton spread out all over the place. As much as I don't want to use this comparison, they were sort of like the floating island waterfalls from Avatar... haha. I purchased a ride in a motor boat that took us up to the base of a few of them, and dunked us under some of them... good thing they gave us special bags for our things. I really got drenched.  Luckily today was a lot sunnier than yesterday and I dried off pretty quickly..

After this I took a short ferry ride to an Island located in between Brazil and Argentina (although it is technically Argentine..).  From there you could see a view of all the falls, and I felt as though I was in some sort of movie or epic novel.  At this point I was pretty tired and had gotten a lot of sun, so I made my way back to the hotel to indulge in some of the amenities... For dinner I went into 'town' which seems more like a border town, which is what is really is, rather than a place that takes advantage of the tourism or is built up.  Tomorrow it's off to the next leg of my journey... thankfully I'll be flying.. Updates to come shortly...

Takes Some Getting Used to...

As I have said before, I think in the previous blog, I really am starting to get used to my new life here.  My job was the first thing that really felt more comfortable with. I know the routines of the day, my co-workers are hilarious, and truly wonderful and dedicated women.  In addition, I sort of know how each kid is, how to keep them from crying, and how to get through to them.  I even look at kids on the street differently now... It's a little weird, but the kiddies I work with are a lot of fun.  I could go on and on for hours about them one by one, but I'll spare you.

The second thing that I've more or less gotten used to is the Argentine accent.  For y's and ll's the pronunciation is "sh." This is more bizarre to me than the Spain accent for sure, but it's actually kind of fun to do, and I've been actively trying to assimilate it into my speech.  This pronunciation is probably the only really weird thing in Argentine Spanish, or Castellano (Casteshano) as they call it.  I am thankful that I'm not trying to speak with Chileans, who seem to actually have a separate language altogether according to some trustworthy sources.

Last but not least, is the thing that I may actually never get used to... timing.  Some people struggle with the timing of food.  Waiting until 930ish (maybe later) to eat dinner can be really tough. But for someone who grew up having dinner around 8, 830, it's not so far fetched.  I have gotten my stomach used to this food schedule by not eating breakfast when I wake up, which is easy for me, and having lunch at around 1 or 2 pm when the kids are taking their nap. I eat a good amount, and maybe have a snack, or merienda as it's called here, with a croissant (medialuna) or a cookie (alfajor), to keep me going until dinner.  The food schedule is fine by me now, and that's not what I'm talking about when I say time... When I say timing I mean punctuality.

Disregarding this past Sunday's indiscretion, I am a very punctual person.  Argentine's, and those of Spanish or Latin blood are usually not so much.  I don't mind waiting for people (to a point of course), but I do not like people waiting for me.  I respect the laid back air and mindset that comes with the South American tardiness, and have tried to adopt it accordingly.  Try as I might, I always seem to get to the meeting point first. Even if I meticulously time it so that I will be at least 15 minutes late, I'm still waiting for a little while.  What's started to happen even is that people I meet up with have started getting to places on time, leaving me arriving late, and feeling slightly guilty about diverging from my norm.  Will I ever get in sync with cool laid back air of Argentina? Oddly enough, the hardest part about really 'fitting in' and getting used to life here has been just letting go, especially of time.  Ironically this is something that I will work on.. or should I just not, and let go? haha.  Maybe if I had a lifetime here I would, but my first month is almost up! How can I dawdle when there are things to see!

Some other things I've been up to...

As of yesterday, after my visit to Colonia, Uruguay, I feel that I have now completed basically everything that one can do here tourist wise. I have no doubt that there are myriad things to do in a big city like this, but in terms of the big cahunas, I'm pretty sure those are done.

First let me vent about my day yesterday... After oversleeping for reasons that are partially my fault, and partially my phone's fault, I missed my boat that was supposed to take me to Colonia.  Being that this is literally the first time that has ever happened to me, I was really pissed, sad, and nervous, because yesterday was basically my only day that I could really go.  I hauled my butt down to the docks, and managed to change my ticket to one in a couple of hours for only about 10$ more. Waiting at the port, I was hungry, exhausted, and obviously angry at myself.  What made it worse though, was that somehow my Sube card (metro card), that I had just used, vanished. Literally walked out of my pocket.  Being that you need a passport to get one, I was naturally pretty worried about how I would get home, and how I would get a new one, but also worried that my Argentine phone, that was also not with me hadn't decided to leave me permanently as well.  [Yes it all worked out fine, got a new card today, and my phone was waiting for me at home when I got back, via an accidental free bus ride home :) ].

Luckily I made it to Colonia eventually, and was somewhat soothed by the free champagne offered to me on the way.  The city, if you can really call it that, is really tiny, but at the same time incredibly beautiful.  It reminded me a ton about what I think Cuba would be like, except no dancing in the street, and no communism.  Although most food places were closed sadly, I did manage to get some awesome ice cream to soothe my angst of the day's events.  I only had an hour to walk around, but that turned out to be enough more or less to see the town, and to quickly walk up the lighthouse, which still functions, for a great panoramic view. I quickly walked back to the dock, only to find out that my phone had not automatically changed to Uruguayan time (one hour ahead), and that I had missed my second boat.  Luckily, the people took pity on me, and gave me a ticket for a later boat and consequentially an extra hour in Uruguay.  I treated myself to an alfajor (dulce de leche cookie sandwich) for consolation.

Yes that was a crappy day you might say. However, I still have my passport, and my boat did not sink, although if it had, I probably wouldn't have been surprised.  In spite of all these mishaps, something that I am really not used to when I travel, Colonia was beautiful enough that I still appreciated it and really enjoyed my short time there.  Although I have a general proclivity (because of my father I think!) to do rapid speed lightning tours of places, it may be worth it to stay a night or two in Uruguay, to see Montevideo, but also to see Punta del Este, a really cool beach on the other side of the coast.  I would definitely recommend some sort of trip to this place it if you come visit the area!

In terms of other touristy things, the museums here are meh.  The Evita Museum by my house, and the Bicentennial Museum behind the Casa Rosada (free) were probably my favorites so far. The big ones, despite promising Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera, didn't really have much or any of that.  

In all I'd say the markets are definitely where it's at, and the fact that they only happen on Saturdays or Sundays make them that much more special. One cool day trip, or half day trip, is El Tigre, 45ish minutes north of town.  It's basically a water world type place. Everything water compliant, including boats instead of cars, water gas stations, grocery store boats, etc. A very special place. Another thing that I've grown to appreciate is the graffiti here. There's a lot, and although it's not always interesting, sometimes there's really cool drawings or intriguing cultural and historically important messages.  

If you come down here, walking is your best bet. Don't do the big tour bus, but remember to wear some sunblock because that ozone hole they keep talking about is apparently just a bit south of us here!

Argentine Fútbol

Last night I watched my first, hopefully not last, Argentine soccer (fútbol) game.  During the match I realized that I actually had never seen a professional game before! What better place to start than in Argentina!!  I can say without hesitation that it was one of the coolest experiences of my life! I'm going to describe it in detail.. so bear with me.. I have to do it justice.

Buenos Aires has two main teams, Boca Juniors and River Plate, who are also of course arch rivals. [Apparently, they both used to have stadiums in the Boca neighborhood of South BA, but the rivalry grew so intense, that River decided to move their stadium to the complete opposite northern end of BA!]

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to be given a free ticket by a new friend, whom I met through Katina, one of the two year long JDC JSC fellows here.  The match, incredibly enough, was with River, who was playing Godoy Cruz from the Mendoza region of Argentina.  Although THE game to watch is with the BA rivals, last night's game, for me at least, was quite enough to give me a taste of what fútbol's really like here.

First of all, I had to be quite careful about what colors I wore.  The only viable colors were white and red, the colors of River.  Neutrals like brown or black are of course alright. Anything blue or even yellow would have secured my getting haggled a ton if not out right hurt, since these are the colors of Bocca and Godoy Cruz.

My new friend Avi and I took the subte to the last stop of the green line. We easily followed the red and white jerseys to the huge stadium about 15 blocks away.  The security was incredibly tight, as we wound our way to the first barricade, passing a bunch of scalpers on the way.  Realizing we had actually gone to the wrong side of the stadium we attempted to convince the police to let us cross the barricade to the other side... But this was not allowed.  The barricade was one side of a sort of canal made for the fans of the opposing team.  It was meant to protect them from River fans, and if we walked through it to get out on the opposite wall, we might have gotten hurt.  Thus, we took the long way round, and passing through the checkpoint on the other side.  Going through, I saw random people getting selected to have their finger prints taken. In the event that they turned out to be criminals, they wouldn't be let in to the stadium.  Everyone is patted down after, guys and girls separately.  Once we got through, our ticket was finally scanned and we entered the stadium.

To say the least, it was enormous, and the tickets, being a gift from a police officer, were really great. We were under shelter, (sitting on the bottom floor, shaded by the top tier of the stadium) with the middle class people, just to the right of one of the goals.  Above us were seats for Godoy Cruz, and although it was raining a bit, I was informed that if I saw heavy rain.. it was probably them trying to pee on us.  Luckily, we were sheltered either way! To my right were the expensive seats, and straight across on the top level were the 'locos,' the crazy fans, who file in at the last moment with drums, and who determine what chants to sing and when. No one starts a cheer until the locos do.

It is easy to say that the crowd was just as much fun to watch as the game.  People went crazy, and even more so since River was able to win with a 5-0 victory!  Everyone was jumping and singing River songs. I could see, even all away across the entire field, the locos, tiny specks to me, jumping up and down.  Granted there was a ton of 'puta,' 'mierda,' and some other curses that I don't even know being thrown around by everyone, kids who were probably just about 6 included, but that just made the experience even better!

Although I have a few pictures, unfortunately taken by my phone since I was nervous about having a camera, they won't do the experience justice.  Nothing can really show the enormity of the stadium or emit the intense passion and energy of the crowd.

I really hope I can go to another game, but tickets are hard to come by.  I saved my ticket as a souvenir, but I'm going to have to hide it from Roberto... he's a Boca fan, and I haven't had the heart to tell him yet that not only did I go to a River game, but by the end I was cheering and yelling 'mierda' as loud as everyone else!!

A Typical Day

Well, now that I've completed 4 full days of work, I can tell you a bit about what it's like.

I am set to work Tuesday to Friday, 10:30 ish until 4 ish at JDC's Baby Help center in the Chacaritas barrio of Buenos Aires.  Since a lot of holidays are coming up, it's easier for me to not work on Monday's since I'd probably have them off anyway.

Usually, I'll wake up at around 9, get ready, prepare myself some lunch to take with me, and walk about a block north to catch the 39 collectivo (bus) to take until the last last stop of its route... the bus depot actually. The center I work at is just across the street from there.

Catching the bus can be a little tricky and sometimes really annoying actually. Unlike in NYC, you have to stick out your hand and hail a bus. This works well, and keeps congestion down a bit I think.. Unless the bus you want is in the outside lane and can't see you because a car is blocking it's view, or doesn't feel like maneuvering in in time, causing you to "miss your bus" and be a bit later than you wanted. Grr.... The "metrocard" they use here is called a Sube. Unlike other cities I've been to, it's personalized for everyone. I had to bring my actual passport, not just a photocopy, in order to get one. From there it's rechargeable.  When you get on the bus, you can either tell them where you're going and they tell you how much you're going to pay... or you can just tell them $1.10 or $1.25, the average amount for a ride without too much fussing. The metro is more straight forward.. no hailing trains down :) and it's $2.25 without having to check out with your Sube as you have to do in DC or Paris.

Once I get to work, I am almost always with the 6 mo. to 2yr. olds, and only a couple of times, when they needed more people, or if someone was really shy or misbehaving, did I watch some 2yr. and up year olds.  When I arrived with Katina on my first day, I didn't really have a preference about what I was going to do.  Since they have anywhere from two to four 6 mo. olds who need to be carried and feed them, and only have two adults who work there normally, my extra hands were definitely most useful there. Although I don't really get to practice my spanish with some little ones, who have a similar level of spanish to me (haha) I get to talk with my co workers a bit, who are really great and friendly.

Every day is something different with the kids, but usually is playing until lunch at 12, nap time right after at about 1, until about 2:30ish some more playing or some sort of activity, and then snack time, after which the parents start trickling in. During the nap time I'll eat and they help if they need things set up, or help with some really young babies- there are only one or two.

On Fridays, since it is a jewish center, the kids learn about different holidays and do a little Shabbat snack time.  This aspect is super cool for me to see. Although not everyone who works there is jewish, it's really awesome for me to see all these little kids who are jewish learning about the culture and religion.  In addition, the more I'm down here in BA, I'm really amazed at how the whole jewish community comes together, and is in fact really quite large.  It's always been interesting for me to see and meet jews from different countries, and it never stops surprising me how much of a global community there really is.  This doesn't mean that everyone is super religious or observant by any means, but we know that we have something in common, which is not always the case when traveling far and wide. I'm excited to get to know and share more about the community while I'm here, as well as more details about how Baby Help works, who's involved, and what that's like in the context of living in Argentina.

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.