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.