el día de acción de gracias y janucá - el estilo de buenos aires / thanksgivukah buenos aires style

When I first realized Thanksgiving and Hanukkah (Thanksgivukah) were coinciding this year, I was a bit sad. The only time during my lifetime that this occurs also happens to be the first time in my life I am not celebrating Thanksgiving with my crazy loving large family in Rochester, New York. No turkey menorahs for me, no sweet potato latkes, no blessings over the hanukkah candles before going around the table and saying what we are thankful for. I figured I needed to at least celebrate Thanksgiving so started asking around, trying to see what American friends and acquaintances were doing to celebrate Thanksgiving. Most were either going back home to be with their family in the states or had organized activities/dinners with their programs. I was getting a bit worried about what I would do and then I asked my friend Morgan, who lives with my Spanish professor. Morgan said his friends were doing a home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner and I was welcome to come along, I didn't even have to bring anything. I was so excited, I finally had a place to celebrate Thanksgiving!

I couldn't show up completely empty handed so I went by the local chino (market) and picked up a bottle of wine (Argentine Malbec, figured adding a bit of Argentina to our celebration was a good idea) before heading over to their house. A blast of Thanksgiving aromas hit my nose when I entered the door, I couldn't contain my excitement and let them know how delicious everything smelled. Thanksgiving dinner ended up just being my friend Morgan, his friend Jess and her boyfriend Ivan, and myself. I giggled to myself when I found out Ivan, the only "porteño", Buenos Aires native, had cooked almost all of the food except dessert. The food started coming out of the oven and on to the table, plates of mashed potatoes, stuffing, biscuits, gravy, broccoli, and of course TURKEY! Pavo, turkey, is actually not common to eat here, so I was very surprised to see a whole turkey. We dug in and boy was it delicious. We even had homemade apple pie for dessert! I left the Thanksgiving dinner with a very full stomach and a huge smile on my face, the food and company made it a memorable Buenos Aires Thanksgiving!  

I had also been invited that night by my friend's Sam and Steph, a JDC multi-week fellow, to their Hanukkah party. After finishing up Thanksgiving dinner around 11:30pm (very early for Argentina), I headed over to Sam's apartment. I walked in and again the aromas hit my nose but this time, the delicious smells of Hanukkah/Chanukah/Janucá (however you want to spell it). Sam and Steph had made homemade sufganiot and latkes, yum! I had left the thanksgiving dinner thinking I would not eat for a couple days but the scents coming from the sufganiot and latkes were too hard to resist, I had to at least try them. We lit the candles to celebrate the second night of Hanukah, sang some Hanukkah tunes, and played dreidel.

I loved finding a way to celebrate Thanksgivukah my own way down here in Buenos Aires. Since I couldn't celebrate Thanksgiving and Hanukkah simultaneously, the only logical solution in my head was to go to two parties in one night! 

Happy Thanksgiving and Hanukah Sameach to all those reading! I'm thankful for this opportunity, for technology that allowed me to FaceTime with my family on Thanksgiving from thousands of miles away, and especially thankful for all my wonderful friends and family! What are YOU thankful for?

patagonia - el chalten y el calafate

WOW. I have just returned from four days in Argentina´s Patagonia and still cannot get over the experience and the views (get ready for a lot of photos!). A few weeks ago my friend Emily (who I met at Hillel´s conversation club) had mentioned that she was taking a trip to El Calafate and El Chalten in a few weeks and asked if I wanted to come along. When I realized they were going during an Argentine feriado (holiday), I said to myself "YOLO" (you only live once) and booked the ticket.

After a 4am alarm and 4:30am cab ride, I arrived at the airport, met the rest of the girls I was traveling with (four Americans studying abroad in Buenos Aires for the semester), took a much needed three hour nap on the plane, and awoke to my first (of many) beautiful views. We had planned to head first to El Chalten, three hours north of El Calafate, so after buying our bus tickets and walking around El Calafate a bit, we were on our way to El Chalten. 

I did not realize how far south we had traveled. If you take a look at this handy dandy map (sorry its hard to read but its a huge country!), I am spending the majority of the year in Buenos Aires which is located in the central eastern part of the country and we had traveled over 1700 miles to El Calafate and El Chalten (can you find them on the map?). The size of this country continues to amaze me!

After checking into our hostel, Cóndor de los Andes, we exlored El Chalten and set out for our first hike. El Chalten is a small pueblo (town), so small that you can pretty much walk from one side to the other in about ten minutes. It is part of a national park so pretty much exists for the hikers and campers that come to indulge in the incredible views including views of the famous mountains Fitz Roy and Torre. We had two days in El Chalten so decided to devote one hike to Torre and the other to Fitz Roy. Every time we hiked around a corner, up over a hill, or into a clearing, you could hear a collective "woah" from our group. The views were breathtaking, the common group sentiment was "sin palabras" (without words). 

Channeling one of my favorite movies
by frolicking and singing
"The hills are alive with the Sound of Music"

I left my two days in El Chalten quite sore from the hiking and remember thinking, "I could go back to Buenos Aires a very happy person right now". I didn´t think it could get much better but then remembered I was on my way to a glacier!

El Calafate truly lived up to its name, "La Ciudad de Viento" (Argentina´s windy city). We arrived and walked/were blown by the wind to our hostel, America del Sur. That afternoon we walked around the city, the artesanal markets, ate a delicious dinner of the infamous Patgaonia lamb, and had an early night since we had a 6am wake-up the next morning.

The next day we headed out on our quest to walk on a glacier. We got picked up at our hostel early in the morning for our Big Ice excursion and headed to one of many glaciers in Patagonia, Perito Moreno. Perito Moreno is one of few glaciers still growing and holds the world´s third largest reserve of fresh water. Another thing that amazed me was that we could only see 10% of the glacier as 90% is underwater. We first stopped at the "mirador" (lookout point) to see the glacier from a panaromic view, INCREIBLE!  

We then boarded a boat as it was time to get up close and personal with the glacier! After the boat ride and an hour long hike to the point where we put on our harnesses (just in case) and got fitted for our crampons, we started glacier walking!

In my mind I had thought the glaciers would be pretty flat to walk on, boy was I surprised! The five hour glacier walk took us through many different "terrains" including the glacier hills and mountains, glacier rivers, glacier lakes, glacier holes...it was truly a glacier hike! Everytime I thought I was getting the hang of what view to expect, a whole new "terrain" would emerge over a hill, a new view to take in, another opportunity to drop my jaw in awe.  I miraculously only fell once and besides my crampon following off within the first few minutes, I was a pretty successful glacier walker. Our guide Luis (bottom right photo) came up with a nickname for me, "bebe" (baby), due to the size of my feet and stature in general. I think he thought I was going to have trouble with the glacier hike because there were lots of large steps, leaps, and jumps but to his surprise, my ex-gymnast skills came in handy and at the end, he told me that even though I was still a baby, I jumped around the glacier like a princess (I´d that call "éxito", successs). We even got to stop and have a glacier picnic for lunch next to a glacier lake!

Our twelve-hour excursion was a major success. We headed back to our hostel exhausted but with smiles all around, walking on Perito Moreno is truly an experience I will never forget. If you are headed to El Calafate, I 100% recommend doing the Big Ice excursion. They also offer a mini-trekking option which is an hour and a half walk on the glacier but I have been told that in comparison, it is so worth spending the extra money and time for the full day adventure. My other biggest suggestion is re-apply sunscreen throughout the day even if it feels like you do not need it. I applied sunscreen twice and still came back quite burnt with beautiful "racoon eyes" because I wore sunglasses the whole time. I might have tender skin and a peeling nose while writing this post, but this experience was truly "vale la pena", worthwhile.

shabat mundial / global shabbat

A few weeks ago I asked our teens if they wanted to take part in BBYO's Global Shabbat, an opportunity for teens around the world to celebrate Shabbat simultaneously, by having a Shabbat dinner together. The answer was an astounding yes, although there were some hesitations... "Kate we have never done this before, what do we do?". I replied, "No te preocupes, te ayudaré" (Do not worry, I will help you)! Although our teens meet for programs a few times a week, they had never celebrated Shabbat together. Melu and Kori, two teens from Hebraica, volunteered to plan the Shabbat and a few weeks later, we met in Melu´s house to celebrate our first Shabbat together!

Shabbat is an opportunity for communities to come together and this Shabbat brought our community together on multiple levels. Our group of twenty-some teens in Buenos Aires consists of teens from the first and second year of Hebraica's Madrichim school. While the teens within each year know each other well, they do not know the teens in the other year as well. Celebrating Shabbat together let our teens connect in a less formal environment and has created even stronger bonds between our teens. This Shabbat also brought our global Jewish community together as part of the night consisted of a Google Hangout with teens from Boston.

After listening in on part of BBYO New England Region´s Shabbat services in Boston, representatives from each of our groups recited the blessing over the candles,

kiddush, and hamotzi, the blessing over the bread. After the prayers, one of our teens Lei, starting singing Shehecheyanu and soon, teens in Argentina and Boston started singing and dancing along! As I sang along, I looked around the room at the smiling faces of my teens and felt completely overwhemed and overjoyed that my teens had the ability and opportunity to connect in this way while celebrating Shabbat.  When the singing ended, we said our goodbyes and wished the teens in Boston a Shabbat Shalom.  Technology´s ability to connect amazes me more and more each and every day. Our group of twenty teens got to celebrate their first Shabbat not only amongst our group but also with teens on a different continent!  

During the Google Hangout, one of the teens had turned to me and said, "Kate this is a lot of Judaism at once, but I really like it". This statement resonates with me because it embodies part of what I would like to accomplish with my time in Argentina. I see my role as one of a connector: a connector to other teens around the world, a connector to BBYO, a connector to different modes of practicing Judaism. Although my teens do not celebrate Shabbat every week, celebrating together gave them an opportunity to connect to their Jewish identities in a different manner in which they are accustomed.  I hope to fuse together connecting my teens to Jewish traditions and connecting them to other teens around the world in future programs as well!  It was a wonderful night and our teens cannot wait to have another Shabbat dinner together soon!

el concierto de omará / omará concert

Mati, my co-worker from Hebraica invited me to go to his band´s show this past weekend at Cangrejos Bar (crab in English). His band Omará, fuses together flamenco, salsa, merengue, a bit of jazz, and lots of Latin flavor. In true Argentine (ArgenTIME) fashion, Mati had told me the show would start around 11:30pm. I interpreted this as show up around 12:30am which we did and the show actually got started a little before 2:30am. Thankfully the bar had a beautiful patio where we could hang out before the show. 

Before the concert started, I introduced my friends to my co-workers that were there. We became a united front and were cheering "Matu" together throughout the show! I loved the music; it had everyone dancing and bopping around. They even had a flamenco dancer join them on stage for their flamenco-style songs, check it out: 

Mati is so talented! He plays the
flute and saxophone in the band.

The band was great, everyone was cheering "una mas" ("one more") when they finished up their set. I hope to see Omará in action again, they are so much fun!

Thanks for inviting me Mati!

un día en Colonia, Uruguay / a day in Colonia, Uruguay

Last week I hopped on an hour-long ferry to Colonia, Uruguay for the day...

The day before I bought my ferry tickets, arrived forty-five minutes before the ferry was supposed to depart, went through passport control for Argentina/customs for Uruguay, and hopped on the boat. After a much needed hour long nap, I woke up in Colonia, Uruguay with my friend Emily! 

Buenos Aires, Argentina --> Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

The purpose of this quick trip was two-fold: get to see Colonia and "renew" my tourist visa. Obtaining a work visa in Argentina is quite complicated so I am on a tourist visa which lasts for three months. Therefore, I have to leave the country every three months. Since Colonia is the most affordable option of doing so, I hopped over to Uruguay! Colonia is a small town, full of cobblestone roads, beautiful landscapes, and a quiet lifestyle. We walked around the old town in the morning,

 and then found the "faro", or lighthouse, which we ascended to see the views from the top!

After that we wandered around the old city, checked out the views of the water, the old gate of the city (where we met a group of school children on a field trip), artisan shops, and were even offered free wine and cheese from one of the restuarants! From our very few interactions with "Uruguayos", they seem much more laid back than Argentinians. We saw many sitting on benches with maté gourds and thermoses of hot water, when you entered a store they didn´t rush up to greet you but instead would say something like welcome, take your time looking around, and at restaurants/cafés, we had to ask the waiters if we wanted something, otherwise they would be fine with you sitting there for hours without ordering anything. In Spanish, I would use the word "tranquilo" to describe them, meaning very calm, relaxed, and laid-back. It was wonderful getting out of the hustle and bustle of the city for the day and wandering around in this "tranquilo" environment. 

While we were at lunch, huge clouds started rolling in. By the time we were boarding our ferry back to Buenos Aires, it was downpouring!

Thankfully we had a beautiful morning and got to explore Colonia before the rain began. We returned to Buenos Aires with our "new tourist visa" which is valid for another three months...it was a successful day!

ps. Uruguay is one hour ahead in time zones so we left at 6PM Uruguay time and arrived at 6PM Buenos Aires time...AWESOME!