Catching Up

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Somehow I´ve gotten a few days behind.

Thursday afternoon I toured La Boca. This is the most photographed barrio in Buenos Aires. In actuality, it is composed of four blocks. Everything is brightly painted. Historically this was a neighboorhood full of Italian immigrants. It is right at the port of Buenos Aires, and has no subte stop.

Oh, and the reason for all the colors is because the immigrants couldn´t afford paint, and used the paint that had been cast off by the shipyards.

Afterwards, some friends and I went to a restaurant with a giant screen tv to watch Argentina defeat Paraguay in the World Cup semi-finals. We were the only females in the restaurant, and none of the men seemed to notice us. We´d been forwarned that fútbol takes precidence above all other matters.

Part of what interested me about Argentina is the extensive Jewish history here, and last night I experienced Shabbat services. While there is a fairly large Jewish population here, there are only two Reform congregations. The one I went to last night was Fundación Judaica, and was absolutely gorgeous. Out of respect, I did not have my camera with me. It looked somewhat like Emanu-El in San Francisco.

The first thing that was different is that I needed my passport to enter. Luckily I had called ahead and knew to have it with me. I think after the Israeli Embassy bombing in ´94, they have become very cautious here. They also asked me questions about how I had heard of them, etc.

The service itself was a bit different. For one thing, it was accompanied by a keyboard player. The whole service, not just the liturgy. His loud, peppy tune didn´t even stop during the sermon.

And the sermon was the only talking that happened. They skipped over all the responsive readings (they were in the siddur- a Spanish translation of Gates of Prayer), and blended all the songs together sung by a team of a male and female jazanes (cantors). And the rabino spent most of the service with his back to the congregants. The important ones were more or less the same modern melodies (thank you Debbie Friedman) in mostly the same order. The only thing that seemed a bit out of place was that the mourners kaddish was early in the service. Also, they sat down before the Sh´ema.

The other thing different from what I´m used to (and this may be a thing here that varies by congregation, as it does in the US) is that it was not at all participatory. It felt more like a concert, and the music had a vaguely Andrew Lloyd Webber feel. It was beautiful, but different.

And no, there were no single people. I tried to get some of my school friends to come (did I mention that every female in our program is Jewish?), but none were interested.

I think next week (or the following) I´ll try the other to see if that´s any different.

Afterwards, I went out to an all you can eat asada with my host lady. Went the complete opposite direction from going to services, and ate more morcillas. Hi, Dad.

I seriously need a new strategy in meeting more locals. It´s nice to have this group of girls to hang out with, but I´m sure the fact that we are speaking english makes us less approachable. Plus, I´m starting to feel like I´m just taking a spanish class instead of being immersed in the culture. I think tonight I´ll go out by myself.

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Photos

Our Crew
L to R: Elise (Philadelphia), Nina (San Francisco), Rachel (New Orleans), Sebastián (Buenos Aires), me (Phoenix), Elissa's friend (Canada), Elissa (LA), Jessica (Washington DC)

La Boca
L to R: Carlos Gardel, Evita Perón, Diego Maradona

Hi, Dad!
Me eating morcillas. Don't worry, the pink thing is just carpaccio.

Comments

[nick]

um...
i don't know what a "morcilla" is. this would bother the parents why?

[Sham Rao]

Yummy...
Oh my gawd! Eew! Of course I tricked my cousin, Saritha, into eating something similar in India. http://spanishfood.about.com/od/sausages/a/morcillaintro.htm