A Funny Thing Happened on My Way to Shul...

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Another foreword: This is another extremely delayed blog post...but it's still good and accurate!

So the truth is I did not do as well on my Argentine Economy test as I had planned, and spent all day Friday studying and a couple hours that night taking the re-do test. It went great and I was on my way to Chabad for Kabbalat Shabbat to meet up with a few friends! This was my first Kabbalat Shabbat in Buenos Aires and although most of my Jewish experiences here have been with Chabad, it was still nice to be a part of that again. I walked in, smiled to the few people I had met previously, grabbed a Kipah, and went to sit on my respective side of the reflective wall. It was just about the end of the service and all the men on my side were shaking hands, hugging, and kissing cheeks with such joy...I just hoped they were having as much fun on the Women's side. When it seemed legit, I went over to the other side of the wall and said what up to Cayla and Arielle.

After some shmoozing, we headed into the food room to take our seats where I was to meet several new people...but one in particular that was surprisingly interesting. He was a scrawny, jittery fellow who works for an invention company with several interesting ideas. He told me about his newest project which deals with a new technology that makes music from flowers. That's right...and I'm 87% sure he's not nuts. He explained that some of the more sophisticated flowers have certain triggers that make them open or close whether it be for the night or day or to catch prey. These flowers emit a tonal sound when hooked up to a machine and that sound can be coordinated with the use of many plants to make music. WOW. It sounds eve more ridiculous writing it out as it did when he was saying it. He told me his first invention was a battery made out of an orange that powered an LED light for 33 hours (until the fruit dried out). He then took that idea and multiplied it to many fruits to power a radio for 12 hours. Yet one more invention was a bit more difficult to understand. It had to do with new surgical instruments used for breast implant surgery which make it possible to use smaller incisions and therefor produce less scarring. What a 'renaissance-man' company.

There were three other Argentine men at the table that seemed to have an unending supply of questions for me about all sorts of information. I basically rehashed my whole econ test with them and couldn't believe how much i had talked by the time I finally stopped! I was tired and ready to get out of Chabad...it was now about 12:30. With so many options on a friday night in Buenos Aires, and so little energy...i thought bowling would be pretty sweet. I had heard there was one bowling alley in the city and as it turned out Cayla had been there and Arielle was down to go. So we went bowling. AND we were the best bowlers there...its obviously not a very competitive Argentine sport. The bowling alley is pretty nice, with TV monitors and 20 clean lanes. The shoes are out of the 80s and are awesome! Almost worth stealing...common bowling etiquette is non-existent in Buenos Aires...BUT it's relatively cheap to bowl there and I will hopefully get a chance to go back! We started bowling at about 1:30 and the place was pretty empty, but as the night got closer to 3 AM more and more people showed up. My first game was almost shameful...I bowled a 75. But, proving that really was a warm up round, I rolled a 137 on the next one! I wasn't doing all that great, but got a spare and two strikes in a row at the end!

On the colectivo on the way home, Arielle was telling me that she had only been to one Saturday morning service since she got to Buenos Aires and was thinking about going the next morning. It was late, but I figured what the hell. There were not many friday nights during my time here that would allow me to get up early enough for shul, so I gave her my word that I would be outside the temple to meet her at 10. She switched buses to go home, and I walked the last few blocks to my apartment. My phone rang the next morning and I thought it was my alarm until I realized that there was a person on the other side. It was Arielle and it was 10:15. Musta missed my alarm...I think it was just one of those mornings where you turn off your alarm and don't even remember it when you wake up - I know that happens to people besides myself! I can't believe how fast I got dressed and I made it to the synagogue by 10:45. That's right. 30 minutes to get dressed, quick shower, and take the bus into the centro. I am like superman. The synagogue is called CIRA, Congregación Israelita de la Rebpublica Argentina - it is the oldest in Buenos Aires.

The service was absolutely beautiful...there weren't too many people, but a triple b'nai mitzvah was goin on and there was a band playing who were great. The truth is, it has been a long time since I've been to a community reform service and it was delightfully refreshing! Most of the people didn't sing the songs along with the band, rather just watching and listening because they were so good! It was a keyboard player/singer (male), a female singer, and another male singer. They were amplified over the many speakers in the building. Afterwards I snuck upstairs to get a look at the synagogue from the second floor. The oneg was mediocre but the jala (Spanish for Challah) was excellent! There were some baked empanada type things that were very cold...would have been great warm, some miga sandwiches, lay's potato chips, honey bread, etc etc. Also Johnnie Walker and Vodka for those that were feeling extra religious. I hope I get another chance to go back there...

When Sharon and my mom were here, we went to that synagogue but couldn't go inside because it was closed. In the nearby plaza is a famous fountain with a sculpture of some dancers that was in the guidebook Sharon had brought with her. After searching the whole plaza for it, we discovered that the reason we hadn't seen it is becausei t looked so different. The fountains were empty of water and full of garbage. There were homeless people drying their clothes on the cement, and a rickety fence was up around the fountain area completely overgrown by grasses and shrubs. Very delightful. Well, I wanted to show the fountain (or what was left of it) to Arielle so we walked over there and saw, to my surprise, that it had been cleaned up (somewhat) and was actually functioning as a fountain! The homeless people were gone, the fence was gone, overgrown bushes gone, and even most of the garbage was gone. The fountain, I could tell, still wasn't 100%, but it was getting there...Arielle and I both agreed it still wasn't guidebook-worthy.

Arielle bussed it back to her place, while I was still debating if I wanted to walk, take a colectivo or subte. I decided to remain in the spirit of Shabbat and walk home...not a short walk. BUT I spent my time walking along Santa Fe which has more shops than you can imagine. I had never walked down the entirety of it. As I walked, and discovered many cool boutique shops, I began to get closer to a noise. I wondered, "what is that noise?" and soon enough, I was able to decipher that it was an inevitable demonstration going on at a major intersection. Argentines tend to find it necessary to bang pots and pans and jingle keys as a sort of protest called 'casserolazo'. Most of the businesses in the area had their security doors up just in case shit got crazy. As I kept walking, all the cars were honking and more and more people were walking in the opposite direction as I was towards the mob. Tall people, short people, skinny people, no fat people, blue people, red people, everyone had time to protest!

I finally arrived into my barrio at about 4:30...which means it took me about four hours to walk home. Talk about distractions! It would have taken about a half hour had I walked straight...but that woulda been no fun! I got some ice cream and went home to relax...I love Palermo...

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Comments

[gimpy]

your'e hilarious bro!
am i to anticipate additional entries? i hope so.