it´s the 29th of the month and in buenos aires, that means everyone eats gnocchi! why? i don´t know! one theory is that it´s the end of the pay period so la gente esta pobre and gnocchi are cheap. i don´t know if i buy that. but i´ve been walking around today and gnocchi are advertised on all the specials blackboards of restaurants.
i don´t think i like gnocchi?
i would say that at least half the restaurants here are italian. pasta, pizza, etc.

we´re excited to check out palermo viejo tonight, the cool part of our barrio with all the trendy shops and bars. we haven´t really explored it yet. then leah leaves on a ski trip to ushaia tomorrow. it´s all the way down at the tip, like near antarctica. isn´t that cool?

hola. i´m really upset about my e-mail getting deactivated. i lost all my friends´ e-mail addresses. i´ve been giving out that address to everyone here, and i had a lot of names and contacts that people had given me for my trip. it´s all gone.
so. pretty upset about that.
but life goes on, it´s only e-mail. (they pronounce it ¨uh-mile¨ here btw)

friday night i went to chabad and then met leah at her family friends´for dinner. the food was great. lots of people there, lots of kids. it was fun. we took some digital pictures...people say ¨whisky¨ instead of cheese. because this is how they pronounce whisky - ¨wheeskee¨
there were like 3 dessert courses! first our hostess brought out this huge and delicious fruit salad with chantilly cream. they love chantilly cream here, whatever the hell that is. leah brought ice cream which they served with the fruit, and one of the flavors was mascarpone with candied fruits in it, omg.....soooo good. the ice cream here is really creamy and rich like gelato. but more ice crystal-ly. it´s delicious and we want it every night. between that and the facturas, i´m telling you...
then there was lemon meringue pie and some other chocolate cake from a bakery. then there was cut up squares of cheesecake and other cakes, and coffee.

chabad is a strange scene. there is this cool 2-way mirror mechitsa. but it seems that most of the people were not religious. some in long skirts, some in jeans and/or skintight sparkly sheer sweaters. i saw some fabulous leather jackets though.
the rabbi explained a lot. it was nice. i could understand most of what he was saying because he spoke very slowly and clearly.

saturday night at the chabad dinner was quite fun. our table was young argentinians and israelis. we made some friends. the girls told us where to get leather clothes (it´s very close to where i´m volunteering). they can be tailor made! it seems like they have some great discussion and learning programs at chabad but they´re all in spanish. it´s too bad because it´s so close to my house.

everyone here kisses on the cheek to say hello and goodbye. men/men, men/women, and women/women. i am not used to this. people lean in to me and i lean away. i can´t help it. i´m american. even religious people - one guy who works at an orthodox shul and a guy who works at chabad, both went for the cheek kiss. i´m not used to that yet. they tell me it´s cold to refuse the kiss. soy fria, i say. soy americana.

the name martin here is so popular. i don´t know why. it seems about half the guys are named martin. sandra from hias has given me the names and numbers of two guys to call to show me around and stuff, and both are named martin. neither has called me back, but that´s another issue.

thursday night we went to a great tango class in recoleta. well, it was great for me because i had an awesome partner who danced with me the whole time and showed me lots of steps. i feel very graceful while tango dancing.

they closed my rachelbasofin@yahoo.com account. i have no idea why.

so please write me at nprlistener@yahoo.com for now.

so i´m on a mission for facturas.
they are these delicious pastries that people eat for breakfast, and tea here.
(did you know that people eat 4 meals a day in buenos aires? my kind of place)
facturas aren´t super sweet like american danishes, but are flaky and really good.
some are filled with dabs of fruit jam or dulce de leche. dulce de leche is a religion here. i swear. there are rows and rows of it in jars at the grocery store, like peanut butter in the states.
have i mentioned that leah has met 2 jewish guys on the street? she says it´s all about her bike. girls on bikes.
we went over to one of the guy´s house for dinner sunday. hernan, he lives near us. he´s kind of a tubby guy, mama´s boy, lives with his parents, entertains in flip flops, you know the type. i hope he never reads this. well he doesn´t really speak english anyway. i thought he would be a good foodie resource here. we met for facturas one morning this week. he came to the restaurant half an hour late (portenos are always late!) and immediately said, ok let´s go to this other place where they have good facturas and panquequas. so we get in his car and drive all the way out of the city to this place. but it was closed.
i got a recommendation for good facturas at the santa elena panaderia. i went there today and then wanted to go to the eva peron museum, all in my neighborhood. the facturas are great but the museum only opens at 2pm. it looks like a good one. i´m trying not to eat them all sitting here in this internet cafe but that isn´t working out.

the first couple days here i ran around looking for soy milk, leche de soja. everyone said no we don´t have that here. now i´m realizing. it is everywhere, at every convenience store, one of their most popular drinks. but it´s fruit flavored and they call it jugo, juice. it´s great though, not chalky at all and it doesn´t break up in coffee. and of course so cheap!

we are going to chabad for rosh hashanah. they spell it jabad. we can walk there. we signed up for the saturday night community dinner. friday night, we´re having dinner with leah´s family friends.
l`shana tovah everyone.

nprrachel: argentinians do not drink
Sambadancin: cuz it interferes with their smoking?
nprrachel: we were with the germans, norwegians and brits from leah´s spanish class
Sambadancin: can't drink....must keep cigarette in mouth....at all.. times.
nprrachel: i don´t know. they sit at bars and have a coke
nprrachel: or aqua con gas
Sambadancin: lame.

Sambadancin: do you speak spanish with that little UN crowd? or english?
nprrachel: we speak english
nprrachel: some of us are named sven and speak with a norwegian accent
Sambadancin: really?!
nprrachel: and look like ralph lauren models
Sambadancin: ah, que bien.

today i went to register at the US embassy. i have never been in a place that fortified in my life. jesus christ. they closed off the whole street to cars. there were many policemen. guns, tanks. i had to pass through a metal detector and get my passport scanned just to get into the compound. then again when i went into the building. the place was like a concrete bunker, with lots of marines hanging around. in washington, the argentine embassy was a house (a really big, fancy mansion of a house, but still). and i just walked in off the street.

i walked to the embassy from my house, and i went past the zoo and all these beautiful parks. whoever visits me in the next 2 months is lucky, because my house is fantastically located.

on the way to the embassy is a sephardic shul that i stopped in. it is big, and very religious people go there. the office guy, diego, and i talked for a while. he is one year younger than me. he said the people there are very "closed" and maybe i would be happier at chabad. it would be 100 pesos to buy tickets for all the high holidays (they call them ´fiestas´ lol)

yesterday was the first day of spring. there are signs in all the shop windows "bienvenido primavera". they are so happy to see spring. today was the first warm sunny day. the produce in the stores is all winter stuff - kale and root vegetables and oranges/grapefruit. and chard, acelga, they´re really into chard.

sunday i went to the san telmo feria, this very popular tourist attraction. it was packed, and with americans too, agh. we got a coffee in a cafe above the street and looked over the crowd for a while. on our way home we stopped at a tango ballroom where there was supposed to be a class. there was no class but it turns out the place just opened a hotel. the manager, who was darling, gave us a tour of it. this place is a knockout. it would be a great choice for any tango visitors who come to buenos aires. it´s called the hotel dandi. it has really high ceilings and cool ballrooms with stages that raise up from the ground. tango murals painted on the walls, and beautiful fancy rooms. a pool on the roof. a week there includes transpo from the airport, all meals, tango classes, dances, a show, tours, etc. etc. it sounds like quite the deal. you guys should do it. all of you. plus you get a bidet in your bathroom.
http://www.dandiroyal.com.ar/

today i went to HIAS and met with a woman there. everyone is so so nice there. she took a lot of time with me and called people to get info for me. she kept asking me about my skills, i don´t know, what are my skills. my skills are all in english. web pages, writing, editing, computers, etc. i´m going to go in this week and learn a database, then start doing some sutff
there in november. i was trying not to look at the huge map on her wall because "nueva york" was so far away from buenos aires and it was freaking me out. i loved hearing the stories of what they do at HIAS. it touches my heart. there is a community in guadalajara mexico that wants argentine jews to move there, because their jews are dying out. and of course the argentine jews are desperate to get out. or desesperate as spanish speakers say. so there are now 14 argentine families there, and maybe more will come.
they may even hook me up with a homestay at hias.
i would like to say "things are really coming together". but they´re not. but i could see how they will soon.

in other news leah and i had dinner with martin on sat. night. fun. he´s a cutie and so nice. i hope we can hang out a lot.

friday night we decided to go to synagogue. a guy that works in my dad´s office had given me the name of a shul near our house. we walked over there in long skirts. there was no sign and 2 guys standing out front who gave us a really hard time about getting in "what do you want. why are you here in argentina. do you speak hebrew. why do you want to come in. (um, to pray? because everyone else is doing it?) and asked to see our passports.
it was nice inside, a medium sized room, with a balcony, packed. standing room only. we found seats in front. it was a reform temple-type crowd, young families, few singles, and lots of little kids and older youth group kids. and it was most definitely a reform temple-type service. there was a cantor, a rabbi and lots of microphones. there was an electronic keyboard and a flute. all miked. debbie friedman tunes galore. we even had to put our arms around our neighbors and sway and sing tumbalalaika i kid you not. so i will not be going back to that place. leah liked it though. we may have to split up for rosh hashanah which is kind of annoying.

on another note, the shabbas announcement page said "todo sobre el shofar" and that made me laugh.

then in true rachel form we went salsa dancing afterwards. we got there at 1am and stayed until like 530. i kept looking at my watch in disbelief. it is 4 in the morning and i am salsa dancing. it is 5am and i am still awake. we came home and had our midnight snack, except it was 6am so i guess you´d call that breakfast. and then went to sleep. crazy.
the club was nice. it was a scene not unlike havana village, a place leah and i are intimately familiar with. except it was nicer, and admission and drinks are cheaper, and the music was awesome, and they even had lockers to put your purse in, a big plus.
so i think we´ll be frequent visitors. we were curious as to whether the crowd would be more centralamerican looking, darker and more indian. and they mostly were. because argentinians are so white and european looking. but just like in dc, it´s the carribean-central american crowd that is into salsa.
everything we (i) know in hebrew is from a prayerbook and it´s about being jewish. so when you go to israel, it´s a place that speaks what you know as the language of the synagogue. so you feel like everthing people say is holy. you are shocked that there are billboards and sexy advertisements in hebrew.
most everything i know in spanish is from salsa. so here it´s like the land of the salsa. everyone speaks in salsa-ese to me. a dream come true. when i´m in the club, and everyone is singing along to the words, it´s like the holy grail. mecca. the center of the universe.

the spanish class i want to take doesn´t start until november 3. i don´t want to wait that long. i can barely get by. it´s frustrating every day. i can´t understand what anyone is saying to me.

last night we entered the elegant world of buenos aires tango. we went to a salon um, somewhere. short cab ride away. it was a big room with tables all around and a nice dance floor. beautiful paintings taller than people on the walls. a bar and a dj in the corner. we got there around 10:30/11 and well, that was embarrassingly early. seems like as americans we are always arriving places just as they are finishing preparations for dinner service, we're like the early bird diners of buenos aires.
for the beginning of the evening it was mostly older people dancing traditional tango, is that milonga style? i'm not sure.
argentine tango dancers are supposed to have a very formal way of asking women to dance. (and it is NEVER the other way around). they look at you, you look at them, a slight nod is exchanged, and you meet on the dance floor. we found that the guys pretty much all came around to our table. some of them were very good, some of them not so much. just like anything i guess. but it was so fun to watch everyone dance. some of the women there were knockouts. and the outfits! everyone had fabulous suede very high-heeled tango shoes. some had fishnet stockings. gorgeous sultry swingy velvet skirts. it was a beautiful, very formal scene.
then around midnight (and this is just like the salsa scene) the young people started to trickle in. really young, maybe early twenties. they were wearing jeans, really tight low jeans and tight shirts. and they danced a whole other style, a sexier sort of more fun style. less tightly wound, but it still looked really really good.
things were really just getting going after 1 am but we had to go. silly americans!

saw images of isabel on the bbc channel. (the british reporter guy was all, it seems that in america, your houses are made of plywood, therefore they just fall over in storms). thinking of you all. cuidate, take care.

i would like to write about the dinner that leah and i went to on tuesday.
it was a restaurant called "olivas y lustres" (yeah, we´re not sure either - olives and shine?) that we found in the frommer´s guide. they have a tapas-type option where you get 13 tiny courses for 2 people for $28. even though it was in the frommer´s guide it seemed to be all argentinans in the restaurant. by that i mean it was packed with people eating dinner when we sat down at 10:30 pm. everyone was young, skinny, gorgeous, fashionable, with a fork in one hand and a cigarette in the other, eating and smoking at the SAME TIME.

we sat down and they gave us a teeny (chiquitito) glass of hot sweet, peppery red wine, so good. esp. since it was freezing outside. and the courses were all wonderful. there was a gnocchi-type pasta in sauce with delicious cheese, served on 2 big spoons that you just put in your mouth. there was a test tube of pumpkin soup with coconut and plantains. deep-fried olives. pieces of meat, probably pork, with a pickled radish slice sprinkled with candied orange zest, that was the best. and skewers with pieces of sauteed liver and something else i forgot. flowers in the salad. squiggly sauces and powdery stuff sprinkled on every plate. fancy like that. we showed them where we live on the map and they said it wasn´t really safe to walk so they called us a cab, and that was like 5 pesos i think. taxis are really cheap here. it was about 1am and the streets were empty.

i joined the gym near my house for 2 months for 60 pesos. so i went to aerobics class in spanish yesterday. hilarious. it was boxing class. 30 gorgeous young skinny argentinian girls in their cool yoga pants with long beautiful hair, and me in my stupid purple shorts, a step behind everybody else.
but now i know my right and left. left is izquierda, straight is derecho and right is derecha.

i talked to martin on the phone last night (japanese guy i met during a family vacation in costa rica in january). his english has gotten better. i told him he is my unico amigo, the only person i know in buenos aires. we are going to meet for dinner on saturday.

my neighborhood is like dupont circle, or the upper east side. fancy apartment buildings, lots of people walking dogs. many salons and cafes, and fancy takeout gourmet cheese and wine shops, etc. also lots of fruit and vegetable markets like in new york (but not open 24 hrs). there´s even a kosher food shop on our street.
our neighborhood abuts a big central park-type park with fountains and people sitting in the sun.
it is so so cold here. yet there are palm trees. how do they survive.

i really can´t overstate the value of having leah here with me at the beginning. it is a totally different, happier, funny, less stressful and lonely time because she is here.

hello and welcome to my life and adventures in argentina.