After a winter vacation of about 3 months, I finally began classes today at the University of Belgrano. As much as I looked forward to getting back to school, the first day was pretty uneventful. In fact, these first two weeks are simply drop/add, or a trial, to see which classes you'd like to join, and no attendance will be taken. Meaning that serious class doesn't begin until April 1st. Kinda of a joke- I will have made my schedule for the fall semester back at Maryland by that point.
Tonight, I went to a popular drum show in the center of town with Ardon and Samantha, friends from home who are on a business spring break trip with NYU. It pretty much was an orchestra of people playing different beats, using different drums, basically a very up tempo stomp. While the show consisted of only drummers for most of the show, two guests performed at different points. One guy had a bass, creating a really funky tune to go along with the drum beats. Then another guy came and created different beats and sounds all with his mouth. At times incredible and others pretty bizarre, it was unlike I had ever heard before. This guy was making robotic noises and water noises and growling into the microphone in synch with the drummers. At one point, I think he was just rambling/rapping on in what I think was Portuguese.
The coolest part of the show was towards the end, when the lead guy had everyone in the audience drop down to the floor and gradually led them up again, which was met with a rocking drum rhythm finale, to which everybody started jumping around wildly.
This past Shabbos was a great experience. Friday night, I ate dinner at this Israeli hostel, meeting many Israelis (obviously) as well as some American groups and some local Argentines. Following dinner, we went outside to sing and tell different stories about our backgrounds and such. It was an amazing experience being able to share shabbat with people from many different backgrounds.
Speaking of different, shabbat lunch, I went to my host dad's father's Chabbad house. It is unbelievable the amount of money that gets donated to these different Chabbad houses (Each Chabbad is independent, meaning that its success doesn't depend on another's). This house, located in Belgrano, was a beautiful house with a huge courtyard, which holds many simachot and events. I actually had the chulent, enjoyed it, and didn't suffer a stomachache for the rest of the day. Met some really interesting people there, including this family whose dad is Chilean and mom is Argentine. They lived in Miami for a bit, moved to Honolulu, and just moved to Argentina last year. Somehow, the son has a New York/Uruguayan accent.
At the Chabbad house, I was mostly entertained by Rav Kiesel, my host dad's father, who was sitting at the table with his possy. It seemed like a frat for Chabbad, a bunch of guys drinking heavily, shmoozing, and laughing about g-d knows what but then making one very holy birkat hamazon.
Yesterday, I went to Hillel and hung out with some Argentines for the day, sitting outside by the pool. I found a couple of guys to play bball with and even got a girl's number: heyo!
Complaints:
1. Lack of good challah- as many of you know, I'm kind of obsessed with challah, and I've been pretty disappointed with what I've eaten so far. It just doesn't have much taste. It's hard enough without chopstix, so if anyone would wanna fed ex a Zaidies challah, I'd really appreciate it.
2. Walking to school today, I saw this old woman drop her wrapper on the ground, then kick it all the way off the curb into the street- this whole process definitely took at least 10 seconds. For all of that energy spent, she could have just dropped the wrapper into the next garbage that she passed by. Sure, it was littering, but it was also just really dumb. Thus I made sure to glare as I walked by her.
New word learned today: Che, which is used similarly to how we Americans say "like" except they say it with more intent.
Ex: (Che) como te llamas: What's your name
ciao
ariel
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