Jews, Jazz y Más

Yesterday started with orientation at UCA (Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina), one of the several institutions I'll be able to take classes at this semester. The differences among them are quite interesting, but I will save that for another post. Suffice it to say, however, that this is the conservative Catholic school. You could not look at a single wall without seeing Jesus, usually bleeding on a cross. Although I had little interest in taking classes there, I came for orientation just to see it, and also to walk around the neighborhood, Puerto Madero.

Puerto Madero is Buenos Aires' newest neighborhood. It is (unsurprisingly) a former port, but now five star hotels, fancy restaurants, ritzy apartment buildings, and UCA occupy the former warehouse buildings. It is right on the river, on the edge of BA, so there are lots of cool water views. On the very edge of Puerto Madero begins la Reserva Ecológica, a huge nature reserve on the edge of the city (see photos below). None of it looks all that pretty in the photos, because it's the middle of winter here. However, with a little sunshine and a bit more human activity, I think this would be a great neighborhood.
These are some seemingly random but nice looking structures we found at the edge of the nature reserve.

Un puente muy cool (yes, that's their word for cool too!)
A pirate ship, obvi

After exploring Puerto Madero for awhile, we (me and some kids from my program) walked to Café Tortoni. For those who don't know, Café Tortoni is this super famous (at least in Argentina), old café/tango bar, which has generally been a center of Argentinian culture since the beginning of the 20th century. There were pictures all over the walls of Buenos Aires circa 1900 and of all the famous people that have come to Café Tortoni since then. I also got to watch tango lessons going on in the back room. While there, we had a really nice conversation about being homesick, leaving loved ones/significant others, and the frustrations of being constantly unable to satisfactorily communicate. I'm having a great time, but the thought of being here for five months can be daunting sometimes, and it was nice to acknowledge that we are all in the same boat.

After a very long lunch, we went back to FLACSO for course registration. On the walk back, in what was by far my biggest accomplishment of the day (my life?), I led the whole group there without a map. Even though the walk consisted of taking two streets for about ten blocks each, it totally made my day.

After orientation ended, I went to a synagogue I found here, Paso 423. Although I don't go with any regularity at home, I thought it might be a nice way to meet some Argentinians, and I was also curious about the Jewish community here. The temple was huge, in a beautiful old building. At the service, they had a male and female cantor (singer) and also a pianist and flutist. Almost the entire service consisted of them singing really beautiful versions of various prayers, most of which I'd never heard (the melodies that is, not the prayers themselves). Most interestingly, there were tons of pamphlets for events memorializing the victims of a car bomb attack at a Jewish center here in 1994. It's obviously a huge issue in the Jewish community here, but something we never talk about in America. Although I really enjoyed the service, Elvira recommended a different temple to me, and I think I'll try that one the next time I go. Overall, though, it was great to find something at least somewhat familiar in a place that is so different.

After the service, I met up with some friends from my program at a bar in the Palermo neighborhood. Palermo is a largely residential neighborhood, filled with parks and lots of bars/clubs. We chose the bar because Jason, a jazz pianist friend from the program, was playing at a jam session there. It had cool paintings on the walls, good music (including the live jazz), and a generally laid back ambiance, all of which I liked a lot. I ended up sitting at a table with a few people from my program, some Argentinian members of the band, and a very nice Venezuelan guy, who couldn't stop talking about how badly he wanted to move to America. The night was a lot of fun, although I still need to adjust to the crazy hours they keep here. I left the bar at 4 am and it was still packed.

Until next time,
Chelsea