El Chabad

Friday night, 7:30 PM. Shoni and I magically walked very fast because we didn’t want to be late for the Chabad Shabbat dinner. How could I forget the “grand” punctuality of Chabad…(or every other Jewish organization)?

As we walked up the staircase, we barely heard voices. Uh oh. We automatically assumed we were late for dinner…wait a minute---little did we know that 7:30 Argentinean time is really 8:15 chabad time, and as a side note---8:15 chabad time wasn’t when the meal began but when the services started, so you can only imagine what time it was when we sat down for dinner…Alright, back to chabad. The meal was simply amazing. The food, the people, and most of all the chabad couple (Mendy and Sara). It’s really impressive how they open up their lives by inviting loads of people to their home every Friday night for dinner. After an enormous amount of talking and getting to know other people, food, drinking, and talking about mashiach (it is chabad after all) the meal ended at 1:30AM….crazy but incredible.

Saturday we walked back to the chabad for a Kiddush. Again, another slight miscommunication--- Argentinean Kiddush is completely different than an American Kiddush---fine, let me rephrase that…it’s really different than an ASKT Kiddush. Their Kiddush was more of a sit-down lunch with various forms of empanadas, sandwiches, salads, dips, and more. It was actually really funny because if you combine Argentine Jewish women (or maybe hungry Argentine Jewish women) and food don’t expect to eat much. I’ve never seen women (literally) grab food and eat it with such intensity and passion---they put Elie to shame! (another family referral…deal with it). The actual day was sizzling hot with a light breeze, so after lunch, we walked to Parque Las Heras and the main park in Palermo. We watched tons of young to old Argentines playing futbol (soccer) and little kids swinging on the swings. We eventually walked back to the house and chilled till the night time.

I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing that I’m becoming a local at The Alamo (bar). The purpose of the night was for me to attempt to practice my Spanish; however that didn’t go so well. My friend introduced me to a group of guys from El Salvador; however, they eventually spoke to me in English because my Spanish was awful. Clearly they were exaggerating (ok maybe not), but come on HELLO help a sister out!!