La Quinta: A Rotary Picnic

Although the conference was a good opportunity to get to know the world of Rotary here in Argentina, the Sunday following the conference was an even better opportunity to get to know its members. Humberto Gilabert, a member of my club, invited fellow members and their families as well as us scholars to his quinta for a picnic. The first question that comes to mind is what is a quinta? A quinta is house located country outside of the city where families go on the weekends to relax and escape the busy city life, and that is exactly what we did. We all gathered at Willie's house and we headed to the countryside of Escobar where Humberto's quinta was located. Early afternoon we arrived to one of Argentina's quaintest areas. Humberto's quinta was a beautiful wooden cottage surrounded by a fruit orchard, garden, green house, pool, and plenty of space to play soccer.

The scene was just as breathtaking as the genuine friendliness of the members and their families. For lunch we gathered around a picnic table filled with delicious empanadas (an Argentine staple which is a small bread pastry filled with meat chicken, corn, or cheese), sandwiches, and deserts like flan, medialunas (sweet croissants) and cookies. As the mate was passed around, we all shared stories about ourselves, our experiences with Rotary, and our adventures in Argentina. Afterwards a friendly game of soccer (futbol) was played by all, of which the star defender for the other team was a pile of dog poop directly in front of the goal, making it nearly impossible for my team to advance. Players and spectators shared both on and off the field a few laughs.

At the end of the day the Rotary principals of service and friendship suddenly had a new meaning. Having arrived in this country alone, the feeling of family was omnipresent that afternoon. Counselors and fellow Rotary members went out of their way to make it be known that they are here to support us, help us, and above all be our friends. Interesting enough along side the garage was a sign that read the following: El que no vive para servir, no sirve para vivir. The literal translation is " He who doesn't live to serve, doesn't serve anything in life." Looking back on that afternoon, I realize that sign has a much deeper meaning: what good is life if we don't have any desire to share it with others.

A special thanks to all the Rotary members and their families who went out of their way to make this very special day happen, especially Humberto and his wife for sharing their quinta with us, and Willie for organizing everything. Fue un verdadero placer!!!! (It was truly a pleasure.)

4890 81st District Conference

On Saturday April 19th District 4890 had their 81st District Conference at the University of Belgrano. All seven Ambassadorial Scholars were invited to present themselves to their host district, and share with them our future endeavors in Buenos Aires. The district itself is made up of 42 clubs that reside in the Capital, and range in membership numbers from 9 to 265. For us scholars it was a wonderful opportunity to introduce ourselves and thank the rotary clubs of Buenos Aires for the warm welcome and their contributions to the scholarship program. In addition to a short presentation, I awarded the governor, Carlos Roberto Matalon with an Arch Klumph Medallion. Thanks to Arch Klumph and his ambitious dreams to create the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, us scholars have been given this wonderful ambassadorial opportunity to be in Argentina. Also, I'm fortunate to have such an important Rotary figure be not only from my state, but also from my district club, because everyone I meet in the Rotary world knows of Ohio. I suppose it really is the heart of it all, Rotary including.

Like a proud father, Willie stood in the front taking pictures and smiling throughout all of our presentations, so thanks to him I've been able to post a few pictures. The first one is of the governing committee and guest speakers for the event. The second is of my presentation, and the third is of the US scholars and the governor. For anyone who may be interested in learning more about my host district their website is http://www.rotary4890.org.ar/ and it does have an English link.

Mate

Mar del Plata

Well there is no better way to get to know a country than to travel with a local. Willie, my above and beyond Rotary counselor, and his wife Liliana invited me to go to Mar del Plata this weekend. We left on Friday, and traveled for 5 hours through pastures of sheep and cows drinking mate and sharing stories. Mate is an herbal tea that is typically drank out of a hollowed out gourd through a metal straw called a "bombilla", which has a screen at the bottom to sift out the herb while drinking. Sharing mate is a common past time in Argentina, and throughout the day friends and family can be spotted sitting in parks passing around the gourd and sharing a drink. Sharing mate with Willie and his wife was a real welcoming experience into one of Argentina's most valued traditions.

After driving through the Pampa for quite some time we went down a steep hill and the Atlantic Ocean unfolded before our very eyes as we reached Mar del Plata. Miles of sandy beaches and rocky cliffs lined one of Argentina's most popular summer destination. Unfortunately it isn't the summer, so the thousands of people and tents that normally line the beach were absent, but the magnificent scenery still remained. Being in the southern hemisphere, Argentina is on the brink of winter and the weather is slowly changing from subtropical to Antarctic. The further North one goes the warmer it will remain, but the cold Antarctic breeze coming off the Atlantic was enough to close up the normally buzzing beach town for a few months out of the year.

Never the less, we put on a few layers and headed out Saturday afternoon to enjoy the sights. It was a sunny day with temperatures hovering around 65 degrees, which made for comfortable walking conditions. La Rambla is the traditional passages that leads from El Complejo Casino, which I won 50 pesos at that evening (no I wasn't gambling with Rotary money just trying my luck), and extends down to El Torreon del Monje, which is a French inspired castle looking out over the ocean. From there we headed into the center of town and did a bit of window-shopping and headed to one of the best-known secrets of Mar del Plata, La Isla Marina.

La Isla Marina is a family run seafood restaurant, where the lack of decor is made up for in the wonderful seafood entrees. Everything we ate was caught earlier that morning and bought from the Barrio Puerto, which is where the fishing ports are located. After dining on calamari, octopus, salmon, and cod we headed to the actual ports to catch some of the fishing action. As for the fisherman, there wasn't much action because the boats head out to sea early in the morning and return early afternoon with the day's offerings, so all the boats were docked. However, the wildlife was in full swing. Sea gulls, cormorants, and pelicans were flying around the port while sea lions were swimming in the water. Unexpectedly, the male "bull" got out of the water and climbed up onto one of the docks. Within minutes the rabid dogs running around confronted the "bull". I managed to catch all of the action on video, which I've included in the blog for your viewing pleasure. In the end no animals were harmed, but I would say the roar of the sea lion ended up being more treating than the barking of the dogs.

Thanks to Willie and Lilian I had the wonderful experience of getting to know one of Argentina's most popular sites. The historical facts, and personal experiences they shared with me of Mar del Plata where more than one could every find in a book. I'm very grateful to have had such an opportunity, and feel honored that Willie and his family shared with me a very special part of their country. Not to mention Willie taught me a pretty cool card trick, which I'll share with you all when I get back. Best wishes back home...talk to you soon!!!

Mi Casa: My Apartment

Some of you may be wondering, what is Laura really doing in Buenos Aires besides getting caught in flash floods, eating great meat, hanging out at the beach, and banging her frying pan in protest? Well this blog is dedicated to explain just that. As of last week I moved into my own one bedroom apartment in a sub-section of Buenos Aires known as Palermo. Palermo is the up and coming trendy area of Buenos Aires, and some of the locals have even given certain areas names such as Palermo Hollywood and Palermo SoHo. I live on the border of Palermo Chico and Palermo Alto. My neighborhood is a maze of cobblestone streets lined with trees shopping boutiques, pizza parlors, novelty shops, food stands, and my favorite homemade ice cream shops. Because of the intertwined streets and numerous parks the normal hustle and bustle of busy city life is minimized because cars can't easily pass through. Having said that, it really does feel like a neighborhood where I'm living, and I've already been welcomed by the local butchers, baker and fruit stand employees. A ten-minute walk from my apartment will bring you to two of Buenos Aires' most famous tourist sites, the Recoleta Cemetery where Evita is buried, and the Botanical Gardens and the Zoo. I am also five blocks from the subway line that takes me to my University. I would never have found such wonderful apartment without the help of my Rotary Counselor Willie Cittadini, of whom I owe an extra "Muchas Gracias" for his support.

As for school, I'm currently attending postgraduate classes in International Relations at the University of Belgrano. Later on I will write more on my classes, because last week was my first. For now I think the subject matter is very interesting and also very relative to my international experience here, and has helped my understanding of the Argentine people. Practices for the women's soccer (futbol) team begin tomorrow and our first tournament is two weeks from now. I'm interested to see the different styles of play because many of my team members come from various Latin American countries, where different styles and techniques have been created because of different playing terrains. Obviously the long-passing style adopted by Americans playing on flat grassy fields wouldn’t' t fair so well on the concrete streets of Columbia where their games are typically played. One would expect to find a style consisting of short passes and more one-on-one attacks. The truth is although futbol is the number one sport in Argentina, there isn't a lot of support for female teams and players, and so I am very lucky that my University offers such a program. As well I will be working with the English Department to help tutor the students who are taking classes in English, and I hope to start an intercambio or exchange program where students who are learning English can meet and converse with the student's who are there to learn Spanish.

For now my living and school situations have been settled, but I will say that neither one was an easy process. I consider accomplishing these two things big triumphs because there were many small failures, miss-communications, and of course cultural differences along the way. Having had these two things fall into place, I'm eager to start what I believe will be my new life in a foreign country. The two pictures included are of an overview of my apartment and also the view from my balcony. Que disfruten!!!!! (Enjoy!)