Friday, April 10, 2009

Pesach Seder: Argentine Style

Happy Passover everyone!!! So Josh and I have been going to Kabbalat Shabbat services in Belgrano, but we really have not found ourselves a Jewish community here. When our first batch of study abroad friends departed (still tears over that - we haven't forgotten you!) so departed our only Jewish friend. We have done Shabbat type stuff in our house with our new roomates, and they love Hallah, but I wasn't about to do the back breakng work it take to make a seder for a bunch of goyim. No, for passover we needed to be with some Jews, and considering that Passover is one of my favorite holidays I had ganas to find a sedar we could attend. Well apparently not that much since I waited till erov Pesach to email our one Jewish conection here (You may remember Ernesto, the Jewish tour guide). he emailed me back with a flyer for a community seder, and I called to reserve two spots for Josh and myself. Yes, my Spanish is good enough to do this over the phone now, but not good enough to keep me from annoying the hell out of the receptionist.
Yesterday was a holiday (as is today) and we spend a good part of the day in Parque Lazamas kicking a soccer ball around and drinking Mate with Nick and Jessica. We missed Ted...but had a good time. We then headed home quickly to change and then everyone headed to Nicks while I continued on to the synagogue to pick up our tickets. A woman with hair the color of pumkin and magenta's love child greeting me and gave me the tickets. While there I also caught a glimpse of our seder to be, and then headed back to Nick's new pad for an hour of hang out time. Shout out to Nick's new pad for being the sweetest apartment in BA I've seen so far, in the best location ever...you are one lucky son of a...madre.
We arrived at eight, but of course the seder didn't start till almost an hour later. In the mean while we met some families from the States who were visiting their kids abroad and a gay couple from California. We were not put at their table though, and instead ended up at a table with two divorces who are now best friends, and a family consisting of Mom, Dad, daughter, Grandma, and Grandpa. Of course everyone wanted to practice their English as soon as they heard we were from the States, so we spent most of the night listening to broken Enlgish and speaking in Spanish. The seder was long, the cantor went on and on, and we were soooo hungry. The crowd was mostly old people, so when they read it took forever, and the rest of the people were a mix of families with young kids.
When we finally ate the food was ok, but by the end of the meal we were invited to our first Porteño Shabbat dinner!!!!! It wasn't the same as with family, but it was better than nothing and finally making some Jewish connections is very exciting!!!!!

2 comments:

Reed said...

I had ideas about hosting a seder, but then I ended up being out of town. Next year, I'm happy to contribute and/or host as long as I don't have to answer the four questions. :-)

Shelley Rolf said...

WOW is all i can say. xoxo