Hello All!
Sorry I havent written for so long, the internet situation has been a little crazy.
I am still enjoying Huerta Inambu, although I am starting to be ready for a change. I want to see more of the country and make some more friends, its pretty isolated here!!! So next week I am leaving the farm and I will spend New Years in Cordoba and then its looks like I will be heading up North to a farm or natural reserve.
Hannukah on the farm was nice. I little candles and sung in my room every night and the last day we had latkahs for lunch with our own eggs, flour, zuccini, potatos, and storebought onions. I will put up pictures when I can.
Renewing my visa was a complete and total fiasco but now I can legally be in the country for three more months!!!!
My birthday was also fun, Nuria had all my favorite foods including, peanut butter, her pear and ginger jam. meat for lunch, mint lassi, eggs, and a fabulous chocolate and dulce de leche cake made by Mayra!!! Oh and icecream!!! And the day after mangos!!! And then I went to Cordoba the next week to renew the visa and Flro and Carlos took me to La Falda and we had cake in this precious little place called El Bosque in the middle of an artist colony with homemade cake and earl gray!!!!
We now have a huge amount of veggies on the farm including zuccini, tomatos, beans, beets (which I now love) and much much more!!! On Sundays, if the weather is nice we take a picnic to one of the many gorgoeous rivers in the area. And I am almost finsihed with Harry Potter Five and have started another knitting project. And my Spanish is getting pretty good, especially because most of my initial shyness is gone.
Thats about it, I will try to update next week.
Love and happy holidays!!!!!
Esther
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Animals!!!!
These are the animals we have at the farm!!!
Iguanas. I called them monstruos once by accident. They are four feet long and terrifying.
Negrita, the leader of the cows, and the most fun to milk.
Sorry I know these posts are not exactly full of juicy information!!!! If you want to know the deets send me an email or letter. So far I received two letters!!!! If you want to make me happy on my birthday, mail is the way to go!!!!!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Proyectos
Hello friends and family!
I have around 4 hours free everyday and an afternoon and Sunday off every week. What do I do with this time? Here is a list!
I read, a lot. So far I am up to the 4th Harry Potter in Spanish, I read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe in Spanish (and it had completely lost its charm because of my age), I listened to the audio book of The Help which is fantastic, and next up is La Isla Bajo el Mar by Isabel Allende.
I knit a sleeping bag for Lambie.
I made slippers out of a sweater that shrunk in the wash,
I built a milking bench.
We fixed tools one day.
And I play with the kittens and puppy!
It is too hard to move these pictures around, so think of it as a matching game!!!!
And remember, my address is on the blog now, so send me a letter!!!!
I have around 4 hours free everyday and an afternoon and Sunday off every week. What do I do with this time? Here is a list!
I read, a lot. So far I am up to the 4th Harry Potter in Spanish, I read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe in Spanish (and it had completely lost its charm because of my age), I listened to the audio book of The Help which is fantastic, and next up is La Isla Bajo el Mar by Isabel Allende.
I knit a sleeping bag for Lambie.
I made slippers out of a sweater that shrunk in the wash,
I built a milking bench.
We fixed tools one day.
And I play with the kittens and puppy!
It is too hard to move these pictures around, so think of it as a matching game!!!!
And remember, my address is on the blog now, so send me a letter!!!!
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Pictures speak louder than words, I hope.
La Cumbrecita (the outskirts)
Rainy day at the river. 
The little fair where we sell our veggies. (thats Nuria)
Milking!
Picnic at the river with crumble, salad, spanish omlette, and bread.
(Those are Pablo and Maria Paz, my fellow workers.) 
Pablo crashed the car.
La Cumbrecita again.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Huerta Inambu
Hello friends and family!
I have been living on the farm for two weeks now and so far really love it. There are two other volunteers here, a couple that is half Chilean half Spanish, and they are so great! The family is very nice as well, and the two teen-aged kids are nice and really funny. Every morning I milk the cows with the other volunteers and some member of the family. Then we clean the stalls, put the dirty straw into the compost, and go to breakfast which is bread with toppings. Afterwards we work in the field until lunch which is the big hot meal and it is followed by a siesta. Then more field work until 6 when we go on a hike in the mountains to fetch the cows which have been grazing all day. Then we milk again and have dinner. The food is really good, mostly stuff we grow and make ourselves like cheese, yogurt, jams, and peanut butter, but we don´t eat much eggs or meat so I feel a little protein deprived. The area is absolutely gorgeous, so here are some pics.
Oh and they have a mailbox in town so you can send me a letter!
Esther Rose-Wilen
c/o Nuria Soler
c.c. 64
5194-Villa General Belgrano (CBA)
Argentina
I have been living on the farm for two weeks now and so far really love it. There are two other volunteers here, a couple that is half Chilean half Spanish, and they are so great! The family is very nice as well, and the two teen-aged kids are nice and really funny. Every morning I milk the cows with the other volunteers and some member of the family. Then we clean the stalls, put the dirty straw into the compost, and go to breakfast which is bread with toppings. Afterwards we work in the field until lunch which is the big hot meal and it is followed by a siesta. Then more field work until 6 when we go on a hike in the mountains to fetch the cows which have been grazing all day. Then we milk again and have dinner. The food is really good, mostly stuff we grow and make ourselves like cheese, yogurt, jams, and peanut butter, but we don´t eat much eggs or meat so I feel a little protein deprived. The area is absolutely gorgeous, so here are some pics.
Oh and they have a mailbox in town so you can send me a letter!
Esther Rose-Wilen
c/o Nuria Soler
c.c. 64
5194-Villa General Belgrano (CBA)
Argentina
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Jewish High Holidays in Cordoba
Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year)
I attended evening services with a family that is friends with my Spanish teacher.
We went to the reform temple called Central Synagogue (the one I took pictures of). The services were in Spanish and Hebrew and I could sing along to about one third of the prayers and songs in Hebrew, the melodies that are based on trope or that are pretty universal were the same as in the US. The Rabbi is really cool, his sermon was very short and very sweet--about why we celebrate two days for the new year instead of just one. Then I went with the family to their friend´s house where we had DELICIOUS food. We ate fish croquettes, cooked veggies, roasted chicken, seasoned rice, cooked pears in wine (I forget the name of this...), cookies, cake, and then coffee!!!!! Everything was amazing, and everyone was very nice. I got to practice my Spanish comprehension and I brought a homemade apple cake which was repeatedly declared ¨Muy Rica.¨
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
I went alone to Kol Nidre in the evening, services were similar to the US and I made friends with the lady sitting next to me. Then I couldn´t go all the next day because I had class and I visited Carlos Paz where Carlos had a physics conference. At 530 I returned to the synagogue to find it absolutely packed. I stayed for an hour, but then I went to used the bathroom and literally could not get back into the sanctuary it was so stuffed full. That day the shops were closed for a national holiday and I couldn´t get the ingredients for the traditional Yom Kippur break fast dinner I wanted to make for Angie, Lucas, Carlos, and Flor. Instead we did it Thursday night.
We ate egg salad, homemade blintzes, a big salad, and banana cake with cream cheese frosting. For everyone else it was the first time they had tried all of it except, of course, the salad. While I was preparing this meal I discovered that cooking gives me the same endorphin high as thrift store shopping, which is good to know since I need a replacement for shopping therapy here! Hopefully I will get to do lots of cooking on the farm, where I will move Sunday.
Yom Kippur Break Fast
Rosh Hashanah Apple Cake
I attended evening services with a family that is friends with my Spanish teacher.
We went to the reform temple called Central Synagogue (the one I took pictures of). The services were in Spanish and Hebrew and I could sing along to about one third of the prayers and songs in Hebrew, the melodies that are based on trope or that are pretty universal were the same as in the US. The Rabbi is really cool, his sermon was very short and very sweet--about why we celebrate two days for the new year instead of just one. Then I went with the family to their friend´s house where we had DELICIOUS food. We ate fish croquettes, cooked veggies, roasted chicken, seasoned rice, cooked pears in wine (I forget the name of this...), cookies, cake, and then coffee!!!!! Everything was amazing, and everyone was very nice. I got to practice my Spanish comprehension and I brought a homemade apple cake which was repeatedly declared ¨Muy Rica.¨
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
I went alone to Kol Nidre in the evening, services were similar to the US and I made friends with the lady sitting next to me. Then I couldn´t go all the next day because I had class and I visited Carlos Paz where Carlos had a physics conference. At 530 I returned to the synagogue to find it absolutely packed. I stayed for an hour, but then I went to used the bathroom and literally could not get back into the sanctuary it was so stuffed full. That day the shops were closed for a national holiday and I couldn´t get the ingredients for the traditional Yom Kippur break fast dinner I wanted to make for Angie, Lucas, Carlos, and Flor. Instead we did it Thursday night.
We ate egg salad, homemade blintzes, a big salad, and banana cake with cream cheese frosting. For everyone else it was the first time they had tried all of it except, of course, the salad. While I was preparing this meal I discovered that cooking gives me the same endorphin high as thrift store shopping, which is good to know since I need a replacement for shopping therapy here! Hopefully I will get to do lots of cooking on the farm, where I will move Sunday.
Yom Kippur Break Fast
Rosh Hashanah Apple Cake
PS Lil I have no control over fonts so don´t judge.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Palacio Ferreyra
Palacio Ferreyra is a gorgeous old palace in the center of Cordoba that has been turned into a museum. The atmosphere is great and the paintings are amazing, I have already been twice and I am not even a museum person!!!!
Some of my favorite pieces
La Tormenta, Horacio Alvarez
Las Colchas, Fernando Fader
La Toilette, Eduardo Schiaffino
And from the temporary exhibit on the French Revolution,
Thoughts About the French Revolution While Eating a Shrimp Salad, Oldenburg
Sunday, September 16, 2012
CELEC: Un Idioma, Muchos Mundos
I am taking language classes at a school called CELEC in a beautiful neighborhood outside the downtown area of the city. I either take the bus in the morning (Oh hey--it's the N3!!!!!!!!!! (This is what I always say when I see a bus I know)) or I am driven by Flor who works in the same area at thesame time. I have class for three hours in the morning, with two different teachers so I don't get too accustomed to one voice. I think I am learning a lot and I am looking forward to next week when I will have class for four hours every morning with another student from Austria. A lot of what we learn in US Spanish classes is Spanish from Spain so it is very vexing to discover that I have to relearn something because only one of the twenty one Spanish speaking countries actually uses it!!! My teachers are both very nice and teach in Spanish which I like a lot. All of the little phrases teachers use such as "go to this page" or "read this out loud" are easy to understand in Spanish and there is no reason to say those things in English! One of the exercises I have been doing is writing about my day what I do in the afternoon, then my teacher and I edit it the next day. The following is my entry from Wednesday (everything is in present tense because that was what I was supposed to practice that day. also it is sans accents):
Miercoles
Tomo el colectivo a la una de la tarde. Voy lejos de mi casa y me pierdo, pero salgo del omnibus y encuentro la casa en ¡cinco minutos! Despues, amuerzo. Como dos huevos, una zanahoria, y pastek con fruta. El pastel es muy feo, pero me gustan mucho las zanahorias. Despes, quiro dormir pero como el tiempo estaba bueno, camino a la sinagoa de Cordoba. ME gusta veo las tiendas y a la gente mientras estoy caminando. Pero caudo llego a la esquina de la sinagoga ¡no esta alli! ¡Mi mapa esta incorrecto! Camino en el area y despues de trienta minutos, loencuentro. Pero la sinagoga no esta abierta. Busco y busco pero no puedo encontrar niguna puerta. Tomo does fotos con mi camera (porque el edificio es muy lindo) y salgo. Durante el camino a mi casa encuentro un kiosco con mi nombre--El Kiosco Esther. Llego al departamento a las seis de la tarde, como una pera, y empiezo mi tarea.
Miercoles
Tomo el colectivo a la una de la tarde. Voy lejos de mi casa y me pierdo, pero salgo del omnibus y encuentro la casa en ¡cinco minutos! Despues, amuerzo. Como dos huevos, una zanahoria, y pastek con fruta. El pastel es muy feo, pero me gustan mucho las zanahorias. Despes, quiro dormir pero como el tiempo estaba bueno, camino a la sinagoa de Cordoba. ME gusta veo las tiendas y a la gente mientras estoy caminando. Pero caudo llego a la esquina de la sinagoga ¡no esta alli! ¡Mi mapa esta incorrecto! Camino en el area y despues de trienta minutos, loencuentro. Pero la sinagoga no esta abierta. Busco y busco pero no puedo encontrar niguna puerta. Tomo does fotos con mi camera (porque el edificio es muy lindo) y salgo. Durante el camino a mi casa encuentro un kiosco con mi nombre--El Kiosco Esther. Llego al departamento a las seis de la tarde, como una pera, y empiezo mi tarea.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Shalom Cordoba!
Today I walked the 20 blocks to the Cordoba synagogue to see if I could find out if I need to buy tickets for the high holidays and to see if there were any youth activities I could get involved in. This place was A FORTRESS. A beautiful building, but completely impenetrable. I could not find a way in. I may have to go on a Friday night when I know there will be people there. The telephone numbers for the Hillel (one of five in Argentina) and the synagogue are impossible to find on the Internet. I wanted to go bake cupcakes at Hillel tonight (the event was advertised) but I couldn't find an address or a number! Still, on my walk I took some nice pictures, found a kiosco with my name, and visited acraft store where I bought a button for my sweater and some new yarn--all in Spanish.
(The sidewalks were crowded and skinny so I couldn't get the best angles.)
A Room with a View
We are on the nineth floor of a fifteen floor building. The following are some pictures taken from the balcony where we dry our clothes, keep the bike, and check the weather.
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