My First Busy-ish 24 Hours in a While

The last 24 hours haven't felt packed or busy but when I think back on the day I did quite a bit. Last night I went out to meet two girls from Buenos Aires who run a website for young Jewish travelers here. We were originally going to out for tea, but it is now in the hot and humid stage of the weather cycle, so we decided on ice cream instead. I am glad we did; as I have mentioned before, the ice creams here are amazing. I had coconut cream and lemon tart. Perfect combination for such a sultry day. As we sat down, one of them, Brenda, said something in Spanish, and said it was an expression that refers to eating for therapy. She was wondering what the expression is in English; I told her I have no idea. She told me to ask any Jewish girl, which I found a bit funny. If any of you know the expression that refers to the act of eating when depressed and down, let me know; I will thank you personally in the next post.
We spoke about a number of things, including the financial situation in Argentina, and the subway system, which, I think, deserves a bit of a rant. I need to preface the rant with the statement that, overall, I like the subte here. It is very cheap, it covers most of the city, and it is far faster than taking the terribly slow and terribly crowded buses. However, I have two problems. First of all, the subte closes by 11! After around 10:50, you have no chance of getting a subway ride! In a city where people don't even start partying until after 2am, I find this ridiculous. The subte also closes randomly and erratically for strikes (as they did this afternoon). The subte is also always extremely crowded. It may just be the line I take, but at noon the cars are packed and at rush hour you can forget it. Yesterday morning at around 7:50 I went to the subte to go to San Telmo. The platform was packed. The first subte came and it was more than packed. Imagine the E train during rush hour at the Queens Plaza stop and how many people are in that train. Double that number, and you'll have an idea of how many people were squeezed into the subway car. If one person got out, the crowd would push until one person managed to squeeze him or herself into the car. Five subways passed before I was able to get on, and even when I did get on I was barely standing in the door. Where are all these people coming from!
This morning I helped translate and edit a fundraising brochure for a Jewish Organization in Buenos Aires called AKIM that helps adults with disabilities reach autonomy. It was fun to put my only skill ever learned in college into practice! In the afternoon I went to the Fundacion Favaloro, a transplant clinic where I will doing an internship shadowing some doctors. On the subte, at the stop before mine, a young guy walked onto my car with a kippah on; he was first orthodox Jew I have seen on the subway. Then, he started speaking English! Of course I introduced myself, missing my stop but making a friend in the process. He had recently arrived, and, hopefully, I will be able to connect him the kosher hostel and the Jewish community here. It is a funny feeling, being here for only a month and yet showing someone else around; it happens as well when I am asked directions and I find myself giving them accurately (this has happened a number of times, though I must say I have yet to ask for directions myself). I got to join on some inpatient visits, and I also sat in on outpatient visits where I was introduced as a doctor from the USA, and where I sat as one fellow was told he had multiple carcinomas and would need a complete colectomy, while another was told that he has 15 lesions on his liver and has about two months to live. Not a very uplifting part of the day, though on the bright side there was one lady who, prior to her coming to the FF, had 56 separate operations on her digestive system. The Dr I am working for did a colon reconstruction and, seeing her, I could believe she had ever been sick a day in her life.
I left a bit early (the doctor sees patients until 8!) and went back to the apartment to get ready for my first run in months. This run, however, would be a run like I have never had before. As many of you know, my knee has been misbehaving over the last two and a half years, and I haven't been able to run much; I didn't even bring my running shoes with me. There has recently been a lot of talk about barefoot running however, and this evening I gave it a shot. It hurts like heck. That is, my feet hurt and my calves hurt, though everyone says that they will until you get used to it. My knee, however, felt fine (though maybe the pain in my feet wasn't letting me feel the pain in my knee). Judgment Day on that is tomorrow; if all is well I may find myself attracting stares (all pointed downwards) more often. Today was Gnocchi Day in Argentina, as is the 29th of every month, and we had homemade gnocchi for dinner. Divine.
This shabbos will be my first in Recoleta; I'll be going to the only MO shul in the city, run by a Bnei Akiva shaliach, and on Sunday I will go to Tigre with the Goldfarbs.
Buenas Noches and have a great Shabbos!