Sunday

Today I went to the Centro Cristiano de la Union in La Plata. It's a small church consisting of probably 260 friendly people. I went to both of their services, one at 10 am and the other at 7 pm. Even though it is scheduled to start at those times, I arrived later but was still there before they started the music and everything that traditionally comprises a church service. It is essential to socialize first. (Because of this, it reminds me of "Nav time.") The two services have completely different feels to them though. The first was smaller, calmer, and more intimate. They had coffee and cookies in the back. During the message, mate gourds were passed around from person to person as well. Tonight, it was a bigger group with more musicians and people my age. I'm gradually starting to recognize some faces. I meet a couple women who live within a block of where I will be living! It sounds like a great neighborhood. I have been fortunate to be surrounded by so many people willing to help me. I should be moving in this week with Mali.

I'm looking into different opportunities to serve with the church, including one ministry that goes to a poor neighborhood regularly to give essentials to kids and spend time with them, to provide strong role models. I also want to join the Club Estudiantes (athletics) to take some yoga, aerobics, pilates, or dance classes. So far I've had a lot of free time, but it looks like my schedule will fill up fast.

All of the streets are numbered so it makes it fairly easy to get around and figure out the distance between places. My apartment is close to our office downtown, the church I mentioned, and near the fine arts school of the University of La Plata. I've been reading the paper some here and today there was an article about the swine flu that actually mentioned the research that the UW-Madison vet school has been doing on the disease. It's amazing how connected the world is! I did not expect to see the name of my alma mater in the paper here.

Sunday is "pretty dead" here. Most of the shops are closed. It's considered a day to spend with family. Today was a bit different, because of the elections more people were out and about, but I still noticed a difference compared to home, where many businesses are open 7 days a week. The elections here are mandatory I learned. If an Argentine doesn't vote, he/she will be fined. I'm not sure how it all works exactly. We'll see how they turn out. Meanwhile, this afternoon I went out with the Pattersons to Bliss, a cafe in City Bell--one of the few places open it seemed, to watch the US soccer team play Brasil. We enjoyed drinks and medialunas (sweet crescent rolls). Medialuna literally means half moon. :) Those are my thoughts for now.