Patagonia

This is going to be a quick one as the computer I am using is dying (oh yeah and I'm in patagonia and just want to be outside in the mountians!) but I just had to share about my day. It was fantastic.

We got up this morning around 8, as usual, and headed out to Cerro Trundaor (thunder mountian from all the avalanches that fall in the area) National Park. We did some small hikes around waterfalls, and then headed up to the glacier area, where we saw both a regular and black glacier. It is really sad to see how fast they are fading-- our guide told us the ice had receeded 30 inches in 10 years on the surface of the black glacier. They predict that in 20 years it may be entirely gone. Sad to think that our children may not get to see the things we did. More on that later, with photos. Speed postings for now.

The coolest part of my day, actually, was dinner tonight. I explored Bariloche tonight with a jewish friend of mine and we stumbled upon the Chabad house. I was a bit tenative but it wound up being a great night. They didn't have the warmth or college-spirit, we'll call it, of Hershey and Chana at WashU but I underestimated how great it would be to be in a jewish home for Shabat. Not to mention the food was great. It just made me realize how much I do value being Jewish, even though I may not be as observant as others. It's nice to sit around a table with family and friends. It's nice to talk about Jewish values. And I'm finding more and more that I enjoy talking about the Torah portion and religious philosiphy. I don't so much see it pertianing to my life, but I am so intruiged as to how or why one believes what they do. Tonight, for example, I couldn't help but to wonder the Rabbi's thoughts on fatalism, or destiny and if he believed HaShem had a grand plan for him or not in the end. I am excited to come back to school and talk to Chana about that kind of stuff. Why not!

Anyways, that's all for now. Tomorrow we are visiting a Mapuche community (indigenous to this area) all day and then we leave the following day for a 20hr bus ride back to Buenos Aires. Then finals. And ISP research. Back to the real world. Boo.

Photos of glaciers, national parks, hikes, ect to come! :)