The days in Cordoba are passing so quickly, I cannot believe the CSC assignment is almost half-way through. One of our ADEC co-workers asked yesterday what we missed most about home. I responded that I’ve been too busy to have the time to miss much at all. (Ryan, of course I miss you). There is not nearly enough time to do all that I would like, in terms of both work and personal experiences. I’m trying to make the most of every minute.

We just finished up our second weekly full IBM CSC team meeting, and I have a little alone time to decompress and catch up on my blog. Work with ADEC is going well and is very busy. We have a lot of discussions and meetings with the ADEC team, which frequently lead to more discussions and meetings, not leaving much time to do ‘real’ work. Now that I am writing this, I realize that sounds an awful lot like my job back home.

The ADEC team is continuing to plan activities around Cordoba for us, and join us whenever possible. Yesterday, Isabel and Paula joined Henk, Jayan, Roman, and me for a tour around part of the city and happy hour. Here are Paula, Jayan, Roman, and Henk with the tour guide in Plaza San Martin, with Iglesia Catedral in the background. The Plaza has been the center of life in Cordoba since it was constructed in the late 1500s. Back then, it was used as a marketplace for selling and trading goods, the place for celebrations, bullfights, and the location of executions. Today it is still bustling with people enjoying the green space and is the host to many events, including speeches, protests, and music and dancing. The statue in the middle of the plaza is of, you guessed it, Jose de San Martin, considered a liberator of Argentina and South America from the Spanish Empire.  Someone on the IBM team realized early on that San Martin points in the direction of our hotel, so we can always follow that if we get lost.
    

From the plaza, we were led into Iglesia Catedral. The inside of the cathedral is pretty amazing; this picture definitely does not do it justice. Among other things, the cathedral contains a statue of St. Mark with a lion, created by a local Argentine artist. However, since lions are not native to Argentina, the artist created what was described to him by the Europeans, and it looks more like a monkey than a lion. We then moved on to a statue of Jeronimo Luis de Cabrera, a Spanish Conquistador and founder of the city of Cordoba. It was interesting to learn that Cabrera had good relations and lived peacefully with the native inhabitants of Cordoba. The tour guide also told us that Cabrera was the child of an affair his father had with a Jewish woman, but Google has yet to verify that for me.
     

The tour finished in the Manzana Jesuitica (the Jesuit block, not the Jesuit apple), declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000. We toured the Iglesia de La Compania de Jesus church and the neighboring National University of Cordoba building, now a museum. Bishop Fray Fernando de Trejo y Sanabria founded the seminary, which later became an official university in the early 1600’s. The university is the oldest and second largest university in Argentina. The Jesuits were expelled from South America in the mid-1700’s, returning about 100 years later and regaining ownership of some of their land and churches. After the tour, we followed Paula to a happy hour spot near her apartment for some appetizers and pretty good mojitos. Is it wrong to put a picture of a Jesuit Bishop next to a picture of happy hour?
     

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We met with the Raul Dentesano, the Executive Director of ADEC, today.  He provided useful information about the strategies and objectives of ADEC, the future vision, and what he sees as the major challenges.  There is so much we could help with at ADEC, I wish we had the time to do more.  It is also becoming increasingly obvious that non-profits around the world face very similar issues.

Roman and I set out in search of a vegetarian restaurant for dinner tonight.  First one, closed.  Second one, closed, even though the hours on the flyer said it should be open. Third place in the mall food court, no one wanted to take our order.  Walk back to the hotel for salads.  Better luck next time.  At least it was a pleasant night for a walk, and I got to see the mall, which I hadn’t seen yet.  Since you all know how much I love to shop!  (I’m tired and where’s the bathroom).

The mall was rather similar to a mall at home, except four stories.  I also didn’t see any ‘anchor’ stores, but we didn’t really walk around it too much.  There was a gym, wellness center, and kids’ amusement park on the top floor.

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A very long walk makes for a very tired Nicole, so this post is going to be on the short side.  The weather was absolutely beautiful today.  Roman, Tarja, and I, with A.J. in the morning and Henk at the end, wandered all around Cordoba, checking out some museums, parks, and markets.  Highlights included meeting another Longhorn in the Plaza San Martin, the tranquil open courtyard at the Museo de la Ciudad, beautiful landscape photographs at Paseo del Buen Pastor, the architecture and tile floor mosaics at the Museo “Evita” Palacio Ferreyra, and seeing a children’s art class at Parque Sarmiento.  We also enjoyed exhibits at the Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Emilio Caraffa and wandered through the craft market held every Saturday and Sunday nights.
     

A.J., Roman, and Tarja at the Paseo del Bicentenario.  Built in 2010 for the bicentennial, there are 201 rings representing major milestones in the history of Argentina since 1810.

The Parque Sarmiento was lively with families and friends picnicking, kicking around futbols, enjoying paddle boats in the lake, and kids on the playground.  Here’s a picture of one of the children’s art classes being held.

Tarja and Roman relaxing during a much needed break for tea.

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Today was such a fun day! It began by sleeping in, which for me is always a good start to the day, and much needed since I’ve been staying up way too late here. Slept in, got some breakfast, and then took a stroll with Gina along the city canal. We returned just in time to catch the taxis to the futbol game.

A local futbol team stays at our hotel, and A.J. talked with the hotel staff and scored the entire IBM team free tickets to the match this afternoon (go A.J.!). This was a friendly game between two local second tier teams, at a stadium we later learned was built for the 1978 World Cup games in Argentina. The crowd looked huge from the outside, but once inside, the stadium was not even half full. That could be related to the recent regulations only allowing season ticket holders into games due to violence at a game in Buenos Aires.

  

There is a lot of enthusiasm for the local teams, with singing, chanting, clapping, and jumping up and down. It of reminded me of a U.T. football game, especially when the sun shifted and we were all baking. After a game, it is common to set up grills in the parking lot and grill bratwurst (for personal consumption and to sell), similar to post-game tailgating! The smell reminded me of Best Wurst on 6th St. Here are some pictures of the IBM group (top row: Atilla, Henk, Gina; bottom row: Jayan, Edwin, Tina, Roman, Desh), A.J.’s enthusiasm for the home team, and Tina and me hanging out with local fans.

      

After soccer, Henk, Jayan, Roman, and I met up with our ADEC co-workers, Isabel, Daniel, and Paula. It was a little confusing trying to coordinate with Isabel to pick us up, mostly because we are totally unfamiliar with the area and the stadium grounds are massive, but we managed to find a street corner a bit away from the stadium where she came to meet us. We then headed to a great little café, which could have easily been in the U.S. or Europe, for coffee, tea, and delicious desserts. Many of the ADEC team and IBM ADEC sub-team members are around the same age, so we have a lot in common and I’ve really enjoyed spending time with them all. We already have plans to meet up again tomorrow night and take a day trip next Sunday for some hiking.

To end the evening, the four IBMers all squeezed into the back of Daniel’s small car for the ride home. Talk about getting to know your team members! Good thing we are all young. Too bad the pictures of car ride didn’t come out.

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I did something tonight that I honestly never thought in my life I would do. I attended Shabbat services and dinner at the Chabad in Cordoba. I apologize in advance for many people reading this blog who have no idea what I’m talking about, but I do not plan on providing a whole lot of explanation, other than to say that Chabad is basically like Orthodox Judaism. Google can fill in the other religious details for any interested readers.

Let’s see if I get this right, A.J.’s father’s Rabbi’s son’s wife is the sister of the Rabbi here in Cordoba. A.J. had mentioned me to the Rabbi, who graciously invited me to services and dinner. What an interesting and enjoyable evening! Services were relatively short, and I could generally follow along with the Hebrew. Dinner guests included A.J. and me, plus a few other visiting Argentines (not Orthodox) who all spoke a little bit of English. The Rabbi and his wife, both originally from New York, were very warm and welcoming. I wound up in the kitchen (where else of course), talking with the Rabbi’s wife, their oldest daughter in her mid-20’s, and a few other women for a long time. Just a very pleasant evening, and of course the food was delicious; Matzo ball soup and roasted chicken, plus lots of salad to start.

Thank you A.J. for including me this evening. It was a great opportunity to not only experience different religious customs, but to learn more about Cordoba, see some of the local neighborhoods, and meet nice people.

The only picture I have from today is lunch. Isabel, Daniel, and Paula took us to a little cafe around the corner from the ADEC offices. The meal was a delicious spread of meats and cheeses, the occasional olive, and warm bread. Egg, you would have enjoyed the prosciutto.

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Finally, I have some clarity and understanding of the tangible deliverables of our assignment! As an engineer, I don’t do well with high level, ‘fuzzy’ requirements and project plans, which has been the biggest challenge for me the past few days. I like to know what the goal is, the detailed activities required to reach the goal, and how long and when those activities will all take place. And I want it to be in a nicely formatted, uniform, bulleted or numbered list; Or even better, a spreadsheet, so I can easily manipulate numbers. (Really, I promise, I’m only slightly obsessive). The good news is that now most of the project details have been flushed out.

We presented the high level plan and activities to the ADEC team this afternoon, including the executive director and manager of new projects. Roman did a wonderful job presenting, which has an added layer of difficulty when everything he says must be translated, and is then followed by sometimes lengthy conversations in Spanish. Veronica had dropped by to give Henk some visa information for Brazil and was able to stay for the presentation. It was wonderful to have her there to help translate and clarify, and hopefully it provided her with a good opportunity to assess our team’s interactions with ADEC and overall plan. The ADEC team seemed very happy with our direction and asked us to include reflections of our month working with them in the final presentation. I feel very lucky to be working with such great people at ADEC!

Today for lunch we piggybacked on a delivery order one of our ADEC team members was placing. I got a delicious and very large dish of lentil stew with some vegetables. The funny thing is that it was the ‘vegetarian’ dish, yet still contained some pieces of meat! Either way, it was really good, easy, and inexpensive. Most of the ADEC team brings their lunch from home, so we may take advantage of the delivery quite often.

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Meetings today with ADEC team members Silvina and Jorge were enlightening and helped clarify ADECs objectives and operating procedures. Silvina is an electrical engineer by trade and heads up the Technical Liaison Unit, which covers a large number of industries, from agricultural to electrical to software. Jorge is a very charismatic individual and has a wealth of information about ADECs history and ideas about the agencies future. He has been executive director of ADEC in the past, and recently returned to ADEC in his current role as Manager of New Projects.

I actually remembered to take some pictures of the IBM and ADEC teams hard at work. The first one shows our primary contact and translator Isabel, who I’ve mentioned in previous posts. The second picture is from our meeting with Silvina.

As the title of this blog indicates, I was thrilled to eat a salad for lunch today. My body has been craving vegetables, too much meat and bread based foods the past few days. Most of the additions to my Spanish vocabulary so far have been food related (basil, carrots, and beets). I ordered the salad before looking up all the ingredients, and was very excited when I realized it had beets. I’ve also picked up the occasional work related word from all the documents I have been reading/translating with Google (development, approval, board of directors). Thinking I should start learning some verbs to go along with all those oh so useful nouns.

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First full day of work, first walk alone (just the IBM ADEC team, no locals or CDS guides) to and from ADEC, first meal with no fluent Spanish speaker, first trip to el supermercado with no Spanish speaker.  We didn’t get lost, managed to eat lunch, and I even bought some avocados and oranges for snack; small successes.

We had a very productive day at work, speaking with Rodolfo and learning about the Competitive Fund managed by ADEC.  Big thanks to Isabel, who spent hours translating between Rodolfo and our team.  I find it very interesting but also mentally draining to process all the information they are providing. I cannot even imagine how exhausting it might be to translate for hours on end.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to gather our thoughts, discuss, and review the stated activities and deliverables with the statement of work based on our discussions with the ADEC team so far.  For a small organization, ADEC is very complex in terms of the different areas and diversity of projects and programs they provide, and every time we delve more into the details, additional questions arise.  Just add it to the list for tomorrow’s discussions.

Sorry I don’t have pictures of anything work related, or really anything at all, over the past two days.  As Ryan can tell you, I’m not the best at taking photos.  Luckily, other team members are.  Here’s a link to Edwin’s blog with some fun photos of the orientation and kick-off event.  You may need a Tumblr account to view it.

I talked (actually FaceTimed) with my parents this evening for the first time since I’ve been in Argentina.  The connection was a little inconsistent, it would be really good, and then very slow or we’d lose video, but good enough to get the message across.  My mom said that she now reads my blog to my Nan every day.  Talk about being guilted into blogging on a regular basis.  Hello Nan!

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Today was the first day of work for CSC Argentina team 1. The morning started with a brisk walk to exchange dollars for pesos, where the gentleman working the exchange thought I was Argentine, until he tried to talk to me that is. That was followed by another brisk walk to the hotel hosting the kick-off event. Note to self, do not walk multiple miles in heels, no matter how comfortable they are.

The kick-off event was a lot of fun! We had time at the beginning to meet and mingle with members of ADEC and IBM Argentina and then had formal introductions and presentations, conducted almost entirely in Spanish. Luckily, Daniel, Isabel, and Marcela from ADEC were able to translate for us. Each member of the CSC team got up to introduce ourselves, and many of us managed to say at least a few works in Spanish. Henk worked with Daniel during the mingling and was able to give much of his introduction in Spanish. It was very impressive!

The afternoon was spent at the ADEC offices, meeting more of the team, and learning a lot about the organization and projects ADEC coordinates. Isabel and Daniel were very patient explaining all the details of the organization and answering our numerous questions.

I managed to sneak in a quick run on the treadmill before dinner. There’s an outdoor pool with a great view of the city next to the gym, where I snapped a picture of Tarja and Jessi enjoying the sunset.

Dinner was at an Argentine BBQ, called an Asado; somewhat similar to a Brazilian steakhouse in the US, except no salad bar, and not all you can eat, but still a ridiculous amount of food! Total food coma.

P.S. Happy Anniversary Uncle and Robin!

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The title says it all, though the bugs in Cordoba are muy pequeno compared to the huge things we have in Texas. I considered taking a picture of it for the blog, but decided to kill it instead.

This morning Jessi and Veronica held an orientation for our team, consisting of meet and greet activities, housekeeping, and logistics. Veronica taught us all how to greet properly, with a kissing sound and touching right cheeks, and then made us practice; very entertaining. All members of the team then shared the top 8 life changing events in their lives, which was a wonderful way to get to know one another. I am lucky to be working with such outstanding team members!

We followed Veronica on a tour of the city to find some important places, like the lavanderia (washateria for those of you in Austin) and the mall (which looked like a museum from the outside). There are beautiful churches every few blocks in Cordoba. Here’s a picture of the Iglesia Catedral on one side of the Plaza San Martin. From the pictures I’ve seen, the cathedral looks even more amazing lit up at night.

The ADEC sub-team (Henk, Jayan, Roman, and I) met for a little bit this evening to discuss a general timeline and milestones for the project. We realized that with the kick-off, closing, holiday, and volunteer day, we only have about 15 real working days, and a lot to get done in that time. It is going to be a very hectic pace, but I am really looking forward to digging in and getting started.

Tomorrow is the kick-off event with local politicians, IBM Argentina, our clients, and our CSC team. Now it’s time for bed.

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