El Copa Mundial…Let’s go USA y Vamos Argentina

I don’t know a thing about Soccer, but I love being in a Soccer country for the world cup, it’s just so exciting. Everything stops for the games, betting pools abound and good spirits are to be found all around. After the disappointing start on Friday (two ties), Saturday started off with rain here, and as I told you in the past, the rain here is relentless. I went to the University of Buenos Aires to watch the Argentina game with my Argentine roommate and her friends, I was surprised at how quiet it was, but then the game was early (11 am on a Saturday is early for Argentines) and it was raining, most Argentines didn’t miss the game, they just stayed inside and watched it at home with family. I was happy to get an Argentina win. After the game it was off to see USA play England at a bar in Amargo. My friend works for the Argentimes and the bar was full of Brits with a few Americans. I am happy that we tied, but would have loved to have beaten the Brits, oh well next time, at least our goalie played great, I can’t say that for England, although I should thank him for our goal.

Sunday was full of more game watching and an Asado at my friend Nicole’s house, too much food and beverage but so delicious, at least the rain stopped on Sunday for the BBQ, made for a nice evening. Monday was back to work. After 10 weeks of Spanish lessons (9 because I took a week off to travel with Nick), I am done. I have 1 week of work left, which has been mostly spent watching world cup games, since we have another pool going, as a side our student coordinator Cechu won the first pool and received 14 one liter beers, I am hoping to win the second one, but I am not doing so well. Anyways, like I said, work stops for El Mundial, but I can’t complain, I am learning to love fútbol. I just wish for the last world cup, when I was in New Zealand, that they had played in it, but I will take their last minute score to tie and actually prove that they deserved to be in the Cup.

Since we have tons of Brazilians at our school, the Brazil game was huge. Everyone came over to the school in the afternoon and we had a small picada and drinks, I can say that I don’t recommend drinking Fernet y Coca in the middle of the day. And to make it sweeter Brazil won. That night I decided to be an American and head to Casa Bar for the Lakers and Celtics game. It was a pretty sad game (I’m one of those fans that roots for the team playing the Lakers, but that’s about all I care about basketball), but it was fun because 10,000 miles away I met up with a friend from middle school who I haven’t seen in over 13 years. Small world, it would be better if I told you I just ran into him, but we had known we were both in BsAs and it took almost a month to meet up, pretty small world anyway. I do have to say after watching the basketball, I would have rather been watching Soccer; I am defiantly a hinca (fan). Now I am just debating if I should get a jersey….hahaha(Messi? Maradona? a better one would be the EEUU)

Filming, Research in Casetllaño, and Asado

At VOS I have been working on writing a script for a short, 2 minute, YouTube film to advertise our Spanish lessons on Skype. We filmed Monday and I worked with our marketing/film guy to perfect it for YouTube (VOS ESpanish Film). I can say for the next one, I am going to hire someone to do my makeup! Hahaha. It was fun and a great learning process, I am now working on the sequel and we hope to film before I leave.  My Spanish is now at a level where I am doing research in Spanish for my class. This week we researched the different types of urban tribes among young Porteños, the music of Argentina, and the history of the World Cup. I can say it was pretty awesome to be able to read articles in Spanish and understand in order to write synopsis in Spanish, I have finally learned the language.

After a tranquil start to my week, the Spanish talk became predominant and the festivities began. Wednesday I saw the Argentine film “Derecho de la Familia” at cine club and then went to Million for Happy Hour with my classmates and wrapped up the night with dinner at Piola Pizza. (Remember Porteños eat around 10pm, and we didn’t make it home until after 12, due to the good times we were having at the restaurant). Thursday was crazy; we had a Picada, or finger food, evening and fiesta. I even learned a bit of Portuguese that evening, but I won’t be using it as my pronunciation in Portuguese is a joke; I cannot speak properly at all! I was not blessed with the ability to speak in an accent, sad. I am definitely a gringa, but I am okay with that.

Friday is when the festivities really began……..La Mundial and an asado at school for lunch. Soccer is just so much more exciting in a soccer loving country. I may not know the rules but it’s just so exciting with all the viewing parties and paraphernalia. We started a pool for all the games this weekend and the losers have to buy the winner of this weekend’s games a beer. I am already losing, but still loving it, especially since I am sitting in front of the TV at work “working” while watching the games. Can’t wait for all the festivities this weekend, Saturday is already booked up with the Argentina v. Nigeria game and then USA v. England at two different bars with mixed groups and Argentina has set up large screens in two of the main city plazas for viewing as well, so exciting!