Saturday was fútbol day.
First a few explanations. Rosario has two soccer teams: Newell’s and Central. This rivalry isn’t like a college rivalry where you pick the school you attend, rather it’s entirely personal choice. Now add to the mix all the other teams throughout Argentina, for instance Boca Juniors and River Plate in Buenos Aires, and there ends up being an absurd amount of teams to chose from.
Personally I’m a Central girl - mostly because Marta wouldn’t let me live here if I chose Newell’s. However, despite our personal feelings we had to go to a Newell’s game on Saturday because Central doesn’t have any more home games while we’re here. The game was against River Plate from Buenos Aires. We bought tickets for the River Plate section since none of us were Newell’s, while this seemed like a good idea at the time, it wasn’t.
With only a small section being dedicated to visiting teams we ended up being in with the hardcore River Plate fans. Belén explained to us that some teams will actually “hire” people to lead cheers in their sections. Kind of like cheerleaders, except middle-aged, smelly, hairy, shirtless men. They take their roles extremely seriously and many of them have tattoos devoted to their team.
Right, now take five 20 year old girls, put them in the middle of a crowd of nasty old men smoking pot… That was my Saturday night.
It was actually a lot of fun though and we learned some sweet cheers which I’ve now successfully forgotten. We left early to go to a bar though because we feared for our lives.
Oh, then Lacey developed some weird rash, swollen hand, allergic reaction thing so Belén called her mom [who’s a nurse] and we went to the hospital so she could get a shot in her butt. Except it was a maternity hospital so we had a bunch of pregnancy talks while we waited. Including explaining the difficult verb: to impregnate.
We finished the night with empañadas and Buscando a Nemo.
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i would assume you would agree with this next sentence....
ReplyDeletesoccer games in latin america=indescribable until you attend one.
i so badly tried to explain my experiences about going to games and living right next to the stadium, but none of my gringo family/friends seemed to understand.
at least you sat in the hairy-chested old-man-pot-smoking-section. the first game i went to in costa rica we made the mistake of sitting in the gang section (yes, there was a violent gang dedicated to their futbol team). it was interesting to say the least. my friend even managed to get pick-pocketed even though his wallet was in the front pocket of his skinny jeans (whoever managed the steal was a master of thievery)
lesson i'm sure you've already learned...as amazing as your stories and experiences will be, most of your family/friends simply won't comprehend what you have gone through in the last few months and won't share the same joy and excitement you do about your stories and experiences. i can't wait to just listen, because that's all i wanted people to do when i came home. instead, most people will just assume you didn't learn anything, but rather you just went on vacation, sun bathed and drank alcohol for the last couple months (or at least that's how a lot of people treated me)
wow, my simple comment turned into a novel. lo siento, lo siento. lo sieeeeeeento
You are 100% correct with that statement.
ReplyDeleteThe section we were in was definitely the rowdiest. Newell's fans are tame and sit down, River fans are insane and never stop fist pumping and jumping. The girls we were with were scared for us which is why we left early. I'm thinking it's similar to your experience except none of us got pick-pocketed..
I'm anticipating being frustrated with the comprehension thing when I get back. Luckily I have a lot of friends, including you, that have had similar experiences and can relate. But, it's true that nobody will ever fully understand..