Hello and welcome to my blog. I am writing from my new house in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. My new family consists of my mom Silvia, my dad Antonio, my brother Marco, and my sister Ana. I could go on and on about how awesome they all are but this blog is supposed to be about what I have been doing. I will say that the family is a perfect match for me.
I arrived in La Plata yesterday morning after a three day orientation camp with other AFS students from around the world. In my room were the other American boys going to Argentina, a French boy, and some Danish boys. The Danish boys were very funny. One of the American boys liked a German girl so he asked one of the Danish boys to teach him something in German to say to the girl. The Danish boy told him to say "haast der dursht fal" and said that it meant "you are as beautiful as a waterfall." The American boy built up his confidence and finally said this to the German girl. After he said it she got a shocked look on her face. It turns out that he asked her if she had diarrhea. As I said, the Danish boys were very funny.
The camp was a lot of fun but it was much too long considering I had already gone through a two day orientation camp in Miami with all 24 of the American students going to Argentina prior to arriving in Buenos Aires. At long last I got on the bus which would take me to my new home town. I got off the bus and was greeted with a kiss from each of my family members. There are 4 other exchange students in La Plata and we all posed for a picture. After that, I got into a cab with my new brother and father. Soon after we arrived home.
I walked in and was immediately surprised by how small and simple the house was. I thought about how I would have to adjust to such living and tried to remain positive. After eating lunch, Marco and I were talking about soccer. He said that Gimnasia, the local club and the one that my family supports, was playing against Colon in two hours at the stadium. After being asked if I wanted to go and trying somehow to express that there is nothing I would rather have done, we settled the fact that we would go see the game. I was pleasantly surprised at how spontaneous it all was and thought that I would like that aspect of the culture.
So we all left the house for the stadium. Ana likes Colon so she had her Colon jersey on. I was wearing my red shoes and a blue shirt which they pointed out was funny because Colon is red and Gimnasia is blue. We walked for about five minutes until we reached the street that the stadium is on. At this point, Ana and my mom split up from Marco, my dad, and I. I asked why we were not going together and they said that the visiting fans have to go through a whole different entrance to prevent fighting. I thought it was very cool that a regular season game would mean so much to the fans that they had to be separated. We walked to the ticket window and got the tickets. Then we were patted down for weapons. I guess they take soccer games really seriously in Argentina.
After passing the weapons check, we walked into the stadium. It was at this point that I noticed that all of the people were looking at me. It was an interesting feeling to be the foreigner. I was also very excited to see my first professional game. We walked up the stairs and sat down behind a steel bar, completely blocking our view. We were very early to the game so I was trying to figure out why we would sit behind a big blue bar. The stadium gradually filled up and Colon took the field to warm up. I asked my dad where Gimnasia was and he said that they warm up underneath the field. When Gimnasia took the field, everyone stood up and cheered. At this point I saw why we sat behind the bar. The bar was to lean on and we would be leaning on it the entire game. Everybody stands up for the whole 90 minutes of the game, so it was of much help to have a bar to lean forward on.
The game ended 0-0, but there was much action and close scoring chances. I would have liked to see a goal, of course, but it was still an awesome experience. Looking around the stadium I saw giant trees towering over the top rows. The stadium is called "el bosque" which means "the forest." I thought that was really cool and then Marco told me that the team is called "los lobos" which means "the wolves." I was nearly blown away by the perfect sense that that made.
After the game we returned to the house. My mom started boiling water on the stove and Marco turned on the TV. He switched around until he found the soccer channel. We got back from the game only to watch more soccer on TV. I thought that I will love my year in this culture. The water on the stove was for mate. "Mah tay." It is a very strong tea that is a tradition and social custom in Argentina. We sat around the table, sipping mate and eating cookies while watching soccer highlights on TV.
We had pizza for dinner that night and I was very tired after that so I showered and went to bed. It was an awesome first day.
Today, I woke up at 11 am to find my dad making beef and bread for Ana and Marco. I had some and it was very delicious. Then my dad left for work and soon after Marco received a text message from a friend informing him that a teacher from the school had died in a car accident and that there were no more classes for the day, or for tomorrow. So I literally sat around all day, drinking mate and watching soccer on TV with Marco and Ana. I also watched Like Mike in spanish and saw some American music on TV.
It is now 12:20 am and I am very tired. Spanish all day requires a great deal of brain function, so I need to go shower and get to sleep. No school tomorrow, so my mom is taking me to the center of the city so I can buy a guitar. ¡Chau!
