On Thursday of week twelve I had soccer practice. I went to Lucas' house after for a glass of juice and at 10, I headed out so I would be back in time for dinner. As I turned onto my street I heard a kissing noise, so I turned to look. It was really dark, as my street isn't lighted, but I made out two women on my corner. I biked down my street until I reached the gate, and I looked at the corner and saw a girl waving. I was a little confused because I couldn't see very well. I wasn't sure if she was waving at me or what, so I waved back to see if that would do anything. She started walking towards me. She stepped into a patch of light and I noticed she was very fat, so I opened the mailbox to grab the keys. They weren't there. By this time she was close enough for me to see that she was in fact a he. I started ringing the doorbell like a madman. My dad was a little slow answering the door, and the transvestite prostitute got her question in, "Quieres algo?" (want anything?) I was flipping out. I think I managed to say no and then finally the door opened, and it left. As it was walking away I showed my dad and we shared a laugh.
My classmates and teammates had a good laugh at this story, too. They all know the kissing noise means run away. I didn't, but I do now.
On sunday I went to Buenos Aires for the first time since the day I flew in. I went with the German boy and his consejero. We met up with the AFS kids who were waiting for their bus to Iguazu Falls. We walked around a mall with them for about an hour until they had to leave. We ate at McDonalds inside of the mall, and the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese I had hit the spot. Then we left the mall to explore the city. Everything was very expensive, and I saw a lot of tourists. Most signs were in Spanish with English translations beneath. We walked a crowded street with vendors and their tables. I found an awesome pair of old sunglasses and asked how much. The guy told me 300. I said ok and then he said dollars. "Armani originals, 1200 pesos." Haha yeah right, thanks anyways.
We took the subway to a place where we could get a nice view of the skyline. It was quite nice. My friend's consejero said "Buenos Aires has many old buildings and new buildings" and we all laughed at how silly of a statement that was, but I got what he meant. Looking at the skyline there were very beautiful old buildings mixed in with very modern, fancy buildings. By the end of the day, we were all very tired. I was happy to return to La Plata. I called my house when we were close, so my dad would come pick me up from the bus station.
I was waiting for about a half hour, and my mom called me saying that he had left right after I called. I knew something had happened. He came running up and informed me that the car caught on fire when he was coming to pick me up. We walked to the car to get the chairs out of the trunk. The hood was a wreck, and the front windshield was shattered. "Are you ok!?" "Si." He said it started smoking first, so he got out. Anyways, we took a cab home.
So what happened with the soccer thing is this: I came into the picture past the deadline for adding new players, so Luis had been seeking an illegal way to get me into a game. I didn't have a DNI (an Argentine ID card) and there was no way he could put a passport number down on the roster without the ref noticing. So he said I needed to try to obtain one in order to be able to play. Yeah right, I thought. How could I get a DNI when I'm not Argentine? We tried, though. On Monday of week thirteen, we went to the government office for DNIs but they just sent us to Immigrations. Immigrations told us it is a really long process and it could be completed by April at the earliest. I wasn't going to give up, though.
We went to the league office that night, and spoke with the vice-president of the league. We told him the situation and he was sympathetic. I had prepared an entire speech for changing his mind, but he said everything I wanted to hear. He said they had never had this case before, and that the rules of the league all state DNI as the part you need to be officially rostered. He said there is a league meeting in early December with all the presidents of the clubs, and he would present the idea of making an exception for me to play with my passport. As I shook his hand and thanked him for his time, he said "I hope you play." It was nice knowing that I have him on my side. All I can do is wait. I've learned not to get my hopes up with the soccer thing anymore, but I have a feeling I will be good to go come next season in February. If I do end up playing, I will be the first foreigner to play in the Liga Amateur Platense in 97 years!
On Sunday, I went with my parents and Marco to see Gimnasia play against Velez. Velez is top of the league, so I was expecting to finally see my first goal in a professional game. The stadium is within walking distance, so we set off down the traintracks towards the stadium. All of the stray dogs in our street followed us; into the stadium even! I think there were four of them. 3 Left before kickoff, but one stayed with us in the stands throughout the entire game. The game ended 0-0, and I've still not witnessed a professional goal, but it was a very good game. Velez was an excellent team, and it was nice to see soccer at that level. After the game, Marco carried the dog home.
This is my last week of school before I get out on summer vacation. I'm looking forward to vacation, but the real work here is in the Language acquisition, and there's no break from that. This will give me some quality time to work on my Common App, though. It's hard to believe it's been almost 100 days since I left home. Time flies when you're havin' fun.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
weeks ten and eleven
It's a little hard to believe I am writing the post for my tenth and eleventh weeks here already. Last night I looked at a calendar and saw that I have been living in this house for almost 80 days. The time flies.
Being gone for so long, homesickness can come and go, and in these last two weeks it was pretty strong. I had a lot of trouble sleeping in these last two weeks - I mean, I literally didn't sleep many nights, would go to school with a killer headache and would often have to leave early to take some advil and get some much needed sleep. My sleep schedule was a mess, and so was I. I realize now what the problem was.
About two weeks ago I started taking the modem into my room before bed so I could talk to people back home, usually my family. After we would finish, my mind would be filled with things that a person here wouldn't think about. Living in this different culture and environment, it is important to try to be as much like the people here as possible. Obviously I can't forget about my family and friends back home, but the people here aren't always thinking about people in another country when they are trying to sleep. I need to always be thinking about what an Argentine person would do. It's sorta like a WWJD bracelet.
On monday of week ten I had soccer training. Wednesday was the country census. Back home we do it in the mail, but here they have government workers come to everyone's door. So for this reason we didn't have school. The bigger news from Wednesday was that the ex-president of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, died. He was much-loved by the people here, so the whole country basically shut down for a while. School was cancelled Thursday, and the stores were closed. National mourning. All soccer games were postponed that weekend too. I found it really cool that the people here have so much respect for an old leader that they would postpone something they are so passionate about. The Boca vs. River match was to be played that weekend (Boca-River is the biggest rivalry in all of sports in the entire world, by the way), but even that match took a back seat to what had happened. I watched some of the funeral on TV with Lucas. Thousands of people came from all around Argentina to pay him respects. It was amazing.
That did mean that I didn't get to play my first match for For-Ever, but that was ok. I slept funny on my neck and couldn't turn my head, so I would have been worthless anyways.
Week eleven was a long week. The sleepless nights really caught up to me and I felt pretty miserable the whole week. On wednesday, I biked in the rain to the practice field to find that nobody from my team was there, so I biked back home. I talked to Lucas on facebook and he said that Tobias' older brother had invited us to play football cinco at 11 that night. Even though it was a schoolnight, I couldn't turn him down. I hadn't played since the 11v11 match a few weeks back, so I was excited to have the opportunity. After some convincing, my parents said I could go.
Lucas came by at about 10:45, while we were finishing up dinner, to pick me up. I forgot to grab a different jacket so I was stuck in the same one I had been in the rain with a few hours earlier. We went to Tobias' house and talked for a while. Then we set out for the indoor soccer place with Joaquin, Tobias' older brother. The other people were already there, and I recognized them from the 11v11 match. We had three teams of five, and played first to two goals wins, winner stays. Me and Lucas were on the same team and the combination of Lucas in the back and me up top, we literally won every single game. Luckily we would rotate out after winning three games in a row, because I would have passed out. Even more lucky is that my body was fully accustomed to the water here, so I was able to drink from the sink thing next to the field.
We finished playing at 1am and walked home. I was sweaty, my jacket was wet, and it was a pretty cold night. Yes, I got sick. I woke up the next morning with a slightly sore throat, but I still went to soccer practice that night. Luis told me that he didn't think I would be playing in the game on saturday. "Wait, why not?" He said it was my papers. Damn papers again.
Friday was Simon's birthday. I told my parents here that and they asked me if I wanted to call him. "SI!" I hadn't called home yet before this. I knew it was very expensive to do so, so I had been communicating with my real family through emails. I went online to see what I had to dial first for a call to the US, and dialed my mom's cellphone.
"Hello?" "Mom" "Dub!" I wasn't sure before I called if hearing their voices would make me feel worse, but it really made me feel a lot better. As I had hoped, I caught them coming home from school. I talked to Simon and wished him a happy birthday. It was very very weird talking to my Mom, Simon, and Eric. We hardly knew what to say but it felt like I was just calling her from a friend's house. My mom pointed out to me that the nighttime chats might be responsible for my homesickness, I agreed. We agreed it was nice hearing voices again, so I talked to Eric about skype. I said I would download it and they passed the phone around for I-love-yous and that was that.
That night, I went to my club for the 19th birthday party of one of my teammates. We grilled hamburgers and just hung out. I really felt apart of the team. Luis came, and he pulled me aside to talk to me. He explained everything. He said that since it is midseason, I can't be "legal legal." I would have had to be here when the season started to be fully documented with a picture and signature and all that stuff. I can be "legal," though. He has been talking with some kind of contact, I don't know if it's a league official or what, and is in the process of falsifying my papers so that if someone challenged us, I wouldn't be kicked out of the league, Luis wouldn't be suspended and Club For-Ever wouldn't be fined. He said that my papers will be ready so that I can play next weekend "si o si" (yes or yes).
Between the phone call home and finally knowing the reason why I hadn't played in a game yet, I got a long awaited good night's sleep. But I woke up really sick! I was too sick to go to the get-together with all the AFS kids in La Plata on saturday. I had a fever, a sore throat, and lots of congestion. On sunday my sorethroat was better but I still had a fever and developed a nasty cough. Even if I would have been allowed to play with my team on sunday I would've been too sick.
I didn't go to school today and I don't know if I'll be better tomorrow but we'll see.
Being gone for so long, homesickness can come and go, and in these last two weeks it was pretty strong. I had a lot of trouble sleeping in these last two weeks - I mean, I literally didn't sleep many nights, would go to school with a killer headache and would often have to leave early to take some advil and get some much needed sleep. My sleep schedule was a mess, and so was I. I realize now what the problem was.
About two weeks ago I started taking the modem into my room before bed so I could talk to people back home, usually my family. After we would finish, my mind would be filled with things that a person here wouldn't think about. Living in this different culture and environment, it is important to try to be as much like the people here as possible. Obviously I can't forget about my family and friends back home, but the people here aren't always thinking about people in another country when they are trying to sleep. I need to always be thinking about what an Argentine person would do. It's sorta like a WWJD bracelet.
On monday of week ten I had soccer training. Wednesday was the country census. Back home we do it in the mail, but here they have government workers come to everyone's door. So for this reason we didn't have school. The bigger news from Wednesday was that the ex-president of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, died. He was much-loved by the people here, so the whole country basically shut down for a while. School was cancelled Thursday, and the stores were closed. National mourning. All soccer games were postponed that weekend too. I found it really cool that the people here have so much respect for an old leader that they would postpone something they are so passionate about. The Boca vs. River match was to be played that weekend (Boca-River is the biggest rivalry in all of sports in the entire world, by the way), but even that match took a back seat to what had happened. I watched some of the funeral on TV with Lucas. Thousands of people came from all around Argentina to pay him respects. It was amazing.
That did mean that I didn't get to play my first match for For-Ever, but that was ok. I slept funny on my neck and couldn't turn my head, so I would have been worthless anyways.
Week eleven was a long week. The sleepless nights really caught up to me and I felt pretty miserable the whole week. On wednesday, I biked in the rain to the practice field to find that nobody from my team was there, so I biked back home. I talked to Lucas on facebook and he said that Tobias' older brother had invited us to play football cinco at 11 that night. Even though it was a schoolnight, I couldn't turn him down. I hadn't played since the 11v11 match a few weeks back, so I was excited to have the opportunity. After some convincing, my parents said I could go.
Lucas came by at about 10:45, while we were finishing up dinner, to pick me up. I forgot to grab a different jacket so I was stuck in the same one I had been in the rain with a few hours earlier. We went to Tobias' house and talked for a while. Then we set out for the indoor soccer place with Joaquin, Tobias' older brother. The other people were already there, and I recognized them from the 11v11 match. We had three teams of five, and played first to two goals wins, winner stays. Me and Lucas were on the same team and the combination of Lucas in the back and me up top, we literally won every single game. Luckily we would rotate out after winning three games in a row, because I would have passed out. Even more lucky is that my body was fully accustomed to the water here, so I was able to drink from the sink thing next to the field.
We finished playing at 1am and walked home. I was sweaty, my jacket was wet, and it was a pretty cold night. Yes, I got sick. I woke up the next morning with a slightly sore throat, but I still went to soccer practice that night. Luis told me that he didn't think I would be playing in the game on saturday. "Wait, why not?" He said it was my papers. Damn papers again.
Friday was Simon's birthday. I told my parents here that and they asked me if I wanted to call him. "SI!" I hadn't called home yet before this. I knew it was very expensive to do so, so I had been communicating with my real family through emails. I went online to see what I had to dial first for a call to the US, and dialed my mom's cellphone.
"Hello?" "Mom" "Dub!" I wasn't sure before I called if hearing their voices would make me feel worse, but it really made me feel a lot better. As I had hoped, I caught them coming home from school. I talked to Simon and wished him a happy birthday. It was very very weird talking to my Mom, Simon, and Eric. We hardly knew what to say but it felt like I was just calling her from a friend's house. My mom pointed out to me that the nighttime chats might be responsible for my homesickness, I agreed. We agreed it was nice hearing voices again, so I talked to Eric about skype. I said I would download it and they passed the phone around for I-love-yous and that was that.
That night, I went to my club for the 19th birthday party of one of my teammates. We grilled hamburgers and just hung out. I really felt apart of the team. Luis came, and he pulled me aside to talk to me. He explained everything. He said that since it is midseason, I can't be "legal legal." I would have had to be here when the season started to be fully documented with a picture and signature and all that stuff. I can be "legal," though. He has been talking with some kind of contact, I don't know if it's a league official or what, and is in the process of falsifying my papers so that if someone challenged us, I wouldn't be kicked out of the league, Luis wouldn't be suspended and Club For-Ever wouldn't be fined. He said that my papers will be ready so that I can play next weekend "si o si" (yes or yes).
Between the phone call home and finally knowing the reason why I hadn't played in a game yet, I got a long awaited good night's sleep. But I woke up really sick! I was too sick to go to the get-together with all the AFS kids in La Plata on saturday. I had a fever, a sore throat, and lots of congestion. On sunday my sorethroat was better but I still had a fever and developed a nasty cough. Even if I would have been allowed to play with my team on sunday I would've been too sick.
I didn't go to school today and I don't know if I'll be better tomorrow but we'll see.
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