week five

After four weeks of "settling in," I finally felt ready to ask the question I have been dying to ask since I got here: "Is there a soccer team I can try out for?" My family informed me that there are youth age groups for all of the professional teams, but that those teams travel all around Argentina to play against the other big clubs. While that sounded awesome, I realized it was not very practical for me.

So I started to think, at the table, "So that's it? I came all the way to Argentina to not play soccer for a year. Well jeez, now I think I want to go home." But then I noticed my brother rummaging around in a stack of newspapers. He pulled out a sports section and pointed to a league table. It was for "Liga Platensa." "What is this?" I asked. He told me that in my city, there is a soccer league with two divisions, Primera A and B. He said that there are teams for my age group, U18, and that some of his friends play in the U14 category. The teams practice twice a week and play a game on the weekend.

I couldn't believe how perfect that sounded. Then my dad said that his cousin is the coach of Brandsen. I looked at the league table. Brandsen was first in Primera A. Then my mom said that the coach was next door. No way! But just as we opened our door, he took off in his car. We just missed him. But my dad knew where he was going, so my dad, Marco, and I set off in our car to go find and talk to this guy. My mom said "suerte" (good luck) and gave me a thumbs up.

I didn't know where we were going, in fact, I hardly knew what was going on. But I was very excited and very nervous. After ten minutes we stopped in front of a house. We got out, and went to the door. My dad rang the bell, and we waited. Three minutes later, a woman came to the door. She said hello from behind the door and I could tell she was very old. She struggled with the key for a while and finally gave up. She was so old she couldn't even open the door for us. She walked to a window and opened it. She kissed us all through the window and my dad talked to her for a while. All the while I am thinking "What the hell is going on? What does this old lady have to do with finding me a soccer team." I listened very closely to their conversation and made out enough to conclude that this woman was the mother of the coach, and that the coach was at his own house - a new house, but she didn't know the address. She did know the telephone number, though. "Quatro venti-dos, venti-catorze." I must have said that twenty times in my head so I wouldn't forget it.

We got home, and I felt a bit disappointed. But I wrote down his number, and my dad called. No answer. Ok now I felt very disappointed. I tried to stay positive though and realized that what had happened in the last hour or so was very good. I would have a team soon, I hoped.

The next day, my dad got a hold of him. The coach said that he wasn't coaching anymore but that he knew some other coaches and could call around to find me a team.

Yesterday my family and I went to a park to drink mate and kick the soccer ball around. My dad has some skills! Anyways, afterwards we got in the car and set off for home. But my dad made a turn and we stopped in front of a house. It was the house of the coach. My dad got out and walked down the street and rang a door bell. A few moments later, we saw him walk into the house. I was sitting in the back seat of the car with Ana and Marco, very nervous and excited. Five minutes went by and then I saw my dad and a guy in soccer shorts walking up to our car. The guy reached into the car and shook my hand. His name was Ernesto. He explained to my mom and I what the deal was. Never have I tried to understand anything so hard in my life. He said there were two options. The first one was the easier one, and it was to play on a University team that plays on the weekends for fun, 9v9. NOOOOOO. The other was to find a team in Liga Platensa, and those teams practice once a week, lift weights once a week, and play games on the weekends. YESSSSSSSS!!!!!

He named the three top clubs in the league: Brandsen, La Plata FC, and Forever. This week, Ernesto is going to call those teams to see if I can try out. Tomorrow after school I have my elective class "Rock Nacional." Last week I went for the first time and it was awesome. We just sat there, listening to cool music and talked about the styles and time periods afterwards. After Rock, I will go with my dad to Gimnasia, to talk to another cousin of his about finding me a team. I'm not sure why exactly, because Gimnasia is a big club that travels all over Argentina, but I am going to "go with the flow." I've been doing a lot of that here. I think it is a part of being on exchange. There are some times when you don't know exactly what is going on or what will happen next, but you need to stay positive and just keep moving. I don't know exactly what is happening on this soccer front, and at times I have been discouraged, but when my try-out finally comes, I won't disappoint.