Los Porteños Felices

Bonjour my amigos! This post will definitely be more upbeat than my last ones, not that they were downers, per se, but this one will be a lighter, more fun look at life in Buenos Aires.

So Saturday morning I headed out (which was tough at first cuz I´d been out till 6am the night before) with a Norwegian, a Swede, a Dutchie, and a Swiss to this nice, kinda touristy suburb of BA called Tigre. It´s kind of like Argentina´s version of Venice, what with the water everywhere and needing to travel by boat to reach destinations. At first we were worried we wouldn´t be able to find some nice canoeing or kayaking because it was only private rowing clubs there, but then we took a boat ride down the river and found this nice quiet residential area. This old(ish) woman from this restaurant (where we would later have a late lunch) pointed us down a path that led us to this really wonderfully nice hippie guy and his friends. He rented us two canoes and we paddled up and down this really peaceful river, it was quite lovely (I´ve taken to speaking British phrases while maintaining my Canadian accent, due to the high level of British folk here).

On the train ride back from Tigre, Claude (Swiss) and I began talking to this woman with a bicycle and she invited us to her house for dinner on Monday with her, her friend, and her daughter so that we could practice English and Spanish together. But more on that later...

On Sunday, a bunch of us went to La Bombanera to see the Boca Juniors (the local, ¨working-class¨ team of BA) face Rosalita Central in a fútbol match. You can buy fixed seat tickets, but it´s cheaper (and I would argue a lot more fun) to buy the regular tickets and sit on the bleachers, shoulder-to-shoulder with everyone. Although just before the game began everyone stood up to watch, which I had never seen before. Also they really pack these stands. It´s not like they have a fixed ¨amount¨ of people the stadium fits. I guess they make more money if less fat people show up.

Anyhow, once the game got started, people began going wild. We sat on the ¨mas tranquilo¨ side of the stadium, as a couple of the girls were worried about there being fights breaking out, knifings, or whatever, which actually doesn´t happen at these games... anymore. It´s not like we´re at a Chelsea-ManU game or something. Although we could see the more rowdy side and it looked like a lot of fun, there were people playing music with drums and horns, with more dancing and singing. On our side though it was still really exciting. My English friend Paul was saying how at English football matches teams´ll have maybe 2 songs, and they´re like droning chants. Here, they had probably 7 or 8 proper team songs, with actions and choruses and everything. There was almost constant singing, people shouting advice to the players and cheering them on whenever one of their players made a good play.

This turned out to be a particularly awesome match to go to because Boca scored a goal within the first 8 minutes of the game. They started out dominating, but then let themselves slip in the second half, letting in a weak goal to tie the match up. They started coming alive again, having some great corner kicks and some close scoring chances, but weren´t able to convert. Then with three minutes until stoppage time, the ball was crossed in front of the net, went off one Boca players´ head to a teammate who made a beautiful scissor-kick, the ball went into the net, the goalie never had a chance. BOOM! Everyone went crazy! It was SO fun, SO exciting, SO great to be there! People didn´t stop cheering until 5-10 minutes after the game ended. We had to stay there in the stands because they lock the doors, so they can let people out slowing instead of all at once. But other than that, and the fact that the opposing fans spit on you in the second half if their team is losing (I got a little on my shoulders and a glob on my hat), it was SO COOL! I bought a team shirt for a souvenir from a street guy, which was a ripoff but not expensive when you factor in exchange rates (40 pesos, i.e. 12-13 bucks American). And I really wanted an Argentine soccer jersey to wear at home. I didn´t buy one before the game because all the people who wore jerseys during the game looked like such turistas.

So Monday my friend Claude and I got to hang out with some good ole porteños at their home in Recoleta, which is a nice neighbourhood (I wouldn´t have gone if it was in La Boca or San Telmo or one of the other somewhat-shady barrios). Despite this, they didn´t live in any swanky place - an apartment with a bedroom for the mother, one for her daughter, a small kitchen, and a living room. It was really nice and she made us a delicious Argentine pizza (sort of) dish with cheese and onions, followed by a really nice pot of meat and vegetables, with some ginger cake for dessert. It was all so good, as she had promised. We ended up talking music with her, languages and school with her daughter, I talked Argentine politics with her friend, and we ended up staying for 5 hours, till one in the morning. Claude and I had to get back to la residencia in time to go out to the club downstairs with our housemates.

Today, I got to meet another local as I went with my New Yorkah friend to get a video rental card from her porteño cousin. He was really nice and the three of us hung out briefly at his apartment, I met his dad who asked me what my last name is (which apparently is a common question Argentine people ask foreigners). Turns out they know almost nothing of Canada, they get no news of us which Roberto (the father) said must mean, ¨No news is good news, ¿sí?¨ Not quite. But anyway. They were really nice.

And it´s good to be meeting lots of locals. I still have contacts from my parents and my Spanish teacher that I have to call, but I had been hesitating because I was nervous about contacting people who I had such a vague connection to. But now that these people to whom I have had an even looser connection are being so friendly and wonderful with me, then it shouldn´t be a problem. I will contact them the next chance I get. Although I dunno when that´ll be because tomorrow I have a busy day of going to the Brazilian Consulate to obtain a travel visa, followed by dinner with Claude´s and my new Argentine friend and milonga tango lessons (also with her and Claude). I´m gonna start learnin´ some tango...

As my friend´s cousin said, ¨¿See? We are not all horrible people who steal and rape¨ (which have happened to students here).

See Mom and Dad? Totally safe.