Two Types of Football and a Day of Fun

Well, the last few days have certainly been filled with fun and humor here. But for now I'll just stick to one day again - Wednesday  - when we decided to play American football with Pablo and teach him a few things about the game. We left the university, took two colectivos, and walked several blocks to the beautiful Sarmiento park...then we promptly found out it was closed to the general public. Pablo turned to us with a stricken look on his face, lifted his hands to cover his eyes, and exclaimed, "Todos los dias de mi vida vengo aca y el parque esta abierta!" (Every single day of my life that I've come here and the park has been open!) The Grace girls weren't too concerned, but apparently this was a big deal to Pablo, who throughout the rest of the day would burst into the refrain, "Every day of my life!" as he lamented anew the tragic situation. He said it so many times that now, when any of us girls says the word, "Todos" we all chime in to finish it with "los dias de mi vida". Another saying that has stuck is that when someone asks the time, we all say "mosquito", this due to the fact that Elisabeth Balasa had been asked the time right after she had been bit by the insect, so the conversation sounded like, "What time is it?" "Mosquito."

Back to Wednesday - we walked around and eventually found a small park where we could toss the football and play "500" (and found out that the equivalent of "Jackpot" is "Gordo de Navidad" - literally "the fat man of Christmas"). As we were walking, though, we kept laughing at the whistles, comments, and blown kisses from the men who drive past. We're starting to get accustomed to the fact that, just because we have slightly lighter hair and skin (I would be almost considered a blonde here), we will get more attention than we had ever hoped for. Pablo, though, decided to make a joke of it, and when one particularly enamored trucker yelled a compliment at us, Pablo lifted his hands and shouted back, "Gracias! Thank you, I know I'm beautiful." We all cracked up and went along with it: "Pablo, gosh, can't you get them to stop whistling at you?" "Sorry, I just can't help the fact that they love me!" The most hilarious moment, though, was when we were walking on our own and a trucker yelled at the top of his lungs, in perfect English, mind you, "I LOVE YOU!" to all five of us girls. Since we were all expecting Spanish, it took us to few seconds to register the words before we burst out laughing.

After another couple of colectivos and a short walk, we arrived at Chinin, Pablo's favorite heladeria (ice cream shop). Once again, we all effused gratitude to the dairy gods that worked there for providind us with such luscious creations - okay that's a little extreme, and I promise I'm not a pagan, but it was ridiculously delicious. We then returned to Pablo's house where we would watch a soccer game later that night. But first, since we had some time to kill, we looked up a song our professor had played for us in class - Resistire (I will resist), and we started singing to it at the top of our longs. Okay, for you to understand this song, think of a male rock band singing "I Will Survive" but with more rebellious lyrics and a Rocky Balboa "I will take on anyone and everyone" sort of attitude. With that kind of material, we started to get into the song a little bit - and by a little I mean we belted it out at the top of our lungs! Pablo provided us with instruments - spoons for microphones and drumsticks and an electric guitar I pretended to play with my best air band ability. While we were filming our little ditty, German (Pablo's dad) walked into the house and stood in shock to see several gringas shouting out a famous Argentine song. When we finished, Pablo said he would never forget that moment for the rest of his life.

Then, it was time for the game. There are two futbol teams in Buenos Aires - Boca Juniors and River Plate - and it is probably one of the biggest rivalries world wide. The Bachini's were rooting for Boca, but all three Grace soccer girls decided to be Boca fans - partly just to fight with Pablo, but partly because we liked their style of possession futbol better. Despite the fact that Boca lost, it was a great first South American futbol experience - complete with trash talking, complaining to the officials (aka the TV), and screaming "GOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAL!!" at the top of one's lungs and running around the house when the favored team scores. Oh man, it's great to be in a country that appreciates this sport.

Though the time we spent with the Bachini's was simple - watching a futbol game, eating empanadas, and chatting, it was such a blessing to experience the Latin American hospitality and just to feel like we truly have friends here now. It's amazing that, despite continued difficulties with the language and very different cultural backgrounds, God can still bring people together to form relationships, friendships, and families. I have to say, I'm really starting to like it here :)