Argentina vs Colombia

This past Saturday I went to watch Argentina play against Colombia at the River Plate Monumental Stadium. Having to win to remain in good standing for World Cup qualification the game had implications that probably went further than a tourist looking to have a good time. Tickets were 80 pesos a relatively cheap price for decent seats, behind one of the goals. The walk towards the stadium was exactly how I imagined it. Fans shouting, screaming and funneling into the small stadium gates. Something I realize now is that in the Platea section, (the one where we sat as opposed to the Popular where all the hooligans sit) you need to get there early. At a certain point people just start sitting anywhere and not caring about ticket numbers and eventually the pre-game shouting and standing dies down during the game. This made it difficult for us to find seats at first but after we found some we were able to join in the cheering. All of this was before the game started and with the Colombian crowd right behind us we witnessed some dirty jeers, which is exactly what I was expecting. Another thing was that the local crowd was not wearing Argentine attire as I expected. I was decked out in a recently purchased jersey but I guess the locals care more about the football than looking like a fan, which I respect. They showed just that in the first half, with a wide open game with sub par football being played, they were clearly tense and not responding to the Colombian jeers behind them. There were one or two who would turn around and give the Colombians a few hand signals but nothing spectacular. A decent goal in the second half led to a more relaxed crowd and little more interaction with the Colombian fans. It began to get quite fun to watch and honestly more fun than the game. There was one incident where an Argentine lady was jeering a whole crowd of Colombian girls, while men held pesos and shouted. The game ended 1-0 and the fans scurried out to celebrate while the Colombians still screamed and shouted despite a loss. All in all the atmosphere is what made the game. With no clock, no scoreboard, and definitely no big screen with replays, the stadium was about football and fans. Average football was played by both teams, and those who despise football would say it was boring, but the atmosphere made it far from that. I will never forget the shouting, singing and especially the jeering. I never knew that 5 year olds knew bad words and naughty hand signs, and how well they used them, mis dios.

La Bomba de Tiempo

The other night I attended a a drum percussion concert. Not expecting much I went in thinking that it would just be some low key group with a smallish crowd. I was completely wrong. After walking a fair amount to the venue, we were greeted by a line that wrapped around the block. After getting 15 peso tickets we waited in the long queue that wold eventually evaporate. The venue was kind of like a warehouse and had a very underground feeling to it. We some how managed to stand near the front and my awkward height had me sticking out like a sore thumb. The group La Bomba de Tiempo soon began to play, and they were awesome. There was around 14 of them all playing different percussion instruments, (drums, shakers, etc). They really got the crowd pumped and excited and would be perfect for football and basketball games. I think the coolest thing was that they had a composer who would signal what to do, so everything they played was on the fly. The crowd began moving and enjoying the music but there was more to come. A special guest and his band soon arrived on stage. At the time I had no clue who he was and I barely do now besides for his bands website. He played the keytar and played some groovy tunes while the drums improvised along. The crowd obviously knew who he was and people were pushing just to be up close. One guy actually gave his bracelet to him, but then again what kind of a man wears a bracelet. The crowd soon got pretty intense singing along and a solid mosh pit soon developed. It was crazy and I loved it. People were going wild just jumping around to the funk of Pablo's keytar and the rhythm of La Bombas drums. Altogether it was a great experience marking my discovery of a new music genre.

Colonia

In Argentina the equivalent of a Butlins vacation (England) or a day at the closest beach (America) is a day trip to the neighboring Uruguay. The town of Colonia lies on the coast of Uruguay and can be reached by a short boat ride. On Sunday we gave the local tourist destination a visit. The tour program that we took was called Buquebus and provided us with the boat ride there and back along with a tour of the town. The ferry left Buenos aires at 8:45 and arrived at Colonia 3 hours later but firstly a little about the ride. The boat was actually pretty nice, it was a weird hybrid between a cruise ship and a ferry, it had the feeling of a small ferry but the comfort of a big ship. After a much needed nap we arrived in Colonia to clouds and lax immigration. After walking their streets for a only 5 minutes, I could see why the town had recently been named a world heritage site. I think this picture can explain it better than I could.

After walking around and seeing sites but not really knowing what they were, we sat down to eat lunch at El Drugstore. After getting over the strange name I began to appreciate the eclectic atmosphere inside. Well decorated, the restaurant had its chefs cooking in the open creating an aroma that made me want to order everything on the menu. I ended up getting chicken and mash potatoes which as boring as it sounds was delicious, and the restaurants atmosphere only made it taste better. We were then on a short bus tour which took us to see things out of walking distance such as the no longer used bull fighting ring and the race track. After the bus tour we went on a walking tour through the historic parts of the town. Speaking rapid Spanish, I was unable to discern most of what the guide was saying, but i did pick some things up. The city is the oldest in Uruguay and was founded by the Portuguese in 1680. We were again given some free time and we ventured to the top of the cities historic lighthouse. It was diffcult to get up there as during the time period it was built by people that averaged a height of 4 feet 9 inches, forcing me to bend, crouch and manouvere my way to the top. Once there though the site was spectacular and if it wasn't for the wind, I may have got a better picture.

Content with the day so far we decided to sit down at a restaurant/bar and I tried the local cerveza Patricia. By this time I was tired but happy that I had visited. The town was tranquil and at ease, a sharp contrast to the bustle of Buenos Aires. The cobblestone roads and the picturesque trees made walking down them a joy, and the only thing that could have made the day better would have been less wind. The ride home was more eventful than the morning trip. A greasy 40 something who thought he was 25 supplied "entertainment", he did sing in the morning, but this time he was able to maintain a steady crowd that cheered and chanted for him. He sang with tremendous emotion but I could only laugh at how cheesy he was. Another interesting observation I made on the boat was that Argentine couples are all about public displays of affection. I noticed this after the two people in front of me leaned there chairs back close enough that i could smell their hair and decided to go at it. It didn't spoil the trip though, and I got home at 11:30 ready to sleep.

ArteBA

Being a self proclaimed fan of art and with not much else to do after a long hard day of work, I went to a Contemporary Art Exhibition with my program Road2Argentina last Tuesday. I enjoyed the varied selection of art that was offered and got to take a lot of pictures, while also meeting other people from the program. Upon my arrival to the exhibition I noticed my fly was undone, a reoccurring theme that has come with my old age, and realized that the old lady on the train wasn't smiling at me because of my pretty face. That wouldn't be the end of my laughter though.

Appropriately we don't associate art with laughter, it's meant to be inspiring and emotional. It's not like i don't like this type of art, it's just that every now than it's nice when it can offer something different. Not all of the pieces at the exhibition managed to make me chuckle but there were a select few that made me slap my knee. Their creativity and in some cases downright silliness appealed to me and made me smile. Here are a couple of examples (click to enlarge),

The Nature of My Work

Firstly I would like to apologize for my lack of blogging since I've been here in BA. To those few dedicated readers who have been refreshing and hoping for something new, a brief spell of laziness allowed me to let you down. It has passed now and I'm ready to write.

So I began work at Bairexport last Monday and began with a brief orientation session with a fellow named Diego. The office was small and equipped with just enough to do business, but I still wasn't one hundred percent sure what business they did. Diego explained this to me in a 15 minute Spanish lecture and to my own surprise I actually understood what he was saying. Responding to him was a bit harder and speaking is surely going to be the part of Spanish I will need to work on. Bairexport helps small to medium size business in Buenos Aires expand and develop both at home and abroad, like a boutique consulting or business solutions firm. Sounds fairly simple and it is but I was still left to wonder what I would be doing.

The next day Diego asked me to look through the list of companies that Bairexport works with and choose a couple that I was interested in. After he mulled over my list he gave me my first assignment. I am to create a report on the Tourism and Hospitality industries of Santiago Chile, Montevideo Uruguay and Asunción Paraguay for 525 Hotels. So I would essentially being doing market research. Within the company my job is to research different markets in order to determine whether or not they would be worth expanding into. As the lowly intern, I will only research this stuff while the guy in the big chair will decide whether or not to actually enter the market, but I like to think that my work will make his decision easier.

The reason I write about this is that with many business jobs nobody actually knows what your doing. Like Chandler Bing before he got the advertising job it is often hard to either explain what you do for a business or for someone to understand. So this is the nature of my work, and it truly feels rewarding to do work that interests me while still having real business implications. Like Teddy Roosevelt said "Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." So I have found work worth doing, all I need to do now is work hard. That maybe a problem considering I work from 10-2, three days a week all in a town where a night out ends at seven in the morning.

A walk through the city

Since my arrival in Buenos Aires over a day ago I have done more of one thing than anything else (excluding sleeping). With my bags not arriving and my internship not starting till Monday, I have been walking a fair amount.

Driving into the city I was nervous. With none of my possessions, I was unsure of how the next 24 hours would treat me. After being shown around my new home by my kind host mother, I found that my program directors had left me a comprehensive map of the city, the Guia "T". After taking a lengthy nap, I opened it, left the apartment and began to walk.

There is something that fascinates me about being in a new town, and just setting off to see something new. A walk down Larrea Avenue would find me at a common American attraction the Golden Arches. Besides for this familiar site, everything else I saw was rich with culture and reminded me of the cities of Europe.

The next day, with good rest and a fresh set of clothes, I set off on a more adventurous walk, which of course began with lunch at McD's. It involved; me slipping on dog poo and nearly wiping out on the side walk, passing by numerous bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants, meeting my host mum and walking past a famous cemetery and then through a huge outdoor market. Ultimately the past two days of walking has made me feel more at home, all in time for my first day of work tomorrow.

Pre-Departure

Tomorrow I leave for Buenos Aires on my first visit to South America. The trip will host a lot of firsts; my first time traveling alone, the first time I am abroad for over a month (6 weeks), the first time I will be required to speak Spanish constantly and the first time I'm living with a host family.

For the six weeks I am in Argentina I will be interning at Bairexport while indulging in Latin American culture. I'm hoping to learn a bit more about finance and business research through the internship, but more importantly meet new people, travel and experience Buenos Aires. I'm truly excited and hope that this blog will serve as my thought pad for everything I experience. After two years in college I've realized that taking risks and embarking on adventures only occurs when you're young, so i fully hope to use these six weeks to do just that.

I'll try and keep my posts short, funny and to the point so please leave comments and feedback.

Saludos,

Hasil