Wednesday - BOCA JUNIORS SOCCER GAME!

I had class early in the morning, followed by class in the afternoon. After class in the afternoon I walked over to the IES Center with Elise. We had a great conversation about our favorite foods from home and our favorite memories of restaurants from our home town. After a while on a computer chillen and surfing the web, we went down to the corner for a seat outside in the beautiful weather for a café. During our little café session, I received a text from my host brother asking if I would like to go to the Boca Juniors soccer game that night. I immediately canceled my plans to go to ceramics class and told him I was down. I have been working to get to a game the whole time, and this was a great opportunity. This game, vs. Sao Paulo, was the Round of 16 in the South American Cup….a tournament for all the teams in Latin America to compete and see who is best.
I went home to see my host brother and thank him for the invite to the game. He then told me that he might not be able to come, that something had come up. I would still go with his friends, but he was a question mark. He told me to have a friend ready if needed just in case my host brother couldn’t attend. Sure enough, an hour later and 30 minutes before we had to leave, Santiago called me and told me he couldn’t come. So I called Nell and told her to leave right away to meet me on the corner in 25 minutes.
Nell and I met up with Jeronimo, Santiago’s friend who also works with him and the rest of my host family. Jeronimo is really nice, and I had met him once before. From there we took the Subte a few stops to meet the fourth, Marcelo, a friend of Jeronimo. After we met Marcelo near the obelisk, we took a cab to La Boca neighborhood about 5 blocks from the stadium. Since there are so many fans and such poor game day planning, streets any closer just get backed up and shut down.
We walked down closer to the stadium. The whole time we had been speaking in Spanish, and then Marcelo said something to us in English. Nell and I were stunned, but found out the both Jeronimo and Marcelo speak great English. For the rest of the night, we spoke only in Spanish, unless I couldn’t figure out how to say something, or they said something too complex for me to understand…it was a perfect situation.
We arrived at the bottom of the stadium, got frisked by security, and went to the little grilling place next to the entrance. We got these huge churipans, which were amazing. They are local chorizo, or sausage, grilled and then cut in half and put into a sandwich with French baguette bread. So good. We then entered the stadium and started our long trek up the stairs to the upper level.
The tickets we used to get in belonged to Santiago and a bunch of his friends. This team doesn’t really sell single game tickets. Only season tickets are available. You receive a card for the season that acts as a pass into the stadium. It is not a problem to borrow someone else’s card to get into any game. I believe we were assigned to a section, but didn’t have specific seats. We sat on the first row of the upper level, only one section away from the crazy fan section. This section is just general admission with no assignments. It is nuts. They are crazy and never stop singing the many different fight songs of the team. There is even a band of fans with drums and trombones and a few other instruments.
The stadium was great. Big enough to fit a ton of people, but small enough where every single person gets a great view of the field. This game was at a strange time since it was not the normal league that the team plays in, so the stadium was not full. Since they don’t sell single game tickets, there is no way to know when it will sell out or not.
The game was really fun. They ended up winning 2-1, but the other team scored with only 2 minutes left. It was a great experience and I was very very thankful for the opportunity.
After the game we walked for about 20 minutes away from the stadium to get away from the crowds and find an empty taxi. Nell and I took the taxi to Jobs, a bar not to far from my house. Some kids from GW were there, and supposively some other kids from GW that were traveling were also there. I figured it would be a fun time. I walked in, and who do I see? Ryan Smith and Lindsey Toner. I went to high school with Ryan Smith, and Lindsey Toner is friends with my roommates. Its just such a small world.
We stayed at this bar until it closed, and then as a group we all went to Sahara, an upscale bar in Recoleta Village by the cemetery. At night they have fun music. This place was so much fun. It reminded me a lot of the places I go out to in DC, since it was a restaurant that became a bar at night: meaning it had some small tables, a big bar, and a dance floor, but was not a club. We partied and danced away until they kicked us out around 5.20am. I walked home to my house, since it was only 3 blocks away.
Overall, it was an amazing night. I was expecting to go to ceramics class, come home, and go to bed early…..but the way it turned out was so much better.