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Published: February 15th 2007
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Felipe!
Hahaha, this picture cracks me up! There's such a painful look of anticipation on his face! Hello all!
Well, the last time I posted, I had just been to an Olympique Lyonnais match, and since then, not a whole lot has happened except the usual routine of pubs, clubs, and ESDES football games on sunday afternoons! Things at school have started to get busy as we have been getting nto our projects and assignments in greater detail. We have a week long break (basically the same thing as our 'Reading Break' in Canada) so myself and two friends (an American guy named Ben, and a Finnish guy named Tero) have booked flights to Belfast for the week. We'll be staying with my Dad's friends Fergus and Pamela, who happen to live out in a place called Downpatrick - about a 30 minute drive from Belfast if I remember correctly. It's out in the real Irish country, and from their front yard, there is a gorgeous view of the rolling green Irish countryside, as well as the misty outlines of the Mountains of Mourne - not really mountains, but by Irish standards I guess we can call them mountains.
Anyway, i've had some requests for some 'friend profiling,' or in other words, a description of the
people i'm here with. I sat down and thought about how I can break down all of the people i've met thus far - and i've actually met quite a few, so it was more difficult than you might think - and decided that I should do what most Caucasians do best; culturally stereotype! So here goes, introducing "Patrick's Cultural Stereotyping Extravaganza - Part One: South America." I should also note that I will talk about each person, as well as attach a photo of each person. Hope you guys enjoy!
Argentina
Felipé We start off with the Argentinians, and Felipé, the Latin Stallion! Now, before I get into describing Felipé, I must warn you that the Argentinians are definitely the craziest partiers here! They're all hilarious, awesome guys, but they won't take no for an answer when it comes to drinking.
Anyway, Felipé is what you would call a Latin lover. As soon as we got here, it was quite evident that Felipé was single, and looking. The only difference between Felipé and most womanizers is that he's gentle, caring, and generally a nice guy! He gets along with pretty much everyone here, and is
Santiago
Kisses for Santiago known as the joker/class clown of the international business program. He doesn't speak english proficiently, but manages to get his point across and make everyone laugh in the process (things just seem to be funnier when told with a Spanish accent). For example, we were sitting in this pub recently - I think it was Felipé, Danny (this Irish guy), a few other North Americans, and a couple Finnish girls - when the topic of how the Scottish and Irish like to fornicate with sheep. I think we were all bugging Danny about it, when Felipé piped in, and gave us some advice on the aformentioned act. "Ya Men! You know da sheep? You wear dee rubbar boots, and you put da sheep's legs in your rubbar boots! Then you don't have to worry bout da sheep running away men!" -Classic Felipé. Also, there's one of my friends from Holland named Luuk, and one time Felipé was telling Luuk about how he wants to name his first child Luuk. Luuk was a little confused, but Felipé explained that it was because he wanted to be able to say: "Luuk, I am your father," whenever he wanted to. What makes this
even funnier is that Luuk has never seen Star Wars, so Felipé sort of had some explaining to do. Any time Luuk sees Felipé now, he's greeted with a "Luuk! I am your father!" Whenever we hang out in the cafeteria at school, there is usually quite a few different people from quite few different places hanging out, and when Felipé walks in, everyone sort of lights up because he's a super nice guy, but also very outgoing and doesn't ignore anybody. When he walks in, he shakes every guy's hand, and gives every girl the 'french kiss' - the peck on each cheek that everyone does here. On many occasions, after having kissed all of the girls, Felipé likes to blurt out: "MAN, I'M SO INTERNATIONAL!" I guess Mike Meyers has some competition for 'International Man of Mystery.'
Martin Now onto Martin. Martin is also from Buenos Aires - I forgot to mention that all of the Argentinians are from there - and is a huge partier also. Martin and Felipé are sort of like Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers; they never leave each other when there's a party, and they're sort of attached at the hip. Anyway, Martin is sort of a toned down version of Felipé. He's not quiet by any means, but just isn't on the same level of loud as Felipé. Martin is also a really good soccer player, and actually played in the US College league a couple years ago in Chicago (i'm not sure what University it is in Chicago, but still a pretty big deal nonetheless). Martin always has a big smile on his face, and like Felipé is nice to everyone he meets. He's also pretty popular with the ladies it would seem, as you would probably classify Martin as 'man pretty.' An Argentinian accent doesn't hurt either I don't think.
Big Santiago 'Big' Santiago would probably be considered the most reserved of the Argentinians. If it wasn't for Santiago's accent, he could totally blend in with the ski/snowboard bums in Whistler, Jasper, or Banff. Actually, on that note, Santiago spent a year or 6 months (I can't remember which one) working in Aspen in Colorado, so he's definitely into skiing. Santiago could also be classified as somewhat of a pimp here, although it seems as though all three of these Argentinians get plenty of attention from the women around here.
*I'd also like to add that these three went to see the Argentina/France game in Paris at the start of February! I was sooooooo jealous! They had a great time, and it was especially sweet for them when Argentina won! I said to Santiago: "You guys must have been ecstatic about the result," to which he replied: "Nah, we're used to it 😉." Haha, arrogant Argentinians!
Little Santiago Now we're onto Santa Clause - 'little' Santiago. This guy is friends with Big Santiago, Felipé, and Martin, but and has since returned to Argentina - he only came to party, and stayed about 3 weeks. Anyway, little Santiago sits at about 5'4-5'5 so he's definitely little, but he might be the craziest one in this bunch. I think I only saw this guy sober once during his whole time here, but he's as crazy when he's drunk as when he's sober. Santiago got the nickname "Santa Clause" one night because he and Danny were arguing who was taller - I *think* Danny is about 1 inch taller or the same height as Santiago. Danny then told Santiago that he was an elf and needed to go back to Santa Clause, which turned into Danny eventually just calling Santiago Santa Clause all the time - I have no idea how that makes any sense, but Danny's Irish, so we can't expect much more. Another characteristic of Santiago is that he's probably the loudest person in the bar, bar none! Whenever we'd get to the bar, Santiago would start yelling, and when people would tell him to be quiet, he would explain: "I HAVE A LOUDSPEAKER IN MY THROAT YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!! THEY PUT IT IN MY THROAT; I HAVE A LOUDSPEAKER!!" hahaha, looking back on it, it makes me laugh, but it was extremely irritating at the time!
Anyway, that's the deal with our South American crew - although I must add that there are a couple of Brazlians here; Mario and Olavo who I haven't gotten to know very well yet, but maybe i'll have to add another entry for them later on. I'm sending out birthday greetings to Marky Rattray - Captain Yellow Shirt! I'm definitely going to miss this yellow shirt party at Ezzies, but i'm sure we'll make up for all of the drinking i'm missing when I get home! Hope all of you are getting on well, and i'll try to keep these blog updates coming! Miss you guys! Take care,
Patrick
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JP
non-member comment
Titles Are For Communists
It's too bad that their attitude didn't help them beat Germany last summer. Zing!