Monday in BsAs

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Another adventure in the world of soccer…

Today I got up early to travel to River Stadium (where River Plate, Boca Juniors’ Rival team in Buenos Aires, plays) to stand in line to get tickets for a soccer game. Not just any soccer game though… this Wednesday the Argentine National team, the one preparing to play in the World Cup, will be taking on the Argentine Under 20 team. What does this mean? You can’t loose by cheering for Argentina!

After getting out of the cab at River Stadium, it took 20 minutes to walk around the stadium to where the line ended: past the stadium, past the onramp to the interstate, and all the way down 60 yards onto the interstate! I stood in line for 2 and a half hours with 5 other students and Kirk*, and after all that waiting we’d moved maybe 25 yards. Class started today at 1 p.m., so at 12:30 we threw in the towel and called a scalping agency, paying much more money than we would have had we stood in line the rest of the day, but at least we’re going to the game!

In class today we had a lecture on religion in Argentina and Brazil, so we talked about Liberation Theology (the social radicalization of the Catholic Church in the 60s and 70s), Protestantism, and Spiritism (Afro-Brazilian religions). We read about one spiritist faith called Umburu which was quite fascinating. It’s based on the notion that an individual can act as a host for a spirit and transcend this world to the spirit world temporarily and lead others in the act of hosting spirits. We also had a discussion with Felipe (our other professor) about sexual modesty in Argentina and the national student, Adela, who’s been sitting in on our classes could not believe that the national average age for first sexual experience in Argentina was 14. She swore that it had to be much higher than that. It was an entertaining but sad discussion because it illustrated the total disconnect that exists globally between the sheltered upper-middle and upper classes and the rest of a country.

I also had another tango experience this afternoon. Felipe brought in to class a dvd of a live group that has become all the fad in Argentina and really though out the world. The group is called GOTAN (say it 5 times quickly and you’ll figure out why) and they take traditional tango music and put an electronica twist to it. It’s been a revolution in tango and, of course, the elderly generation and tango fanatics alike refuse to acknowledge it as tango or even acknowledge its relation to tango, while for the youth, it has made it cool to listen to tango. 20 years ago, Felipe explained, when he was a teenager it was considered un-macho to listen to tango, so no one did. The waves this group is creating are pretty amazing, and their music is definitely worth checking out! I’ll look around for a CD here to bring back, but I’m betting you could find one in the States too.

The cooks in the residencia are back (they don’t work weekends) and I’m excited about dinner tonight, whatever it may be. Tomorrow we have our second “Class on Wheels” and its focus is the tourism industry, so we’re heading to all the tourist hot spots in BsAs. It should be awesome, maybe even better than the last one (which focused on Peronism and the Dirty War). Also, tomorrow I will need to do my laundry… I’ll keep you posted on how that adventure goes.

Discovery of the Day: Argentine Tang with added vitamins C, E, and A. Taaaasty stuff. A nice addition to the routine tap water I’ve been drinking!

* Dr. Kirk Bowman is the professor leading this study abroad program and we are welcome to call him whichever name we feel most comfortable with. I will use “Kirk”, “Bowman”, and “my prof.” interchangeable throughout this blog.

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Photos

Waiting for Tickets
Yes, that's the interstate behind us. And yes, we're doing our homework sitting on a guardrail. Good times! (Left to right: Johni, Me, Jessica, Shannon)