Advertisement
Published: June 16th 2008
At the game
We decided that the Pumas were too busy being cold to play rugby during this match. Scotland won 21-15. Although, at times, the Sex and the City movie was more exciting than this match, Dain and I were entertained by the enthusiastic Scots sitting behind us who sporadically yelled, "FREEEEEDOM!!" throughout the game.Dain and I were both in our traditional "Saturday is a rugby day," mindset as we headed to the Argentina vs. Scotland rugby match by means of taxi. The most exciting part of the rugby match, honestly, was (as usual) the outside events happening on the stadium grounds. First of all, it was beyond shocking to learn that all the grocers anywhere in the vicinity of the stadium all block off their booze section and refuse liquor sales 4 hours prior to any match! On the booze-free stadium grounds, lines of people shouting and singing, dancing and moving, were all over the place! One of the greatest groups of lines were various children from 5 or 6 years old to adolescents wearing the same jersey as about 15 or 20 of their friends. Tons of youth rugby teams were flooding into the stadium along with many excited foreigners buying t-shirts, hats, flags, noisemakers and hot dogs. We watched the game with some annoying North American tourists trying to figure out "what was going on with those guys being lifted up to catch the ball?" And, "these halves better not be more than 20 minutes." That wasn't so great, but the very
loud Scots sitting behind us randomly yelling "FREEEEEDOM!" had me laughing throughout most of the game. Unfortunately, the Pumas (AR), who beat the Scots in the previous weekend, were looking too cold to play rugby and lost the match 15-21.
In terms of my rugby, I have tried to join a women's team with a club called Central Naval. The team is really new and still learning about rugby. In fact, this is the first 15s team Argentina has ever had. There have been some 7s teams and the style they play, even on 15s or 10s is really more like 7s. I went to a couple of practices and even spent a long Sunday playing 10s in the rainy drizzle in a drawn-out round robin tournament. The level is elementary and they don't engage on scrums or have more than 4 man line out. Most passing sequences are below 5 passes and avoiding the bunch ball play is difficult to avoid. I played probably a total of 25 minutes as an outside center or wing all day. It was a long day for me and slightly frustrating with the language problems, I haven't been to a practice
since.
Even with all the fun, weeks are flying by! Now, Dain and I have only 6 weeks left in this high lifestyle in the big city. We are getting close to completing all the activities on our list and have made final plans for a last look at Argentina for when our lease is up at the end of July. Many of you are wondering about our day to day activities. Well, we have completely adjusted ourselves to living here. We teach English all week long. Dain has the luck of fitting all his 25 or so hours of work into the first four days of the week. I have my 25 hours more spread out throughout the days, I work Monday through Friday. Many times I have to wait 3 to 5 hours in the downtown area waiting for class time to come around. Dain finds himself doing a lot of reading as he waits for students who never show up to class. These waiting hours for him, are of course, paid!
Many of you may think 25 hours is not a whole lot of work, and compared to my old life in the
US, you're right! The full time schedule of an English teacher like us, are 20- 30 hours in this city. The work has some of our colleagues exhausted, we've heard people stressed over the amount of planning that is required and how the work comes home with you, spends the weekend with you and never leaves you. It can be difficult, but after 3 1/2 months, Dain and I both feel we have a grasp on teaching English. The main goal for this job is to keep the students happy. They are the ones that bring money to our employer, Beckett. Beckett hires the teachers out to different businesses all over the city and if the students don't like the teacher, then Beckett doesn't get hired back the next year.
In addition to our workload we spend maybe 10 hours or more on public transport a week, which is risky and exhausting in itself. The subte is always, as we like to describe it, a "full contact" ride. Every morning I take a 40 minute ride on the underground metro with crowds of grumpy, aggressive Porteños trying to get to work on time. The pushing and squeezing is
Los Pumas vs. Escocia
Argentina vs. Scotland suffocating at times and of course the car fills with heat and you have to be mindful of the pickpockets. (I'm pretty sure a pickpocket took my cell phone!) I take two subtes and usually any ride on the underground is preceded and followed by a 10 minute walk, at least. Also, the train, buses and taxis are all means of transport which we utilize to get ourselves to and from classes. It is not always an easy task. There are often lines of people waiting for one bus or the subte doesn't work and immediately all the buses and taxis jam in the streets. This happens in Buenos Aires, and when it does everyone usually understands.
The weekends are very chill, like usual, Friday night comes around and I am exhausted from the work week. Fridays I am usually in bed by midnight. Fridays are good for a cheap dinner out to our favorite restaurant, only two blocks away, Moche a Peruvian restaurant. We love Moche for the reasonable prices and delicious food! We can get a bottle of wine, ceviche, an entree each and pay 100 pesos or $30 US!! It is great eating food so
At the Tango Show
Our friends from Cali, Tasha and Adriana. Their last night! cheap! (We are not looking forward to the adjustment of expensive food in the US) Saturdays are useful for a visit to the Japanese Gardens, strolling through the streets, lounging in the park, visiting local fairs, sightseeing, meeting with friends, reading a book or for Dain playing computer games. A couple of items we still have on our to-do list is a soccer match and Tango lessons. This weekend we were able to cross off a Tango Show, which Dain became a part of! He was actually brought up from the table to dance with two different Tango dancers! Then was the object of hate for all the men in the show and was yelled at, roughly taken to downstairs (offstage) and then brought back on again, with a Tango dancer and a Tango hat and brought back to the table. I was completely hysterical! (Lorraine, I tried my best to get pics of all this but was caught off guard because I set my camera to video! If there is a way to get a video shot turned into a picture, there are a couple really good ones!) We also had the privilege of seeing a rugby match this
weekend and the Sex and the City movie! I bribed Dain with an extra large bowl of popcorn to go with me, but he didn't mind and I caught him smiling several times throughout the movie.
This is our usual, day-to-day and we are doing great with the language aspect as well. Both of us can order food, talk to shopkeepers and taxi drivers and order take-out on the phone! The last taxi driver complimented us on our Spanish, but that was before I accidentally asked the driver what his plans were for Potato's Day. He politely told me "Dia de Padres" not "Dia de Papas." Below are a couple of pics from the past few weekends, enjoy!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 67; dbt: 0.0411s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Philandchloe
PhilandChloe
Nice moves Dain
We couldn´t tell the difference between the pro´s and Dain. A true Porteno.