What a life I live, folks! It's Sunday morning and I've already had a great weekend! Well on Friday, I was super productive. I did homework from around 10AM until 12:15 at night with minimal breaks. Why? Principally because I knew I would be doing no homework Saturday. And what did I do Saturday?
Well.
Saturday morning University Torquato Di Tella played against Universidad Catolica at the fields of the University of San Andres. I didn't play goalie, though. They let me play in the field! But the bad part about that was that I didn't get to play the whole game. So many of us were there that we made a lot of substitutions. We won, though! 1-0, and my friend Jess from the same exchange program (IFSA) scored the goal! It was great, because she had missed a penalty kick before, so she got to redeem herself. Unfortunately, though, I could not go out to eat with the team to celebrate. Why? Well. That's the second part to my day.
Last Thursday, I pretty much wondered into the stadium of Argentinos Juniors, the team I'm doing my thesis on. I got to watch them practice. Later that day, I also stopped by and asked about the museum I had heard about before. The two men whom I asked (one who I later figured out was the coach of the junior divisions) went in, found the coordinator of the construction of this museum. He was floored when I told him I was from the USA and was doing my final thesis on his team. He took me up to the museum (which was not even open yet) , showed me around, answered some of my questions, promised to help me with my paper, AND invited me to the team's game Saturday! Said he could get me platea seats for 50 pesos (around $USA 12). Of COURSE... I said, SURE.
So after the soccer game at San Andres, I hopped the train with one of the other girls who had to get home, and with my friend Natalie, hopped on the colectivo to get down to La Paternal where the stadium is. Well. It turns out, that he didn't have to pay anything for the tickets, so we got in FREE. Frankly, I was FLOORED that he didn't try to make some money off of us by not telling us. He's a REALLY nice guy. He and his wife are HUGE fans of the team. And he's also the Head of Marketing for the whole club!
So we got platea seats. The difference between platea and popular is that platea is the typical stadium seating that we think of in the United States. Popular, while much less expensive than platea, is a space where people stand to watch the game. Our seats were absolutely great! We got there early so we watched the reserve divisons play. The first division of the club ended up winning 1-0!! It was a really good goal too.
Then...we got a stadium tour!!! We got out on the field. We were in the central hall when some of the players and the coach (who played on their 1985 championship team) were being interviewed by the press. We got to see the press room, the locker rooms, and the museum! It was absolutely incredible! And all for 30 pesos! I definitely plan on working with this head of marketing on the museum. It's just INCREDIBLE. This would never have happened at the stadiums of the bigger teams, and it certainly would have never happened in the United STates!!!!
Part 3 of my day? Ines and her friend invited Natalie and I to what is called a Pena. A lot of people come together and dance folklore music from different regions of Argentina. It was sooo interesting. Of course, I was incredibly tired. But I just found it sooo interesting that these things still exist today! Ines is such a classy lady. She radiates class. And this was definitely something that would have been right up her alley, if it had been done right. Hahaha. The place was great (an old restored theater), and the food was absolutely delicious. Everything was homecooked. The music? Not so hot. Well, it is to say, the performers. The first two must have been friends of the house, because they weren't at the program. The third, the first performer on the program, played with a lot of enthusiasm, but the sound was far from the best. We left relatively early, except I was soooo tired!!! =)
So that was an excellet day I had here. The game was absolutely awesome. Hope you enjoy the picture! It's me and Natalie on the team's benches!!!
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