Archive for the ‘Futbol in Santiago’ Category:
No further ado
Alright. It’s finally time for the big game (see previous post).
We arrive early to see what we can see.
Jersey. Check.
Pre-game concessions. Check.
Crowd Control. Check.
More armed guards. Check.
Pre-game show. Check.
GameView.
Orange is for losers.
Flares are for winners.
So, that’s the story. This was definitely one of my favorite things in Santiago. Everyone REALLY gets in to the game–I mean, REALLY and I mean EVERYONE. At the end, a guy came over the loud speaker and told the losing fans to stay in their seats until the winning fans had cleared out of the stadium, as in, for their safety. We found out after the game that even though Universidad de Chile won, they needed to win by 2 points to go on, and they only won by 1 (we were really confused because we knew the home team won, but the home fans were all mad at the same time). We left in a cab (they are very cheap in Santiago btw) and we actually did see a fight from the cab window and then we saw some really serious cops straighten things out pretty fast.
Gotta go.
FUTBOL!
Well, of course we could not go to a Latin American country and not partake of the number one continental pastime. However, I don’t want you guys to think we just goof around all day having adventures. It is hard work to get futbol tickets.
So, we need to get the tics from a ticketmaster vendor. They cost between $7.50 and $20 dollars US, for the Chilean playoff games. Ok, first we try to buy them online. Strike. No problem. We learn need to go to this dept. store, similar to Macy’s here and find the ticketmaster booth there. It’s in the back, in the basement. OK. We find her and we know how to ask for the tickets. (Glaspeys +1).
She responds, “Fill in the sound that the adults make in the Peanuts movies here.”
Como? (what?)
“Blah, blah, blah, something something, unique partido y no compramos entradas aqui. Blah blah, CineHoyt en calle Blah blah.” (hmm, Chileans +2)
OK, we know that this is a unique game and we have to buy the tickets at a certain CineHoyts (which is the equivalent of Regal Cinemas).
We take a cab to the CineHoyt we think it is. The cabbie honks at as as we walk right past the CineHoyt that he just explained was underground right where he dropped us off. We see the sign and catch on.
We find the ticketmaster vendor at CineHoyt, we ask for the tickets.
“Blah, blah, blah something about another CineHoyt 2 blocks away.”
We walk out and begin to walk a 2 block radius around CineHoyt1, looking for CineHoyt2. We don’t see it. We ask someone, who directs us back to CineHoyt1 (we think). We ask someone else. “Blah, blah, blah, blah.” But, this guy was really good with his hand gestures.
FOUND IT!
We ask the ticketmaster vendor to recommend which seats are decent. Hmm, no entiendimos. Oh well, we pay the midrange price and we know for sure that we are in the shade at least.
Stay tuned…
Foundations and Futbol
So, the last few days have been way more active than our normal days in Portland. On Saturday, we went to Casablanca, which is about an hour or so outside of Santiago to the West. 15 of us went and built/dug a foundation for two small additions to small houses. We split up into two groups, going to two sites. There, we each dug out a 20″ deep trench stretching about 60 feet in diameter. It certainly wasn’t easy work, but it was also somewhat fun. Afterwards, we filled the trench with cement we made in a cement mixer, then brought in using wheel barrows. All-in, we worked hard for about 7 hours, and at the end, left something that didn’t exist before. At both sites, to call the existing houses modest would be generous, and it’s kind of cool that we’re able to leave something permanent in our wake that will help families here. However, it’s also somewhat vain to consider ourselves “helpers” of the community, knowing we only helped build a small part of what will become a small impact on the lives of those drastically different than ours. As wealthy Americans, visiting a different country, to somehow imagine that we’ve “done our duty” just because we volunteered for a few hours is worse than ignorant. Yet, I am glad that we engaged with the community rather than simply exploited it. We’ll have photos in a day or so.
Jump ahead to today, and Holly and I played futbol for about two hours with people from our school. There were people there from all over the world: Chileans, Swiss, Germans, Canadians, Americans, and Brits. Needless to say, those from other countries than the U.S. definitely did the dominating, although there were a few Yanks that held there own. After 2 hours, I was spent. But it was a great way to meet people and we had a really good time. Did I mention, it was Holly’s FIRST soccer match! She did great, although, definitely didn’t catch the full scope of where to be and what to do from the beginning. She did have some great passes and was getting a bit more aggressive at the end of the match. Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of the game, but I’ll try and get some next week if we play again.
Keep coming back folks, as there will be more soon, and lots more photos when I have time to go through all that we’ve taken.