Goooooooool! ...well almost

So I have quite a lot to report. I've been postponing blog posting for a while. First, I've been progressing when it comes to making more Argentine amigos. My new goal is to find a bar, cafe, empanadería, confitería (bakery) and heladería (ice cream) all close to my apartment. My neighborhood is really nice. I definitely feel safe walking around at night considering that most of the buildings in the area have doormen. Also, all of the buildings in this neighborhood have garages! It's amazing. Not something that you would ever experience in New York. We would just consider it wasted space.

This past week was my first full week of class. I think I'm going to take:
Historia de Relaciones Internationales (History of IR)
Taller de Radio (Radio Workshop)
Taller de Escritura Profesional (Spanish Class)
Estructura Económica de Argentina (Economic Structure of Argentina)

The students (Argentines) in my History of IR class are very nice. I look forward to studying with them, as soon as I can figure out what they are saying half the time. It's definitely easier to understand the professors than the students.

Anyway, today was quite a day. I woke up at 10 (that would be 6 hours of sleep, thanks to a relatively early Saturday night), and picked up my ticket to EL SUPERCLÁSICO!!!!! The superclásico is considered one of the biggest sports events in the world considering that it is the match between the two major rival teams Boca Juniors and River Plate. In the United States, the word "class" is taboo. Income inequality is widening in the US but many, especially those on the top do not like to realize that. If there is anything that I have realized about Argentines, especially Porteños, it is that they speak their minds. They know that class exists and they talk about it. The River/Boca rivalry is a complete microcosm of the class divide here. Boca is traditionally the team of the working class and River the team of the upper class. Boca calls River "Los Millonarios." Anyway, I got my ticket at 11 with a friend of mine and took a van over to La Boca (the barrio) with a tourguide from the company where I bought the ticket. At this point it began to rain. By the time we arrived to the line, the torrential downpour had started. The game started at 15:00 and we got to the stadium around 13:30. By this time we were all as wet as the Río de la Plata. I can't even describe the atmosphere in the stadium. Words cannot describe it. It's too bad that it all ended 9 minutes into the game when the ref called it due to rain. First River/Boca game ever postponed. Pretty disappointing, but it means that I'll get to experience it twice! Just in case anyone was wondering, it was super safe.