A brief post

At this moment, I am beginning to feel a slight bit less foreign. Today, for the first time, I felt like more of an Argentinian and less of an American (or should I say, Estadounidense). I woke up late (around 12) and spent my afternoon studying for a quiz (for which I am not actually finished preparing for) whilst drinking mate. This weekend I had went to a feria (basically a place full of stands to buy things) and purchased a mate (also called a calabaza, it is the receptacle that you drink the mate out of) and a bombilla (the metal straw you drink through that filters the water out from the herb mixture). It's kind of hard to make because if the water is too hot, then the mate tastes terrible. Yet for some wonderful reason, today my buddy Pepe and I made it right. I'm very glad I have officially acquired the taste for it because it is such an important part of the culture here and drinking mate and actually enjoying it makes me forget how much of a gringo I am.

The mate that I purchased displays the logo of the football team I (somewhat randomly) chose to root for here, called River Plate. This brings me to the other reason I have felt like an Argentinian--for probably the first time, I have begun to actually enjoy watching soccer--(ahem) "fútbol"--and last night's game was between River Plate and the Boca Juniors, two teams with a very intense rivalry, arguably one of the biggest in sports. Teams here tend to represent barrios, and with Boca it is no exception. La Boca is a historically working-class neighborhood, with a history of immigrant workers living in close quarters, and overall further demonstrating an income gap that is geographically represented in the city (typically the northern part of Buenos Aires is more affluent than the southern part). Therefore, this match is often not just be seen between two teams, but also between different socioeconomic levels (I don't think it really should be, but this is how it has been constructed by many). Perhaps I don't want to admit to cheering on behalf of the affluent against the struggling (who does?), yet most of my friends/people I've met here are River fans, and by association I have now become one.

I watched the game with a few friends and despite my usual apathy for sports, I found myself very much in the game. I wasn't shouting like the old man sitting behind us, but part of me died inside when Boca scored the only goal of the game. I wasn't close to starting a riot or anything, but for the first time I was faithfully watching a futbol game on the edge of my seat, and ended up slightly tasting a new variety of that bitter taste of defeat which I had distanced myself from over the years.