Colo Colo Vs. Gimnasia
Hola Compadres,
well, as mentioned previously, I went to a BIG futból game last week.
Colo Colo ( a huge club here, the best and most popular team at the moment- very much a working class team, a team of the people) verses a team from La Plata, Argentina.
So, we (James, Helen and I) went to the ground to buy some tickets. It was anexperiencee in itself buying them; The stadium is kinda in 'the hood' and before and after we bought the tickets some local kids were trying to get some easy money I suppose, which made thing interesting. One kid in particular was pretty cool. Hetriedd to sell me a dirty Colo Colo cloth thing but I didn't have enough change on me (I couldn't just walk by, you could tell that he reallywass in need-I'm too soft for all this kinda stuff) and on theway back hetriedd to sell me this massive Colo Colo flag like the size of a sheet! So I told him no thanks, I don't have enough cash on me, and I don't need a sheet for my bed, but gave him the little bit of change I had: He impressed me with his perserverance... good times...
So, with that kind of first impression, we made ourselves ready for the game. When we bought the tickets we weren't in any sort of disguise- We must've stood out a mile. All of us have lightish hair (for perspective, mine is the darkest- and Helen's is like real blond) so we made sure we wore hoodies so, if needed, we could fit into the crowd fairly well.
So, at around 8.30ish we made our way to the ground. And we encountered no hassling at all- I guess because it was dark... So we pretty easily found our stand (a good stand, and it was well worth it- The cheap stands are pretty wild I'll tell you more later) but the seats were pretty full, so we sat on the steps; right in the middle of the stand, pretty much at half way.
The atmosphere was brilliant,across to the side we could see the cheap stand packed out with crazy fans: Singing about a hundred different songs, with the drums and everything, jumping up and down at times- the place was buzzing! Across on the other side of the ground there was the stand for Gimnasia fans. The stand was nuts; completely surrounded by a huge fence (as the whole ground was, butthiss was heaps higher) and just a smattering of very brave people with banners.
James (ah huge futból fan) was in heaven- and the game hadn't even started yet...
The players came out through one of those tube things for protection and the crowerupteded-Literally; there were these people in the crowd firing full on flares, everyone jumping up and down singing the Colo Colo song.
So the game got started, A very free flowing game..You could see that Colo Colo had the edge by far. The crowd reactions where so good There was an audible 'oooh' every closish goal, and ther was this old guy beside me who was saying '**** tu Madre' every minute- to the ref, to the opposition and with many variations of ****... even one of the songs had that as a line (I shouldn't laugh but it was rilarious).
The score was 1-1 by half time. Colo Colo's goal was by their sensational mid fielder Matias Fernandez(who has just been sigbed by a club in Spain) and every time he touched the ball you'ld here people shouting 'Mati'- the guy is class (and only like 20 or 21). I was well impressed with Alexis Sanchez, he's like only 17 and has speed and skills to burn, he's going to play in Italy next year I think.
In the second half the striker scored 3 mean as goals. Suazo is all class as well...
So, in the end, it was a walk over for Colo Colo (but only the first leg, they played them in Arg. last night and won 2-0)
But the game ended in contreversy: Some idiot in the crowd threw a bit of the staduim they kkicked off at an opposing player! So the game was called off at that point (it was near the end anyway). Unbelievable... It was pretty funny the next few days, whenever I told someone I went, they were like 'it was you!' they still ahven't found out who did it.
After the game we planned to take a Taxi back, but unfourtunalty every taxi we bumped into was booked or something... so we walked for 2 hours trying to find one- and eventually we did (just in time, we were pretty wasted by that point)... Next time (We have to go to the semi) we'll have to plan that better... or go with friends with a car.
So that was my first Futból eperiance in S.A... good times, may it not be the last!
Chao Chao, catch you all later
Nathan
Un Fin de semana grande
Well to move on where I left of with my last post- I went to the doctor last Thursday and the diagnosis was: Take antibiotics, take an anti-flu drug, don't play sport and 'don't do anything extreme':
Friday at school was great (the weather was terrible by the way, the most rain in october for one day on record supposedly) It was 'dia del profesors' so we got the second half of the day off. The plan was to go to Parque Araco to see some of Faishon week (of all things) but first to have sushi close by.
Well sushi was good times, Sergio (a friend of ours) is such a funny guy, Phil and Alex were there and so were Helen and James- The other gappies at the grange now.
So we caught a cab to the Mall but the show was rained out (awwww... I was looking forward to some freebies) so we just went around the shops for a while. I tell ou this mall is hugemongous, totally 'gringolandia' . As well there was a stand in one part with people getting their hair done, so being the inqusitive types we found out that it was a competition with Sedal, a hair products company. All they were doing was washing, applying differnet stuff and making peoples hair look fabulous for a photo. Helen was the first to give it a go, James didn't want someone to touch his hair (chicken) so I went boldly were few men have gone before and entered as well. I asked how many guys had enterd the competion and they said that on average only one would enter every day (talk about good odds) and the prize is a years supply of their stuff, fame, fourtune...
anyway, that was kinda fun.
Friday night was also Phil and Alex's farewell party, at Sergio's place. Good times, It was cool to be able to catch up with some of their mates and stuff. So, following doctors orders, I left at around 1.30. That's not extreme is it?
Saturday was good times. First up I went to the grange to watch the first 15 play the Old boys second team. Unfourtuantly some of the 1st 15 weren't playing because of dicipline issues so they were missing some of their big forwards (there still was this beast of a guy I see at the gym all the time) so they were soundly thrashed 50ish to 10ish. It seems as if you don't need to be that big to play rugby here, I was talking to John about it (John was at the party on fri, and was playing for Old boys) and they have forwards at around 80 something kilo's. So maybe if I come back I should bulk up a little, then I could even be a flanker here (they don't have many tallish people here) haha, maybe maybe.
After that I got a call from Omar asking if I wanted to play futbòl that afternoon. Of course I'm always up for a run around and completly forgot about the doctors orders... But when I go thteir I told them my mistake so I played golie instead.
As well I got to met Jonathan, a guy from the states, who's visiting them for a few weeks to pratice english with them and be an encouragement.
Also to my suprise it wasn't the usual futból game- heaps of people turned up as it was Valentina's birthday, so it was a far bigger event. And we had completo's after the game (yes!!!). But, alas I had to leave early for the next event on my social calendar.
Sammy and Fern Lago were having their birthday at their cousins place up in Los Dominigos, Las Condes. So I rushed from the Futból and got home in time for a quick change then met up with Timo and his brother to catch a micro to the party. We kinda gave ourselves to much time, as we arrived at the party about 15min early (in Chile time I think we were more like at least 45 before, your supposed to arrive after the stated time). You could say that the house impressed me very early, we talked thought the gate intercom, then the driveway gate opened up to reveal a long tree lined driveway. Anyway so it turned out that we arrived before even the Birthday boy and girl.
But it was all good, Fransica (I think that is her name, I have even worse name memory than back home, and back home it's abysmal) showed us into a lounge/dining room, with quite a high stud. Off to the side was some stairs up to a kind of mezzanine floor with a pool table, a small bar and an attached music room (all decked out with piano, drums, quite a few guitars and lots of sheet music. So we chilled and played pool until other guests eventually arrived.
For the birthday boy I bought some 'wax' for his hair. (Wax is impossible to get her and Sam needed some more control of his ever lengthening hair. But the wax I got him is like this white fluidy stuff- definitely not the good stuff- and it's all Iíve been able to use since mine ran out) which was well appreciated.
So, by this stage all I knew was that the house was kinda big, but I was only in one of the wings. So after playing abit of pool, playing some piano, having a chat with some of the crew and having some eats Katie gave me a tour round the house. Katie is both cousins of Sammy and the homeowners and studying Interior Design at Uni, so she was the perfect tour guide. I can't write about how the walk through went but their place includes: Good sizes bedrooms on the other side of the house, good as kitchen, library, TV room, A good sized lawn, a gym, tennis court, pool, and the house had this brilliant 'huge country house with mod cons' vibe. I kinda felt like I was on MTV's "Cribs" or something. I've never been in such a house before (That doesn't say much come to think about it, I'll better stop rabbiting on).
Soon after we got back to the party's proceedings some of us started having a sing around the piano. Mark was playing the chords of heaps of songs that we found in some song books; everything from The Backstreet boys, Abba, Stuff from quite a few musicals, amongst others. It was definitely 'good times'. So we chilled, sang, ate, chatted until about 2 (another perfect example of not being extreme, esp. because it was daylight savings as well I was informed by Ashlee just before we left).
I really enjoy hanging around with this lot. And fortunately the Barretts (Jase, Mely and Katie) had brought their 4wd so we pilled in- Timo, his bro (see I can't remember names) and me in the back, with the Gringas getting a ride as well in the cab (in total we fit like 10 people I guess-sheesh- Don't worry Dad, it was perfectly safe and it saved me having to pay for a mammoth taxi ride).
After church on Sunday I visited some family friends of the Ramos family. Their daughter Lorena is going to NZ in late December for a few months before going to Uni next year. They were really cool, so we had abit of a chat about what kind of things to look out for, but it was mainly so I could touch base with them and hopefully be able to find some possible contacts.
Well, I was tired as after all that. As you can see I followed the doctors orders perfectly... A very non-extreme, non sporty weekend if you will.
Hopefully your not finding my last few blogs to long winded- It's hard to be able to write these up in a manner were you get the inside info of what's up, but also not get bogged down with details. If anyone has any good ideas on this please throw me an email or something- I want to give the people what they want. I should probably have a glossary of terms as well (some other time)
Proxima capitulo: Some more about the peeps/experiances at the grange, A Futból game of epic preportions, and more excessively detailed posts.
Chao Chao,
Nathan
and here are some photos:
Ashlee on some drums
Me sitting at the bar
Feliz Cumpleaños...
Sam, playing some pool
Katie chilling behind the bar
The Mirralles family
Temuco (te-moo-co)
Well, Congreso was a fantastic time... Good people, good talks, good weather for some of it, good practice- all good (except for a few things i'll get to)
We left Friday night, at around 10:30, for a huge trip of about 10 hours... a good trip, good seats. I had a good chat to David until lights out, and then tried to get some sleep. By the time the sun got up the scenery had changed heaps; it was kinda like the Waikato with out the cows (I have no idea what they do with the land, maybe the cows have homes with all the mod cons...) so we eventually arrived at around 6.30 in Temuco very chilly (funny aye).
Took the local buses to the venue, an Anglican school for the deaf. They weren't originally planning to have it there: they had another school all lined up but for some reason they were told two days before that they had to find somewhere else. The only problem was that there wasn't really enough space for us in the rooms, as you will see in the picture, think marae style with a Latin twist and you would be right. As well most people forgot/weren't told that they needed to bring plates etc. so whoever was doing the dishes had to work during the meal so everyone could eat (quite a mission). Apart from that, all good.
Of course we were all pretty tired but at least for me the newness of the experience jolted me awake. The daily schedule consisted of two workshops, a talk thing, a study with people of the same first letter in their name (Nicolas x3 and Natalia x3 except for me duh!) and singing etc, in the main hall. I choose the Secundo Timoteo workshop, with the Youth Pastor from Viña as the speaker. I mainly choose it because Becka, Rachel and Jason wanted to go to it as well (I didn't really want to be all alone, in a little group, trying to contribute-I'm not up for that yet) And I knew that Eduardo was a good communicator. So that went real good, We started of each one with a little study kinda thing in little groups, then Eduardo would talk about what we had covered and more... It was cool to be able to understand some of what he was saying, but always with bits that lost me (I'm getting there... patience boy...). It was especially cool to understand his jokes and stories- Good times.
Unfortunately Congreso wasn't as big this year as normal-Mainly because alot of youth groups in Santiago didn't have a big showing. Me parece ellos estuveron un poco flojo! The biggest crew was from Viña by far (two huge buses full of them in fact). As well before I continue with my account Youth groups here don't stop at high school, they're more 15-plus up to early twenties thing (quite cool actually come to think about it).Even though the numbers were down it was brilliant. I found most people good to talk to with my stilted Spanish, but I still feel awkward initiating a conversation, not wanting to be a burden you know. The most frustrating thing was understanding them but not being able to put together a coherent answer (I’ll stop moaning now, there we go- that's better)
Believe it or not, I met some fellow kiwis there as well: Cameron and Rachel. They’re both here with their family, been here for 6 months so far, going to school etc. and they're from Nelson as well. I had a few chats with them and with Cameron's mates- good guys, and they were all used to speaking to an extranjero like me. So if I go to Concepcion I'll have to look them up definitely.
It was especially cool to be there with Becka, Ashlee and Rachel (The gringas) and my bilingual friends of Provi to keep me sane. They're all great fun to hang out with, and serious Christians (theological discussions anyone?) - I need some positive peer pressure now and then (ok... always). Becka was keeping us all updated about her husband hunting which was hilarious.
Another fun thing came from a comment I made about what I like to call 'Indiscriminate Hugging' (people giving others hugs with alot of affection- in a somewhat random way...like mentally linking someone being 'with' that person (these indiscriminate hugs were mainly between a chica and a chico) but lo and behold the next time you see them you see them with someone else, it's kinda hard to describe. Anyway this eventually led to some of the highlights of the week. I said that I wanted to get in on the act, so, with the others watching I approached a few random guys, walked up and gave them a hug. The best one was when I went up to one guy and said "donde esta el amor" -definitely the wrong thing to say! It translates roughly to 'where is the love' but in Spanish it's a whole lot stronger and kinda gay. The dude’s reaction was priceless: He backed off with a very scared look on his face, then I told him it was only a joke and pointed to the others with my camera. He then relaxed and I indiscriminately gave him a hug.
That's one of the cool things with my Spanish; I can get away with a whole lot. Like when we were playing games I'd sometimes make random comments like 'amazing' 'marvellous' etc. or stuff like 'rock on Muchacho's' (muchacho is like saying chaps or dudes or something).
You may recall I visited an Australian family when I arrived. Anyway Michael Charles was there as a speaker, speaking about some verses in Romans about not giving up on the gospel, not changing it etc. I found his talk quite easy to understand, probably because I’m fairly familiar with the verses he used.
So on Monday night we left, we had abit of spare time before we left so we went to a food court in a mall and looked around a real old Anglican church there (so I only saw those places, a school for the deaf and the bus station: With only the official Congreso T-shirt as a momento. Maybe next time I'll be able to see more. So we arrived back completely wasted... I was feeling pretty bad, a cough and nose thing.
After that I had to go to work, starting two hours after I arrived. At school I visited the school nurse and the next day she told me that I’d need to see a doctor (my throat was very inflamed, and I'd been sick for a few weeks and couldn't seem to shake it. Unfortunately the doctor was expensive as, like $100 bucks just for the consultation- not the kind of expense that I wanted. But I'm feeling alot better now.
I better stop this post now... I'll be posting my next instalment very soon with more 'wonderful adventures' including: Phil and Alex's farewell party, Sammy and Fern's birthday (In a MASSIVE house up Las Condes way), Futból with some from the church, a visit to one of the malls and my visit with a family.
Look after yourselves, and for you viewing pleasure here are some Photos…
Rachel, Becka, Jason and Sammy having a chat (last day just before the last talk)
Some of the Chicas waiting at the Bus Station in Temuco
Me about to hug the guy in the Puma shirt... too bad I don't have a better one so you can see his reaction!
Me with two of the 'Gringas' Becka on the left and Rachel on the right
Eduardo in action; he always sat in that pose...
Cameron on the right with some of the boys from Concepcion
And finally my touch Jersey on my messy bed...
Good times at the Grange
Hola mis amigos,
well, times have been good here at 'the grange'. I started officially this week but I came for a few visits last week. So my days are now filled with sitting in classrooms, marking homework, helping with admin stuff, helping with P.E and chilling on the computers when I don't have classes. My day starts at 8.20 (and I have a half hour commute) but it's good to have a bit of continuity in my day. They look after us very well. I get a free lunch (heaven compared to what i've been making for myself- and saves heaps of cash) which is super bueno. Other perks include the washing machine in the flat, internet use, and a gym. Talking about the gym, I went there yesterday with James, the other newish gappie, and the trainer there was real nice and offered to make us a programme. So we went though his assement which was fun, esp. when we did a sit-up execise (after doing it he asked 'how many' and we hadn't counted (he doesn't speak any english- but the word for count is sounds extremly similar so we felt kinda stupid). And best of all I nailed a 60 kg bench press which I felt was pretty good for someone my weight. So i'll try go to the gym a few times a week which would be good, especially in preparation for helping in the swimming pool in about a months and a bit.
Sunday was pretty choice. I visited the Aravena family for lunch/onces- definitly a 'familia bacan'. I feel as if that 'quantum leap' i've been waiting for has come in a few instalments- But i'm pretty happy about how it's been going.
Touch started up last wednesday, and alas, we lost- to last seasons finalists- but we could have nailed them... My D was on song (extremly on song, I night say) but I didn't get into the flow on attack. Our new jerseys are mint, i'll put up a photo some time soonish.
Anyway, not too much else of note has been happening. I'm really looking forward to this coming long weekend- I'm going to congreso with the youth group, about 8 hours south to Temuco. I guess congreso is kinda like a big chile-wide anglican camp or something, so it should be going off! We leave this friday night, arrive at some ungodly hour on saturday, have congreso, then leave on monday for the mammoth bus trip back: should be good times
Nathan
