A few new things

After finishing writing on friday I took a long nap, woke up at about 12:30 AM and got ready to go out. By the time we had grabbed something to eat and gotten to the club it was about 2am. Suprisingly enough we were some of the first people there. Well we almost got it right, i thought we were right on schedule with the nap until midnight. The club was going strong by about 3:30 and continued to go strong until the early hours of the morning. It was seperated into 3 rooms with three different DJs, one of which was outside and backed up to the Rio Plata River, so when the sun started to come up, everyone migrated outside to watch the sun come up and listen to the only DJ that was still spinning in the club.
Early morning club

I had met a Columbian girl at the club who invited me to a concert on Saturday with her sister and a few friends. Marilyn Manson isn´t exactly my kind of music, but i figured it would be a good opportunity to make some friends and practice my Spanish. It turned out to be a whole day festival of heavy metal music and there was one ska band that was actually pretty good. The crowd was mostly goth and I definately stuck out like a sore thumb, or the Columbian expression is ¨como un mosque en leche¨- like a mosquito in milk. They didn´t serve any alchohol inside the venue which I found out the next day when I went to a soccer game that the purpose is as simple as crowd control. After I tell you about the game you will get a better understanding.

When Marilyn Manson was about to come out on stage (as well as between songs) the crowd shouted ¨Olay, olay, olay, olay, Man-son, Man-son¨. As far as my critique on the performance, despite the fact that Manson is a total freak, it was definately a sight to see. Click here to see video from Marilyn Manson in Argentina.

Sunday- Some buddies of Dakin´s from college were passing through BA and were planning on going to a soccer game and asked if we wanted to join. If I am not going to pass up the Marilyn Manson concert I´m sure as hell not going to pass up a soccer (futbol) game. The field is surrounded by barbwire and people were hanging up signs of there favorite players. The picture below is of a guy who climbed over the barbwire (without a shirt) to secure his sign and continued to hang signs well into the first half of the game.
Club climbing over fence
Riot police

It was a high scoring game- we were down by two after the first half, but came back to tie the game 3-3 with a goal made with only a few seconds left. Our game tying goal set the visitors section off into a rage. The section was right above us, and we started hearing banging followed by parts of chairs and whole chairs being launched from the balcony in the direction of the field but landing short in the stands in front of us (we were covered by the overhang). One man who was standing down there earlier went back down to get something he left and got hit with what looked like a ladder (my memory card ran out before I caught this in the video but the large white object you see in this video is exactly what nearly knocked this guy unconcious). Click here to watch the soccer game video
Eventually the visitors crowd started to calm as they left through a seperate exit. The home team fans were kept inside until all of the visiting fans were far enough away. We went to the edge of the stadium to observe all of the police in full riot gear waiting for something to happen and we listened to the rubber bullets being fired off in the distance. Once the noise subsided the doors opened and the home team fans were allowed to leave. From what I have heard, this type of thing happens every game and the events I had witnessed are far from the worst of it.


2 Responses to “A few new things”  

  1. 1 steve

    Sounds like quite the weekend. Have to make sure you know where the nearest exit is when you go to futbal in other countries. I am not sure your video or pictures are on the site….may want to check that.

  2. 2 vicki

    wow, that sounds awesome. sounds like you have been jumping right in and staying busy. Don’t forget you can phone home sometimes too so we can hear your VOICE!! Are you photos on the site?

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