So much to do

    
Everyone did different things with their host families this weekend and it ended with Argentina playing against Bosnia on Sunday night.
Although Argentina won the game by a score of 2-1, many people were
not happy with how the team played and a lack of domination that many
people expected.
    The new week started with a very interesting trip with the
Argentinian boys to the United States Embassy, where we learned a lot
about US relations with Argentina and how the embassy operates. The
amount of security was extremely high as we needed an escort for every
4 students. We also learned about one of the workers and how she
became involved in international affairs. She was born in Needham,
went to college at Wheaton, and got a job in banking. Then one day her
husband took the exam to become a diplomat, he passed, and has moved
to various places around the world ever since. We had lunch then
returned to our houses and most of us watched Portugal get destroyed
by Germany by a score of 4-0. After this we all got together at
Marcos's house to watch the United States-Ghana game. Some of us
didn't even arrive before Clint Dempsey scored the 5th fastest goal in
World Cup history, 30 seconds into the game. The game was pretty
average and comfortable until Ghana scored in the 82nd minute and all
of us thought that the US's World Cup chances were over. Then, John
Brooks scored in the 86th minute and chants of USA could probably be
heard in the entire building. The US was able to hold on and we all
had a fun night talking with our host family about the game.
    On Tuesday, we all got together around 10:00 and made our way to the
Colón Theatre, a theatre in Buenos Aires that is over a century old!
It is possibly the oldest theatre in Latin America. Upon arriving, we
received tickets to a tour, in which we entered several rooms with
breathtakingly beautiful and ornate architectural designs, though the
tour guide claimed that it was rather unadorned and simple. The
theatre, though over one hundred years old, looked as though it had
been opened just yesterday due to several amazing renovations
performed to preserve the building with rich history. Through the
tour, we learned of the construction of the theatre, and about the
influence of Italy and England in the design and materials that made
up the theatre, such as the large marble columns and the intricate
stone tiles on the floor. Following this tour, and several
poorly-executed attempts to get a good group picture, we sat down at a
café, where the cake that many enjoyed did not stop them from enjoying
the school lunch upon our arrival there about fifteen minutes later.
The rest of the day could be summed up pretty simply with one word:
soccer, or fútbol if we wanted to say it how the rest of the world
does. There was a solid hour or two of playing before we all called it
a day, as many are now determined to defeat the exchange students who
recently arrived from Los Angeles in a grudge match.
    Wednesday was one of the most exciting days so far as we went to La
Bombonera, the stadium of one of the greatest soccer teams in the
world, Boca Juniors. Before we went we had a class with Eugenia, a
teacher from Colegio del Salvador, about mate. Before this class we
were all kind of baffled by what the students did with this drink as
it is served in an antique looking cup. What they do is offer it to
each other and they all drink from the same straw. We learned all
about this practice and its origins in this class. It tastes much like
tea but you make it by placing herbs in a cup then continuously adding
water each time someone drinks from the straw. It may seem strange but
it is almost an ice breaking tool that people use to show friendship
and start a conversation. When the class ended Bobby, Sean, and Jack
O'Brien went to the kindergarten class and watched amazingly as over
100 kids lined up perfectly without talking and sang their songs. Then
the American boys led them in a prayer in English. After this we were
off to Boca. We arrived at the stadium and couldn't believe how big it
truly was. What I was most astounded by was how steep the seats were,
and there are bars to help ensure you don't go falling down. Before we
took our tour of the stadium we looked around the various stores and
streets that surrounded the stadium. Many people bought Boca
memorabilia, including jerseys, scarfs, hats, and various other
things. Our tour started in the bottom level of the field where many
people were taking out pieces of grass from the field and putting them
in bags. We tried our best to understand our tour guide speak Spanish,
as we are now very accustomed to the pace of the speakers. I was
impressed by how much of the main ideas we understood as the guide
also explained the same exact things in English after because La
Bombonera is such a famous stadium that people from all over the world
visit. There was a lot of freedom in where you could walk on the tour
and take pictures, including trying to climb the fence such as the
crazy fans do when Boca scores a goal and madness erupts as thousands
of people trample over each other to celebrate. We then went into the
locker room of the visiting team, but weren't allowed anywhere near
the highly guarded and sacred Boca locker room. After this amazing
tour we walked around the amazingly colorful neighborhood of Boca and had
lunch. The architecture was extremely interesting with various colors
on every buildings. We then returned to school with a little detour as
traffic was so backed up due to a strike; we decided to walk the rest
of the way. This has been an amazing week so far!