castles made of sand…

There are two main things to watch out for when strolling the streets of Buenos Aires:

1. The drivers. Theyér a bit crazy here, the streets are up to 15 lanes wide, and at intersections without a stoplight its a game of chicken.
2. The dog shit. Much like San Francisco, everyone here has a dog, and there are dog parks all over the place. Unlike SF, however, nobody bothers to pick up after their  pooch, and sidewalks are covered in smelly piles of poop in various stages of decomposition.

That said, I’ve worn my legs out by walking and shopping my way through BA for the past 3 days. I´m not sure how much damage I’ve done to my credit card, but lets just say I love to shop. And there are lots of stores. Lots and lots of stores. And I´ve been rooming with a Kiwi girl who also likes to shop, and was happy to have found another girl to go shopping with.

I have done some of the normal, touristy sight-seeing as well, although I´ve become quite lazy about uploading photos, so I apologize. There is also some great art museums here, with abstract/geometric modern art that I´ve quite enjoyed.

I have discovered a form of Mullet that, to my knowledge, has not been seen before in the United States. I present for you, the Dread Mullet:

The hairstyle shown here consists of full-length dreadlocks on the rear of the head, whilst the frontal cranial area has been trimmed short. This photo was taken at the Boca Jrs. futbol stadium in Buenos Aires, but the style has been spotted in other areas of town as well. Please join me in a silent prayer that this hairstyle never crosses the equator.

Okay, so it really only sounds like that when you´re watching the game on Telemundo, but yesterday´s game between the Buenos Aires Boca Jrs and Aresenal was pretty dammned exciting. Of course it helps that fútbol is the only professional sport that I can actively follow since I actually know all of the rules of the game, but it was amazing to see the crowd –  the stadium was almost full, probably at least 10,000 people, most of them men. The band did not stop playing for the entire 90 minutes, and the crowd sang along for most of the time. You could look across the field to the other bleacher seats (where the rowdiest porteños sit, and also where we were seated) and see waves of people jumping up and down, all in navy and yellow.

Here are a few of the differences between a professional sporting event in BA versus the US:

• the reserve team played a full game before hand, so we actually watched two fútbol games for the price of one
• no alcohol is sold in the stadium, and very little hot food could even be found
• policemen wore riot gear, even though they were on the wrong side of the fence from us
• the let the fixed seating areas clear out of the staduim before opening the doors for the bleacher seats

Despite the fact that the home team did not win (I´m still confused as to weather we lost 2-1, or if it was a tie), the was no rioting, fighting or anything crazy like that –   just a great game of soccer.  It´s too bad the game isn´t as popular in the US, otherwise I might acutally have some sort of interest in professional sports…