Christmas and New Year in B.A.

Feels like it´s been a busy time. And it has. And it gets harder to update this the longer I leave it. I moved into the apartment, in the city centre, sharing with a girl from Colombia, and guys from Germany and England. I took some Spanish lessons at a school in town, just a few blocks from the apartment. I had group lessons the first week but there were only 2 of us in the beginners class. The first couple of days we were going over stuff I already knew from my time traveling here so that was pretty slow. My second night in the apartment, after my first day of school, I was out with my flatmate and a mate of his from Germany. That somehow turned into a 5am finish without there being much going on.

The next night I went to the final of the football playoffs here. In Argentina, at the end of the season if there´s more than one team on the same points at the top of the league, they have a playoff to determine the champions - goal difference doesn´t come into it. This year, for the first time ever, there were 3 teams on the same points, so there were 3 playoffs between Boca, Tigre and San Lorenzo, all held on neutral ground at Racing´s stadium. I didn´t go to either of the first 2 but this was the final, between Boca and Tigre. What an experience.

I never thought I´d find myself at a championship final in South America, but the spectacle was what I'd hoped to see. For safety reasons they didn´t sell the ground out, and there were only 30,000 or so in the crowd, but they made the noise of a full crowd. Especially the Tigre fans, who were far outnumbered by the Boca section but who sometimes drowned the Boca support out. It was their first time challenging for the title and you could see (and hear) how much it meant to them. They were up against it - following the other playoff results, Tigre needed to beat Boca by 2 goals to be champions. Boca could draw or lose by 1 goal and still win the title. So the game needed a Tigre goal to make things interesting.

And it came, but with only 25 minutes remaining. It was a frenetic finish to the game but Tigre couldn´t add another, and Boca took the title. We wanted Tigre to win, as their fans were better and Boca get all the kudos anyway, but being in the Boca section when they won the league was amazing. A pissed local tried to rob one of our group of his camera when we were leaving but he was swiftly dealt with.

After the football we went to a house party way out in the sticks. We didn´t get back until 5 again and I slept through my alarm, so missed my classes. I was pretty pissed off with myself so needed to find a way to go to bed earlier last week. It didn´t happen. Morning classes should be banned here. This is a late night city and you want to get out and experience it, so in hindsight afternoon classes would have been a way better idea.

We had no classes on Christmas Day, so we went round to some Colombian friends apartment in the San Telmo neighbourhood. Their apartment was amazing, on the top floor of a converted old mansion block, with a big balcony overlooking the city. At midnight there were fireworks going off all over the city, so you could sometimes see some splashes of colour in the sky and the noise was like downdown Baghdad on a bad day. People don´t usually go out to late bars and clubs until 2am here, but on Christmas that gets even later. We went out at 4 to a club and it was heaving with the people there to see a live band. I called stumps early and was home by 8.


Boxing Day I had classes again and think I made them. Then was the weekend so we met up with a big crowd and went to Palermo to a bar, club and after party til 10 on Sunday. Another night out in San Telmo on the Sunday which again was something like 7am but I made it to my class. Last week I was the only person in my class. It would have been a good opportunity to make a lot of progress on my Spanish but between xmas and new year was amazing here. Again out every night until day. We were going to try to have a quiet night on the 30th to save it for new years eve but after my class I met up with a bunch of people and we ended up going for a walk around the cemetery in Recoleta and having a big night again.

I missed classes again on New Years Eve and slept most of the day. That night we went to my old hostel in Palermo for an asado (barbeque) til around 1 or 2 then headed to a loft party which was really good and reminded me a lot of some parties I´ve been to in London.

I´ve met a lot of people in the last 3 weeks. The locals have really surprised me too. After liking Santiago so much, I thought they might be a bit cold here but they're nothing like it. They want to know your story and they´re supportive when you´re trying to speak Spanish and making a hash of it. I haven´t been working so hard on my Spanish the last week but a lot of people I met are on the road again for a few weeks so I´ll change school to afternoon lessons closer to home and hopefully get back on track again. And I´ll continue going out and chatting to locals, as that's the fastest way to learn. Besides, a language can reveal something bigger about the people who speak it, so you learn more than just the Spanish translation of English words.

Pictures to follow, and more about the city, the language, and a potted history of Argentina.

Happy New Year!