Soccer in Argentina

As requested this week I can tell you a little bit about sports here in Argentina. Really, when you talk about sports there is only one thing to talk about and that is soccer. Soccer is, by far, the most popular sports and a huge part of the lifestyles of many people.

The word for Soccer in Spanish is futbol (pronounced football) to distinguish it from what we know as football they call ours futbol americano which they do NOT play here.
Wanting to give you a great report this week I asked several friends about going to one of these games. They all looked at me like I was crazy. When I asked why, they simply replied that going to a soccer game is dangerous ESPECIALLY if the teams are rivals. The crowds get out of control. They yell, push scream, threaten etc. From our house there is a stadium that, although distant, we can hear the cheers and yells of the crowds until late into the night and I can tell you - it is loud!
Now, although I do not have a first-hand witness of a soccer game, I found an article that someone wrote about their recent experience with a soccer game here in Argentina. This is what he wrote:

The Argentina Soccer Game Experience Might be More than you Bargained for

by, Peter Schuller

I made my way into a jam-packed line of what seemed like thousands of River Plate fans (that is one of the most popular teams) while we waited to enter the stadium. Now “waiting” in an Argentine soccer crowd is a lot different than any other “waiting” experience I have ever had. “Waiting” involved jumping up and down and chanting River Plate team songs for about an hour and a half, while every few minutes the herd would push forward and literally carry the pack about 10 meters until we were all back on our own two feet and chanting again.

Eventually, due to unknown circumstances, the game had started but we were still trapped outside the stadium with a drove of rowdy fans. Naturally, our “waiting” chants then began to focus (not so kindly) on the line of policemen in full riot-gear that were trying to keep this mob from becoming…well…a mob. Finally, enough time had passed, and we had moved forward enough 10 meter increments and were inside the ticketing gate

s only about 20 minutes into the first half. After the 5 minute run up what seemed like 20 flights of stairs to the general admission section, my group of 7 people squeezed our way into about a 10 foot wide section of concrete and declared it our “seats” for the game.

Like “waiting,” the term “seats” is also loosely defined. In fact, we didn’t sit down once during the next hour and a half. Instead, the chants that we had been swept up in outside the stadium continued to be sung non-stop by tens of thousands of people. This was an amazing spectacle to see and hear. Every goal or tackle or pass seemed to set the crowd into a beautifully synchronized rendition of one of the many River Plate songs, complete with hand motions and choreographed bobbing.

Eventually the game had ended in a landslide as River won 5-0, and we waited the obligatory 30-45 minutes for the opposing fans to exit the stadium safely (this is a standard practice that has become a necessity as soccer hooliganism is very common in Argentina). As we stumbled and pushed and tried our hardest to avoid being trampled on our way out of the stadium, I marveled at what a great sporting event I had just witnessed. I can honestly say that I have never been in such an energized crowd in my entire life; and I have been to countless professional football, basketball, and baseball games, a Real Madrid soccer game, the NCAA college basketball final four and finals, as well as a major league baseball playoff game."

Soccer Player

One of the most famous soccer players on the professional Argentine team is a man named Guillermo Franco. He is a convert to the church and served his mission here in Mendoza. He has now returned to Mendoza and he and his wife live near my house (when he is not traveling) and attend the same church in my same ward. On Sunday he spoke in Stake Conference and I was able to meet him. Just last August the church did an article about him. Here are some highlights from that article:

Taken from LDS Church News

Scoring goals on and off the soccer field

By Chris Morales and Marianne Holman, Published: Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008
As a convert to the Church in 2002, the same year he signed with a professional team, he hadn't planned to serve a full-time mission.

"When I first joined the Church I didn't have the desire to serve a mission because I had just begun my career," Brother Franco said. "In my mind, there was no possible way I could leave the game for two years to serve a mission and expect to come back and play. But when I got baptized and began going to institute, I began to feel the desire to help other people."

Although leaving to serve a mission at that point in his life was not logically a good time, he knew he needed to serve. He called his agent to see about getting out of his contract. With no promises to play when he returned, he left Buenos Aires in April 2005 to serve in the Argentina Mendoza Mission.

"At that point, the Church had helped me develop a lot of faith and I had a lot of confidence that if I did my part, then the Lord would bless me," he said. "And if it was His will that I never play again, then He'd open the doors so I could work doing something else.

"When I was on my mission, however, I felt I was going to keep playing soccer," he said. "So when I returned from my mission I immediately began training and the Lord placed in my path the people that would sign me on and immediately put me in a club."

After he completed his mission in 2007, he signed with the Argentine team Godoy Cruz where he currently plays and recognizes the many blessings received because of his missionary service.

While recognizing his blessings, Brother Franco, currently in the Mendoza Ward, Mendoza Argentina Stake, also realizes the great opportunities for missionary work in his profession. Not only have teammates and coaches seen him live his beliefs, even reporters have commented on the role religion plays in his life.

Although the two-year break from soccer didn't help his soccer statistics, Brother Franco knows the impact his mission has had and will have for the rest of his life.

Although life was headed in the direction he had always hoped, he knew there was another place he needed to be. He realized the best goals in life aren't always ones that glide through a net."

Tango Show

As many of you know, I am a ballroom dancer and have danced with the BYU ballroom team for many years now. Tango is my absolute favorite dance and it has always been a dream for me to see an Argentine tango concert. Not only did I get to do that this week, but I am experiencing the Argentine tango more than I ever imagined I would!

For my birthday, the Lindahls offered to pay for me to have private tango dance lessons! A ward member here gave me a recommendation of someone who she says is the absolute best tango dancer in all of Mendoza. In arranging lessons with him, he invited me to come see him and his partner perform at a local outdoor show so I could get an idea of what it was all about.

I went with the Lindahls and my friend Sofia. The show was part of an outdoor art festival which included vendors with their portable tents, LOTS of food and various performances of singers and, of course, the tango dancers.

We got there just in time to see my teacher and his partner perform with one other couple. It was beautiful! It was "espectacular" as they say here. I just kept thinking - I am IN Argentina, watching THE ARGENTINE tango. Classic.

But it got better. After their performance, students from the studio danced, my teacher danced again and THEN they took people from the audience! My soon-to-be-teacher saw that I had come and took me out to the dance floor in front of everyone. Now, I may be a ballroom dancer but I had no clue how to dance the Argentine tango. I had no idea what I was doing but pretended like I did. NOW in my head head I was thinking "I am IN Argentina, DANCING the Argentine Tango with a handsome Argentine Man. What a dream!

After my experience, I couldn't wait to learn. My teacher is Iban Martinez. He is a professional dancer himself and has a studio where he teaches lessons. Because I am only here for a short time I opted to have private lessons rather than join a group. He comes to our apartment building where the first floor has a room with a nice wooden floor. We do two hours, twice a week and I come out of every lesson beaming! I didn't realize how much I have missed dancing! Being the novice and dancing with a professional, I feel like I am on dancing with the stars or something!

As many of you know, I dance ballroom which includes the tango. Many have asked me why I would be taking lessons. Didn't you learn that at BYU? Argentine tango is very different from international ballroom tango. My teacher reminds me that every lesson as he tries to break some of my habits! Here are somethings that I have learned about Argentine tango from my one week:

For one, the dance position is distinct in both the shape and the feel. While ballroom requires that the dancers upper bodies stretch away from each other and maintain connection at the hip, Argentine tango moves the upper body inward, in an embrace often times with the heads touching or near each other. Most of the leads come from the connection through the arms rather than through the body. Most importantly, whether open of close, an Argentine tango embrace is never rigid or stiff, but relaxed.

The show that I saw was choreographed and practiced previously and specifically for the stage. Therefore, their moves were a bit more dramatic than what I am learning in my class! They had lifts and hits that went with the music.
Although performers will often do a routine, tango is innately a social dance requiring leading and following. Communication is very important between the partners. There is only one basic step and all other steps are variations of that movement. Wikipedia (yes, I consulted Wikipedia)described it well: "Argentine tango is not a set step, but is a completely improvised dance combining various steps in a spontaneous manner, as determined by the lead"

One of the hardest habits for me to break is that there are no set rhythms or timing in Argentine tango. In ballroom we count "slow, slow, quick, quick" etc. but for the Argentines, the music entirely dictates your movements. Tangos are generally written in 2/4 time but the speed and the intensity vary within one song so much that each step is entirely determined by the leader. One moment we are stepping slowly and softly and the next minute we are briskly turning and sharply sweeping the entire dance floor.


I am learning so much and really loving this new form of dance. My teacher says that on my last day we will have to dress up and film it. If that is the case I will post it for sure!

Coming next week . . . the Tango!

Baptism

One of the families that I had the opportunities to teach during my mini mission got baptized. They invited me to both their wedding and their baptism. It was beautiful! I was so impressed with the support of the ward. There were many members there and there were representatives from the Relief Society, the Elders Quorum and the Young Men to welcome them each. They had all the books of the church available to them as gifts and while they were changing clothes the members dedicated the books.

me and my former companion - Hermana Arcos at the baptism

Alejandro and Maria looked SO happy. They were glowing, truly. It was beautiful to see. I took a lot of pictures from their wedding and put them in a book for them to have as a memory. They were SO excited to have photos from their wedding and everyone wanted to see them. They told me that they didn't even have one picture of their family. It felt good to contribute to their happiness!

Wedding

Today Alejandro and Maria Calderón, from Unimev (see picture under mini mission), were married. Hermana Lindahl and I went to their “wedding” this morning. They are the same case as most here in Argentina in that, although they have been together 16 years and have 4 children together and until the missionaries taught them, they never felt a need to get married. They were really nervous and excited. We found a suit for Alejandro to wear from one of the missionaries in the past. He was really excited and Maria looked beautiful. This was my first opportunity to witness a civil marriage in South America. It was very interesting. We stood in line, awaiting our turn. It was like - take a number - kind of feel. When it was their turn, they took us into a typical Argentine room with paint-chipped walls, a low flourscent light hanging from the ceiling. The man in charge read from a book, they signed a bunch of papers, the witnesses signed a bunch of papers, they kissed and that was it. **

After one year, they plan on getting sealed for eternity in the Chile, Santiago Temple.

**for the record not ALL weddings in Argentina are like this. There are your traditional religious weddings with white puffy dresses, cake and flowers and all the glamor as well. This just wasn't one of them. The most important is that they are were married so that they then could be . . . baptized!

Mother's day

Fun Fact:
Did you know that in Argentina they celebrate Mother's Day in October?

No one can really tell me why they celebrate in October and not in May like the rest of the world and yet, I can't really give them a reason why we celebrate Mothers in May.

The day is celebrated much like we do. The family gets together and shares cards or gifts and have a meal together. I think that I am safe to say that in the states that meal is typically dinner but here, lunch is the celebratory meal.

My friend Sofia and I made sugar cookies for her mother and for her grandmother for Mother's day.

Birthday

This was a week for birthdays! Saturday we went to a birthday party for the son of a recent convert. He was turning five. Especially for my amigos in Mrs. Armstrong's class I thought that it would be fun for you to see a birthday party in Argentina. Maybe you will find it isn't so different.
First of all, the family rented out a children's fun center called Jambo. The place had big inflatable toys and mazes for the kids to play in. They had arcades and even a zip line!

The mom spent three days making food for the party. You will see in the picture several things that I mentioned earlier are typical Argetine foods. Remember how I told you that they love olives? Can you see them? You can also see in the picture near the bottom are the most famous Argentine treat: alfajores. They are cookies filled with what they call dulce de leche and covered in shredded coconut. You can also see in the picture empanadas.

We sang happy birthday (in Spanish of course!), he made his wish and blew out the candles.
I think it is amazing that a tradition, such as a birthday, can be so similar no matter where you go in the world. These children are younger than you, but really you are not that different. They like to play just like you do and they have cakes with candles and gifts from their friends. Although the food and clothing may differ, we are all the same really.

What do you think?

My Birthday in Argentina

I celebrated my 26th birthday here in Argentina!
It was only my second time away from home celebrating my birthday (the first being on my mission), but everyone here made me feel at home.

Laura Mallea remembered it was my birthday and made me a membrillo pie. "What is membrillo?", you may ask. I didn't know either and choose to use the very resourceful Google to help me understand what I would be eating as my birthday "cake" Membrillo is a bright yellow citrus fruit that is only produced in Argentina and in the Baltic. The Greeks originally associated this fruit with their Goddess Aphrodite, the God of love and fertility. I learned from Google that in Argentina this fruit is sometimes given as a gift to a newly married couple to eat on their wedding night. Great.The pie was good and a great way to celebrate my birthday in Argentina. We never did put a candle in it though. I guess I was deprived of my birthday wishes this year :(

We have a long standing birthday tradition in the Thomas family for my birthday. Being the youngest and the only girl, I have always been treated like a princess - ESPECIALLY on my birthday. As a tradition, my parents have sent me flowers every year regardless of where I am. This year was no different. My mom not-so-secretly asked Sister Lindahl to purchase my traditional flowers for me. We went in the morning looking for some flowers.

We found a local flower stand and I chose 6 pink roses.

The tradition does not stop - no matter where I am in the world.
I wonder what they would have done if I were in Jerusalem for my birthday ;)

And finally, we celebrated with some ice cream!
I got the works. After all, it was my birthday.

QUESTIONS FOR MY 6TH GRADE AMIGOS:
Picture yourself on your 26th birthday. What do you hope to be doing when you turn 26?
Do you have any birthday traditions?

In the kitchen

Just as much as helping with Spanish, I am helping in the kitchen. We host dinners for the missionaries who just arrived, those that are leaving and those that are called as leaders. Not being able to find basic items like brown sugar make meal choices limited. We continue to experiment and try new things.
The other day we did fractured tacos but we couldn't find tortilla chips. We decided to make our own tortillas and they turned out pretty good. I BARELY got a chance to try them since they gotten eaten up REALLY quick!

My general rule is - if you cook, you don't clean. That doesn't really apply well when you are cooking for missionaries.

Shopping

Shopping for food in Argentina is something that we do a lot. We are always hosting dinners for 20 or more people in the mission home and that means a LOT of food.
Although there are grocery stores, the majority of the people do their shopping the Argentine way: Markets and Kioskos. A Kiosko is a small store in the local neighborhood. To buy bread, for example, each area has a neighborhood bread store which is usually part of someone's home. The people buy their bread fresh daily. That would mean that when you wanted a sandwich for lunch you would have to run over to the neighbors to buy some bread rather than already have a loaf of bread in your home.
Buying meat is usually done at the market. This picture was taken at the central market, one of the biggest ones in town. When buying meat, the dead animal is just hanging in front of you and the meat is cut off the animal right then. It smells really gross and I am always worried that it will swing and touch me. Gross.Finally, the vegetables can be bought at either a market or a kiosko. The vegetables are fresh from nearby farms in Argentina. Did you know that the fruits and vegetables that you eat from the grocery stores sometimes come from South America? Check the stickers next time and see where it comes from - it MIGHT be Argentina!

QUESTIONS FOR MY SIXTH GRADE AMIGOS:
As you look at the picture of the bread- how does their bread differ from the bread you eat?
Where would you rather shop - a grocery store or a market?