Procrastination at its finest

Ok, so originally I planned on posting the next episode of my Semana Santa Travels but as always, life keeps interrupting me. The past weeks I had to write “parciales” which is the Spanish term for “you need to study during the semester”. That’s a concept that is fairly new to me as the only class I ever had midterm exams in was my Financial Management course last semester. But writing parciales was more like the end of the semester in Germany when I try to study for multiple exams with way to little timeon hand. Only this time it was in Spanish, which complicated the matter.

However, of course, the fact that I was supposed to study did not keep me from enjoying some recreational activities. So on Sunday I spent the evening at a theater with the sounding name of “Teatro de la Candela” where I went with some friends to see a play named “H.D.P.” (no explanation of that term in order to keep it PG). To be honest I only understood what the play was about because Pablo told me the plot in advance. The actors just talked way too fast and with different accents and all. It was even difficult for my French roommate Fanny who knows a lot more Spanish than I do. But I still loved to follow the events by trying to read their facial expressions and gestures. Basically the play is about revenge and a misunderstanding. And I love going to the theater so I had a great time. 

Click the picture if you wanna check out the theater's website

On Monday of course I didn’t get to study much either because it just sounded so much more fun to go see the final of the finals of the Uruguayan basketball tournament. In order to win that you had to get to the final and then win 4 games. The competing teams were Defensor Sporting (which I was supporting) and Aguada. Both had won 3 games before Monday so it was the deciding match. I practically had to go! 

I'm the only one sporting a jersey

Supplied with a jersey by my friend Agustin who is the biggest (and until then only) Defensor fan I know we went to the Palacio Peñarol which is a basketball stadium owned by (you guessed it) C.A. Peñarol, one of Uruguay’s biggest sports clubs. At this point I would also like to mention that I do not support them because I favor the much better team of Nacional. Now Peñarol are more famous for their soccer team and as Pablo told me, they do not even have a basketball team. Wait… but they do own a basketball stadium! The logic behind this? I don’t think there is one. Do you also know what they don’t have? A soccer stadium of their own! They have to rent the Estadio Centenario for their games. Yea… I don’t really get it either.

Anyway, I got to see a Uruguayan basketball game. The game itself… well I suppose some people that I went to High School with back in Silver Lake, Kansas, would be able to keep up with the players. But that’s why they had American players who didn’t make it in America and therefore came to Uruguay. Or at least that’s what Agustin told me.

Defensor-huddle

In spite of that I loved the atmosphere in the stadium. The people were so incredibly cheerful and they were singing all the time. My favorite Defensor song was something that I understood to be "Vamos Mayonesa!". However, Pablo ruined that for me when he told me that the song was actually saying "Vamos la Violeta!" due to Defensor's main color being purple. Personally, I think the mayonnaise version is much better. They should definitely reconsider their fan chants. 

We got it..

Let's go, Mayonnaise!!

Altogether the game was pretty balanced until the last quarter, when unfortunately the opposing team of Aguada extended their lead and Defensor never caught back up. So sadly the game didn’t end well for Defensor and I didn’t get to party on the basketball court all night long. Given that I was dead tired and supposed to get up early the next morning to study and do social work (more about that in a separate post) I was sad, but didn’t mind going to bed either. Sorry, Agustin!

Police all lined up around the basketball court, preparing for the end of the game

A giant mess of happy people

So all this kept me from studying for my parciales but as always I managed jsut fine. Or at least I hope I did. Considering the fact that I just wrote exams in Spanish I think I have enough reason to be proud of myself. I think I deserve a cupcake for that. Except that apparently there are no cupcakes in Uruguay. Well... I guess an Alfajor will do :)

And now I will go off to yet another sporting event. Nacional is playing at the Centenario and Pablo is taking me to see the game. So tonight's motto will once again be:

"El que no salta es de Peñarol!"