Tricolor! Tricolor! Tricolor!

I was actually planning on continuing with my Semana Santa series of travelogues today.. And then life kind of got in the way. But that's the beauty of it, so here we go with a post  on a completely unrelated topic: Soccer!

Now you are probably thinking "Again?!". And I can't blame you because I just blogged about that topic two posts ago. But then again it IS a very important subject here in Uruguay. 

And I haven't simply been to another soccer game. I was part of a new World Record! 

Now, here in Montevideo it seems that there are only two options for soccer clubs to support: Nacional or Peñarol. And since I have visited the stadium of Nacional with Pablo before, I kind of got directed into that direction of fandom. Additionally, I don't like the idea of suppporting a Club that has the colors black and yellow because it reminds me of the one German soccer club I like the least. And since I find Peñarol fans slightly too aggressive for my liking. So I decided for myself that I would go for Nacional. Go Tricolor! (another nickname as their colors are red, white and blue)

Even the sky showed Nacionals colors red and blue

And let me tell you, the Uruguay vs. Paraguay game was pretty much boring compared to the great atmosphere I experienced when Nacional played against Toluca, a team from Mexico in the Copa Libertadores. The South American version of the Champions League that is. 

First off, Pablo who was taking me to the game with his family and some friends picked me up at my place. Now normally that would be like a 20 min detour because Nacional's home stadium is close to my university here. But since the Nacional fans were planning to set a record that day, the game took place in Estadio Centenario which is bigger and more suitable for the record that they wanted to break. And it is pretty much right next to my place so no detours.

Of course for such an occasion I couldn't go without any fan gear. And luckily Pablo and his Family are like the biggest Nacional fans which means he had some spare jerseys, one of which I could wear to the game so that I was properly dressed up to be part of a world record in the making.

Tricolor!

Now, what was this world record about? 

For about one and a half years Nacionals fans crafted a giant fan banner that they were going to unfold and that was going to cover almost all the fans. So for that purpose it wasn't just big, it was gigantic! The official measurements are 600x50 meters but I suppose you can't picture how big that really is. I'll try to give you a mental picture because the helicopter that was supposed to fly over the stadium and take pictures of the whole thing got sabotaged and couldn't take off. So picture this: the flag came all the way down the tribunes and went all the way round three quarters of the stadium. Only one tribune out of four was not covered by  the flag. And we're talking about Uruguay's biggest soccer stadium that holds about 65,000 people. And that is only slightly less than what fits into stadiums like Munich's Allianz Arena!

Check out this website for more infos and pictures.

 And my personal favorite -  the 360 degree interactive picture of the fans (without banner). Can you spot me? 

Now the unfolding happened twice, once before the game to greet the players when they entered the field, and once during the halftime. And both times it was a lot of fun! And in between there was of course the game which I think was pretty good as well.

This (smallest) tribune was the only part of the stadium that was not covered by the banner..

...but all of this was covered with the flag

...as was this part

(which looks empty because the picture was taken pretty early on)

...and of course we were covered as well!

Obviously, Nacional had a pretty good motivation to give their all since they have the most amazing fans who spent one and a half years crafting a gigantic flag. So unsurprisingly they won. And they didn't just win barely. They scored four times and ended with a result of 4:0! Quite impressive I'd say.

Penalty and  GOOOOOOL!!

And the atmosphere was just overwhelming and there were a lot of fun different fan chants. My favorite was "Poropopo poropopo el que no salta es de Peñarol!". Which translates to "Poropopo poropopo  the one who doesn't jump is from Peñarol!". Which is practically the worst thing to be. And so while singing that you have to jump. Because obviously you don't want to be associated with Peñarol.

And my absolute highlight was a little boy who sat in front of us. He was completely into the game and his facial expressions just cracked me up everytime. So hilarious and so expressionate. Unfortunately it was impossible to catch with the camera so a back-view must do.

This little man pretty much made my day

Altogether the game was pretty spectacular and I did not for one minute regret skipping class in order to go to the game. But at least I wasn't the only one because Pablos's sister missed her class as well. I'd say it's a matter of priorities and Lucía and I definitely have ours straight.

The truants

Soy celeste, celeste soy yo!

Now you might be wondering why I am claiming to be skyblue (soy celeste = I’m skyblue). First off, let me assure you it has nothing to do with being blue. In fact it is one of the most popular chants you hear when attending a match of the Uruguayan soccer team. It refers to the color of their jerseys - celestial blue. 

AItogether, I spent a very soccer oriented day yesterday. Initially I just planned on attending the FIFA World Cup 2014 qualifying match between Uruguay and Paraguay in the evening. But then Pablo took me to university to hand in my course enrollment paper at the international office, and since I planned on meeting some people at the University entrance in order to go to the stadium together, we had some time to kill until then.

Goofing around

Now since some sort of museum place of Pablo’s favored team “Club Nacional de Futból” (short: Nacional) is located just down the street from the university, he decided I should check that out. Turns out it was the club’s “hall of Fame”  with lots of trophies that Nacional had won during their existence. And by lots I mean like a quadrillion. Or maybe even more.  And they had won them in all sizes and shapes. There were some pretty huge ones that could actually pass as baptismal fonts and also some teeny tiny ones. One of the latter was my favorite. It was called the “Teresa Herrera” trophy and I do not know what it was for or anything but amongst others it had FC Bayern’s logo on it. Which made it pretty awesome.

FC Bayern!

Business idea: 
Let hardcore fans baptize their little ones in one of thos giant cups in the background!

The whole hall was lined with pictures of more or less famous players. None of which looked familiar to me. And there were also some other artifacts and important things  like old footballs that probably still had dirt from the 1930s on them. And more trophies. I kind of liked the colorful vase-trohpy-things.

Cute and colorful cup!

After that we went to Nacional’s stadium which was just around the corner. And of course it was closed. But again Pablo played the “but she’s German and needs to see this place”-card and of course we got in. And we were the only ones there so we had a whole stadium for ourselves which was actually kind of cool.

Hello, and welcome to my very own stadium!

Watching imaginary soccer games

Some more goofing around

After visiting the stadium we went back to the university where I joined the exchange students and some others to go to the Estadio Centenario while Pablo went back to doing important stuff. Saving the world and all that. Haha. Just kidding he probably just went on skype and facebook because I think that’s what he does for a living.

After a short walk our group arrived at the stadium which was still pretty empty. But it quickly got busier. Though not entirely packed because as Agustin told us they normally paused their regular soccer season for international games but not for this one. So there’s gonna be other games this weekend which is why not as many came to see this match. Though it wasn’t empty at all and if it had been a stadium of the size of the “Allianz Arena” in Munich, it would have probably been packed. So I’d say it was well-attended after all.

Group picture!

As customary, the game started out with the national anthems. First up, Paraguay. Whose anthem kind of sounded like the music in old Disney movies. Which I find is not a bad thing at all. After that it was Uruguay’s turn to show us some tunes and I liked that one as well. And I also like the atmosphere at a sporting event when everyone is singing their anthem from their heart.

See that spark in Agustin's eyes when he was singin the anthem? 
(Ok, maybe it's just the evening sun but I think it captures the mood quite well)

Then the game started and I gotta admit the first half was not very spectacular. Those Paraguayan wuzzes needed them paramedics quite often. Which is not to say that the Uruguayans played too aggressive because they didn’t.

Unfortunately no goal here...

After a rather eventless first half, Sebastian and I set out to get some food during the break. Normally I guess that wouldn’t be such an impossible task. Even if you don’t go to the concession stand right away but rather wait a bit so we wouldn’t have to wait in line as long. Anyway, close to the end of the break I got in line for some Chorizos which is some sort of sausage in a bun. And even though there were a lot of people who wanted to get food it didn’t take me very long to get to the front. Because the second half was about to start, Sebastian went back to watch it and I thought I’d get some food and join him again soon. BUT we are in Uruguay and clocks tick a lot slower here. I soon found out that the problem was the lady who prepared the sausages. Instead of putting many on the grill she prepared them all individually. Now anyone who has taken a logistics class – and probably everyone else as well for that matter – knows that this is not the most effective way to satisfy a crowd of hungry people. And it wasn’t. Many of the people in line left as more and more time passed. I didn’t because I was very hungry and so close to getting food. But said food-lady didn’t feel the need to hurry at all. And really who am I to blame her. But then after she gave the guy next to me his chorizo – and my hopes of getting food soon went up – she decided she would not give out any more food for the day and left me annoyed and hungry. I really wouldn’t have minded the waiting. After all I have people waiting on me all the time. But Not giving me food when there obviously still was some left is just plain unacceptable. And if you are wasting my time because I could have been watching soccer instead of waiting for nothing that’s even worse.

So naturally I wasn’t very happy when I got back to the others but I soon forgot about it because soccer is a really good distraction. Now this half – or what was left of it for that matter – seemed to be quite uneventful at first like the previous one. My friend Agustin looked quite tense because of course we all expected Uruguay to win this game. And then after half an hour the relief: Uruguay scored the 1:0!

Pure joy swept the stadium and left us in a very ecstatic crowd. People were singing and screaming and waving their flags. I was happy again and almost forgot about the chorizos I didn’t get to eat. But then after a couple minutes the big frustration happened. Paraguay scored and it was now a tie. What a bummer.

The last couple minutes we desperately hoped for another goal for Uruguay but we got disappointed. There were no more goals in that game and a tie as the final result. Not what we were hoping for and definitely not a good result because in my opinion Uruguay was the better team and would have deserved to win. But you can’t always get what you want. That night I got none of the things I wanted. And I really only asked for a Chorizo and a Uruguayan victory.

 But I guess I’m just too spoiled because usually life is pretty good around here. I am about to leave for a week of vacation because it’s Semana Santa (=easter break) so on that note I am signing off for a week.

Happy Easter to all of you! 

Getting Groceries.. Trust me, it's not as boring as it sounds!

Today was another lazy day in Montevideo. Originally we had planned to explore the city a little, but the weather is just kind of blah so due to a lack of motivation my roommate Becci and I decided to stay in and enjoy the sun from our rooftop terrace.

First though, I went to get some groceries. Sounds boring? Well, let me tell you it ain’t as easy if you don’t know the language very well. Getting all the things you have on your grocery list isn’t as hard because we live in a world of pictures. I may not understand every single word but some things just look the same in every country. Some however don’t. My favorite example here is milk. In Germany milk is usually sold boxed or bottled. In the US you’ll probably find it in (half)gallon sized plastic canisters. In Uruguay however, you get things like milk, juice or jogurt in plastic bags. Much similar to the ones used for frozen vegetables.  But see yourself.

Leche Fresca... in a bag!

Weird, huh? I thought so too, which is why initially Becci and I decided to buy the one brand of milk that comes in cartons. But when I visited our local supermercado today, they were out of boxed milk. So what do I do? Of course I buy the bagged kind. More about that later on in this post.

So I went on with my shopping and just before I cam to the check-out I found some German goodness: Milka chocolate and Haribo gummy bears. However here in Uruguay, them good ole Goldbears are named “Ositos de Oro” which roughly translates to “Little Bears of Gold”. I think that's the cutest version of “Goldbears”.  I was tempted. But then I saw the price and decided that I probably shouldn’t splurge. The current exchange rate is at about 25 Uruguayan pesos for 1 Euro, or in Dollar terms 20 pesos for a Dollar. For those of you who are too lazy to do the math, that would be about 2.25€ / $2.50 for the chocolate and €1.80 / $2.20 for the gummybears. Which I find a little expensive, knowing that I can get them in Germany for less than half of the price they charge here. 

Sweet temptation...

When I was done getting the things I needed and marvelling at the German candy, I of course went to the cash register. Seeing that the lady who served us the last time we were at that store was working, I decided not to go to her line. She had enough trouble with our dollar-peso mix of payment the last time already. So I spared her another adventure and waited in another line. 

This time however, it wasn’t half bad. I forgot to get my vegetables and fruits weighed so the lady explained to me in very fast Spanish that I had to get that done so she could check the things out. I didn’t understand much of what she said so I told her that my Spanish wasn’t as good and if she could repeat what she just said a little more slowly. She did and I understood perfectly. So while a bunch of people were waiting in line behind me I went to said guy who weighs groceries and got back to the cash register. Now in Germany, that would have annoyed everyone in line. People would have gone ballistic if they had to wait because some idiot like me forgot to weigh their vegetables and caused them to wait. In Uruguay? Not a problem! The people here have all the time in the world and aren’t rushing around to get things done. If they have to wait, well that ain’t no problem. I have to say I really like this mentality.

Back at home we decided it was coffee time. The first thought was that using milk from a bag can’t be that much different, since apparently everyone here is buying milk like that. As seen in the fridge, our roommates bought juice in bags as well. Because however plastic bags with milk or juice can’t stand upright, they simply leave the juice/milk/whatever in their plastic bags and put those bags in jugs in order to minimize the cleaning efforts. Becci and I decided to do the same with our bagged milk. Aaand we failed! To say this way of storing milk is inconvenient is quite an understatement. It is very unpractical and my first attempt was stopped after causing a milk spill. So for now it’s easier for us to pour the milk from the bag into a jug and put said jug less the bag in the fridge. Less spilled milk in the kitchen, more cleaning for us.

Spanish way vs. German way

After our milk-adventure, I went up to our rooftop terrace and enjoyed the sun some more. And of course I don’t want to keep that from you. But don’t think it’s all fun and vacation. As you can see there were some clouds in the sky and there was a slight breeze going. I thought it was quite nice because the sun is very strong here in Uruguay.

Working on my tan

Later Becci and I had dinner on the roof as well cause it’s so nice outside. Earlier we had watched crowds of people, mainly dressed in black-and-yellow jerseys on their way to the "Estadio Centenario" across the street. Montevideo’s biggest soccer stadium that is. Apparently, Peñarol was playing. And even though I don't like their color combination, I have to say it was quite entertaining to listen to the crowd. During dinner, we were entertained by the noises that came from the stadium. And since Peñarol is one of Montevideo’s main soccer clubs, the fan chants were quite audible. I found it pretty funny to guess what’s going on on the soccer field based on the crowd’s noise. Whistles? Sounds like a foul. 

 See them floodlights and that tower? That's "Estadio Centenario"