La Inseguridad

Besides the presence of dog shit on almost every block, the thing that bothers me most about Buenos Aires is the problem of safety. Now, before I embark on trying to describe the problem, let me first make it clear that I am not going to die, Mom. My life is probably in less danger here than it is in Durham. However, being robbed is a completely different story.

I suppose robberies happen in every major city, and you'll find most of the same problems in Boston or NY, but I moved out of Boston when I was 11 and I'm not accustomed to the big city life. I, as of yet, have not been robbed or pick-pocketed *knock on wood.* But I have plenty of friends who have been and I hear about it on the news every day, and while none of these robberies ever turn violent, it's actually more of annoyance to me than anything. I'd like to be able to walk down the street w/o looking over my shoulder every second or checking every five minutes to make sure my money is still in my pocket. I'd like to not have to consider "well if i get robbed today, will i still have enough money for..." before I make any major purchase. And I'd like to be able to take the bus home at night w/o worrying about the half-a-block walk from the stop to my door.

Most of these fears were assuaged by the assurance that I live in a pretty nice area; however, today, two blocks from my house, there was another home robbery. These happen much more often than they should and are an endless source of worry and lecture material for my host mother and even my maid. Every time I leave the house I am reminded that I must "take the utmost caution when entering and exiting the building."

What happens the majority of the time is that robbers wait near the entrance of a building, and then when they see someone coming in or out, they run up and direct that person to take them up to their apartment and the robbers then take everyone in the apartment hostage and of course steal all the money and anything valuable in the apartment. Now, as I've said I haven't heard of one of these incidents ending in violence yet, but they are, of course, very scary and not very fun.

When discussing this at dinner w/ my family (and making up secret code words to use if we ever happen to be held up by a robber) I started to think about how in the US, this problem hardly even exists, even in the biggest cities. In general, I wouldn't say I'm against the second amendment, but I do think it causes a lot more problems than it solves. However, this is clearly an instance in which we should thank it for our safety. Home invasions are rare in the US and when they do occur, the robber generally tries to plan them at a time in which the victims wont be home so as to make it as easy as possible. I think a very large part of why this is, is because in the US you never know who's "packin' heat." Armed robberies in any location, be it a home, convenience store, or bank are VERY difficult because many people in the US are armed and most times it's just not worth the risk. Here, any criminal that can get his hands on a gun from the black market can rob anyone and as long as he can get away before the cops get there he's fine. While you can get a license to own a gun here for hunting and target shooting and such, it's not a very common practice and in general the people here have no way to defend themselves and the robbers have nothing to be afraid of.

On the flip side, however, there are much fewer violent crimes and shootings here. I can't say exactly how I feel on this topic because, as I said, I think the second amendment causes more problems than it solves and we need much stricter gun control laws in the US. However, it is definitely interesting to get a glimpse of life w/o the right to bear arms.

VAMO, VAMO, VAMO, VAMO, VAMO, VAMO MILIONARIOS!!!!!

Like a good Argentine, my life seems on its way to being consumed by futbol. I'm not a huge soccer fan at all, and I've pretty much never played the game before, but of course that was bound to change the moment I stepped into this country. Every Sunday the program organizes a soccer game with program students and some Argentines and though I suck at soccer, running around getting completely pwned by people that are barely even trying is oddly fun. Who knows, maybe by going every week I'll pick up some tips and become beast by the time I get back to the states.

Also, yesterday we went to a watch River Plate vs. Tigre at el Monumental, Rivers home and what's considered to be the national stadium of Argentina. I'm not gonna lie, I was bored most of the game. I was sitting there, surrounded by thousands of crazy futbol fans and the most interesting part in my opinion were all the cheers and playing jewel quest (a ridiculously addictive game that most of us extranjeros have on the very cheap phone we all bought). However, my whole outlook on futbol changed in the 91st minute when River scored and the entire stadium went absolutely MAD.

I never understood the appeal of soccer, they run around for hours and no one ever scores, but w/ that goal I kind of realized that what to me seemed asinine is actually the whole point of the game. The goals that are scored are worth a thousand times more than the ones in basketball or american football because they have to work sooo much harder for it.

I wish I could accurately describe the madness in that stadium when River scored. It was like nothing I've ever seen before. I really wish I had brought my flip camera, but I of course didn't because I've heard soccer games are like pick pocket prime time and the chances of you walking out w/ everything that you came in with are slim to none ( however, we got seats in a nicer section to avoid most of the crime and didn't have any problems, so I'm thinking I might bring it next time. Even if it gets stolen it doesn't really matter because there's really no point of having it unless I'm gonna use it).

So anyway, I'll have to rely on this shitty youtube video that someone else took to give you guys an idea of the madness that ensued. Beware of motion sickness.

I'm proud to say I was much closer than this guy. The exchange rate really works in our favor for football tickets. 60 peso tickets in the lower level= about 15 bucks.

River and Boca Jrs. are the two main futbol clubs here, w/ about 70% of Argentines supporting one of the two. They're huge rivals and since River was the first soccer game I ever went to and the turning point in my appreciation for the sport (and they have better colors) I'm thinking I'm gonna be a River fan. I'll have to wait until I go to a Boca game to say for sure though, but my host family are Boca fans so this could become interesting. I wonder if they make a River/Boca version of those UNC/Duke "a house divided" flags.

No matter which I end up supporting, I'm hoping I can get tickets to the Superclasico, the game where they play each other, which is supposed to be AMAZING and is on the Observers "50 sporting things you must do before you die" list, but even with the great exchange rate I doubt I'd have the money or the luck to score one of those tickets.

In other futbol news, Diego Maradona is mentioned EVERY day in this country. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't know who he was when I first got here, but now I am well versed in his entire life story. You should really see the news headlines. "Maradona visits Chavez" "Maradona gets fired" "Maradona takes a piss." I hear more about Maradona then I do about the president.

Anyway, that is all for now. Chau loves!

P.S. The title of this blog is a piece from the chant they're singing in the video, it just says lets go millionaires (they're nickname given to them after they made some VERY expensive trades in the past and based on the fact that many of their fans are upper class while Boca has much more fans in the poorer classes). It's my favorite chant along with one that goes "mira, mira, mira, sacale una foto, se van para avellaneda/la boca/rosario(or wherever opposing the team is based) con el culo roto" aka "look, look, look, take a photo they're returning to (wherever the opposing team is based) with a broken ass"

Boring post about classes for those that care

Classes have begun! And oh what a merry time of year it is.

Right now we're in the shopping period, where I can try out classes from each university and decide which two classes I want in the end (I'm also doing two classes w/ the program and an internship).

So, last Monday was the first day and I had a class at UCA at 7:45 am. So, of course, I woke up at 7:40. I got there pretty quick and professors are often 30 mins late in this country anyway, but long story short, I walked around for about 45 mins looking for the class and by the time I finally found it I decided that there was no way i was walking into a class that late, so I went back home. The class was from 7:45-1 on a monday and since that's just downright inhumane, I doubt I would have stuck with that one anyway, so no huge loss.

So far, I think I'm going with an Audiovisual Production class that's on Tuesdays at UCA from 7:45-9:15 and then again from 7:45-1 on Wednesdays (Argentine universities are friggin crazy). The whole semester is basically one huge group project where we make a commercial for a small business of our choosing in the area. So basically, it's pretty sweet and I don't think the workload will be terrible.

I'll also probably do another class, Latin America in International Politics, at the same university from 6:30-8 on Wednesday nights. I haven't been to that one yet, since that major doesn't start classes until this week, but I've been to the other classes that I could choose to take instead, which are at USAL, another one of the universities which is about 12x shittier than UCA, so the one at UCA would have to completely suck for me to choose USAL instead.

The program classes that I want are also on Tuesday and Wednesday, so if all goes well those will be the only day I have classes, which would just be downright amazing.

Anyway, that's my class situation, I'm sure you were riveted.