a weekend of fútbol, jazz, y politics

Yesterday I went to my first soccer game! Two of my friends and I went with this group of around 15 people, all of whom I didn't know, but were all nice and fun anyway.  The game was at the estadio nacional, which is one of the major stadims in Santiago (i think). The game was Universidad Católica vs. Colo Colo, two Chilean professional teams. What is interesting about the teams is that the fan base is largely related to social classes. Fans of Universidad Católica are mostly upper class, fans of La U, or Universidad de Chile, are mostly middle class, and fans of Colo Colo are more lower class. Even though 2 of the 3 teams are named after Universities, the players are not university players. I think, however, that the teams are owned by the universities. Colo Colo, which is  supposed to be more like the team that represents Chile  (Colo Colo was a Mapuche (indigenous peoples in the Southern Chile) chief), is owned by Piñera, who is the presidential candidate who represents the right.  Apparently he owns a lot of other stuff as well (television channels etc..,) but I'm actually going to talk about politics a little bit later...
So at this soccer game, we sat on the Colo Colo side, which had a lot more people.  While I really don't understand much about soccer (that might even be an understatement) the game was really fun. The first half was a bit dull, but in the second half it was a lot more active and everyone was getting more excited and anxious. The teams had coordinated cheers, and it felt like I was back at sleepaway camp again.  Coming from Newton South High School, with zero athletic spirit, and the coming to WashU with generally minimal school spirit, I've never really known what it's like to be in a place that appreciates sports or gets excited to watch them, so this was really fun. Colo Colo ended up losing, 1-2. I also heard that they have the most money and buy the best players, but never win...
They only let out one side at a time so that the there aren't any fights.  We took a micro (public bus) back from the stadium and there were Colo Colo fans on the bus, banging on the sides of the bus and waving banners and flags out the windows, considering the fact that there were both Colo Colo and Católica fans on the bus, and there we no fights, I'd call the day a success.

Saturday night I went to see a jazz concert. The singer was the cousin of my friend's housemate. She had a really good voice, and sang in English, Spanish, French, Italian and German. I think she's generally a jazz singer but along with some jazz was some Beyonce and of course, Michael Jackson. While riding the metro last week, I saw a flyer for a Michael Jackson Tribute party...it never gets old does it? We went dancing afterwards at this bar/club that from the outside looked like nothing. If I hadn't been with girls who had been to this place before I would have walked right past it.  It was extremely crowded and the music was okay, but it was still a lot of fun.

Yesterday at lunch was started talking about politics. The Chilean presidential primary is in December, and the deadline to register to vote is in the next two weeks. I've seen posters all over the metro stations reminding people to vote, and in Chile it's mandatory.  Apparently if you don't vote you have to show some sort of medical note or have another valid excuse...I wonder what would happen if voting was mandatory in the US?
If one candidate wins more than 50% of the election in December, they are automatically president, but my host sister said that rarely happens so there's usually the second round in January.  The three presidential candidates are
*Piñera, who I mentioned before, who represents the right,
*Frei, who was president 8 years ago,  and is from the Concertacion, (endorsed by Bachelet, the current president) which is more left and socialist, and then
*Ominami who broke off from the Socialist party and is running more as an independent.

It's really interesting to listen to my host family talk about politics.  I think we have differences in out political beliefs, but it's so fascinating to hear the other points of view. I'm excited to see how everything plays out in the next couple of months. Apparently there's a Piñera rally coming up soon, and maybe some debates/ question and answer sessions with the candidates.

On a side note, plans to Buenos Aires are set! We have flights and a hostel, and are off for 5 days at the beginning of October. Calling Argentina was an adventure, seeing as every country and city has it's own code it's very confusing to know which numbers you have to use, especially since it depends whether you use a landline or cellphone. I attempted to call the number of the hostel about 5 times, each time I found myself listening to the lovely recording of the woman who told me that I'd dialed a nonexistent number.  It's a voice I got to know very well, but since I finally got the hang of making phone calls in Chile, I hadn't heard her voice in a while.  It was good to hear it again. But I finally got through, and the hostel told me I had to book everything online...But now I know how to dial Argentina!

This weekend we're off to San Pedro de Atacama, which is a desert up north which is supposed to be beautiful. We'll be seeing sandunes, geisers, and Sandboarding...I have no idea what it is, but can't wait!