Not going to lie and say that I catch every US National Soccer game (or even most), but yesterday the US men's team was playing Argentina (in New Jersey). So naturally we made it out to a bar.  The game itself was quite interesting ending in a 1-1 tie because the US was having playing defense the entire game.  One of the Argentinian forwards is Lionel Messi, who was voted World Player of the Year last year.  At times there were literally 3-4 defenders on him and he was blasting past them and taking shots.  Our goalie was our only saving gracing having saved at least 3-4 goals that a lesser goalie would have let pass. Even though 80% of the crowd was cheering for the US, the 20% Argentinian were twice as loud.  Lots of yells of "Vamos!!" Not sure how many actual American were in the bar as we were the only ones wearing red (the new US mens uniform colors).  The people in this bar were very preppy and the only soccer jerseys were those of the Argentinians.  Everyone seemed to be wearing button up shirts and sweaters.  We did sit next to so people from Houston but the remaining English around us sounded British.


After leaving the bar, the streets had been closed down for some festival called Noche en Vela (Night in Candle).  It had something to do with Earth Hour (which is were countries turn off the lights on their national monuments for an hour as a show of conservation) but this festival lasted until 7am.  

Our trip to Argentina has been a grand exercise outside of my comfort zone.  Having Terry with me makes it a bit easier but I still find it easy to be the awkward one in the room.
This Friday, we decided to join up with a group of international expats we had found online who get together every Friday night.  After a 50 minute trek that include the stifling hot subway, we arrived at The Gibraltar, an English Style pub in San Telmo.  The excitement of meeting new people was quickly diminished when we recognized how bad we suck at jumping in and striking up a conversion with strangers or even people we vaguely know.  I like to consider myself pretty outgoing but apparently this is only true when I am within my comfort zone of close friends.  We awkwardly stood there for a few minutes until we built up the nerve to branch out and talk to the guy standing alone next to us.  In the end, we had a great night and got to mingle with a bunch of people there.  We got to talk with some of the people we had previously met at the hash two weeks prior, a Californian couple looking at elementary schools for a future move, a group of German guys, a girl from the Netherlands who schooled us on the fact that Holland is only the northern half, a pair of creepy old men from North Carolina, and a freakishly tall kid with gross teeth from Seattle among others.


Sunday we traveled out to Acassuso, a suburb 30 minutes north of Buenos Aires, for our 2nd hash run. St. Patty's was the theme due to the proximity to the actual holiday.  We showed up in green and were welcomed with an Irish flag face painting.  With our first hash already under our belts, we felt pretty good about this run. That confidence was quickly shaken after a descent down a ridiculously steep hill only to find out it was a "false trail" which meant a run back the way we came.  If this hill was was ridiculously before it was absurd now.

Midway, the path splits and presents you with an option to take the "Macho" way (11k) or be a "Wimp" (6k).  After that hill there was no doubt, I was a "Wimp". It didn't take much convincing for Terry to decide he was a "Wimp" as well.

After the run, there is a very irreverent "awards" ceremony put on the by leadership (known as the "mismanagement").  They come up with a list of reasons that someone requires a "down down", which is basically a public roast that ends with a drink.  For example, to start things off, the MC will pull up the two or three guys (the "hares") that laid the flour trail everybody followed. He then asks the crowd, "What did you think of the trail? properly marked? etc".  Without hesitation, everyone responded with an assortment of "it was crap/horrible/worst I 'd every seen/etc".  After a quick song, the hares drink their "down down" for the worst trail ever laid.  It continues on like this for the next 20 minutes with "down downs" handed out for various random reasons: being new, getting lost, not wearing green, last to arrive, too much PDA with your gf/wife on the run, etc.

During the "down downs" all four Americans were called up front to see their best attempt at an authentic Irish accent (in an homage to Tom Cruise's terrible Irish accent in Far and Away, which the MC had recently watched). For me, panic was setting in fast.  I'm terrible with accents and know my attempt will be witnessed by 30+ strangers that I will see again. Our phrase to repeat: "Jesus! This is the prettiest town I have ever seen". I was last so my anxiety had plenty of time to build. When my turn did arrive, I couldn't get past the word "Jesus!" with a descent accent.  At this point, I'm beet red and left eye has a full stream of tears rolling down my face in some strange sort of fight or flight response.  After about 5 attempts, I finally managed to get the complete phrase out, but with more of a country girl twang then anything Irish.

Needless to say this weekend was one for the books and one I won't soon forget.

Another year older and another year wiser right? Well that's the plan. I don't usually care to call attention to my birthday but I wanted to thank my wife for making this one a perfect one. 

She started off the day with a plate of Argentinean breakfast pastries by candle light.



And ended the day with a birthday dinner at Sarkis. A middle eastern restaurant we'd been eye balling since we moved here (always has tons of people waiting outside).  I had the beef kabob with grilled tomatoes and onion covered in yogurt and Elizabeth had the Persian Rice (saffron rice, chicken and roasted nuts).  Both were amazingly delicious.  Even though Elizabeth ordered the half portion, it looked like we had ordered a dinner for 4. 






Thanks Wife!

This is something I wouldn't shit you about. Tonight we ran in 5k race which is put on monthly by one of the cities local running clubs (Cross Urban Training - they host a 5k night run on the 1st Wednesday of every month).

On our way home, Elizabeth rode the subway proudly holding the her 1st place division trophy (20-29 female).  I on the other hand didn't fair as well, but did manage to hold my head up with a 5th place finish which also warranted a trophy, albeit smaller, for my age bracket (30-39 male).


And to think, we almost missed this opportunity because our bus was traveling across town at a snails pace.  We were actually late but they hadn't started because of some ceremony going on the park where the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia and Guatemala were placing a wreath on the José de San Martín (a military General who liberated Argentina, Peru and Chile from Spanish rule)


We both credit the same two things for our success tonight.  Mostly the training we've been forcing ourselves to do and the fact there weren't many people in our division.  Yep that's right, Elizabeth was the single girl in her division and I was the 5th guy in mine.  Oh and on top of that, we finished the race dead last with a humble time of 31 minutes.  The overall winner finished somewhere around 17-18 minutes (just checked and they haven't posted the final times yet)

All kidding aside, I'm proud we got out there and ran a 10 minute mile as the only foreigners there.  Since we left home we've been running and/or walking an average 4.3 miles each day.  Prior to the 5k, we also walked 6 miles this afternoon going to the MALBA art museum and attempting to sign up for this race at a local sporting goods shop.  All in all it's been a good week, we finished today with 11.6 miles just a few days after our Sunday 10k. 

To celebrate our victory we stopped by an neighborhood restaurant and picked up a pair of delicious empanadas and a 2 liter of Pepsi.  You have to celebrate all of your victories!!  And the 2L is in case our legs are jello tomorrow and we can't make it out of the house.