soccer scams

Starting early Monday morning, I could see the line of people waiting 5 hours outside my office -located across the street from the soccer stadium-to buy tickets to the world cup qualifying match against Argentina that was played in Quito yesterday. The Ecuadorian team had won their game against Peru on Sunday (2-1), making the Argentina game pivotal in their chance to make it to the world cup. While Peru was not expected to win, yesterday Argentina was strongly favored. Since its not every day you get to go to a world cup qualifying match in a latin american country, I decided the $30 was worth it, and on Tuesday afternoon went to go buy a scalped ticket in front of the stadium (which is legal in Ecuador and doesnt include a large mark up). I tried my best to bargain down the price and ended up leaving with a ticket for $25, leaving me $5 to buy a bright yellow team jersey to wear to the game.

I was so excited Wednesday morning, they had closed off the streets around the stadium (and my office) and I was able to walk freely with the sea of yellow towards the stadium. I decided against getting the face paint of glittery yellow, red and blue (Ecuador's colors) and marched up to the already packed stadium 3 hours before the game was supposed to start with my friends. I went to hand the ticket to the police officer at the door with a huge smile on my face, only to be told that the ticket was fake (which no one had warned me about). I tried pleading with the guard to let me in as my smile began to disappear, but it did no good since there was another ticket checker inside the stadium. I was devastated, I hadnt come with enough cash to buy another ticket and had been so excited to go to the game. Right when I had given up arguing with the guard and about to make my way out of the stadium, my friends handed me $30 to go buy a new ticket. I figured I would rather spend the money than have the memory of being turned away and not seeing the game, so I took it and ran outside to find someone else selling tickets. Before making the transaction with the first guy I saw selling the tickets in the section I wanted (seats arent assigned, just sections of the stadium), I made him take the ticket to a police officer to verify that it was real. I ran back into the stadium, and found my friends and eventually a seat. After buying one of the huge cups of beer and seeing the excitement of the fans, the debacle of my ticket evaporated from my thoughts and I began cheering along with the crowd. Even after it started hailing and didnt stop until the game ended, I am so glad I went. Ecuador beat Argentina in the second half 2-0!! I now will be going to the Uruguay game in October and hopefully see Ecuador make it to the world cup. 

weekend of arts

This weekend I learned a little about the great cultural side of Ecuador. Saturday morning I didnt have any plans, so I decided to take a walk around my apartment and saw a mass crowd walking to towards estadio Olimpico, the main stadium in Quito located about 1.5 miles from my house. I figured a big game was going on, but as I got close the crowd didnt seem like the type going to a soccer game (meaning they didnt have jerseys on and the majority were families and no beer was being sold on the street). I stopped at an internet cafe on the way to the stadium, and the guy working there informed me that it was a free concert going on all day. I decided to check it out and to no surprise, it was packed (I often wonder where the advertisement is for things like this as I apparently am completely oblivious). While the sound system wasnt great, so I couldnt quite make out everything that they were saying (including the names of the artists), I know that the singers I heard were all Ecuadorian. I found out later that night that the concert was in honor of a program called corazones azules (blue hearts), a campaign to bring attention to the number of deaths caused by violence and car accidents in the area. They started marking places where someone had been killed with blue hearts. The concert was a great way to spend part of my Saturday, once I got passed my fear of large crowds.

That evening I went to an Israeli film festival and watched a movie called the bubble about a group of 3 young Israelis living in Tel Aviv. One of the Israelis falls in love with a palestinian soldier and while all of the main characters are against the violence between the two groups of people, they become entangled in it. Three of the main characters are gay, which was interesting to see in a catholic country. I went with one of my Ecuadorian roommates who said that homosexuality is becoming more accepted here, but he thinks the only reason a movie was shown with such explicit homosexuality. 

I finished off my weekend by going to a museum on Sunday afternoon called capilla del hombre (chapel of man), which is an exhibit of the artist Oswaldo Guayasamin's work. He was a famous artist from the 20th century who depicted the struggle of man in his works. It was moving seeing how he interpreted the pain and suffering of Latin America's poorest citizens using shapes and colors to represent different elements of life. That night I went to a dance by Ecuador's national dance team that had been arranged by a Cuban director. While I usually dont like modern art, the danced were interpretations of different elements, such as a mirror, a bug getting moved around by a humans hand, and a wedding. They had a screen in the background that was used in conjunction with the dance. Like to represent the mirror, they had pre recorded the dancers before the show, and each person moved in conjunction with the previous recording.