¡Qué finde!

Well this weekend was definitely hectic. I spent most of my time trying to finish up my paintings for my final portfolio in my painting class, and then getting everything together for the final class as well.

Then on Sunday, I met some friends down en el centro to watch the Argentina vs. Mexico game. Since it was a bigger game, they had a huge screen up in ex Plaza Velez-Sarsfield, so the whole crowd in the centro could watch the game! It was exciting. We got some choripan for lunch, and Rinna and Jennifer got interviewed for television! They found out we were extranjeros, but we told them we were rooting for Argentina. They tried to interview Doreidy, but she dodged out of the way. She was too embarrassed to be interviewed, because she's from Mexico.

Now actually watching the game on the screen with the huge crowd outdoors was exciting. Everyone went crazy whenever Argentina made a goal. We had to steel ourselves, because some people would just run into you. But basically, it was like jumping up and down in a mosh pit at a heavy metal concert. Now, if you ever find yourself in a large crowd of football fans in Argentina, and you notice a group of people moving out from a certain area, you should do it too. That's because some people like to set off random fire crackers. One of them went off less than three feet away from me. I didn't get hit by any debris, but the impact of the noise hit my ear really hard, and I couldn't hear a thing out of my right ear other than a constant loud ringing, for over a minute. I was disoriented, because it felt like all the cheering noise that was surrounding me all jumped to the left side and only the left side. I can hear fine out of my right ear now, but I should probably get it checked out soon. For a whole minute I thought I wasn't going to be able to hear out of that ear again.

The plaza cleared out quite a bit during half-time. Mostly because that's a safe time for the fans to go to the bathroom and pick up another beer without missing a thing. We all walked over to a nearby Grido to get some ice cream, and then came back for the second half of the game.

The plaza literally exploded with excitement when Argentina won the game. People were just bouncing and running everywhere, vuvuzelas were blowing, people were throwing paper from their apartments, and I saw someone go airborne!

Everyone was just walking around and cheering. There were a few groups of people with huge flags, and they'd hold them and let people jump around under them. Rebekah and I went and ran underneath one real fast.

We stayed in the plaza awhile longer with the crowd, because the news on the screen was showing the celebrations in all the different big Argentine cities, and comparing them. Compared to Buenos Aires, we were rocking it! We kept staying to see if we would show up on the tv. After awhile we decided we should head out. I was going to take one last picture of the crowd before heading out, and THAT'S when I got robbed.

Apparently Jennifer saw him coming running at me a couple of seconds before I noticed him. She said it looked more like he was trying to kidnap me than rob me. The guy got a hold of my camera in my right hand, and when I realized what was going on, I gripped my camera tighter, and pulled his arm down, because I wasn't going to let him get away that easy. We had an actual scuffle, and a lot of it was a blur. But I do remember the guy looking up at my face, and I could tell that he didn't expect me to fight back. And he wasn't young either, he looked to be about in his mid-30's or 40's.

By the end of the scuffle, I could feel the straps and charm breaking from my hand, I saw pieces fall from my camera, and then the guy ran off. I turned around and tried to grab the guy, but he wormed his way through the crowd real fast, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get through and stop him. The moment he was out of sight with my camera a tiny woman stepped out and asked if I was just robbed. I just said "sí" and turned around to see what parts of my camera had broken off. All I found was my Miyajima charm from Japan. So obviously this guy is just a petty thief, and thinks foreign women are easy targets. But I have the charger, so he's probably going to have a hard time selling a dead camera.

I know you can buy chargers separately, but from what I noticed, the majority of the digital cameras here in Argentina use AA or AAA batteries that switch out. I just wish I had the pictures back! I had over 200 photos! They were just mostly photos of around the city that I took, so I could remember certain places that I frequented around town. Hindsight is always 20/20, and if I was really thinking, I would've tried to smash my camera on the ground, because who the hell wants to waste their time stealing a broken camera? And if it was broken, I could've still salvaged the SD card. At least I still have most of my photos from the trip.

But I'll tell you, I had such an incredible adrenaline rush that lasted for hours afterward. I was twitching and ready to kick the crap out of anyone if they touched me. I still have my wallet and coin purse, and my ipod. The only injuries I got was a scratch on my middle finger and rope burn from where the handle was pulled off my wrist. I obviously need to do more weight-training and take a self-defense class, because I'm not going to take that shit again. I lost my camera, but at least I didn't go down without a fight!