October 16-17: Fútbol and Meat

Words of the Day:
fanschop- Another surprisingly good "Let's mix something weird in beer" combination: beer + fanta
choripan- chorizo (sausage) +pan (bread)= choripan
hinchas-fans
Albos- fans of Colo-Colo, a very popular soccer team (in both senses of the word popular)
asado- barbecue. Which means bread and meat. Vegetables do not exist in Chilean barbecues.
Mete la pata- stick your foot on it! Get in there! Trip her up!
Dále, dále, dále!- Go, go, go!
Sacálo!- Get it out of there!
good sportsmanship- according to word reference, it's buena deportividad. In practice though, there is no definition.

So this weekend may have been the most un-vegetarian thing to ever happen to me. Not that I regret it especially.

On Saturday, we had a game for the soccer team, which was a lot of fun. We lost, but only by 1 and it was a really tight game. Then, afterwords, we had an asado! It was great to get to chill with everyone because they are all really sweet and really cool.

Today, Sunday, a large majority of the gringo pack went to a fútbol game of Colo Colo vs. U. Cátolica. (The third major Chilean team is U. Chile) It was quite the adventure.
We had another asado first with some friends from the School of Engineering, fans of Colo-Colo. It was unbelievably delicious: I could eat choripan every day and never get tired of it. The stadium was actually fairly orderly, although there was a heavy police presence (in riot gear no less) and no alcohol was sold inside. The fans were rowdy though. There's practically a sub-genre of books talking about the links between Soccer and Globalization and one I read recently talked about how soccer fan violence and rivalries are a pretty good example of how important a force tribalism still is to modern societies, a thesis that seems pretty well supported in South American soccer.
There were streamers, balloons, pep bands, probably completely illegal and dangerous fireworks, jumping, dancing, and singing, of the literally dozens of team songs. And plenty of foul language. The opposing teams, their own players and frequently, everyone's mothers, were treated to a heavy barage of insults. More of that than actually "constructive" type cheering like you usually hear at sports events in the US. It was cool to see all the different types of people who were there: wealthy, middle class, not so wealthy, teens, kids (questionable parenting?), the occasional grandma. Mostly men, but far from exclusively. And the U Catolica fans were in their own section, heavily guarded by the police. Although I really had no personal investment in Colo-Colo, it was one of the most fun and intriguing sporting events I've ever been too.

Here's the easiest Colo- Colo chant:
CHI-CHI-CHI- LE-LE-LE...Colo Colo de Chile!