seekingmygreaterperhaps

Hello! My school had an entire month off during December/January, and I took 2 pretty big trips during this time. I will catch up on my travels in the coming days/ weeks, but this post I want to focus on the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Spoiler alert- Argentina won!

In a once in a lifetime opportunity, I was traveling through Argentina in Patagonia when the team won the semi-final, and then the final and was on my way back through Buenos Aires the day after when people were still stoked and celebrating. The energy in all of these places was ecstatic and contagious. People in Latin America are fans of football like no other fans I’ve ever met. Coming from an American perspective, I’ve seen (American) football fans celebrate wins before, and it’s all very joyous. Sorry my people, but Brazilians and Argentinians put y’all to shame. There are generations of fans all together, everyone knows the same cheers and chants, and it doesn’t matter who you are, you are included.

During the actual games, I was in very small mountain towns full of hikers. Even in these small towns, the locals came out in spades to celebrate. If you had a car, you piled people into it and honked and shouted and drove back and forth down the main stretch. If not, you were in the mob of people screaming and cheering. There was silly string being sprayed, and lots of jumping.

What I’ve learned, there is always a guy with a drum. And in Argentina, there is also a guy with a trumpet/ trombone. These people are royalty, because they determine the songs being sung, and keep the hype up… forever. Young and old know all of the songs, and it takes about 2 notes before people pick it up and get going.

The final game was intense, if you watched it, you know. I was in a bar that was standing room only in El Chalten. During the tense moments, it was silent. I kid you not, a full bar of people and you could hear a pin drop. When Argentina won- the place exploded! 2 guys jumped on top of the tables/ bar, and took their shirts off and swung them around. People poured into the streets to celebrate as a community and as a country. In this one street town, there were cheers and honking, singing and hugging. It was truly beautiful to be apart of. There were no outsiders on this day, everyone was welcome to be joyful about the Argentina win.

Being uninformed, I thought the next day when I traveled to Buenos Aires there would be a jolly air about the place, but things would be normal. I was wrong in the best way. I was only there for one night, and my flight left super early the next day, but I soaked in what I could. The crosswalks around the downtown were painted blue to go along with the white stripes, which I thought was very cute. I went to a tango show, and afterwards happily stumbled upon an amazing celebration at the obelisk. I took some videos, but don’t have any photos to show, but that’s because I was living in the moment ;).

The city of Buenos Aires had projected a movie of sorts onto the obelisk, which is a symbol of Buenos Aires. It changed from “Campeones del Mundo!” to “Gracias Equipo!” to footage of the winning goal, to a picture of the team. It was really special, and then hundreds of people were gathered around, chanting and singing and being merry. I was in between a young boy of about 6 or 7 and an older man who was happily drinking beer. They both knew the songs and were celebrating together. The energy never faded! I had to leave around 2 am to go to the airport and I felt like I was leaving right as the party was getting started.

The day after I left, the governor had declared a holiday for the Argentinian people to be able to celebrate together. Highways were closed as people flooded the streets. As I was trying to explain this to my mom, she likened it to the superbowl… and I had a hard time explaining that it is so much bigger than that. The World Cup happens once every 4 years, and the amount of times a team wins is not all that often. As a newbie to the fandom of football, I feel accepted in a culture that is very spirited, even if I had to cheer for Argentina to the horror of my Brazilian friends.

What a blessing it was to be in the right country at the right time. This is my life! God is such a good God, and I am so happy I was able to witness this moment in history.

Beijos.