Si Se Puede!

After a good week of teaching we were rewarded with Friday off do to an Independence day of some sort. Don’t ask me what Independence Day, because frankly I don’t understand any of these holidays here. Apparently there are different Independence Days for different cities, and the whole country gets a vacation because of it. Think of getting President’s day off or something like that. Needless to say, I was very happy and excited that the weekend arrived early. Keith and I made our way up to Quito for the long weekend to watch a World Cup Qualifying game between Ecuador and Uruguay. We arrived in Quito on Friday afternoon and kicked it with our old host family for most of the evening. We were dragged to a family party where I partook in a pick-up soccer game with a bunch of 7-12 year olds. Although I was a bit rusty, I still dominated most everyone and lead my team to a devastating victory…I started to continue on with this blog, but then read through the previous sentences:

“I partook in a pick-up soccer game with a bunch of 7-12 year olds. Although I was a bit rusty, I still dominated most everyone and lead my team to a devastating victory”
Normally I would have deleted my arrogant short story, but for humor’s sake I will leave it in. So yes, I played soccer with 7-12 year olds and conquered them effortlessly. Jesus. What an egotistical SOB.

Saturday came, Keith and I arranged meetings with other Quito folk, and we headed to the center of town to watch the game! After meeting the group we had a pre-game “meeting” at a local watering hole. After two beers we decided to enter the stadium 3 hours early. To our surprise we found the stadium completely packed, with literally no seat empty. Because of our general admission tickets we had a difficult time finding a place for eight gringos. Luckily the ladies in our group, drunk, were able to round up some front row seats for us. Yes. We sat in the front row of a South American World Cup Qualifier. Be Jealous. Go ahead. These phrases might suffice:

Lucky Bastard!
No way!
Man, I wish I was there!
Are you serious!?

I know. Yes way. I wish you were here too. Yes, I’m serious. After sitting around drinking for three hours the game eventually started. Now just imagine this: Drinking beers at Wrigley, the United Center, The Cell, or Soldier Field three hours before game time; beers are twice the size for only two dollars.
We went through a lot of alcohol. When the game started, Ecuador dominated for the entire contest. We scored in the 2nd half and the stadium irrupted. Uruguay scored 30 seconds later and the place fell silent. Eventually Uruguay scored in the 93rd minute on a questionable Penalty kick call. Drunk and depressed our group headed outside the stadium for some dancing.


End of story? Not quite.

At the disco-tech, we danced, drank more, yet sobered up a bit. As we were about to leave Tara, Tara, and I were purchasing some bottled water when a fight broke out. Being the caballero that I am, I pushed the Taras into a corner so that they wouldn’t get a fistaka to the head. Well, as the bouncers came to take away “the instigator” they decided to beat the living ‘insert inappropriate curse word here’ out of him. Grabbing for anything he could, “the instigator” got a hold of my shirt and pulled me into a backroom with these bouncers. As I professed my innocence I got a glimpse of a Vegas like beat down of this so called combatant. Stunned, yet intrigued, I eventually heard Tara screaming my name, grabbing me by the back of my shirt, and was free of this hostile confrontation. I guess I was pretty luck I didn’t get my butt kicked as well, but it was quite the experience.

Moral of the story: Ecuadorians are crazy when it comes to soccer and drinking. I love it.