Fútbol!

Our home for the next two weeks!

We arrived at our hotel around 11am this morning. I'm sharing a room with three lovely ladies: Alyssa, Caryn, and Kirsten. We quickly showered and met up with the rest of the group for a Mexican lunch at Tiki Taco. We were the only ones in the restaurant when we sat down, and we soon realized that American music videos were playing on the televisions! We suspected that this was because the staff picked us out easily as Americans, and sure enough, the music changed when other Chileans came to eat. With our tummys full we got excited for the highlight of the day, a Chilean fútbol game!

One of the interesting things that we noticed as we were walking to the fútbol stadium is the number of stray dogs roaming the streets. You can hardly travel one block without seeing a dog, and there's a good chance that it'll start to follow you if you give it any sort of attention. Javier told us that this is completely normal and does not even phase the Chileans! So far, it's one of the bigger differences that I've noticed between our countries.

Fútbol, or soccer as we call it in the United States, is a very big sport in Chile. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but thankfully Christian sat next to me and talked me through what was going on. I don't think that any of us could have predicted the amount of spirit that the crowd demonstrated for Everton, the home team from Viña. For the entire ninety minute game, the crowd was cheer-singing nonstop! With a drum and trumpet occasionally chiming in, I was very impressed with their support for their team. 

The enthusiastic Chilean fan section at the fútbol game.

After three red cards, numerous fouls, and a great game, Everton beat their competitors 3 to 2. A few of the boys bought team flags on our way out of the stadium, and we walked back towards our hotel. We quickly stopped at the supermarket and returned, exhausted, to get some rest before a big day at the University tomorrow.