OLE!

The drums started beating faster, and time altered. It felt like being in a battle. One of those really old one's where smoke from cannon fire made it impossible to see further than the flag in front of you. And the roar of thousands, like a rising wave... topples over itself as the crack and boom of explosives whip the masses into a frenzy. All around you are widened eyes, gaping mouths, and teeth... and gunpowder is in your nose and throat. Blue smoke dissolves the spaces between individual people and for a brief moment we all are one... there is nothing but us. And we are charging. I went to my first South American futbal match last night. We won 2:0.
Besides the match itself, there was an entertaining side show going on the whole time. At first I thought the kids running around behind the goal were entertaining the crowd well enough, but the police and canine units had to make a push for team mascot, so they chased the kids off the backfield. The dogs won cause they had bigger teeth. Another cop in full riot gear was playing stomp out the fires... but it looked a lot more like whak/a/mole. The crowd got a kick.

Snowboarding was very fun, even though I haven't been able to sit quite right since. The lower slopes had iced over pretty good. I realize I'm going to need to buy some warmer clothes for my trek... thank god I bought a minus 18 degree C sleeping bag. There's just something about high winds in the Andes.

School started this week, so i have been busy learning espanol. I will upload pics as soon as I can get some WiFi.