Pasion!

Argentina vs. Mexico today!
No Plaza San Martin because of all the rain so instead we went searching all the bars and restaurants in Plaza Serrano in Palermo for a tv. Half of our group went to a Mexican restaurant (AY! Is that even allowed on a day such as today??) And claimed that whenever Argentina scored, the cooks flashed their knives! But unluckily for me and my compadres, an hour before the game started every seat in every bar had a blue and white butt in it! We ended up in an Irish pub of all places, but the atmosphere was purely Argentine!

After the nailbiting, foot stomping, table drumming game that ended 3:1 Argentina, we stepped out onto the wet streets covered in confetti to the tunes of a million different cars all honking to the same tune! When I emerged from my Subte stop on Juramento and Cabildo I was utterly enveloped by this enormous crowd who'd literally run out into the middle of this busy intersection and stopped all traffic to celebrate. Jumping and drumming and dancing and clapping and waving flags! Viejos and chiquitos alike, everyone singing the same fight songs, and shouting the same chants, all with accompanying dance moves and hand gestures! The police even showed up, but instead of breaking up the fun and dispelling the hoards of revellers, they simply diverted the traffic so it could continue! And this was already hours after the game had ended! I haven't checked but I'm pretty sure they're still there!

Now I've celebrated the 4th of July every year since my childhood, with Dad's illegal fireworks show and Mom's famous fruit salad, and yeah we'd sing "God Bless America" and all those traditional things.... but I've never experienced or whitnessed the sheer excitement and passion that the Argentines have for their culture and their country. Politics will always be politics, same with poverty, and injustice, all the divisive issues on our planet. But regardless of the state of their government, their economy, their history, the people are one. There's no Republican or Democrat or man or woman or old or young, NO! The people are all ONE.

I have some awesome video of this phenomena but it won't upload correctly.... so until then
PHOTOS!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?id=525033822&aid=187909