I'm leaving in 9 days. I doubt I'll be able to squeeze in more than one entry a week, although maybe I should since I didn't write last week, so I hope I'll be able to write once more before I leave.
The new thing in town is the American cup, or the "Copa America". The USA just lost against Paraguay and yesterday I watched (in an international crowd: Nivy from Australia, Kathryn from the US and Rocio from Peru) Mexico vs Ecuador...or to be more honest Gabriel Marquez (spelling?, first name correct?) vs all the other players on the field. No one was nearly as good looking as him so it was a pretty boring game. No, seriously I do enjoy watching football/soccer and it's not just the guys I'm watching. So, the American cup involves all countries of the American continents (north, south and central). Even though I must admit that today I begun to wonder whether Canada is involved. All the games are played in Venezuela, so the stadium-cities have been cleaned up. Many streets have gotten a new coat of asphalt and all foodstands (all the "streetfood") have gotten their copa america sign. The mascot, "Guaky" is a kind of parrot (Guacamaya, in Spanish), which is dying out. So it is kind of nice. It's almost impossible to get tickets to the games, but some of my friends managed to see some of the games on close range. Some say that all the tickes have been sold to Chavistas because the government does not want to risk protests or the like at the stadium. So when Chavez got up at the opening game the crowd was cheering.
A propos Chavistas, there's been some discussion on the meaning of the word, that the people it refers to. Many Chavez supporters do not want to be called Chavistas. They say that the word is used to refer to uneducated masses, and obviously no one wants to be associated with ignorance. The paradox is that Chaves is a populist president and that especially the lower classes support him. I know several people who are leaving the country because they don't like Chavez' politics and they are all university graduates. Kind of interesting I think. I still try to keep out of politics cause there seems to be no objective source. I am still very much confused when it comes to discussing Venezuelan politics, I'm just writing about what I the people around me are talking about. Pretty ignorant.
The new thing in town is the American cup, or the "Copa America". The USA just lost against Paraguay and yesterday I watched (in an international crowd: Nivy from Australia, Kathryn from the US and Rocio from Peru) Mexico vs Ecuador...or to be more honest Gabriel Marquez (spelling?, first name correct?) vs all the other players on the field. No one was nearly as good looking as him so it was a pretty boring game. No, seriously I do enjoy watching football/soccer and it's not just the guys I'm watching. So, the American cup involves all countries of the American continents (north, south and central). Even though I must admit that today I begun to wonder whether Canada is involved. All the games are played in Venezuela, so the stadium-cities have been cleaned up. Many streets have gotten a new coat of asphalt and all foodstands (all the "streetfood") have gotten their copa america sign. The mascot, "Guaky" is a kind of parrot (Guacamaya, in Spanish), which is dying out. So it is kind of nice. It's almost impossible to get tickets to the games, but some of my friends managed to see some of the games on close range. Some say that all the tickes have been sold to Chavistas because the government does not want to risk protests or the like at the stadium. So when Chavez got up at the opening game the crowd was cheering.
A propos Chavistas, there's been some discussion on the meaning of the word, that the people it refers to. Many Chavez supporters do not want to be called Chavistas. They say that the word is used to refer to uneducated masses, and obviously no one wants to be associated with ignorance. The paradox is that Chaves is a populist president and that especially the lower classes support him. I know several people who are leaving the country because they don't like Chavez' politics and they are all university graduates. Kind of interesting I think. I still try to keep out of politics cause there seems to be no objective source. I am still very much confused when it comes to discussing Venezuelan politics, I'm just writing about what I the people around me are talking about. Pretty ignorant.
posted by Larubia at 5:49 PM
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