Hello Bruin Fans,
Here is my second blog entry of our 14-day trip around Argentina.
Sept. 8th: We played the same team from the morning before and lost in a five-game exhibition match 2-3. The team name was the Boca Juniors and they are a very skilled team. After the match, we went into the town of Boca and had lunch and shopped. The town of Boca was actually very alive and active with many colorful buildings and many places to eat. There were also a lot of stray dogs wondering the street and it was very sad to see that so many of these dogs don't have places to sleep or things to eat. Most of our team ate lunch at this restaurant that had tango dancers performing as we ate. Many of the guys ordered pizza for lunch which turned out to be pretty good. The dancers were very skilled and very entertaining to watch and one of the dancers asked Max Greer to dance with her. We started chanting, "Max, Max, Max" and under peer pressure he got up and danced with her. Keep in mind, Max is the tallest guy on our team standing at 6'11" and the girl was no taller than 5'5" so it was definitely fun to watch. People in the restaurant were taking pictures of him dancing and were in amazement at how tall he was. As soon as we finished lunch, we headed back to our hotel to pack up and get ready for our 15 hour bus ride to San Juan. Now the bus we took to San Juan was very comfortable and had very nice seats that actually reclined out into beds. The bus ride would have been great except at around midnight or so it started getting really cold outside and inside the bus. Many of the guys could not sleep because it was to cold to sleep and for some reason our bus driver would not turn on the heater. That made the ride much worse than it would have been.
Sept 10th: We have now been in San Juan for a day and a half now and the city is much more suburban than the big city of Buenos Aires. It kind of reminded me of downtown Santa Barbara a little with all the shops and places to eat. Our hotel is much nicer than the first hotel we stayed in and right outside our hotel is this big square with a park and water fountain where a lot of kids like to hang out and socialize after school is done. We walk through there everyday to go to the restaurant that we eat at and the kids will wave and say "hola" to us and many of them will be playing field hockey on the pathways that go through the park. The team eats at a restaurant called El Tata Escoda and we have had all sorts of meals so far from fried steak and French fries to lasagna. Tonight we played the #1 club team in all of Argentina which had two members from the Argentinean National Team as well as one member from the Brazilian National Team. Talk about an experienced team! We show up to the gym and it looks like an airplane hanger from the outside but as soon as you go inside they have cement seats on one side and a volleyball court in the middle of the hanger. As we were warming up many people began to fill up the seats. As the game was about to begin we started to hear loud drumming outside of the gym and a band of about 15 people came in with big drums and air horns. The band did not stop playing their instruments the whole game. It was pretty crazy how loud it was in there. We lost in three games (22-25 15-25 22-25) to a very experienced team. We play them again tomorrow night and we're looking for a better outcome this time. Until then,
GO BRUINS,
Kevin Ker
Here is my second blog entry of our 14-day trip around Argentina.
Sept. 8th: We played the same team from the morning before and lost in a five-game exhibition match 2-3. The team name was the Boca Juniors and they are a very skilled team. After the match, we went into the town of Boca and had lunch and shopped. The town of Boca was actually very alive and active with many colorful buildings and many places to eat. There were also a lot of stray dogs wondering the street and it was very sad to see that so many of these dogs don't have places to sleep or things to eat. Most of our team ate lunch at this restaurant that had tango dancers performing as we ate. Many of the guys ordered pizza for lunch which turned out to be pretty good. The dancers were very skilled and very entertaining to watch and one of the dancers asked Max Greer to dance with her. We started chanting, "Max, Max, Max" and under peer pressure he got up and danced with her. Keep in mind, Max is the tallest guy on our team standing at 6'11" and the girl was no taller than 5'5" so it was definitely fun to watch. People in the restaurant were taking pictures of him dancing and were in amazement at how tall he was. As soon as we finished lunch, we headed back to our hotel to pack up and get ready for our 15 hour bus ride to San Juan. Now the bus we took to San Juan was very comfortable and had very nice seats that actually reclined out into beds. The bus ride would have been great except at around midnight or so it started getting really cold outside and inside the bus. Many of the guys could not sleep because it was to cold to sleep and for some reason our bus driver would not turn on the heater. That made the ride much worse than it would have been.
Sept 10th: We have now been in San Juan for a day and a half now and the city is much more suburban than the big city of Buenos Aires. It kind of reminded me of downtown Santa Barbara a little with all the shops and places to eat. Our hotel is much nicer than the first hotel we stayed in and right outside our hotel is this big square with a park and water fountain where a lot of kids like to hang out and socialize after school is done. We walk through there everyday to go to the restaurant that we eat at and the kids will wave and say "hola" to us and many of them will be playing field hockey on the pathways that go through the park. The team eats at a restaurant called El Tata Escoda and we have had all sorts of meals so far from fried steak and French fries to lasagna. Tonight we played the #1 club team in all of Argentina which had two members from the Argentinean National Team as well as one member from the Brazilian National Team. Talk about an experienced team! We show up to the gym and it looks like an airplane hanger from the outside but as soon as you go inside they have cement seats on one side and a volleyball court in the middle of the hanger. As we were warming up many people began to fill up the seats. As the game was about to begin we started to hear loud drumming outside of the gym and a band of about 15 people came in with big drums and air horns. The band did not stop playing their instruments the whole game. It was pretty crazy how loud it was in there. We lost in three games (22-25 15-25 22-25) to a very experienced team. We play them again tomorrow night and we're looking for a better outcome this time. Until then,
GO BRUINS,
Kevin Ker
