Are you ready for some football!

Today we went to our first football game here in Ecuador. It was actually a lot like an American sporting event. Except that we bought our tickets on the street. For sixteen dollars. Oh, and we bought our jerseys on the street too, five dollars each. The guy told me the were officially licensed merchandise and I have no reason not to believe him. He said it's supposed to give you a rash. That's how you know it's authentic.

We had general admission tickets, so we just went in and found an open seat. The game started right on time, unlike just about everything else. People walked around the seats selling refreshments, like beer, popsicles, cigarettes (sold by a five year old). At halftime we ate traditional stadium fare; fried chicken with rice, fries, lettuce and some purple stuff. The halftime show was a big inflatable milk carton in the middle of the pitch. It lacked some of the panache of American halftimes. Football games in Ecuador are a family affair, even if most members of the family are still breast-feeding. Some of the babies there were so young, as though they just recently fell out, crying because the stadium feels nothing like the womb.

The team that we decided to like, Barcelona, didn't win, they drew. So the Barcelona fans threw their empty bottles at the ref as he left the pitch. That'll teach him to be an idiot.

-Ryan