Fútbol- Rica style. Nothing else like it

Last night was INCREDIBLE. It was easily one of the most memorable times here.It was the Classic- the game between San José's team Saprissa and Alajuela's team La Liga. Ever year this game is HUGE and also very dangerous. I was warned by many to be careful, especially because I was rooting for La Liga- the away team.

I will start with all of the background information- Allison has a Tico brother named Eder who has been hanging out with Allison, Emily, Eliza and I... poor guy, especially since he only speaks Spanish. Last week on our way home from Alice in Wonderland, we told him how we really wanted to see a soccer game so he found us all tickets for the game on Wednesday night. When I told my family that I was going to a soccer game they got so excited since it was the big one. They were quick to tell me the La Liga is our team and to root for them! Allison and Eliza's families are all La Liga too so we were all rooting for the away team. Poor Emily was all alone in her purple Bimbo jersey. Bimbo is a sponsor of Saprissa and is a bread company here. After school on the big day, we took the bus into San José to waste sometime before we were supposed to meet up with Eder. I got my hair cut at this tiny little place for less than $4! But that was a whole other experience.. The streets were filled with people in La Liga and Saprissa jerseys. We headed over to the market to find some for ourselves. Once we found a guy who was willing to negotiate with us we picked out the prized possessions. We all laughed at Emily's, which said "BIMBO" across the center. The guy was confused and asked if it meant something bad in English. He assured us that here it simply refers to the bread company.

We found Eder and hopped onto a bus with lots of others in jerseys... However, we all had our in our bags because we were warned not to put them on until we were sitting in our seats. Eder warned us that they take all of your coins from you as well because they are often chucked at other fans (I told you, they are crazy here). So we tried to hide our coins in whatever we could as a matter of pride. The bus dropped us off on the side of a highway and we followed the group to the stadium. Eder's friends hid in a corner to dump their coins in their socks- it was such a funny site since they were dressed in nice clothes from work. Unfortunately for Andres, the lady caught him and he had to dig them out and hand them over. I had to fork over my favorite pen but other than that was free. We arrived nearly 2 hours early and enjoyed the jumbotron entertainment. The cameras would find a pretty girl, focus in on her, and all the boys in the stadium would whistle. This is a pretty accurate description of daily life here... oooh geeze. We stared at Eder with wide eyes and he told us they do this every game.

Once the game was about to start the crowd went absolutely WILD. The players enter onto the field through these long green tunnels that are pulled out to protect them from the crowd. We were sitting perpendicular to Saprissa's fan group- the Ultras. They sat behind the goal and did not stop chanting once, except for halftime. They had their own little band going and SO many songs that every Saprissa fan knew and sang loudly. We picked up on a few by the end! We would start to sing along but would then get stared down by Eder. Whoops. Right before the game started, they belting their best song, threw loads of receipt or toliet paper, shot off their own fireworks, waved their looong flags, stood up on part of this fence, and went wild along with everyone else in the stadium. I have never been surrounded by a group of people so excited about something. When Saprissa scored their goal I thought I was going to die. Bodies were flying, grown men were hanging onto the fence separating the crowd from the field like monkeys. I wish I could describe this experience better but there really aren't many words. All I can say is if you ever have the chance to attend a soccer game in Latin America then do it. Their passion is unbelievable.