Day 16: Where Would You Go?

Tuesday, Sept. 16: If you could drop everything and get on a plane for a two week vacation right now, where would you go and why?

My answer for this always seems to be Argentina. I just adore the country and even though I’ve been there 7 times I keep wanting to go back to see the things I have yet to see. I want to travel to Ushuaia which is the southernmost tip of any country before reaching Antartica. I would love to go back to Mar del Plata and go swimming in the Atlantics warm(er) waters. I’d love to go to Mendoza and see the vineyards (even if I don’t drink wine). So many options!

But I have been there 7 times and I should check some other parts of the world out.

I would then love going to Europe. My ancestors originate from there and it would be amazing to be in the same streets they were all in. My maiden name, Lacabe, is the name of a town in northern Spain – what people call the Basque Country. It has a long history and I would just love to visit the area. My brother went this past spring with his kids and wife.

My niece and nephew in front of the city sign.

Another branch of my family comes from Lago di Como in northern Italy. You might recognize the name as the lake that George Clooney has a house by.

My mom was able to go 20 years ago and visit the home her grandfather lived in. She also got to spend time with her cousin and his mom (who has since passed away). I have met her cousin, but only while we were both in Argentina.

I think it’s amazing that she got the chance to be there and I would love to do the same. While there I would love to visit Rome and take a picture with the pigeons as my grandfather did many years ago. I’d also take the time to go to Venice and take a Gondola ride with my babe. It would be super romantic, I just know it.

I suppose it would also be nice to visit Paris someday, but it’s not at the top of my list.  The same with London. I would like to visit Germany, since another branch from my family tree comes from there, but I don’t feel the strong connection to it as I do the other countries.

Where would you visit?

Argentina vs. Germany

Although born in the US my blood runs sky blue and white as well as red, white, and blue. I have read Argentine history and studied the culture. I've been to Argentina 7 times in my lifetime, the most recent (as you should know) was in late May for my honeymoon. 

I love being in Argentina, being around Argentineans, and speaking in castellano. And, I love futbol. 

It will be hard for you to find someone from Argentina who doesn't. 

When it comes to the World Cup it's rare that I don't watch a game - even ones that don't involve Argentina or the US.  From reading blogs and Twitter since the World Cup begun I've noticed that not many (read: any) bloggers that I follow are big fans. Many have indicated not knowing anything about it. So I figured, with the final match being played today, I'd give the low down on what these have been about (or at least what I know).

The World Cup/El Mundial

The world up is made up of various rounds, each of which eliminates half the teams until in the end there are only two left. 

/ / Round One  - The Group Stage

• The group stage starts with 32 countries/teams who have played over the previous 3 years in order to qualify for the World Cup. The host country automatically makes it into the Cup. 
• Each group has 4 teams which play each other to determine which 2 teams advance to the Round of 16. 
• In this first round games are allowed to finish in ties. This is the only round that allows this. 
• A win gives a team 3 points, a tie gives them 1, and a loss gives them 0. Whichever 2 teams have the most points after all the games are played advance to the next round. (I won't get into the more intricate details, but if you ask I will!)

The United States barely made it out of the first round, but thanks to Germany beating Portugal by 4 goals, the US was able to move on to the next round. The US also took this opportunity to beat Ghana who had eliminated the US in the 2 previous World Cups.

The US scoring against Ghana (we're in the red)

Argentina won all 3 games - this is Messi (the best player in the world, and arguably of all time) scoring an amazing goal - or GOLAZO!

/ / Round Two - Round of 16

• During this round every game has to end in a win, ties are not allowed. This means that if after 2 halves of 45 minutes have been played the score is 0-0 (I read somewhere that in English this is called nil-nil, in Spanish it's just zero a zero) the teams have to play 2 more halves of 15 minutes each. If after those 30 minutes the score is still tied then the teams kick 5 penalty shots - one kick at a time for each team. 
• The loser is eliminated from the World Cup and the winner advances to the Quarter Finals. 

The US, unfortunately, lost during this round against Belgium. Had the US won they would have played Argentina in the next round. 

/ / Round Three - Quarter Finals

• We are now down to 8 teams and 4 games. This round is played the same way as the previous one. 
• Since the US lost to Belgium, Argentina ended up playing the team that disqualified the US. Argentina quickly got rid of Belgium, though, beating them 1-0. This qualified them to move on to the Semi-Finals. 

/ / Round Four - Semi-Finals

• With only 4 teams left things start to get a bit more exciting. This round is the same as the previous two. 
• However this round saw a lot of cheers and tears. Germany advanced to play Brazil during this round and then proceeded to annihilate them with a final score of 7 to 1. Brazil was the HEAVY favored to win (especially since the Cup took place there). Germany scored 5 goals in less than 30 minutes. Many people were sad about it.

I would be too, because it was a sad game to watch especially having to see something like the following 7 times:

• The next day Argentina played the Netherlands. While not as exciting as the game above, it did go into penalty kicks which Argentina won by 4-2 (all the kicks weren't done since there was no way that Argentina could lose after this initial score).

Messi scoring the first penalty kick.

That's the Argentine goal - el Chiquito Romero - blocking a 2nd kick from the opposite team.

Then Argentina kicked the ball that would send them to the finals for the first time in 24 years

I'm including the following gifs because I love watching Argentina celebrate.

The fans get very passionate too...

At my house it looked more like this:

That's my dad, niece, and mom with me in the front center right after we won the game. I took 2 hours off work so that I could watch the entire game.

/ /  Round Five - Finals 

• There are actually two games to be played here. The losers of the semi-final games play each other to determine third place an then the 2 winning teams play to crown the champion. The third place game goes first. 
• Today's game features Argentina vs. Germany. While I do have German blood in me, I have to root for Argentina. 

A lot of people are looking at Germany like a powerhouse that will dominate the game and send Argentina home in tears. Maybe that will be the case, but I think Argentina deserves more credit. A lot of the reason that Argentina's team gets put down is that they have Messi on their team - who is the best player in the world (some may argue that Ronaldo is, I would say that he is not).  Because Messi's name is the best known on the team people tend to not pay attention to the other amazing players that finish the line up. 

Argentina is NOT a one man team. They have a roster full of amazing players - including Romero who caught those kicks during the last game. Di Maria and Aguero are amazing. Higuain, Maxi, Mascherano, Rojo and Palacio to name a few others off the top of my head. They have a deep team. 

But I know why everyone is looking at Germany. They beat Brazil 7 to 1. However, let's keep in mind that Brazil was missing their 2 top players. The team looked lost from the second the game started. It's not so much that Germany was amazing, it was more so that Brazil sucked really badly. 

Besides, We have the Pope on our side! 

Prediction, maybe?

Let the best team... (pssst! That's Argentina!) win!!

Honeymoon Trip to Argentina

I know, I know! I have one more wedding post to go! I'm missing my pictures from the reception so I've been lagging on writing that post. In the meantime, here is a honeymoon post in its place!

Let's be honest here, you don't want to read about everything during my honeymoon trip and I don't want to write about it all. But we all love pictures, right? So let's recap the trip via all the pictures we took! 

This is us at LAX getting ready to leave on May 16th.

We don't look as excited 4 hours later looking toward a 10 hour flight to Argentina. 

Dallas, TX.

This is our first night in Argentina. We went to dine at a restaurant near the hotel. Thomas was surprised when someone had to unlock the door to the restaurant to let us in and then lock it after we went inside. 

This was the view from our hotel room in La Plata, Argentina (the city my family lives in). This is Plaza San Martin. My siblings used to play around the statue in the middle of the plaza. There are these types of plaza's every few blocks in La Plata.

This is the Cathedral in La Plata. It's just a couple of blocks away from where my aunt lived. It's in front of Plaza Moreno. It's a gorgeous church. You can take an elevator to the top of the tower. Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to do it during this trip. 

The woes of having strangers take your picture.

This is us posing with Manuelita, a well known character in Argentina. This is La Republica de los Ninos. An amusement type park in La Plata. Walt Disney visited this park before opening Disneyland and based some of Disneyland on what he saw here. For those of you who have been to Disneyland do these pictures look familiar:

Do we look like cousins?

All the pictures above except the first two were from our second day in Argentina. After visiting the cathedral and the amusement park with my cousin Paula and her boyfriend (I just found out that she is pregnant! Yay!) they did us the favor of driving us by the house my dad grew up in:

Compared to the other homes around this one - this one has been kept up very nicely which makes me happy. When I went to Argentina in 2008 with my dad we got to go in. My grandpa built the closets that are still in use in the house. 

On Monday we headed off to Iguazu Falls in northern Argentina in the Misiones Province. Iguazu Falls (or Las Cataratas de Iguazu) are amazing waterfalls that are bigger and wider than Niagara Falls. They've just been declared one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World.

I took a lot of pictures at airports. This is us heading to Iguazu.

Thank goodness for panoramic setting on my phone!

We got to take a boat into the falls and get completely soaked. It was one of the funnest things I've ever done. I hope I can do it again some day.

This place is called Garganta del Diablo - Devil's Throat.

Next time I'll post about our second day in Iguazu was actually going into Brazil. to see the falls from that side. 

World Cup Weekend Warp Up

I guess it was also Father's Day. We started Sunday with a late breakfast for the entire family at a restaurant. It was nice because my entire US family was there. My sister came into town for Saturday's memorial for my other sister, so before she drove back home we went out for breakfast. My sister, brother-in-law, brother, sister-in-law, mom, dad, my three nieces and nephew, as well as Thomas and I were there. 

But let's rewind to Friday. 

After work on Friday I had to go shopping for some slacks for Thomas for work. He wears a lot of jeans to work, but I think that if he hopes to advance with the company he needs to wear slacks on a daily basis with maybe jeans on Friday's (at my office with the government we have casual Fridays). He always wears nice button down shirts, but I wanted him to make sure he had slacks to wear daily. 

Saturday was the busy day. A month or so ago I got an e-mail from Bed, Bath & Beyond inviting me to a bride day at the store. It said that I would be able to get 20% off the rest of my wedding registry and anything else I needed/wanted and there would be some refreshments. I RSVP'd to the event via e-mail as soon as I got it. Saturday morning I headed to the store with my mom and three nieces. While the girls enjoyed some pastries for breakfast I enjoyed doing some shopping. I was able to get the Vitamix blender that I wanted to buy as well as some other things that were pending from my list and a few that I had realized that I needed/wanted for the house. 

Earlier last week I called to get someone to come out to take a look at our A/C. It's an old model (IE: 30+ years old) and has lived 2 or more lives. Soon after we were done with BBB I came home to meet the A/C guy and see what he had to say about the unit. End result: it's old and costing us a lot to use, but it's working.  The bad news? The heater is done. Luckily I live in Southern California and it's not needed much, but it's not nice to know that turning it on may cause carbon monoxide to infiltrate our home. The guy turned the gas off just in case. OF course we'll have someone else come out to give us another opinion as well as the home warranty people. 

After we were done with him it was time for my sisters' memorial. My sister-in-law is licensed clergy and she spent a lot of time coming up with a nice, meaningful service for my family. She did a very nice job. 

She read some verses from the bible, some meaningful quotes, and some sayings that were very eloquent for the event. We shared some stories and thoughts about her. The memorial lasted about an hour and a half. 

Back row: dad, mom, and me; Front row: Mika, Nikki, Jonathan, and Camila.

After the memorial my siblings, brother-in-law, and the kids came to my house to watch the 2nd half of the Futbol game. My brother-in-law tried to fix the iMac that had belonged to my sister. Unfortunately it needs a new hard drive. I'm not sure if I'll put the money in to get it fixed or if I'll buy a new iMac. Thomas says I should just get a new one (I have a very generous husband). 

Thomas isn't a big eater of non-American foods, so I took advantage that my sister was in town to go have Thai food for dinner along with my dad. We went to a place I had heard a lot about but hadn't been to, even though it is around the corner from where Thomas' parents live. The place was nice and the food delicious.

As I mentioned, Sunday started with breakfast with the entire family. We had invited my in-laws but they declined. My brother and dad, along with my nieces, came to my house in the afternoon to watch Argentina play Bosnia (during which most of this post was written). It was a mostly boring game after a quick auto-goal from Bosnia. It got exciting after Messi scored a goal early in the 2nd half and got sad after Bosnia scored (in their own goal this time) near the end of the game.  2-1 isn't the best score, but at least it's a W in our column. Having Messi make a goal (his first in a World Cup game) does a lot of his confidence as well as that of the entire team. 

After the game and later that evening, after my brother, dad and the kids left, Thomas and I headed to his parents' house to celebrate father's day with his dad.