If you tell me this will make a great story in a couple years/we will laugh about this in a couple years again...I'm going to lose it.

What? Your doctor doesn't recommend alcohol
consumption as an effective way to deal with a
stressful day?

Today was one of the worst days EVER. This morning, we took what we thought was going to be a quick trip to this place to buy tickets for the Boca Juniors vs. River Plate game tomorrow. We brought a debit card, thinking they would surely take them what with people paying large amounts of money to go to the game tomorrow (tickets are going for 800 pesos). It’s not a good idea to walk around with a ton of cash in your pocket. And of course, they didn’t take cards. Jesse and I proceeded to walk 3 blocks up the road to a bank so we could withdraw money from our bank account. The card didn’t work. Ok, I was really thirsty, so we bought a water and asked someone where another bank was. We found a second bank. Our card didn’t work again. After two more tries at different banks, and at least an hour of walking around, we decided to go back to the ticket store and see what our options were. Something was obviously wrong with our card and there was no way we were getting cash. We headed back to this store and we finally made them understand that we have the damn money, we just couldn’t get it out of the bank. So they decided they would make an exception for us and run our card. Yay! Well, our card was declined twice more. At this point, a trip that should have taken us an hour was going on taking us 3 hours and we hadn’t eaten anything yet. We figured that our card was frozen because we had tried unsuccessfully to withdraw a large amount of money at several different banks.

So we decided to go home, eat lunch, grab a different credit card, and head back to the ticket store later. Once we got home with some empanadas, it was apparent we were not going to be able to go look at a potential apartment rental or go to Crossfit later in the afternoon like we had planned. Great. Then, we checked our bank account online and were surprised to see we had almost $700 less in our account than we should have. We noticed 2 separate purchases at 2 different stores for the exact amount, made on a day we had not used our debit card. The realization of what happened hit us at the same time: our account numbers had been stolen and we had been robbed. How? We’re still not sure. The next 3-4 hours consisted of us trying to get in touch with Bank of America, finally paying for an exorbitantly expensive phone call with a bank representative who was not in the least bit helpful, trying to get in touch with our parents, and trying to figure out how in the hell we were going to be able to get money in a foreign country with a frozen bank account. Jesse’s parents weren’t home. My parents were driving through the desert in Arizona. Wait, why in the hell are they driving through the desert? Good question.

Luckily, we worked everything out the best we could for the moment. After that, we still had to go purchase the Boca vs. River SuperClasico game tickets. Jesse made the long trip all the way back to the store. Of course, his credit card was declined after trying to make a big purchase in a foreign country. This resulted in him and another Road House resident finding an internet café, and calling the credit card company to authorize international purchases. He and Tom took a really roundabout way home, and so I, of course, was starting to get worried by the time he got home. I am happy to report, even after this emotional roller coaster of a day, that everyone is OK, we will be getting a new bank card soon, and we managed to buy tickets to the SuperClasico.

Jesse with his hard earned tickets!

In a nutshell, it’s been a long fucking day.

Why did we go to so much trouble to get tickets to this soccer game? There is a ton of soccer in Argentina. We can see a Boca or River game anytime. Yes, but a Boca Juniors vs. River Plate game is one of the most ferocious rivalries in the world. We’ve heard it’s one of the most exciting/crazy sports matches (sports match…not just soccer) to watch in person in the world (did I say that already?). Don't believe me? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercl%C3%A1sico

More to come after tomorrow!