Luqueña :)

My shirt!! :D

My loyality is sealed and I've had the mindchange of a lifetime. I've made friends and enemies in one single decision...

I have been contaminated by this, that is more and more my, culture, the culture of Paraguay, and nowadays, I actually take an interest in football. And here, people take football seriously. It is a huge, huuge deal. 

As a second act of going upstream (the first was being the only one among my fellow swedes on exchange to go to Paraguay), my choice of loyalty is Sportivo Luqueño, the blue and golden team residing in my beloved Republic of Luque. 

I may or may not be totally ignorant when it comes to football (actually it's a fact, I'm totally lost.), however, this is something I intend to change. This is going to take some work on the part of other people explaining it to me, but luckily, most people here seems to be all to happy trying to explain things to me.

So Luque it is then. I'm not kidding when I'm saying that I'm one of ~10 people supporting this Swedish-colored team in San Lorenzo (actually, according to my fellow AFS-er and friend, Simon, who takes a big interest in football, that amount of people constitute the entire fanclub of Luque...) The majority of the shops selling football shirts don't even have the Luque-ones. 
On previous occasions, it has become apparent to me that I'm something of an oddity here, due to my hair, my eyes and my skin, something over which I've been cursing about twice a day for ten weeks, since it gives me very unpleasant, awkward attention on the streets. However, I've noticed that supporting blue and yellow seems to be even more befuddling to the SanLo population than being European...
While being out among fellow human being, I seem to sense a slight coolness from some people, yesterday, I encountered an old man who actually seemed to get really upset by my shirt, I think, however I'm not sure since I've stopped listening to what people say on the streets, but I think that he was screaming something at me, I picked up "Luque" and a pissed tone of voice. He might have thrown a piece of paper at me as well. (which sounds innocent enough but still annoys me a bit)

That kind of sentiment is the thing I'll never get about sports in general. Just saying, I'm not messing with you for your choice of teams.

Here I'd like to add an annoyed little rant about hooligans. So weekend before last, I ventured to the stadium of Luque, with my fellow Luqueño as well as friend and AFS volunteer Joël to witness the game Luque-Cerro.
I don't think I've ever seen so many policemen in one place before. Ever.
The stadiums have barbed wire, dividing the sections where the home team fans and the visiting fans reside.
They empty the stadium section by section, and direct the fans of different clubs on different routes so that no fights will uprise. There are fucking SWAT- teams waiting for the worse to happen.
Just. So. That. People. Won't. Fight. Over. A. Game. 
This seems totally stupid, I mean, your team isn't going tho play better because you beat up a fan of your opponents?? 
Where's the logic in that?

I have also noticed that there are people wondering why on earth I like the Republic of Luque so much. First and foremost. They have my swedish colours, everything is blue and yellow. Seconly, the name is just that beautiful, this is also something I can't quite explain, but saying 'Luque' just is that awesome.
Also, someone explained to me, that it is like a country, within a country. Like inception. You've got to love that.
More than that, not really sure... But honestly, I think I was born to live in this city :)