Life as a Porteño

Being in Buenos Aires during the World Cup is like being sucked up in a whirlpool of blue and white stripes, the city ground to a halt to watch the Pumas beat N Korea this morning, and as I sat and ate my medialunas (teeny little crossiants that are compulsory with coffee - they don`t even ask if you want some - it`s always how many?!) I got completely caught up in the fervour.
Later - walking around all day in a hyperglycemic haze (I have done some serious damage to the medialuna population) I realised that these people all smoke, only eat red meat (or food encased in pastry and/or covered in cream) and follow their team with a passion that surpasses anything I have encountered - and I became really concerned that the entire population are going to keel over with a heart attack by the finals ...
I am also amazed at their friendliness - especially to visitors attempting to murder their lovely language. Today I had two people (both bearing a striking resemblence to Antonio Banderas) come up and give me directions - and I wasn`t even LOOKING at my map - they just took it out of my hands and told me where to go, unfortunately my Spanish is so terrible I got lost and wandered (albeit quite happily) for hours, stopping frequently for cafe con leche e medialunas ..
I also tried yerba mate (kind of coca tea - people walk around sipping on it all day) through a silver straw from a gourd-like cup (the waiter had to demonstrate) accompanied by dulce de leche (caramelised condensed milk) on wafers .. need to learn Spanish for "help I`m developing diabetes" ...