Well, maybe I should have posted this earlier, as I'm pretty sure the Olympics are ending soon. I love the Olympics, but we didn't really get the best viewing experience (we'll fix that in 2016 when they're in Rio!!!). We don't have any access to US cable programming, so we couldn't get anything with commentary from the US, also, I saw maybe one or two events from the US in general. The countries that I found broadcasting live, free, and on the internet were showcasing odd countries. We watched the whole Italian and Polish gymnastics teams? Or something like that. On Brazilian TV. Why were they featuring those countries, I have no idea? Anyway. I did find one Canadian broadcaster, and two Brazilian ones. The Canadian one I never watched, but both Brazilian channels were great (on the internet). They had lots of live feeds, and although they were goofy choices of countries, it was good broadcasting. Although most of them had no commentary at all. The Olympics are so different when you're pretty much watching it on mute. But still good. We watched a lot of Judo. But without sound, and when we did have it, in Portuguese, we're still not sure how you win.
We had a little US flag from 4th of July or something, but no Brazilian flag (oddly enough, we have a full size Brazilian flag though) so I made us one. I like the Brazilian one way more.
OOOH DANG! Nice glasses, right? Made them myself. Can you tell?
Yaaayyoo! We're back in Brazil! And a day or two back we went to our first football game! It's really hard getting used to saying that, not soccer. Why does the US raise their children learning the wrong word for the sport!!! Doesn't the rest of the world say football? I'm pretty sure we're the only country that says soccer. So confusing. I guess it's because we have the other football. That is played without using your feet. Good excuse I guess.
So, the game! It was pretty fun! The stadium was interesting, sort of rustic with cool metal chairs with handpainted numbers (I hear they're tearing it down soon, I'm going after those seats!), clean bathrooms and a really cool workout area/facility/pool. Oh, I guess that's leading me into the names of the teams. Sport was the home team. Creative name, no? I think it's because they play/train at a sport club? My best guess. The grounds are very nice.
Anyway, they were playing Portuguesa, a team from Sao Paolo, I believe, and Sport won. The score was 2-1, so I was okay with that (I was worried I would be bored with such a low scoring sport). Now, I've only seen two forms of soccer: my brother's high school performances, and the Olympics on TV (which I'm super pumped about BTW). So I'm not sure if I was putting this professional team on a pedestal, but it seemed like they weren't super super great. The first goal (scored by Sport) honestly looked like an accident. The ball was on the other side of the field about 80% of the first half, so I think everyone was surprised when it happened. The second and third goals looked legit though. A good game overall, but the most exciting part was the 'youth' section!!!!
They were sooo good! Coordination and cheers like I have never seen in the states! I put a video up at the top of the post, but I don't think it does them justice (you'll have to come down here to see it in person). They cheered literally the whole game (90+ minutes, right?). At one point they all (like really almost all of them, I think it was mostly guys) took off their shirts at the same time and did a little dance with them. So neat.
Okay, I tried to capture the range of emotions we saw, by way of internet searching. I didn't find very great pictures. With the way people were yelling, I would have thought there would have been plenty of finds when I googled 'soccer fan yelling'. Oh well. Rage, horror, agony, shame.... Aren't football games supposed to be fun?
Hey yall! We got a new boat! It's a pretty sweet little yacht, in a beautiful turquoise blue with a yellow bottom. We haven't named her yet, but on the drawing board are: Blue Footed Booby, Suzi, the Minnow. All sorts of good names out there, it'll be hard to come up with something that we like and is somewhat readable down here (where they ain't speaking the right language). Here she is in all her glory:
That's a pretty sweet weed wacker motor, eh?
The gal with all her riggings, two anchors, keel and rudder (used to be a sailboat), live well (it's just a hole in the boat), and long sticks to steer with incase we run out of motor.
This sucker is really hard to steer. And keep in the water. I'm putting all my dirty-shirted might into it.
Some catches if the day. Nothing big enough to eat yet, but we're getting there.
Rolling her up on the beach on coconut trunks. This image is misleading; it takes about 7 men to roll it.
Our fishing paddles.
PUUUUFFER FIIISH! We caught three of these our first time out.
Fellow fishermen, to give you an idea of what the boat looks like in the water. Looks like a door, no?
Also, photos that just haven't made the cut. Or aren't organized enough for a whole post:
What's that? A sunrise, no way! It's a moonrise!
Soup! A really nice guy that works in our building made up soup! How nice? Right?
But we put it in the fridge and it congealed...the whole thing. Like jello soup.
And this piece of "meat" was in it. What is this? Any ideas guys? Because we have no idea. It looked like chicken skin, but had flaps, like pages in a book.
This guy is always sunning on this stump. Every day. I scare him away every day.
Electric lawnmower. That's right, it's plugged into the wall. Who invented a LAWN
(it seems like they'd know you were going to be outdoors) mower that you need a plug for?
*I know I don't speak the language well, but it seems really hard to get what I want to drink either way. With my tutor, the conversation goes a little like this:
Lena: What would you like to drink?
Sarah: Water, please.
Lena: Juice?
Sarah: No, just water, please.
Lena: Coke?
Sarah: Uhhh....
Lena: Guarana? (it's a Brazilian soda)
Sarah: ?
I usually receive anything but water to drink.
This game looks like a lot of fun to play. If you've ever played foursquare, a favorite of mine, it's very similar. Except there are only two squares, and teams of two. But pretty much the object is to get the ball to touch the ground in your opponents square. But it starts with a "serve" like volleyball, and is played like soccer, no hands.
*Above our sink is a shelf, right at forehead height. I hit it all the time. The cabinets in the bathroom extend over the sink knob, so you have to reach under the cabinet to use the sink. The toilet directly faces the shower, with about a foot of wiggle room. I usually slide sideways to get off it. Who built this place? It makes me laugh all the time.
Toby is Jiu-Jitsuing on a regular basis, and I'm at home blogging about the great food here. How will I stay thin, you ask? Swaaammin! It's not the only way, but I tried it out today, and it's like God made a sweet lap pool just for me right in front of the house. See images:
You see how the reef protects me from shark attack? Teal dot on land is our house.
If I want to get in really good shape, I swim beyond the reef. Swim fast.
Why will I swim so fast? Well, look at the teeth on these things!
We're not sure how to spell it. All I know is that it's not Jew-Jitsu. I have met a few Jewish Brazilians though.
Toby has started his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It seems like a ton of fun (for a guy at least), he comes home reeeally sweaty and smelly with cuts on his hands and feet.
How many of you actually know what Jiu-Jitsu (or at least Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) is? I didn't until I watched. I assumed it was a Kung-Fu fighting, ninja action, HI-YAH! kind of sport, but it's not really. It's more like 'controlled' wrestling. It doesn't look controlled to me.
I usually assume Wikipedia is pretty much accurate, so here's a little description from there:
It teaches that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger assailant by using leverage and proper technique – most notably by applying joint-locks and chokeholds to defeat the other person.
So that seems like fun right? My first thought was "How do you get to the ground to wrestle? What if it's a knockout punch that takes you down. They should teach how to get the guy to the ground first". Well, they do. So I guess they have it all figured out. If only I had known a little Jiu-Jitsu when my Aunt Sarah tickle-attacked me as a kid.
Also, on another subject, as you can see in the pictures, we have no furniture yet. Our boat is supposed to get here mid-February (read: mid-Carnival), so we're thinking we'll get it mid-March. Our great plan was to watch a little TV online (hulu, network websites, etc), but no streaming websites are allowed to broadcast overseas. That means no hulu, pandora, abc, nbc, fox.... Have any of you ever gotten around this? I mean, those of you that have lived overseas? It's not a huge deal though, because we get to look at this every day, and it's not getting old:
"sunrise", meaning when we get outside, around 7AM. The sun is already that high in the sky (oh, it's behind the cloud). Yowza!
