Futebol and Soccer, Veggies and Meat

Being the procrastinator that I am, I once again decided to book a last minute travel to São Paulo before I hop off to the magical city of Rio de Janeiro for a reception weekend with other international trainees and AIESECers in Brasíl.

So I arrived in São Paulo at 14h45 and ended up waiting for almost 2 hours at the city airport for my friends Jess and Diogo to come and pick me up- the traffic was so unbelievably congested that they were literally not moving for half an hour...and thank god I finally figgured out how to use phone calls and call! Otherwise I would have been stranded and scared...actually stranded is the better word, since I was so tired that day it would really take a lot to jolt me and give me a good scare...

And why was there so much traffic at 3 in the afternoon, you may ask? Well the answer is futebol! Brasíl is truely the motherland of this sport. People love their players - well except Ronaldo, he's not popular at all and people say "Get out, fatty!" when the coach changed him for Robinho. It is so funny how when people think of Brasilian soccer, they think Ronaldo, but in fact he is no longer loved here. Ronaldinho, on the other hand, is immensely popular and is the spokesperson for many commercials and campaigns here in Brasíl.

So there I was, pondering where all the people have gone - at 5pm in the afternoon,w hen usually you'll have throngs of people and cars littering the streets and sidewalks. It was quite surreal- it reminds me of one of my student teachers back in high school telling me his experience of getting on the plane at 2am in the morning in Sweden but it was broad daylights outside because of the time zone...at one point São Paulo was so empty and devoid of traffic, it was absolutely surreal! Anyway, I went to one of the AIESEC local committee schools and watched the second half of the game...and I must say my friend Jess and I were the only ones who weren't completely transfixed by the game, since we are such gringas!

At night we met up with Vladimir, a Colombian trainee who went to Hong Kong for a traineeship (at this point I feel like just telling you guys to read Jess' blog since she keeps such detailed journal entries... so yeah, go read Jess' blog.) In short, futebol was great, I prohibited myself from saying the word "soccer", I tried to act as much as a native Brasilian as I can - since I am Asian I can pass easily as a native - and I am trying to get on a diet. That's right, a diet- food here is SO cheap and good that often I get carried away- those of you who know me well know that I not only have a sweet tooth, I have teeth. That means instead of eating, I consume food. I don't eat one pastei, I eat a dozen...it's scary. I haven't gained weight or anything, but I think for my own health I should seriously start to watch my ways of eating...

So I am heading off to Rio de Janeiro tonight! I will get there very early in the morning- I was sooo proud of myself when I managed to order two tickets for me and Jess with a beautifully well-constructed phrase, with a decent accent and everything, and not being to tell the sales agent the simple act of wanting a cheaper ticket. It is a sad day indeed.

To make everyone feel involved and for the sake of how pretty pictures look on a white background, here is a lovely night shot of the Centro Publicó in Curitiba, Brasíl: