Little Bit of Work, Little Bit of Play

I know I know. I owe you guys a blog post! I'm I've just been busy playing basketball and...well... enjoying the gift that is Rio de Janeiro. If you follow any of my other social media, you've seen some of the pictures and the posts. If not, I 'll share them with you here :)

Hmm. What should I start with? Basketball updates or the fun I've been having in Rio. Mmm I don't know so I'll flip a coin. Heads basketball, tails Rio. 

*flips quarter in the air. quarter hits ground and rolls on the floor into the kitchen. almost breaks toe while chasing said quarter. looks down and sees heads and kicks quarter under refrigerator and wishes he never flipped quarter*

Basketball it is! So far so good! We've played six games, we've won six games. The final of the small tournament is this week. Hopefully we can become the Carioca champion nine years in a row! As for me personally, I've had some good games and I've had some games that I feel like I could have played better. I still have some things to improve before the NBB starts next month.

Just me. Dunking the ball. No big deal

Man they had good seats haha

On a kind of related note, four of the games were on the road and we traveled by bus. The longest trip was only four hours: a gift for those of us who have experienced the double digit bus rides of Argentina. I asked our manager what was going to be our longest bus ride of the year, he said six hours. My eyes started to water; tears of joy were ready to run down my face. If you've only been reading my blog this year, please read about my longest bus ride while I was Argentina here. Only then can you appreciate why I was so happy.

I also looked at my blog from year one and realized that I complained about the referees a lot. I don't think that I will do that anymore. Not that I'm afraid one of them will read it, it's just that at year four I have gotten accustomed to the officiating and there is no use in complaining about it.

Time for the fun I've been having in Rio! I told you all on the last blog that my friend was coming with her mom: they had a blast! They got to see me play a game and we went to some of the tourist sites together. Be sure to take note of all the fun you're missing out on. Here are the highlights:

Chicken heart?

Aren't we cute?

Garota de Ipanema

When you look at this pic you hear music don't you?

Taking pics in the middle of the street

Summoning my inner Bolt

One night we went to dinner at one of those all you can eat Brazilian restaurants where the waiters walk around and bring you different kinds of meat. We saw them bringing around chicken hearts, (yes chicken hearts), and it caused a discussion between us. I said that I had tried chicken hearts for the first time a couple weeks back, even though I was disgusted by the idea; they weren't that bad. They then told me that when she was a child, her and her sisters would always be on their best behavior to get the one chicken heart that would come in a package. This conversation got us excited to eat chicken hearts! The batch we saw earlier had already been given out, so we asked one of the waiters to bring out some more. Five minutes later, still no chicken hearts so we asked someone else. Ten minutes, then twenty minutes went by and we were still chicken heart-less. At that point we had asked about five waiters in both English and Portuguese to make sure they understood us. FINALLY, the chicken hearts came! The waiter unloaded about eight on each of our plates because we obviously were obsessed with these things and would gulf all of them down without a second thought. Well... maybe we had overestimated our love for these things just a little bit... A lot. I forced myself to eat one, and I think they had half of one between them. We came to the conclusion that they were indeed disgusting and we had to eat some different food, even though we were full, just to get the bad taste out of our mouths. We then laughed about what we had done for the next three days...oh well.

I went to my third soccer game this past week with my teammates and coaches. It might have been the most fun I have had at a sporting event. The place was packed to the brim and the energy and excitement was unmatched by anything I'd ever experienced before. We won the game 4-0 and every time Flamengo scored we went nuts! I was able to catch the madness of the last goal here.

Vai pra cima deles MENGAOOOO

The Night Before Game Day

"...His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy

There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti.

He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop bombs..." - Eminem




Ok so it's not thaaaaat drastic but I am a little nervous because... WE PLAY OUR FIRST GAME FRIDAY! Finally at last. It's what I've been working for all summer, and the almost two months since I've been here (hard to believe it has been two months already!) But yeah, I'm excited and ready to get the season started. I'm also excited to get a glimpse of the "Flamengistas", the fans of Flamengo. I've heard so much about how they are the best fans in Brazil; I've had an opportunity to see them at soccer games but I want to hear them cheering for me :) Here is a clip from the finals last year. The fans have already been great on social media and I appreciate the support.

Game face. Are you ready?

I went to another Flamengo soccer game last week. I am starting to become a real soccer fan now! The game was against Botafogo, an inner city rival, and they were playing in the Brazil Cup. For a rival soccer game though, I must say that the hatred was very mild. My Argentine teammate agreed and said that when the two big Argentinian soccer teams play each other (Boca vs. River) that one team has to enter on one side of the stadium, and the other on the opposite side or there would be a riot. I'm not trying to start any trouble here but maybe Argentinians are crazier about their soccer... Mmm never mind, I just remembered this article. Anyway the game ended in a tie 1-1, but in my expert soccer opinion ;), we should have won the game. Most of the team went as well and it was fun hanging out with my teammates outside of the basketball court.

Those two tiny guys in the middle are on the staff in case you were wondering.

iPhone's panoramic camera coming in handy

On an unrelated note, while I was in the weight room today, my teammate looked at me and said, "Ah, I see you got your hair cut." I turned to him, smiled and said, "I did this myself!" (I have to look good for my first game tomorrow :)) He didn't believe me. He came over and examined my head and asked if I was serious. I proudly smiled and nodded my head yes. He was quite impressed. Who knows? Maybe I'll start cutting my teammates' hair. Then after that open a barber shop: shooting basketballs by day, cutting hair by night. And then when my career is over I'll open up barber shops all over the US and become the greatest barber that ever lived!!!! Haha just kidding.

First attempt: October 2010

October 2013. Oh how far I've come

In other news, I will have my first visitors coming on Saturday! My friend, Merriam, from college and her mom are coming and will stay for a week. I've yet to go to any of the tourists sites in Rio because I was waiting on my friends to come; now I will have the opportunity! Okie dokie. That's it for this blog, let me get some rest so I can kick some butt this weekend!