I say Soccer, You Say Football, and the Games Begin.

It's a bit of a teeter-totter of emotions, the month of June. The first exodus of expats out of Brazil happened just before the World Cup started, and as my friends were packing to go home I was happy for them, and jealous and annoyed. And the first day I sat in the park with the kid without our friends, I felt a bit of self-pity for myself, like the kid who slams into the ground when the friend jumps off the teeter-totter without notice. And the next day the World Cup started.

As I rode my bike home with the kid sitting in the back, the traffic was intensifying, and the sidewalks were emptying. The underground parking lot of our tower was full at 3 in the afternoon as our neighbors, all sporting their yellow soccer jerseys, were busy carrying up groceries and cases of beers for the Brazil vs Croatia opening game. In the surrounding towers we could hear people cheering, blowing horns and letting off fireworks in anticipation. We headed off to our friends' tower with our Brazilian flag and some snacks. Luckily they had booked their flight home the next day, so we could share with them the opening game. The game started, streets below were deserted and the neighborhood quiet, until Brazil scored. And the towers echoed thousands of people shouting, goooooooooooooooal at the same time, followed by a series of random firework explosions. What a thrill!

 

Neymar on the tube with our friends cheering him on!

Following the opening game, we've heard fans from all over the world shout out their football pride. One drunken Argentinian who was camping in a trailer van in front of our tower was singing his national anthem at the top of his lungs early one Sunday morning while I could hear a woman in a tower behind us yelling back at him "Bosnia"!! The television will be on most afternoons and nights for the next month and I look forward to the next Brazil game, as I suspect the atmosphere is going to get very intense.

Amidst all the excitement we missed "Dia dos Namorados", Valentine's Day, but remembered Canadian Father's Day.  And when I phoned my dad back in Vancouver, guess where my mom said he was? Watching a soccer game at a beer house with my brother. Perfect!

Figurinas, Shrimp, Flowers, Beer, Beach and Friends

I don't have to throw a surf board very far to hit someone, Brazilian or not who hasn't had a bad Rio day quite recently. Those days pop up randomly and tackling them often feel like you're wrestling a slimy octopus in a plastic kiddy pool filled with baby oil. But once in a while, you get to have a super Rio day from the moment you wake up in the morning until you go to bed, and you forget the baby oil cephalopod wrestling days. Yesterday was that kind of day.

First we, the kid, my husband and my sister-in-law, went to "Posh Peninsula", a swanky part of Barra which has an open air mall to exchange World Cup "figurinas" (soccer stickers) with other collectors. There were 20 moms and dads seated at different tables with their kids' sticker albums, lists of missing figurinas and stacks of stickers to trade. The only kids there were too busy throwing "bang snaps", (those little fireworks that you throw on the ground that make loud noises) or babbling in their strollers. Secretly, us parents, were happy they were out of our hair so we could concentrate on finding that darn illusive number 111 Spanish soccer player to complete the team page in our sticker book. I mean, our kid's sticker book.

This is serious business people!

The kid is messing up the piles, and I look insane while my sister-in-law keeps score.

Scary Sprinkle World Cup Cake

Installed our patriotic polyester flag on the jeep.

We left Posh Penninsula to have lunch at the scary, decrepit fish market where I heard there was some nice fish to be had.  And there was some nice fish we had, though the ambiance was lacking in a big way, unless you like the view of the back lane, bright orange table clothes on tables with uneven legs and pitiful child beggars selling hand towels.

Waiting for the fish

This sign, for some reason was my favorite part of the fish market

Sketchy back area

This is supposed to be for TWO people!!

Yummy shrimp and giant fish

This fish is called " Namorado" which means Boyfriend Fish!

Flowers from the flower shop

After our very filling lunch and pointing out piles of slimy octopi and calamari to the boy, we picked up some wine in the deli where I struck up a conversation with a woman in English, (small but essential part of a good Rio day) and as I stepped out, my husband handed me a bouquet of flowers!

Once home, the flowers in a make-shift vase,  I got changed into appropriate beach wear and took off on my bike to meet some friends who had started a "Kiosk Krawl" at one end of the beach. Basically, Barra beach is delineated with numbered lifeguard stations and in between each station there are kiosks, basically what we would call concession stands in Vancouver. The "krawlers" started at station 1 at 1pm and by 10pm, we reached my place at station 5. That's about 15 kiosks. I lost track. I drank a lot of beer on the sidewalk, an open beer in my hand on the sidewalk, my Canadian friends!!! Let me repeat, I walked down the beach from kiosk to kiosk with a beer in my hand, and nobody gave us a dirty look and no cop came along to pour it out.

I arrive, and the Krawl is in full swing.

Wendy with the "Kitty"

Gena who is not getting her husband fired by drinking with her husband's boss. -inside joke.

No Krawl can be a success without someone thinking someone didn't pay for their beer. Notice angry lady in pink top.

The sun sets around 5

As soon as the sun sets, my photos get blurry, or is it me, or the beer????

Sarah and I

And there you have it. This was a super Rio Day. My boy, my man, my sister-in-law, my friends, scary fish market, shrimps, flowers, the beach, and the sunset. I was in bed by 10 and not hung-over the next day.