Long Day, Good Day

After breakfast this morning, we had a few hours of free time. So, I took a MISERABLE run in the sweltering heat and then met up with EW and AC on the beach. After working on our tans for a bit, we met up with the group around 1pm to go to a Brazilian steakhouse for lunch - we thought of you, Gator!!!

Then it was off to a bar to watch the Champion's League final (where a few of us jumped over to the beach at halftime).


After watching Barcelona to a victory, we boarded a bus to head over to the Vasco - Corinthians match - absolute insanity!!! Words couldn't do it justice. It was a home match for Vasco, and our tour guide Viv struggled as she was a Corinthians fan (and EW and her Vasco cape didn't help either ...)

We're up early tomorrow for a 9am match against the Vasco women's team and then it's back to reality!

Great End to the Day

At the Hut with Dauser

Our AMAZING Passion Fruit Concoction

Sampling at Dinner (check that, dessert)

Beach Day = Success

Beautiful day on the beach! Spent about two hours this morning before EW, AC, our tour guide Viv and me grabbed lunch at our spot. If you ever have a chance to get mango juice with mint I HIGHLY recommend it!

After a stop at the market for some more bottled water, we were back on the beach. I think that maybe, just maybe, I may have gotten a tan!!! Anyway, I'm gonna attempt to avoid the heat now (5:00pm here) and grab a run. We're off to a new place for dinner and if I was a betting woman, I'd put money on the fact that we'll end up back at the hut on the beach tonight.

Tomorrow we're going to a steakhouse for lunch and then somewhere to watch the Champions' League final before heading to a pro match. Then Thursday it's our final match and the Christ Statue before hitting the road home back to the States ...

Rio!

Hello from Rio - sooo the internet here is a bit less than ideal so I believe I have a lot to catch up on ...

The end of Sao Paulo was great. We traveled to Rio on Sunday, arrived, checked into our hotel, and went to a lunch place where we had AMAZING crepes. 

Then, AC, EW, and I hit the beach for a bit to work on our killer tans (insert laugh here). 

For dinner, we went to an all-you-can-eat pizza place where they just keep bringing pies around and you ask for whatever (yum!). 

Once the team left, the staff hung out there for a while and had some servesas (chopp beer). 

Yesterday we started off the morning by heading to Sugarloaf - amazing - and then back to the same lunch place. 

We had about an hour of free time (enough to grab a 20 minute run in the BLAZING heat) and then we walked down the beach about 10 minutes for our team to play in a beach soccer match - halarious!

Last night it was back to the pizza place and then the staff and much of the team hung out at a little hut on the beach for the night. 

We have a "free" day today so I'm going to attempt to relax on the beach for a bit/most of it (we'll see how that works - that's not exactly my forte!)

Meat Fest (missed you Gator!)

Loooong day today. Started off the day with breakfast (during which Mel and I enjoyed our fantastic egg sammies again) and then we boarded the bus to an orphanage. We brought some of our PSU t-shirts and some old practice shirts and shared them with the ADORABLE kids there. We hung out there for about two hours at which point we had to pretty much pry the entire group away from the tykes.

Then it was back to our "resort" for another meal (shocker) and for some free time. I took the first nap I've had in ages which was amazing and then met the coaches up at the fields for a little game of 3v3 (which turned into 4v4 after halftime). Apparently I decided it was a good choice to slide tackle EW; oh, raspberries, how I've missed thee (I now have a SWEET on right on my shin).

And thennn, back on the bus to head to our "indoor tournament." I was convinced that the ride was only supposed to be about 15 minutes ... but apparently, I was the farthest off that I couldn't been because 3 hours and 20 minutes later, we arrived at our destination ... "Brazilian Time" strikes again!!!

We got off the bus, winded through a university, and arrived at our destination - an "indoor" court out in the open. And we had fans! And the were all men. AND they were ALL obsessed with our team.

Haha, anyway, this "indoor tournament" was actually futsal. The game was WICKED fast and the Brazilians could totally dance on the ball but we held our own and actually won (with the help of some stellar play of our goalkeepers and some slicing and dicing from our own Carly).

The guys were relentless and there was a good thing there was a fence to keep them away!!!

Back on the bus, Ricardo (our host) took us to an AMAZING grill where we had a salad buffet and unlimited meat (Gator, we felt quite guilty being there without you). The food was delicious and I was even coaxed to try some chicken heart - hmmm.

Anyway, back home around 12:30am we all hit the sack and we're now in the midst of our last full day here in Sao Paulo.

Still Chillin' at the Spa Sport Resort

So far, two great full days in Brazil. Yesterday, we traveled about 3 hours to play against Sao Jose in their stadium. The Brazilians, as expected, were quite skilled and took it to us from the start. After about 15 minutes we were able to settle down and we played fairly well for the rest of the match. The Sao Jose keeper had a few great saves, and the scored remained 1-0 them until the end.

It took us about 4 hours to get back so we had a pretty late dinner and then most of us just hit the sack. Today we had another relaxing morning and then we were off to play Corinthians about "an hour away" (which can be translated, from Brazilian time, to 2 hours). Amidst some tired legs and some heat that we're pretty unaccustomed to, we tied 0-0. On the way out of there, we stopped by the Corinthians memorial and caught a glimpse of some of the history of the club as well as some trophies - pretty cool.

But then, somehow, our 2 hour trip to the game turned into a 4 hour ride back??? Hmmm. OK, well there was traffic ... and then the market stop ... but really??? Is Brazilian time THAT different that a 1 hour away trip turns into 4 hours??!?!?!

Haha, anyway, much like last night, it was back to a 9pm dinner. I'm sharing a room with Andra, our trainer, and we just had a bit of entertainment in our makeshift training room (aka, our room) ... some blood blisters needed to be popped, and A, ever up to the challenge, decided to take it on bedside. Well, she wasn't exxxactly prepared for the blood blister to be relived directly into her eye, but so it was! Gross? Yes. Hilarious? Also, yes.

Oh, and a little shout out to Daus and my club team - Spartans ... hope Shep and Lys are treating you guys well!!!

... anyway, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow we're going by an orphanage in the morning and then playing in an indoor tournament at night ...

We've Arrived in Brazil!

Day 1 here in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We had a bit of fun over in New York yesterday (first, a shout out and huge THANK YOU to Aunt Joanne for zipping Erica and me to the LIRR) ... long story short, our flight liaison for this trip has been a little less than spectacular and a couple of our group's tickets weren't correct. So, I had a SUPER time on the phone trying to sort out the mess with our Portuguese speaking liaison (while checking myself in) - awesome.

Anyway, the flight wasn't terrible. I was sandwiched in the middle but managed to find a completely empty row of 4 seats. Then, I realized that the row of 4 was smack in the middle of the bathrooms (which, on one hand, for those of you that know me, is PERFECT, but, on the other hand, means that I'm sitting next to two bathrooms for 10 hours). After a bit of internal conflict, I realized that the benefits of laying down and going to sleep far outweighed the costs of the bathroom traffic - there I stayed.

Off of the planes, we had a 2 hour bus trip to our resort in Itu (outside of Sao Paulo). It's called the Spa Sport Resort and it's where many of the pro soccer teams stay when they come to play in Sao Paulo. We basically have the place to ourself (restaurant, pool, etc).
I'm just back in my room after a light training session with the team and a game of 4v4 with the staff.

I'll write again soon!