Day 1: Complete

Where to start...

It's 7:00 am and I've come downstairs to the area with wifi to post an update.  I woke up at 6 and couldn't get back to sleep.  Once my mind starts going, it just doesn't stop.

Yesterday started slow after 28 hours of travel getting into Brasilia.  Bennett and I took a taxi about 10 miles from our apartment to the FIFA Fan Fest.  They set up loudspeakers, a bunch of TVs and concessions stands for people to come and watch games being played in other cities.  The area was huge, and my very rough and probably far from accurate estimation was about 30,000 people were there for the Brazil/Mexico game.    We got set up 30 minutes before kickoff in a perfect space ~30 yards from the big screen, right in the middle.

Brazil was underwhelming, but still deserved to put a goal in.  Mexico was impressive, but nothing special.  A fair result, in my opinion, although Brazil was more deserving of a victory if I had to choose.  The game was very exciting, especially right in the middle of a crowd of 30,000 Brazil fans.  The last 10-15 minutes, especially got intense with a lot of action both ways and two great saves from Ochoa.  The game was an amazing experience, but nothing compared to what happened next.  After a long day in the sun Bennett and I were both very tired.  We decided we would watch the first half of the next game then cab home.

We were the only Americans there.  Apparently Brazilians like Americans.  People periodically came up to us and asking to take pictures with us.  That turned into a few basic smiles and broken conversations.  Next was wave after wave of people wanting to socialize with us, and before we knew it the game, the post-match performance and the closing of the Fan Fest happened, and we were the last few people to leave the area three hours later.   I had learned very quickly that Spanish is much different than Portuguese, and nobody speaks English.  Communicating is very hard, and although the periodic translator would arrive and help in broken English, we used a lot of hand gestures and very few common Spanish or English words.  I'm sitting here trying to describe in words what I experienced, but nothing will do it justice.  there was so much excitement from everybody, so much love and joy.

To quote the great Ron Burgundy - "Boy... that escalated quickly, I mean that really got out of hand fast"

Time for sleep.  Thinking the night was over, we get back to the apartment and speak with Joao for a couple minutes.  He directs us to a pizza place down the street.  Assuming we would get the pizza to go and head back up to the apartment, we grab menus and sit at the bar, about ready to order.  The chef comes up to us with a look of curiosity and excitement in his eye.  "English?".  I respond.  "Are you from... USA?"  I respond.  "Welcome.  This excite to me".  We thought his english was terrible to start, but the more he spoke, the clearer he became and the more we realized that his vocabulary was very good, especially for not having any schooling.

What transpired over the next two hours was amazing.   Jose, or Ze, spoke with us about everything. He visited Miami, spent time with rednecks, dreams of opening a Pizza joint in the US, hates FIFA and how corrupt they are, and thinks baseball is boring.  We got along great.   I hope to see him again before we go to Sao Paulo.

That's all for now.  More pictures to come soon.