Hot N Cold-Katy Perry

Our viewing set up

The Game

There is a saying in Brazil that if someone invites you to their house and something good happens, then you have pé quente, "hot feet." If something bad happens, then you have pé frio, "cold feet."  So Tami and I were pretty excited Saturday when we were invited to Alex's father's house to watch the opening game of the FIFA Confederation Cup and then were told we had "pé quente" upon Brazil's 3-0 victory over Japan.  One of the things I really wanted to do while in Brazil was watch some soccer games with Brazilians and really get a feel for the passion this country has for the game.  I definitely enjoy catching up with some soccer during the World Cup and the Olympics, while I'm certainly not a soccer fanatic, I admire the passion so many people have for the game in other countries.  Brazil is known as being one of the most soccer-crazed countries in the world and I definitely wanted to learn more about that first-hand.  The morning of game day you could already see stands selling Brazilian flags and fireworks along the sides of the road.  Flags flew from cars as people drove around town, and everywhere we went there was more yellow, green and blue than usual.  As four o'clock approached the town settled down and traffic slowed as people reached their game-viewing destinations.  We were invited to Alex's father's house where the tv had been pulled out onto the patio and plastic lawn chairs were arranged in a semi-circle to offer everyone the best view of the game.  Snacks were opened and shared and just as everyone settled in, Brazil scored an early goal.  Cheers erupted from all of us on the balcony, horns honked as cars drove by in the streets, and fireworks were set off around the city-the Brazilian soccer mania is no exaggeration!  It was a fun game to watch and everyone was thrilled with the victory.  I already can't wait until Wednesday when Brazil plays Mexico.

Professional Development session

Our morning actually started long before the game when Tami and I went to Alex's school, CCL, where a teacher training was occurring.  Teachers of English from around the city were coming together to improve their English skills and teaching strategies at a professional development workshop hosted by one of Alex's colleagues, Estella.  I presented a reading strategy the teachers could use to adapt to any of their curricula while Tami presented on four main focus areas of English language classes (her presentation was excellent and I learned a lot!!)  After that, we talked with the teachers and shared ideas and thoughts about the state of education in each of our countries.  We stopped for some gluten free foods, so many options!!  Then it was back to the hotel for a quick change before the soccer game.

A stop at the natural foods store for GF foods

After the game, we had a little bit of downtime as we got ready for what Alex had warned us would be a late night.  We were going to head down the June festivals for awhile, but due to the crowds decided to postpone that for another day and move on to our final destination-Quintal do Rock.  Quintal is a bar known for live rock music, the name means backyard and that's exactly what it seemed like.  The first band played a lot of 80s and 90s rock, anything from Queen to U2 to Coldplay.  They were very good and invited Alex up to do a song with them, which was impressive-so impressive that his band is now invited to perform there sometime in July.  The second band was a local Brazilian band, Vale do Até and they played traditional Brazilian music.  They were clearly very popular based on the way everyone started gravitating to the dance floor as they began playing.  The music was great, smooth and European sounding.  Things in Brazil happen on a bit later schedule than the U.S. Typically dinner is a light snack sometime between 8:30-10:00PM and we headed out around 10:00PM, the first band played until 1:45 and the Vole do Até came on around 2 and played until the bar closed at 3AM!

Alex singing "Losing My Religion"

Meeting the band