Exporing the city and chillin with Bernardo: From August 2nd 2008

            So today was my first full day in Veranópolis. Today I was woken up at noon and my family showed me the town by car. It is pretty small about as small as the west side and down town Olympia mixed together. Almost all the streets are made of bricks and all the drivers are very aggressive kind of like in Canada. Then me and Bernardo went to play indoor futebol or Futsal with two of his cousins and some other guys. The place we played was really cool. It’s part of a complex with a park and a playground and a pool. This building is just for indoor soccer, with a goalie zone, a half way line, and penalty spots. The court is about 50 feet long and 20 wide with little goals about 6 feet tall and 9 wide. There were boundaries and a netting around the whole thing on all the walls and the ceiling so there was no wall passes. It was 5 on 5 and those guys were amazing. They were all probably about in their mid 20’s except for me and Bernardo and they were SO much better than me, it was crazy. It’s so cool to play with people like this. It brings the game to a whole different level and it pushes you to perform better. Hopefully they will help to bring my skills up. Plus every missed shot or foul is the biggest deal in the world; the game is everything to them. Also I got to meet some of Ivania’s family. She has 8 brothers and sisters in total but Paulo tells me I only met 20% of them today. Apparently Bernardo has about 20 cousins.

            Then after that Bernardo took me to hang out with some of his friends. I got to meet Rafael, Gutu, Gabriela, and Tib (chee-be). Basically what we did was sit at the bottom of Rafael’s apartment building and drink Chimarrao, which is kind of like tea. We talked and in the beginning messed around with Gabriela because she doesn’t know English at all, we even taught her a new frase. They call Rafael “Emo” because he sort of looks emo. Tib has a girlfriend and I learned that in Brazil when you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend you wear a ring kind of like a wedding ring but your not engaged. Tib went to his girlfriends house and we all went to eat xis at a restaurant. Xis is kind of like a hamburger only it has some different fillings and the bun is thin and the whole thing is cut in half. I also learned that in Brazil parties start around midnight and can go until 5am, it’s unusual for parties to start before then. Also everyone stays up late all the time. I came home at midnight and the whole family was watching National Treasure dubbed in Portuguese. The town is really cold in the winter too. It was about 44 degrees Fahrenheit the whole time but Bernardo tells me that it gets pretty hot in the summer.

            I also learned that I start school on Monday! I’m pretty nervous but hopefully it will work out. Bernardo is in my class so hopefully he will help me. Bernardo’s friends are really funny. They were interested to meet me too. They told me that I’m “the new face” here in Veranópolis and everyone is excited to meet me. I’m excited to meet them too and there’s a party next weekend that Bernardo tells me will be very fun. Hopefully I can make it through the first week of school and have a good time. Hopefully I can stay awake at the party too! Haha.