Grêmio vs. Boyacá

Grêmio ends the first stage of the Libertadores tournament as a powerhouse, 7 points ahead of the teams in their group. If you don't know what Libertadores is, it's the biggest tournament in all the Americas. The best teams from each country's individual championships qualify and the best club wins. Grêmio has won twice. In this tournament, besides qualifying in the first place, Grêmio has the best attack and defense out of all competing teams in all of South and Central America with 11 goals for and only 1 against. The last time they started out the tournament this way, in 1995, they one the championship. The game started out with an amazing goal by Souza in the 13th minute. Me and Bernardo went to the local Xis place to eat and watch the game. Here is a video with highlights from the game. (It's in spanish because I couldn't find another video in portuguese)

Porto Alegre

We just got back from spending 4 days in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, for the 4 day break at our aunt Idília's apartment. Almost the whole family was in Porto Alegre too but they stayed in different places, including Alice's apartment (Guto's sister). We left saturday afternoon and got back today. I really liked Porto Alegre. It kind of reminds me of Portland only a little dirtier. It's really big and beautiful though, especially the areas around lake "Guaíba".

Sunday was a rainy day and we went to the mall to eat burger king and pizza hut and pretty much just stayed at Idília's apartment. She just bought it and it is very nice. It is on the 6th floor of a new apartment complex with an amazing view of almost all of Porto Alegre. She lives there with her little lap dog "Mikey". Monday was a beautiful, sunny day so we went to explore the city. Me, Laís, Bernardo, Idília, and aunt Iuva went to explore an old public market, kind of like the farmers market. It was really cool for me because it really felt like an authentic Brazilian experience with the smells, the stand, vendors, shoppers and everything. I had to hold on to my camera so no one would steal it and I only took one picture. It was a great cultural experience since all the shopping malls we went to are just imitations of American culture. After that we all drove to the shore of lake Guaíba and around some more of Porto. Then that night me, Bernardo, Guto, Alice, and our cousin Mario went to a mall for dinner and to see Fast and Furious 4. It was a very American experience except that there were Portuguese subtitles for the film. It was also the first time in almost 9 months that i've been to a movie theater. Then me and Bernardo took a taxi home.

Today we had a big family churrasco at Idília's apartment which once again reminded me of the short time I have left to enjoy great Brazilian churrasco. We're back home again and there's school tomorrow. Here are some pictures:

Views of Veranópolis

Today we woke up early to go travel around the outskirts of Veranópolis to see some scenic places like waterfalls, cliffs and rivers. Me and Bernardo got to climb up on the bridge on the border between Veranópolis and another city, Bento Gonçalves. We even explored inside a cave and got scared by some bats that we didn't know were there. It was a really beautiful day even though it is technically autumn. And I saw the biggest spider I've ever seen in the wild. Here are some pictures:

Good Friday

Today school was out because of Good Friday. We celebrated by doing a traditional march through the city to the church square with the rest of the town. It was only about 3 blocks but practically the whole town was there. They had cars with speakers parked along the way playing religious music and, later, the priest's speech over the radio. At the front of the march some guys were holding up a statue of Jesus' body in Mary's lap. We got to the church square and watched a small play about the crucifixion. The priest gave a sermon and then everyone lined up to eat the small round thing out of the bowl, I don't know what it's called but in portuguese it's an "óstia". It's cool to see because literally everyone here is catholic and they think it's really weird that I'm not religious. My history teacher asked me in front of the class what religion I followed and when I told her she reacted like she just saw a ghost or something. Tomorrow we are going to see some touristic spots around Veranópolis and then sunday is Easter.