Lazy Sunday
Sunday went okay. It didn't exactly go well, but it was okay. (Blogger somehow screwed up the time and date of the last post -- it most definitely wasn't Friday, it was Saturday afternoon that I wrote it.)
Sport managed to go more than eighty minutes in the belly of the beast without conceding a goal. And in the eighty-sixth minute, Santa scored to equalize the game. Had Sport managed to win the game, I would be writing about the upcoming final between Santa and Sport. Still, Sport is in front with two games to go, and if Sport can win both games (both at home first against a mediocre team, and then against the worst team in the championship) then Sport will have booked a place in the final regardless of how Santa fares. Sport should have won the first round as well, but it took about five games before Sport really got it going. Still, things are looking good. The team has gelled and they are playing really well right now.
In Brazil, on Sunday, it's easy to forget that anything other than football exists. Starting at about 10 am there is an Italian or Spanish game on one network, immediately followed by a game from whichever league was not shown at 10, and then again at 6 pm the same network shows another game from Spain. (Spain has a tradition of 10 pm kickoffs on Sunday. Don't ask me why.) At 4 pm Globo (imagine a combination of ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX, and you understand Globo's dominance) shows a Brazilian game. From the end of April until December, that game will be the Brazilian first division, but for now it's a game from the state championship, at least here. In some of the states with less popular championships (i.e., not -- from South to North -- Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, or Pernambuco) it might be a game from Rio or São Paulo. I have spent many an enjoyable Sunday lying in my hammock watching football.
But this Sunday I ignored the European games and went to the beach with some friends. The beach experience here is different than that of the US. There are vendors who pass up and down the beach all day selling, among other things hot dogs, ice cream, popsicles, sun screen, sunglasses, crappy art, pirate cds and dvds, kites, charcoal grilled queijo coalho (a cheese that is only found in Northeastern Brazil -- it's hard, very low in fat, and its consistency and flavor changes when it is grilled over charcoal or fried) on a stick, crabs, shrimp, raw oysters, and caldinho -- a kind of soup, and possibly the most popular of all the offerings. And, of course, there is beer. The beer (and water and soda) is served by the man who rents you chairs, because in Brazil no one sits on the sand. And people sell grilled fish, but it never looks very good, so I never eat it. The water was full of some kind of seaweed, which I am still discovering on the floor and walls of my apartment. (I was sure I had cleaned myself before I left the beach. And then I took a shower as soon as I got home. I wonder what those two women did while I was in the shower...)
Sport managed to go more than eighty minutes in the belly of the beast without conceding a goal. And in the eighty-sixth minute, Santa scored to equalize the game. Had Sport managed to win the game, I would be writing about the upcoming final between Santa and Sport. Still, Sport is in front with two games to go, and if Sport can win both games (both at home first against a mediocre team, and then against the worst team in the championship) then Sport will have booked a place in the final regardless of how Santa fares. Sport should have won the first round as well, but it took about five games before Sport really got it going. Still, things are looking good. The team has gelled and they are playing really well right now.
In Brazil, on Sunday, it's easy to forget that anything other than football exists. Starting at about 10 am there is an Italian or Spanish game on one network, immediately followed by a game from whichever league was not shown at 10, and then again at 6 pm the same network shows another game from Spain. (Spain has a tradition of 10 pm kickoffs on Sunday. Don't ask me why.) At 4 pm Globo (imagine a combination of ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX, and you understand Globo's dominance) shows a Brazilian game. From the end of April until December, that game will be the Brazilian first division, but for now it's a game from the state championship, at least here. In some of the states with less popular championships (i.e., not -- from South to North -- Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia, or Pernambuco) it might be a game from Rio or São Paulo. I have spent many an enjoyable Sunday lying in my hammock watching football.
But this Sunday I ignored the European games and went to the beach with some friends. The beach experience here is different than that of the US. There are vendors who pass up and down the beach all day selling, among other things hot dogs, ice cream, popsicles, sun screen, sunglasses, crappy art, pirate cds and dvds, kites, charcoal grilled queijo coalho (a cheese that is only found in Northeastern Brazil -- it's hard, very low in fat, and its consistency and flavor changes when it is grilled over charcoal or fried) on a stick, crabs, shrimp, raw oysters, and caldinho -- a kind of soup, and possibly the most popular of all the offerings. And, of course, there is beer. The beer (and water and soda) is served by the man who rents you chairs, because in Brazil no one sits on the sand. And people sell grilled fish, but it never looks very good, so I never eat it. The water was full of some kind of seaweed, which I am still discovering on the floor and walls of my apartment. (I was sure I had cleaned myself before I left the beach. And then I took a shower as soon as I got home. I wonder what those two women did while I was in the shower...)
posted by Venha Futuro at 10:38 AM
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