Brasil! Brasil! Brasil!

Brasil is a pretty happy country tonight after an opening match victory over Croatia.  I don't think I've ever seen so many people wearing yellow and green as I did today. Most people we saw during the day were Brazilians showing their national pride, but tonight on Copacabana Beach at the FIFA fan fest, thousands of Brazilians intermingled with thousands of fans from all over the globe (and many of these international fans adopted the Brazil team, at least in terms of their outfits for tonight...).  Yellow abounds!  This beach scene was ridiculously fun people watching, both for fans as well as what street vendors would try to sell us: beer, Brazil gear, homemade food, grilled prawns, premixed caipirinhas, shots of tequila, popcorn, food being heated by charcoal as they walked, shwarma, cigarettes, jewelry, etc.  None of this would ever fly in the US at a similar fan fest.  Apparently no open alcohol laws here we need to worry about!

Today Rio was as beautiful as advertised.  Weather was sunny and perfect.  Headed up to Corcovado to see the Christ the Redeemer statue.  It was insanely packed at the top, with football fans from all over the globe.  Nancy thought we were a bit nuts telling her to bring a USA shirt for the games, but after seeing all of these international fans wearing their jerseys as they tour around town, I think she's understanding the national pride thing a bit more now (and people here aren't anti-American which she was slightly concerned about too).  I've been pleasantly surprised how many USA shirts I've seen and American fans we've run into.  I remember that in South Africa many American fans didn't start wearing their USA jerseys while touring until after we won our group, but this year we aren't waiting for team success before showing our USA love.  I think it shows great growth for soccer fandom in the US in just 4 short years.  

We also explored the Santa Theresa neighborhood this afternoon, which is bohemian/artsy part of town with beautiful vistas.  Beth got to enjoy some "cookie beans" for lunch (how could she not order something with that English translation?).  I'll let you use your imagination about what they tasted/looked like.  They were nothing like what we imagined they'd be (but tasty!).

Have run into a lot more people who speak at least some English that I thought we would (I'd read thatEnglish wasn't widely spoken here in Brazil).  Our taxi driver today didn't speak much English but had a translation app on his phone that made it much easier to chat with him that would have otherwise.  He and Nancy bonded over Mr. Myagi in 'Karate Kid.' 'Daniel-San' is apparently internationally understood and loved, no matter what language you watch it in.

Our feet are now tired from insane amounts of walking, and our bellies are full of Brazilian beer and caipirinhas.  Boa noite!