One of our trainers, Igor, works full-time with a professional club in the Rio area. To put in nicely, Igor is intent on making sure that I understand all aspects of being an effective sweeper. As a result, he immediately walked up to me after the game and recanted the two instances where I choose passing options that he would’ve preferred that I would’ve played differently. Igor is definitely that person who is short on compliments and long on detailed critiques! I appreciate that because everyone needs one or two of those people around to keep you on your toes.
With that being said, Igor invited me to come to his club on Monday to watch his team play against…the Jamaican National Team!!!! Absolutely fabulous! I think that is probably the biggest smile that I have given Igor since I met him. I think he probably thought that I was excited because I knew of the coach of the Jamaican team, who is Brazilian. However, our communication did not get that far since Igor and I are still working out the kinks in our English/Portuguese conversations…
One catch for this event was that I would have to take a bus and a van to the field. Let me take a moment to introduce you to another mode of transportation commonly used in Rio. It is the van. The van holds about 10-12 people and it makes less stops than a bus. The van is a little more intimidating because you really have to know where you are going and you have to be able to communicate that effectively.
Well, I had my Portuguese phrase book, the directions and a whole lot of prayers for assistance as I embarked on my journey that ended up two hours later at the back of the correct location. The van driver was kind enough to get out of the van and point to the alley I needed to enter to go around into the stadium.
I will tell you that the alley was “favella-esque” in appearance (I definitely didn’t have this on my agenda to do but oh well…), and I definitely just looked out of place walking through there. However, I ended up safe and sound inside the stadium.
Igor was kind enough to greet me with “you are late.” (I think he has been secretly learning English vocabulary.) I was 15 minutes late, but honestly that was irrelevant to the fact that I accomplished a huge feat by successfully making it to my destination. I had planned to be there early, but I didn’t think the trip was going to take so long.
On to the game, it was all that I hoped for and more. I had a seat two feet away from the sideline. I was instructed to “pay attention,” which I did and the teams tied 2-2. After the game, Igor had one of his co-workers return with me on the first leg of my trip to make sure that I didn’t get turned around.
My adventure allowed me to get a few pictures for you. I have attached a picture of the stadium with the buildings from the alley that I had to go through, a picture of a horse that was standing two feet away from me at the bus stop (I wished that I could give him a hug and some apples. He looked overworked, uncared for and starved.) and a picture of the van I had to take.
With that being said, Igor invited me to come to his club on Monday to watch his team play against…the Jamaican National Team!!!! Absolutely fabulous! I think that is probably the biggest smile that I have given Igor since I met him. I think he probably thought that I was excited because I knew of the coach of the Jamaican team, who is Brazilian. However, our communication did not get that far since Igor and I are still working out the kinks in our English/Portuguese conversations…
One catch for this event was that I would have to take a bus and a van to the field. Let me take a moment to introduce you to another mode of transportation commonly used in Rio. It is the van. The van holds about 10-12 people and it makes less stops than a bus. The van is a little more intimidating because you really have to know where you are going and you have to be able to communicate that effectively.
Well, I had my Portuguese phrase book, the directions and a whole lot of prayers for assistance as I embarked on my journey that ended up two hours later at the back of the correct location. The van driver was kind enough to get out of the van and point to the alley I needed to enter to go around into the stadium.
I will tell you that the alley was “favella-esque” in appearance (I definitely didn’t have this on my agenda to do but oh well…), and I definitely just looked out of place walking through there. However, I ended up safe and sound inside the stadium.
Igor was kind enough to greet me with “you are late.” (I think he has been secretly learning English vocabulary.) I was 15 minutes late, but honestly that was irrelevant to the fact that I accomplished a huge feat by successfully making it to my destination. I had planned to be there early, but I didn’t think the trip was going to take so long.
On to the game, it was all that I hoped for and more. I had a seat two feet away from the sideline. I was instructed to “pay attention,” which I did and the teams tied 2-2. After the game, Igor had one of his co-workers return with me on the first leg of my trip to make sure that I didn’t get turned around.
My adventure allowed me to get a few pictures for you. I have attached a picture of the stadium with the buildings from the alley that I had to go through, a picture of a horse that was standing two feet away from me at the bus stop (I wished that I could give him a hug and some apples. He looked overworked, uncared for and starved.) and a picture of the van I had to take.
No comments:
Post a Comment