From the journal of Lindsay Williams...
Day One:
Saturday January 17th- Because of the red-eye flight, it didn’t seem like a new day, however it was. As we began our descent on Rio de Janeiro and got beneath the clouds, Brazil was revealed and it was beautiful! There was little transition between sheer cliffs and mountains, to city areas, to beach. Our charter bus took us into the city about 30 minutes away. What we saw from the ground was the same as from the air. Beautiful country and land with breathtaking scenery, but mixed right in with poverty and slum-like living conditions. There were often no gaps at all in the roofs of apartments, with piles of junk everywhere, and an occasional horse. After lunch, we had a little free time which we used to exchange some money and buy bottled water (our little foreign stomachs could not have handled the Brazilian tap water). Check in at the hotel took forever and Maggie and I got our room last and well after the promised 2:00. Many girls opted for the beach, but I was worn out and instead took a nap before our evening beach soccer session. We drove to a different beach than the one a block from our hotel. We got off our bus just in time for a passing thunderstorm. The rain started pouring and we took our shirts off trying to preserve them for dinner right afterwards and just played in our sports bras. We stood out less as tourists this way, because the locals were half naked anyway. We met a bunch of Brazilian girls representing “Team Chicago” a local club team, and played sand soccer with and against them. Kaylyn and I befriended Vanessa, who was on our team and had learned to speak English surprisingly well by watching TV. It was unbelievable to talk with her. Sand soccer was great and dinner was amazing!!!! We ate at a Brazilian steakhouse. We sat down and started eating immediately. The dishes on the buffet were great, but the meat was outstanding. Servers buzzed by with steel skewers with meat of all kinds at a rate of approximately 1 per every 5 seconds. It was delicious. They were basically carrying around an entire cow leg, and just slicing off pieces of it directly onto your plate when you gave them the go ahead nod (and sometimes even if you didn’t). Driving back I was nodding off and so ready for a shower and long sleep! The shower was amazing.
Day 2:
Sunday, January 18th- We took our bus out to an air force base a couple of neighborhoods over from Ipanema, where we were staying. We had a relaxed training session with our little buddy team, Team Chicago Brazil, and a professional player from the area. I am proud to say that I have actually done a Brazilian warm-up. The field was rough, and it was interesting because the Brazilian girls were very casual with how they played. A lot of the drills were stuff we do at home. After lunch, a bunch of us went to the beach. The beach was great! We stayed there about 2 hours and I caked on the sunscreen and didn’t get burned at all! We would lie out for about 20 minute intervals cause that was all we could stand due to the heat. The water was cool and felt great. The surf was huge and once I got absolutely taken out by a wave, only to barely recover and see that Megan was coming towards me on another massive wave that was about to destroy me. The beach was super-crowded and people kept coming by selling stuff. There were tons of women in thongs and it was rare to see a man in swim trunks speedos all the way. The setting was breath-taking with cliffs to the right and beautiful clear ocean with almost white sand. We left the beach around 3 to go to the market which took up a city block, about 2 blocks from the hotel. The markets are only open on Sundays, and it was super cool almost all souvenir shopping taken care of. We ate dinner at Cena Gourmet. It was buffet style and we pigged out. There was delicious pizza for dessert, thin dough with chocolate and either ice cream, strawberries, or coconut on top. The ice cream was definitely the best.
Day 3:
Monday, January 19th- Today was our first international game against a U-21 local club team, Cepe Caxias, and let me tell you, they were beastly looking! They were huge, their legs were huge, and their shorts were tiny. They looked like spandex. It was the coolest thing to get to play them! The difference in style was interesting; they were excellent technically and liked to play short balls, but would also open us up on through balls. I actually expected the style difference to be bigger between us; perhaps the biggest difference was that they did not get as much pressure on the ball as we did. We played very well considering, and it ended in a 1-1 tie. The day was so hot and humid! Our jerseys were sticking to us; it was miserable. But we were playing Brazil in soccer so it was all good!!! The scenery was crazy. In the background of our field were palm trees and various other plants against the backdrop of the mountains. Absolutely beautiful! I still can’t believe we are here. After the game we took a massive group picture with the other team. The girls were really nice and happy to be with us. We walked to dinner tonight just past where the market had been. Some guy started hitting on Kaylyn, Libby, and Rachel! It was funny but kind of scary. He kept pulling Libby and whispering to her, “I like you serious!” Hahaha! On the way back, we walked along the beach. I did some bonding with our guides John, Antonio and our coach Chris. Fun times!
Day 4:
Tuesday, January 20th- So far today has been the best day ever! In the morning, we checked email at an internet caf and shopped at a farmer’s market in the square where I bought a mango which I have yet to eat. Then, we headed to our second game of the tour against Team Chicago Brazil (our buddies). A few of the girls rode the bus out there with us. The game was in Teresopolis, a city in the mountains outside of Rio, and about an hour and a half away. But let me just tell you, the drive was absolutely worth it! It was seriously, and I mean seriously, the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my entire life. Starting in downtown, we rode the bus into the bay area and saw the port of Rio de Janeiro. It seemed to get poorer and poorer right outside of the city, much like the favalas (or shanty-towns) that we had previously seen. The houses were stacked on top of each other and some had open roofs, like the people had simply run out of money. There were still soccer courts’ everywhere, like I expect basketball courts would be in New York. As we got further out of town, the houses became more spread out and started looking nicer. All of this, I would like to emphasize, was going on with the absolutely breathtaking mountains in the background little hills and knolls to the bay side and massive rock cliffs on the inside. Outside of Rio, we began our climb into the mountains, and streams would run beneath us and flowers would be growing straight out of the rocks. Everything was so green and lush in contrast to the sheer rock cliff beside. There would be groves of homes every so often. They looked like small farms, and I would see horses and gardens and many had swimming pools. Nestled in the valley on the other side of the mountains was Teresopolis, and it was the cutest thing ever! Beautiful homes, that appeared to have some European influence. Then the most exciting thing happened. At the side of the town was the place where the BRAZILIAN NATIONAL TEAMS train! There were about five pristine fields together with the headquarters on the hill above. It was absolutely insane that we were even there! I walked in the bathroom; Marta had probably been there. We were walking around and looking at the fields where Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and KK have trained! Unreal. At this point we were running a tad bit late, so we got back on the bus and left quickly for the stadium. The stadium was picturesque with incredible character. Several locals were there watching us, and I even signed an autograph. The game was also aired on the local radio! Pretty sweet. Around game time the thunderstorms rolled in and since apparently Brazilians don’t get struck by lightning, we once again just played through it. This team was not quite as good as the first. They had a forward, number 11, who was out of her mind fast with amazing foot skill. The ref gave her and the rest of their team some weak calls. Kaylyn even got called for a foul, if that tells you anything. I went in after about 15 minutes and I played really well! Coach left me in the rest of the half, and it felt really good to be playing well and making things happen. About 20 minutes into the second half, our goalkeeper Libby got cracked in the chin, so as our closest thing to a back-up keeper, I went in the nets. My first game as a keeper was an international game in Brazil! I had 3 saves and a Bagel’ as Chris would say. It was fun but kind of scary too. We scored twice in the second half and won 2-0. I almost scored in the first half! I served a long ball to Mallory, but she jumped and pretty much ran interference for it. It went beside her and bounced under their keeper, but then some girl biked it off the goal line, and quite naturally I might add. After we gave them our stinky jerseys (which they wore proudly all the way home on the bus), we talked, hugged, took pictures, and gave them our gear. I gave Vanessa a Topper t-shirt and a bracelet. The bus ride home was great. It was foggy and rainy so we couldn’t really see outside, but the ten or so Team Chicago girls that rode back with us were entertainment enough! They were laughing and singing and taking pictures. They knew all our popular songs! They loved Rhianna, Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Brittany Spears, Akon, 50 cent.....the whole gang!!! We thought of songs that they would know and sang with them. They knew the Macarena, YMCA, Back Street Boys, and Spice Girls. It was fascinating that our music appealed so much to them even though they couldn’t understand it. Their faces would light up every time they recognized one we started singing. They chanted their team song, so we gave them a little bit of our Western fight song!!!
Day 5:
Wednesday, January 21st- Our plans for the day changed due to rainy overcast skies. We were supposed to visit Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain, but instead we did a tour of Maracan Stadium. The stadium was really cool and where all the big matches in Rio are played. It had a museum honoring the Brazilian national team. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until we were leaving that all the captions were written in Portuguese, Spanish, AND English. Maracan holds nearly 100,000 people and is one of the most famous in the world. It rained all day, and our plans to play futsal in the afternoon were dashed when we heard that the futsal facility had flooded. So what did we do with our free time more shopping of course. Dinner was another Brazilian steakhouse. Beastly. There should be one per every square mile on the entire earth. By the way, Brazilian soap operas look even better than American ones.
Day 6:
Thursday, January 22nd- It was raining again today. We had free time in the morning and went on a mini shopping spree walking around Ipanema. I got candy for the ones back home and there was a sweet spandex store...haha. After that, we played and took pictures on the beach. It was sweet because hardly anyone was out, and the surf was huge and the fog looked pretty. We played that afternoon in Niteroi, crossing a 9-mile bridge to get across the water to this largely industrial city next to Rio. We played 2 fifty-minute games back to back against two local club teams. The first we won 1-0, and I had my first International assist off a header to Mal. The second game we won 3-0. The field was probably the best we had played on, and it overlooked the bay and a foggy view of Rio in the background. We didn’t play very well, and coach wasn’t very happy with us. We ate dinner at a pizza and pasta buffet. It wasn’t as good as the others, but maybe that was just because I was experiencing pizza overkill. The dessert pizzas were still good. Two days of rain, and I am praying for good weather tomorrow!
Day 7:
Friday, January 23rd- Today we planned to take in Rio’s two famous scenic overlooks, Christ the Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain. We rode a trolley car up the mountain to the statue of Christ, which consisted of a 10-minute ride on a steep incline and quite a few more steps by foot. The statue was incredibly cool! It was 100 feet tall and just looked out off the cliff protecting the entire city. It was awesome to see up close, since all week it had been creeping me out because wherever we went in the city, I would look up and it would seem to be watching me... (don’t really know how that happens). The view was outstanding. We could see many of the sites we had visited including Copacabana Beach and Maracan Stadium. At Sugar Loaf, we took a cable car up to the top, which was really cool. As soon as we had walked around and taken a few amazing pictures of the city and beaches below, it started raining. Perfect timing though! We got it all in, and the clouds and fog looked cool anyway. We had a Samba night out! We went to the strip where Carnival takes place. Two Samba schools were practicing for next month’s festival, and they were incredible! Think Mardi Gras times 10, and this was only practice! Everyone was dressed in different tones of lime green, and everyone was sambaing. You were doing it wrong if your hands weren’t in the air! They had bands, drummers, beauty queens and groups of dancers. At the end of the parade was a semi truck decked out with an entire wall of speakers with dancers and singers on top belting out Portuguese in the form of patriotic song. It was awesome! The stands were packed and everyone was so passionate and enthusiastic and proud of Brazil, and proud of Rio. The atmosphere was electric and unbelievably contagious. It did not take long to catch on to the customs, especially the coaches, and they were embarrassing... It made me wish we could stick around to see the actual Carnival, which takes place in February.
Day 8:
Saturday, January 24th- We leave Rio tonight, and the saddest part is that I don’t know if I will ever make it back. We woke up early for a jog along the beach and, according to my calculations, only 3 hours of sleep. After packing and last-minute purchases, the team piled out to the beach. I ate my delicious mango I bought Tuesday. After cleaning up from the beach and checking out of the hotel, we drove to So Januario, the soccer stadium where Vasco da Gama, one of Rio’s four pro teams, has their matches. The game was between Vasco and Americano. I’m not sure where Americano was from, but they gave Vasco a 2-0 whooping. Both teams were pretty good, but maybe not as good as I expected. It seems that a lot of the best Brazilian players get snatched up by the richer European clubs, so the level in the Brazilian league suffers as a result. Still, they played really fast and the stadium atmosphere was great! It was all there the chanting, the torches and fireworks and colors, and the fans waving massive flags around. Going to the game was so exciting and so much fun and a nice way to end the trip for sure. We transferred to the airport after the game. We said good bye to our great tour guides, Andre and Antonio the most precious little Brazilian man ever. Antonio made us feel like VIPs wherever we went! I am so thankful that I was blessed with the opportunity to take this trip. It has changed me, and I have learned a lot and have had my eyes opened. I am also excited because we have gotten even closer as a team and hopefully it will only continue. I am confident that this Brazil trip will go down as one of the best experiences of my life.
