Football game!

A couple of us and a bunch of Brazilians went to a football game on Wednesday! My team, Fluminense, against Grêmio. It was super duper fun, and I had a blast...even though we lost 0-3 :(((.

 There were little packets of baby powder to throw down into the field at the beginning, and everyone was covered it in!

Carnaval!

Well hey there guys!

Carnaval just ended in Brasil! (And probably other places in the world, bus as we don't formally have it in New Mexico... I didn't even know other countries had it!) Carnaval is the Friday to Tuesday before lent, but in Rio at least... it basically lasts for the whole of February. It's an amazing time of the year when most of Rio is partying hard, and everyone else is either running away from it, or resenting every one of the tourists and all of the traffic the time of year brings. My host mom set up an amazing opportunity for the exchange students, where we got to walk in the first parade of Carnaval! (If you've watched Rio the movie... where they bring the stupid little chicken float to sneak the birds away! I'll have you know, that would never have worked... the whole just joining the parade.) We paraded with the escola da samba (samba school) Unidos do Jacarezinho, which is a small school, not very good, considering it was the first night of Carnaval. Basically though, this night sucked for me, because I was feeling nauseous during the parade and got pulled out almost immediately... so I didn't get to desfilar.

 My host-mom and I!

Before and after this day, I attended many blocos, or block parties, which were amazing and a lot of fun! It's such an amazing thing to see so many people just go and congregate in a predetermined place in fantasias or costumes, to drink, dance and have fun with friends.