seekingmygreaterperhaps

Bora Brasil! Let’s go Brazil!

This is my first time living in a country that celebrates football (soccer), and I am here for it! I was traveling in Croatia during the 2018 World Cup when they won the quarter and semi final games, and the energy was insane. The USA doesn’t tend to really watch much soccer, but in Brazil, it is the sport.

There are a few things I prefer about football compared to other sports.

• It’s a 45 minute half- there are no commercials or stupid time outs that make those minutes take forever. So a football match will at max take 2 hours.
• It’s a low scoring game, so when a goal is made, people go WILD.
• Many of the Brazilian players have crazy tattoos. Example: this guy has a giant eyeball tattoo.
• The rules are relatively straightforward and easy to learn if you’ve never seen a match before.
• As a foreigner in Brazil, rooting for the team has helped me feel a sense of belonging to the community in a way that is unique to the World Cup.

One of my favorite (and genius marketing scheme) aspect of the anticipation leading up to the Copa do Mundo is the album, and the figurinhas. Figurinhas are small stickers that you place into the album. It’s like Pokemon- gotta catch em all. The album features every team, and the players, as well as some extra spots for the stadiums, legends, game ball, and other aspects. There are over 600 places where you can put the stickers. The local newsstands sell the figurinhas in a mystery pack of 5, for R$4 (less than $1 USD).

However, you find yourself getting duplicates the more packs you buy. It’s a community building game at this point. You find people who are also collecting the stickers for the album and you trade with them. The elementary school kids play a game to try and win the stickers, but the high schoolers, AND ADULTS trade them.

(As a school counselor, it takes a while to build rapport with students. I forgot how much effort I had put in on the front end of my past job. It has been a hard adjustment because kids don’t know me and don’t want to talk with me at my current school now, so I am actively looking for other ways for them to know me. Enter figurinhas.)

My friend Pedro in the business office got me hooked, and then I paid it forward and got my cohort hooked. It’s been really helpful to have Brazilian friends explain things about the culture to me, and then when I notice it, I understand what’s going on. Some of them say they’ve been collecting these books since they were kids, and it becomes a collectors item for them. I won’t say that figurinhas have helped me get to know so many students, but it has definitely helped me connect with enough to make it worth it.

PLUS- it is super satisfying to add the stickers to the book, and the sense of joy at filling the book or completing a team is just magical.

It’s not just the album, it’s all sorts of businesses. Just recently in Arrial do Cabo, one of the restaurants we had featured different desserts from countries that had a team in the world cup! We had a “torta hollandesa” which is from the Netherlands.

McDonald’s is not my favorite restaurant. However, I will admit it here, I did eat there. They are featuring different hamburgers themed around countries that are competing in the World Cup! They have McBrasil every day, but then the other selection rotates depending on the country!

• Monday- McQatar
• Tuesday- McMexico
• Wednesday- McFrance (the one I had- delicious)
• Thursday- McGermany
• Friday- McSpain
• Saturday- McArgentina
• Sunday- McUSA

Each of the burgers has different ingredients that represent the country. For example, McUSA is a breaded chicken burger with bacon, cheddar cheese, and pickles. (HOLY MOLY I MISS DILL PICKLES.) I ate McFrance, and it had a beef patty, crunchy onions, bacon, tomato, and a brie cheese sauce. They also have a Brazil themed dessert, which is a McFlurry with banana sauce and doce de leite. It was still a McDonald’s meal, but it was themed, and y’all know I can get behind a theme.

I’ve submitted a World Cup bracket into a pool. I never do these things, but I legit spent time looking up stats on teams, their rankings, etc. I won’t win, but now I at least know more about the underdogs. Have you heard about Denmark’s Christian Eriksen? Sports man, they are wild.

Not to bring up politics, but Bolsonaro supporters have taken the national jersey as their own. Typically in recent months if people were wearing the yellow jersey, it meant they were “bolsonaristas.” With the world cup starting, many are hoping that people form all political parties who wear the yellow football jersey can take it back as a symbol of football, not politics. I went with the safe bet on jersey selection, and chose the blue one with the jaguar print on the sleeves. It’s prettier, I look better in blue, jaguars are dope, and no political affiliation.

On Monday this week, Brazil played in their second game of the group round of the World Cup, and it started at 1pm. My school ran a half day schedule, and then we had watch parties for all the students. It was very high energy, and a lot of fun! It boggles my mind that my school adjusted their schedule for the match, as well as many workers got off early in order to be able to watch the match.

When I was walking home that day in my jersey, after the Brazil victory, I felt a sense of comraderie with everyone else who was wearing a jersey. It was a joyful atmosphere in the blocos. I can’t wait for Brazil to progress, and hopefully excel in the World Cup.

Bora Brasil!