This past week has been a lot of fun because of the arrival of our friend, Ken, and the start of the World Cup. We met Ken while teaching in China, became friends and kept in touch ever since. Ken decided to visit us in Brazil during the World Cup because he is a huge fan of soccer and also had never been to Brazil before and wanted to see what it was all about.
He arrived a week ago and we have kept busy doing all of the touristy things that Belém has to offer (which isn't much). Ken has tried some of the traditional indigenous foods, watched various types of dancing, visited some classes with me at UFPA, went on a rainforest hike, checked out some of the free parks and music performances and of course watched a fair amount of soccer. We even went to one of the championship games between the two local teams here in Belém.
The opening day of the World Cup was a lot of fun. We went to McDonald's and tried the special burgers, donned our Brazilian gear and headed to a friend's apartment to watch the game. I think everyone was surprised that Croatia scored the first goal. I thought the city would be a little crazier but everyone was pretty calm and there weren't any protests around here that I heard of. Besides a few fireworks after each goal that Brazil scored and the occasional noise maker heard several stories up, the citizens of Belém went to bed happy, hoarse from cheering and ready to go to work hungover the next day.
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