Posting Again

Hello Everybody!

Kristine's short term memory seems to have no solid recollection of some of the past humor-at-her-expense that may have been published by me on the blog site. That's an awkward sentence. Let's shorten that one up...um...: Kristine...forgave...me. There, much more readable and even the New York Times would probably let that one print.

First headline: American Almost Gets Brutally Beaten By Brazilian Riot Police. You might think the title is long, but is acceptable due to the clever alliteration that I was able to use. The scene is a Brazilian soccer game, which takes place between two top Porto Alegre teams (one of which is a national champion) who have not played each other in 70 years. We found out on our way out the door that the local police were "worried about the situation." We were told not to worry because we were being chaparoned by one of the farm workers who "is a good fighter" in the words of Reverand Floyd Grady. Our bodygard had joked a few days earlier that he wouldn't take us unless we rooted for Gremio, which had blue-colored jerseys. They were playing the Colorado (red colored jerseys). Once seated in the stands I concluded that he shouldn't have been joking at all. We were seated in one of the three Gremio sections. 99.9% of these fans wore not only blue, but the blue jerseys of their team. I'm pretty sure that if I'd been wearing red I would have been made into a human sacrifice. Hopefully I would have the common sense to just take off my shirt and light it on fire as if I was only joking. These fans chanted, sang, screamed for 3 hours straight. The first hour was before the game even began. Ticker tape (still rolled up) was thrown into the crowd so that it could be thrown out (preferably unrolling as it is thrown) sometime during the game. Also, many fans had sparklers, smoke fireworks, bang fireworks, etc. "Wait a minute," you say, "there was mass quantities of paper AND fire?" "Yes," I would reply. "Wouldn't the paper catch fire?," you ask. "Most probably," would be my modest response. Indeed the ticker tape that was thrown over the "moat" (as Kristine dubbed the hole that seperated the stands from the track and soccer field) some of which was set on fire before being thrown, and then creating a mini-bonfire for the amusement of everyone but the staff which were working feverishly to stamp out the rubber soles of their shoes. But, I stray from the original story. The game ended. Score: 0-0. No overtime, which I think was a wise decision given how worked up the fans had already become. As we left, the thought struck me that we probably should have coughed up a little more dinero to park outside of the Gremio section of the stands instead of down the street. Because, you see, in order to get back to the car we had to walk past the section of the Colorado team, who had amassed various objects to throw at anybody passing by that was wearing anything but red. We dodged the half full beer cups and who knows what else, and wove our way around fights that had broken out in the street, which the riot police were quickly trying to extinguish. We had just arrived back at the car when a crazy Gremio fan with face paint being chased by a cop with a knight stick ran straight into me. He bounced off of me, leaving me face to face with an angry cop who had his knight stick raised over his head as if he was going to hit the nearest thing that moved. He paused momentarily (my heart missed at least one beat) before he pushed me to gain momentum in the other direction. So, that's the story. We made it safely back. Plenty other things to say about the game, but there's the highlights.

Kristine and I are in Foz Do Iquacu. We visited the worlds largest hydroelectric power plant today and will visit waterfalls that are supposed to be more magnificent than Niagra tomorrow. Hope that spices up your day job! We'll keep you posted.

Kevin