World Cup fever.

You can´t ask for a better setting to watch the World Cup than in a bar in Brazil. Unfortunately it´s not a good place though, to watch America lose to the Czech Republic. I´m not one to get laced into the back and forth of who will win the World Cup, but here, you can´t escape discussions about it, and you do end up getting caught up in the fever. I was asked twice today already about what I thought about the Australia vs. Japanese game because people think I´m Japanese. (Actually, on that note, I am absolutely SICK of being confused as Japanese. Surprisingly many Brazilians don´t know that Vietnam exists, so even when I correct them, they don´t quite get it. If I had a penny for every instance that someone has asked if I was from Japan, I´d be at least a grand richer. Yesterday a guy kept pulling on the corners of his eyes, so that they became slits, when he asked about my origins. I was so annoyed, I can´t even begin to explain. Most of you know already, but never, ever, ever make that obscene gesture to an Asian.)
Tomorrow is Brazil´s first kick at the World Cup, when they play Croatia. I am flying to the Amazon tomorrow, to Manaus, and will be sure to reserve a seat somewhere to watch the game. I imagine the early evening will be nothing short of insane. Apparently all of business activity in Brazil gets shelved from the beginning of the game at 4 p.m. so that everyone can gather in front of a TV. It´s plausible. There are signs on storefronts all over the city I´m in right now, Belem, that they´ll be shuttering their windows early. And if Brazil wins, expect partying into the wee hours, and I´m sure you´ll be able to hear us setting off firecrackers (more than the usual daily amount at least) and honking our car horns and yelling all the way from the Southern Hemisphere.
After I made my last post I went to Sao Luis, a former French stronghold eventually taken over by the Portuguese. The old part of town is where everyone stays, and it´s full of beautifully crumbling and decrepit neo-colonial buildings with colorful tiles on the fronts. It´s hot and humid as well, which speeds up the deterioration. I had met Eva from Spain and Micah from Los Angeles (how about that) on the bus and we´ve been traveling together for the past week. It was a good time to be in Sao Luis, because later this month will be a festival of colorful costumes and loud regional music from the indigineous groups in the region, and because we are in Brazil, they were throwing weekend-long pre-parties for the public. We spent one evening watching a bunch of shimmying dancers and getting bothered by an old drunk man, who I ended up hitting (on the wrist, and very hard, no less) with my umbrella when he wouldn´t stop pulling on our ponytails. Why do I always attract the crazies?
Belem is a boring city, and hot as hell too, but I have been in good company. We met two sweet Australians and have been exploring the place together. Yesterday we went to a reggae club with live reggae and rock bands, and it was the first reggae place I´ve been to in Brazil that wasn´t a meat market. I had a good time.
I had my first bit of fresh acai in Sao Luis, which was much different than what I´ve been having before. In the north they serve it with fish and seafood, and it tastes earthier because they dont add any sweeteners. In Belem I had fried fish with a bowl of fresh acai and at first I hated it, was really disappointed. But after awhile, the acquired taste caught up and I could understand why it´s served this way -- to balance the salt of the fish, I surmise.
Also, I´ve been hooked on guarana, a Brazilian nut that´s the main ingredient of an energy-boosting cold smoothie they make right on the street here. Think ice cream shake with a whoomp.
I will be out of Brazil in about two more days. I will miss Brazil, but I am ready to move on to a different culture. 5 weeks to do Colombia and Peru, it may be impossible...
And still no photos, sorry, they won´t upload into Blogger...