The Most Amazing Soccer Game Ever

Still in Sao Paulo, and we really messed up today, but we learned so many lessons. Here is a crazy story for all you readers...

We woke up and had free breakfast at the hostel, which is just bread, jam, cheese, butter, tea or coffee. If you read the last post, you know that our shoes got owned by the rain, and we washed them in the washing machine but they were still wet after a cycle in the dryer so we sat around fanning them for a while in the morning. After a few hours of fanning and squeezing out moisture with a towel, we walked to the nearest Metro station and took it to Centro.

Walking around, we saw a lot of cool buildings, cool roads full of busy looking people, shoe shiners, and lots of really amazing street art (see Facebook album for just a few pictures). We ate some good food at a pay-per-kilo restaurant, drank more Guarana soda, and went up 34 floors in an Empire State building replica. We looked in a mall for a bit, and it's crazy how dominant American urban culture is. Regular Nike Dunks sold for R$350 (about 175 US dollars), and New Era hats cost R$199 (about 100 US dollars). What's even more ridiculous is that these are in a ton of the stores in the malls and kids actually spend that kind of money for American brands. We kept walking around and looking at stuff and eventually came back to our hostel.

Okay, so I sped through our day, but here's the good part. We got back to the hostel and did a little bit of quick research so that we could go to our first soccer game in South America. Yoontae checked the schedule and the bus lines and we quickly got ready and left for the stadium. We took the first bus, asked some people for help and had a fun time playing charades, but they helped us and we got where we were needed to be, a street called Faria Lima. From there, we had to run across a couple busy streets and take another bus towards the stadium. Again, we needed help from a fellow bus rider, and we managed to make it to the stadium. Buying the tickets, we got in the wrong line, had to move to the other side of the stadium to buy our tickets, waited in line, and then found out that all the cheaper tickets were sold out. The only ones left were R$30 tickets, and we only had a total of R$50. We were R$10 short. Standing in the rain after going through all that trouble just to find out that we couldn't go to the game, we were really disappointed. We turned around and got ready to leave, but the guy behind us stopped us and said in English (this was a surprise since most of the people we met up to this point did not speak English), "How much do you need? I will help you pay for your tickets." I don't know about the rest of Brazil, but in America this kind of stuff doesn't seem to happen too much. We were so surprised, but grateful, and we thanked him repeatedly and got our tickets. Now we had absolutely no cash for our bus tickets, but we figured there would be ATMs inside the stadium and at least we got into the game! We went inside and watched the game and it was amazing.

Never have I seen a game where everyone is constantly standing, yelling, singing, and cheering all at once. The noise NEVER stopped, and we got sucked into the intensity of the game. At half-time, we went to look for an ATM but there weren't any in the stadium so we went back to watching the game. We decided to leave a little early, because we needed to find an ATM, get to the bus station, and get on the bus before the huge crowds got there. On our way out, we told a worker about the dilemma we were in and he told us to say to the bus driver, "No ten dinero," which means, "I don't have money," and he would give us a free ride. We tried this out, only to find that the worker had lied. The bus driver was saying we weren't allowed and was going to kick us out, but another passenger came up and paid for our tickets. We were really starting to love Brazil. So many generous people! We got off the bus back at Faria Lima, and now we really needed money. Just one more bus to take back to the hostel... but where were the ATMs? In Brazil, 24 hour ATM means that they are open from 6 AM to 10 PM. That is NOT 24 hours! So we ran around the street, looking for an ATM, but we couldn't find one. The bus lines stop at midnight and it was a little past 11, so we were getting worried. Finally, around 11:20, we found an ATM, got some money and started looking for the bus stop we were supposed to be at, but it wasn't the right one. Whoever gave us directions back at the hostel mislead us, and we started running up and down Faria Lima trying to find the right bus stop. We ran past 6 different stops, never seeing our bus. At 11:45, we knew the next few buses were the last ones that we would see, so we just took one that was headed towards our hostel and crossed our fingers. Luckily, the bus came pretty close to our hostel and we only had to walk a mile. Exhausted but relieved, we walked back, stopping to buy some yakisoba from a street vendor.

We had such a crazy night and got back around 1 AM, we basically just got to our beds and knocked out. Although nearly every aspect of our nighttime excursion got messed up in some way, things fell into place and by some miraculously kind person or sheer luck, we did everything we wanted to and made it back home. Looking back, it was an amazing adventure. I can't say that I prayed for a miracle or that I even thought to ask God for help, but in my mind there is no way that we could have been that lucky. I asked some Brazilians if people are usually that generous, and they were laughing at my story telling me that it was ridiculous how lucky I was. I did nothing to put myself in a position of need or to deserve the generosity of the people around me. The situation just presented itself to me and God used it to show me that He's got my back, even to go to a soccer game.

First Full Day in Sao Paulo

Our first full day in Brazil started off slowly. We woke up late because our bodies were adjusting to the time change and we had not slept a full night's sleep since the night before we left LAX. I slept 13 hours, and we slowly rolled out of bed and walked from the hotel to the hostel we found online. It took us a while to get to the hostel since it's a bit far (maybe 2 miles? I don't know, I suck at estimating), but we finally arrived at Hostel Okupe. We got 2 beds for 2 nights plus a R$20 deposit (which we get back when we leave, as long as we return the linens) for a total of R$156. Thats the equivalent of about 80 U.S. dollars. Not bad for two nights for two people, right? After we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, we walked to Parque Ibirapuera where we walked around for a while. On the way there we stopped to buy a big water bottle and two pieces of pizza. Brazilian pizza is really different from what we're used to, but it's really good. We also ate the rest of the trail mix that Ben and Jullie gave us when we left LA.

We got to the park after more walking and found a nice sculpture garden, so we took lots of pictures. We also took a bunch of pictures of the buildings because they were really cool. One of them looked like a giant igloo! Then we went into the art museum which had two exhibits: one was modern art and the other was an exhibit on Roberto Burle Marx. The modern art was really cool and sometimes funny, and Marx's exhibit was really interesting too since he did lots of different kinds of art including tapestries, jewelry, paintings, and architectural designs. We spent a good hour in there and it was definitely worth the R$2.50 that it cost each of us to get in. We left the museum and followed the sound of drums to a student performance group practicing by the street. I sneaked a few pictures of them without asking and also took some pictures of the obelisk across the street, then we headed to the lake where we tried to take artsy pictures (I was inspired by the museum) and tried to scare ducks. The ducks in the park were really creepy though because we would get really close to them and they would just stand there and quack at us and they were also really big so we chickened out and left them alone. We left the park as the sun set and walked towards another big monument to some explorers. There was a man on top of the monument, so we climbed up too (probably not allowed) and took pictures of the city since the view was so good. While climbing down we almost died, and then headed back to the hostel.

We got kind of lost and circled around the freeway and ended up being forced to cross these extremely busy streets, again almost dying in the process. After figuring out where we were, we pulled out our trusty umbrellas and kept walking but the rain just kept getting stronger and stronger, puddles got deeper and deeper, and thunder got louder and louder. Eventually, the water running through the street and sidewalk was so deep that we would step forward and have water up to our ankles, and even in the shallow areas our umbrellas did not protect our legs, sleeves, or shoes. I have never experienced rain like that. We realized that the rain made walking too miserable, so we went into a small streetside restaurant and ordered 2 cheeseburgers with egg and 2 orders of fries. The owner looked at us with sympathy and quickly brought out our dinner, and it was so delicious. We got guarana soda (for the first time) too, which basically tastes like carbonated happiness. It's the best thing since sriracha and carne asada fries! As we finished eating, the rain suddenly stopped, and we saw all these people start coming out of shops and restaurants and we realized that when it pours people don't keep walking, they find shelter. We felt really dumb. But we learned our lesson... the hard way.

So far on this trip, we seem to be learning lessons the hard way. Now we know not to keep walking when it rains because the streets turn into rivers and umbrellas don't protect you that much. We also learned in Mexico that metro workers rip you off so we should check the prices every time. Even though we need to go through seemingly negative experiences, it still seems fun. I'm really loving this trip even when stuff like this happens. My dad told me before I left, "There is no way that you can go 8 weeks without some bad stuff happening to you, so when it does happen you take it in and make the best of it," and he was right. There have been some negative things that have happened, but we've been able to really let it go and have fun instead of stressing about the little things.

If anyone is reading this, please pray for our trip, our safety, and our growth. Obrigado.

Arriving in Brazil

Second day, second country. From Mexico City to Sao Paulo, Brazil, the flight was about 11 hours. There was some sort of time change, so my estimate is probably wrong, but it was a long flight. AeroMexico flights are really awesome though. We got to take our pick from 8 movies, listen to music, or play free video games on our personal screen. We also got free toothbrushes, toothpaste, eyemasks, ear plugs, and headphones. Yoontae and I watched Marley and Me. Even though I knew how it ended, it was still really sad. Yoontae almost cried. Then we played Tetris against each other (yes, you could even play against other passengers) and I owned him. noob. I also slept a lot, so once we arrived I was fairly well rested. We bought R$30 (R$ means reals, 1.9 reals = 1 dollar) bus tickets to Jardins, a region in Sao Paulo, and found a hotel. It cost us R$84 for a room, where we put our stuff, and then we headed out to the city. We went to a free art museum and spent an hour there, it was really interesting.

After we came out, I started noticing a ton of lesbian couples. Yoontae noticed too, I'm not weird. We walked around the city just observing the city life and looking at shops and restaurants, but it started raining so we went to get our umbrellas from the hotel. By the time we went out again the rain had stopped. Then we went to find an internet cafe to contact family and let them know we were fine. It was really tough communicating with the workers since we knew no Portuguese, but we managed to pay for 30 minutes of computer time. We contacted our family and found a hostel nearby to go to in the morning and left. We ate our first meal of Sao Paulo and ordered random stuff on the menu since we didn't know what anything was. We ended up getting a chicken sandwich and a ham sandwich and a guarana milk thing that tasted just like banana milk. We also got Cebolitos, which are similar to Funyuns but way better. We headed back to our hotel but on the way we got some corn with salt and butter from a street vendor (SO AMAZING). It was a pretty expensive day, but hopefully we'll be cheaper as we learn how to travel for cheap.

We didn't interact too much with people, and I felt like that's why I didn't really learn as much. Of course traveling is an educational experience but I think interacting with the locals and other travelers is the best way to have a good experience. Starting with the next day, I wanted to take advantage of all the people I could communicate with, even if it was only through gestures. (Since I'm actually writing this a few days later, I can say that I HAVE made more effort to interact with people!)

The Beginning

I don't get to post very often, so I'm going to post late but put the date and time as the day that I'm writing about. Those of you that might actually read this will get to see multiple posts when I actually do get the opportunity to update.

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I went up to LA with Yoontae and met up with Ben, Jullie, Umma, and Yoontae's parents to eat before we left. As we ate and drove to the airport, we were put through pure torture. Our Ummas were jansoree-ing nonstop about what to do and not to do, what we should have and should not have done, and everything else that we just hate to hear. Of course Ben and Jullie were just laughing at us the whole time, but oh well. That's love, right? Possibly because of the constant nagging from the mothers, the magnitude of my trip really didn't hit me. Even as we flew out of LAX, I felt nothing special. I fell asleep after a little bit and didn't wake up until we were about to leave. Yoontae shook me and pointed out the window and then it hit me. Seeing the lights of Mexico City before the sun rose was one of the most awe-inspiring things I've seen, and it was just the beginning of what I was going to see this upcoming year. I was so tired when I woke up in the plane, but the lights kind of shook me awake and once we walked into the terminal I felt like I could do a little exploring.

We took some time to exchange a bit of money and talk to the tourist information people and then headed to the metro. Of course, we had no idea what we were doing or where we were going, so we asked an old lady in our broken Spanish for some help. To our surprise, she told us to just follow her, which we did, and she led us to the station. Not only did she get us there, but then she directed us to the ticketing booth, waited for us as we bought our tickets (they ripped us off, as we later found out), and then took us to the metro line that we were supposed to take... even though she was taking a different one. Looking back, she really made our day and she was really an old-lady-angel sent to guide us in our time of need. We arrived in Mexico City's historical center as the sun rose, and we wandered towards the center. Unfortunately, nothing was really open this early, but we were given the opportunity to watch people open shops and head to work. We went to a few churches and eventually got too tired to go on any further so we walked into a Holiday Inn and tried to find a secluded corner to sleep in. We checked every floor with no luck, so we left and headed to another church where we sat down to rest and unintentionally fell asleep. Both Yoontae and I were awake one second and asleep the next, and we woke up about 15 minutes later and knew that we had to get more sleep. We had only slept 2 hours on the plane, and we couldn't go the whole day on those 2 hours so we took the metro back to the airport, laid down on the floor, and knocked out for nearly 3 hours.

We felt so much better, and we still had half a day until our flight left, so we took the metro again (this time we avoided getting ripped off) and we went back to the same historical center and walked around again. This time, everything was open and it was much more enjoyable since we were fully awake. We visited a museum, interesting looking buildings, monuments, and churches, taking pictures along the way. When we got hungry, we found a small but crowded restaurant on 5 de Mayo (a street), and ordered enchiladas and this carne asada dish with this sauce that tasted like Mexican yukaejang. It was delicious and cheap, the best combination you can get with food. We continued to walk around and look at the sights with the help of a tourist map we got in the morning and then took the metro back to the station closest to the airport, Panotitlan. Right outside Panotitlan there were a bunch of tents and street vendors so using the 10 of the 12 pesos we had left (about 80 cents in U.S. currency) I bought a watch since it was annoying not knowing the time. Content with our day, we headed back to the terminal, bought a deck of cards, and made up a card game we named SPEWFI (Speedy Poker Egyptian War for Idiots), a combination of 5 different games.

Already, I felt that traveling would help me grow because even after just one day I felt like I had been traveling for so long. I know that a day is not much time to change the way I think or put a lot of new ideas into my head, but even through the kindness of that one lady at the metro station I had certain expectations and prejudices put to rest. Everyone tells me, "Be careful! Don't get mugged or robbed!" but foreign places aren't all like that. Everyone's so afraid of different places, but people out here are kind and generous and there's no reason to suspect everyone of being shady. Don't be too quick to judge; so far, all I've had to do is ask for help and everyone has tried to assist me to the best of their abilities.

And only one person has ripped me off.