Travel

Men’s Volleyball, Women’s Soccer, and a Fancy Pants Dinner

/ ceckman / Leave a comment

Here we go… rapid fire blogging!!!

We were at the Men’s Volleyball final – but only for bronze. After Russia was defeated it began to rain (I’m pretty sure Rasputin was at the match as well), and not having anything to cover my camera I suggested we make a run for it.

Holland putting the smackdown on Russia

Holland putting the smackdown on Russia

The next day we saw the final for Women’s Football, or Foo-chee-ball if you are Brasilian, and man soccer is boring. There were a total of I think 3 scores over the course of two hours. I wouldn’t know, I was too busy fantasizing about playing Rocket League instead of watching soccer. I got some good faces on the action shots though.

That face looks like a meme

That face looks like a meme

The Brasilians love the football. Even if they have to root for the Germans.

Germany Defending

Germany Defending

As an added bonus, and as an artist, I felt it only fair that I also captured the face of defeat.

The face of defeat

The face of defeat

For dinner we went to a big party at a private residence. I think the owner had recently died and his sons turned the building into a venue for parties and dinners. The whole place was really beautiful and the dinner was great. I wouldn’t want to cook for that many people, but they did a really great job.

Fancy pants party

Fancy pants party

Since it was night it was difficult to get this huge mountain looming over the property – but you get the idea.

Backdrop to a beautiful home

Backdrop to a beautiful home

The first night of Brasil

/ ceckman / 2 Comments

Hello faithful readers!

We saw the Women’s Beach Volleyball Bronze, Silver, and Gold last night!

Raking the sand before and in between comps

I was beginning to worry the first event we watched we would lose, but Kerri and April pulled it off in the end and took bronze. The stadium was a lot more intimate than I had expected, and even though we were pretty far back the view was still amazing.

DENIED!

Secret signals from behind

We both missed a lot, but we won last anyway!

(I hadn’t noticed until halfway through the Gold game that I had taken pictures of secret teammate communication. I typically don’t look at women volleyball player butts, but once I saw they held the key to strategy I was able to glean some serious trade secrets).The whole event was filled with lots of music, dancing, and of course camera phone blackouts.

Blackout!

 

Millenials and friends

The stadiums are a feat of last minute scaffolding, and although completely safe feel completely life threatening once you know you’re being support by a bunch of skinny pipes. Heavy cheers for Brasil during the second match should have taken down the entire stadium but somehow it stayed standing. Secretly I was Germany fan but I was not going to let anyone around me know it – the people of Brasil are firece in defending their teams… whether they lose or lose. (Technically one team ended up with Silver but neither team won their competeition of the night. It was sad to see most of the fans so defeated. Their teams seemed to take it fairly hard as well).

Something something balls to the face before something

 

Germnay fighting hard to lose a point

Overall the night was really great and as tired as we were we had a great time. We ended up staying for the medal ceremony so we didn’t leave the stadium until 1am. But when we got back the magic food room was open and I had my first taste of pasteis. They were so good, even though we were eating them at 2am. Needless to say – full of Olympic Volleyball, Caprihanas, and Pasteis, we crashed hard last night by 2:30am so we could get up for our 8:30am trip the next day….

Copacabana Palace, our home away from home

 

(Or in English, a Pastel)

Olá Brasil, e boas Jogos Olímpicos !

/ ceckman / Leave a comment

Hello Friends and Family!

Tim and I have landed in Brazil and we’re checked in to the beautiful Belmond Copacabana Palace. We flew overnight which means as soon as we landed I took a two hour nap and now feel anxious and dizzy – go figure. At least I caught the stomach flu the day BEFORE we left this time, so even though the last few days were fairly unpleasent the next few ones should be pretty incredible.

The Olympic Rings outside our window

The Olympic Rings outside our window

 

The entire hotel is full of people from NBC and Comcast. There is a hidden magical room that is full of food all day connected to a terrace with a view of one of the most beautiful views in Southern America. (Wow am I really this bad with Geography? Yes, yes I am). It’s kind of like a Brazillian Hogwarts, without the annoying Cursed Child addition.

Our itinerary is determined each morning the day before, but tonight we’ll be going to the Gold & Bronze women’s volleyball tournaments. Tomorrow we have our shore excursion, (Or as our guide Anddy from Hong Kong fishing willage always said, “source excursion”) to Christ Redeemer, and then tickets to see the men’s triathalon final and vitory ceremony. The schedule here seems pretty intense – our day trips go from 8:30-2p, and the main evening events go from 9-2:30am. As most of you know, I have the sleeping habits of a sloth, so we’ll see how this whole thing plays out. So far the only meltdown of the trip was when I freaked out because I forgot all of the dog food and toys when we went to drop the dogs off for boarding and we didn’t have enough time to drive back home and get everything. So I scrambled and begged Danielle to go on a huge pain of an errand to get into our house, pick them up, and then drop them off at the airport. Then we got to the airport, parked, and I found everything in the back of the car because I HADN’T forgotten them I am just losing my mind. So then we drove BACK to the boarding place (luckily it was close) to drop them off and then had a panic attack as we rushed to our gate in just under 30 minutes. Security was compeltely backed up so we cut it pretty close. I’ve never seen Tim get nervous about missing a flight so I consider the whole thing a personal victory as well as an epic failure. Anyway what would I write to you guys on my blog about if I remembered things and was calm and collected.

I think between morning and afternoon events I’ll be able to check in and post a few pictures everday, and it should help me enjoy the whole trip a lot more to be talking to all of you throughout it. We took a quick walk down Copa Cabana Beach to walk to the gift shop after my nap and it was like “A Taste of Colorado” meets Christmas at Disney. I have come a long way from social anxiety but the number of people on the boardwalk, the Philadelphia like smells, and the men standing around with assault weapons was just a little much to handle for my first few hours. It’s not exactly first world here, maybe second world – especially if you’re in the Shantytowns, but it’s definitely beautiful. Almost time to go to the magic room for dinner, here are a few first impression photos with many more to come. I brought my DSLR so hopfully I’ll have time to get some good shots!

The view on the Terrace outside the Magic Food room

The view on the Terrace outside the Magic Food room

Até logo!