Writing

Basketball, Closing Ceremonies & Departure Day

/ ceckman / 1 Comment

The next day we had most of the morning to sleep in. Our only events of the day were the Men’s Basketball Finals and Closing Ceremonies.

We won Gold, which was awesome, but it wasn’t even a close game. I actually started feeling bad for Serbia near the end of it as we had double their score. It was a swift victory, and I was glad we weren’t playing against Brasil because people get really into their teams there. There was a fun break from basketball though when the Mascot came out to dance. He was doing Whip and Nae Nae before I got my camera out so sorry Stasia, but this is still pretty good too.

Afterwards, we took a bus directly to closing ceremonies. Traffic was horrendous, because you know everyone who was going to see events all over the city all week were now all headed to the same event at the same venue at the same time. I would guess the bus ride took about two hours. Also, did I mention the rain? It was raining very hard. Even after we arrived….

Everyone was soaked. The athletes, the performers, everyone in their seats (it was an open air stadium). I could have been pretty miserable but I had a raincoat and a poncho on top of it and just tried to enjoy it the best I could. Which was great, because Douglas and Randy finally spotted us on TV!!!

 

 

I went back to theNBC Closing Ceremonies Live Replay on NBC’s Website and around 2:30:00 I snagged those shots above. I look like I’m wearing a Hijab but whatever, it’s cool. We left soon after this, but what was awesome was that during the announcement of the 2020 Olympic in Japan Mario came out of the stage!

Nintendo almost NEVER does any agreements for anything so if they are involved in the Tokyo Olympics that is just going to be so awesome. The way home didn’t take near as long, and we were back to the hotel before we knew it!

Departure day was a LONG day. Our flight didn’t leave until late evening so we spent most of the day packing and getting ready in the hotel. By the time we got to the airport the place was swamped – everyone kept telling us that it was the busiest day in the airport’s history.

Getting through security wasn’t too horrible with NBC, and we actually boarded on time as well. But then we got stuck on the tarmac for almost 2 hours, and even though we sprinted as soon as we landed in Houston we missed our connection. Sticky, stinky, and exhausted, we finally got on a standby flight (middle seat coach!) and got home safe. It was a great adventure we both really enjoyed. Brasil is a beautiful country, although I don’t know that I would have done something like this without the group we had. We were chaperoned, carted around in busses, and we had a security detail following us almost everywhere we went. It truly was a safe, super awesome vacation.

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

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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)