For my new placement on thursday, it was everything I expected. I am surrounded by a competitive soccer environment and it is just the thing that I have been missing. I have to wear shinguards, blue socks, these club shorts and a white shirt. When I arrived, I decided I would just make it a mellow day and help out with coaching and observe. Man was I wrong. When the guys started running I was just hanging with the other volunteer and the head director yelled across the field, well more gestures, that I needed to get running. He had no pity on me and that is exactly the push that I needed. I had to join them in a bunch of sprints and long runs before we started and on top of that, the heat. Surprisingly, I loved every minute of it. I missed being pushed by a coach to workout. We worked on shooting and then scrimmaged. I surprised these guys considering I am a girl (already been over this), and it was intense and fun. But after playing I realized how much I miss communication. I am use to telling them where to go or something simple such as "man on". I don't know how to communicate to them, so I have quite the challenge on my hands. It shows me how important communication really is. I played for 2 hours with these boys, which I assume were about 16 years old or so. I had a 3 hour break in between, so the other volunteer and I decided to walk to the beach (about 20 minute walk). We met up with the other guys and played some volleyball/soccer. Then, more soccer. Yeah, a whole day of soccer... nothing could make me more happy. I played soccer with the older guys and joined them in sprints and running again at the beginning. They were all really good and I was a little more hesitant until I got a little bit of a feel of how they play. After soccer we got two apples and a chocolate milk. It felt like I had started practices again and I loved it so much that I am going to attend the optional days that I am not required to work. After that we walked back over to Icarai beach and got an Açaì. Yeah I am using a portuguese laptop, so I can actually spell açaì correctly. I headed to beach soccer and just my luck... more running. My legs were exhausted by the end of the day, and running on the beach was a lot more difficult then the surface earlier (all dirt). I had a great conversation with the other volunteer about the differences of soccer between our countries and I will share that all one day, because he was shocked to see that they had to practice on such a bad surface. It's all different.
On saturday we spent the day at Ipanema beach, which is very similar to Copagabana. I did not bring my swimsuit because we arrived later and I had no plan to go into the water. Well, I ended up getting in the water and it was so nice. I spent about an hour and a half juggling with another volunteer alongside the water. It is common to see people juggling alongside the water here. He was a great person to juggle with because he is very skilled at it and he helped me to improve as the time passed. The challenge was when the water came at us and we had to juggle through the water. That night we decided to play cards on the beach and have a more mellow night, it was awesome. Today we spent the day at a market in Rio full of music and carnival activities. I will post pictures soon. I got to get some rest though because early in the morning we are going hang gliding over Copagabana, Ipanema and Rio. I am excited!! :)
Now that things have settled down, I can get back to blogging again and I have lots of cool things planned soon, so I will have great things to share!
Here are some pictures that I got from others. I will post the pictures from my camera soon :)
Yeah for new beginnings :)
ReplyDeleteI miss you too Christie!! And i'm sooooo glad that you are doing good again :)
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