anybody know what the Brazilian word for "football" is?

It’s probably not a surprise to hear that being in Brazil for the world cup is *quite* an experience.  Not only is it an engaging phenomenon to watch, but it’s downright contagious.  I, like most Americans, found football (I won’t stoop to calling it soccer until I’m back in the States) to be interesting in theory but a little slow and frustrating to watch on television, because scoring seems elusive and there’s a lot of time spent trying to get possession of the ball.  I’ve only seen two games thus far – the ones in the past week versus Croatia and then Australia two days ago.  But man, I’m hooked.  I’m now the one telling everyone else in the room (~5-10 of my Brazilian friends) to shut up so I can watch the game.  On the day of the game everyone, and I mean *everyone*, gets dressed up in yellow and green, from grandmothers to 2-year old children.  Each game is, without exaggerating, the equivalent of a national holiday.  Everyone goes to a party that is as big or bigger than the superbowl parties in the States.  Lots of the parties have a band.  The public areas all have wide cinema-sized projection screens for people who don’t have TV’s to watch the game.  Everyone stops working and the streets are deserted for the duration of the game.  Any suggestion of doing something productive while the game is going on is met with stares of incredulity.

On Sunday, I woke up from my (now increasingly regular) afternoon nap to the sound of extremely loud fireworks outside my bedroom window.  As should be to no one’s surprise, regulations on the sale, distribution, and use of fireworks here are much more lax than in the US.  It’s really easy to get your hands on something that when you light it makes a really, really loud sound, and also has a pretty good chance of blowing your hand off.  But I guess that’s part of the fun.  Because of the buildup for the festival de São João (festival of Saint John), fireworks have been going off during the day and night with increasing frequency since I arrived here a few weeks ago.  The World Cup games only add to the reasons for setting something off that is guaranteed to deafen anyone within 10 meters or so.  Before the games there is a crescendo of loud bangs, and even the smell of gunpowder in the air, until the game starts and you here everyone cheering in the streets and in their homes.  Then during the game, if there is a goal scored by Brazil (or sometimes even if there’s not) fireworks go off everywhere and you can hear everyone yelling and cheering in their respective apartments or wherever.  

During the game vs. Croatia, when the first (and only) goal was scored by Brazil, my neighbor’s kid (I was watching the game at his place because I don’t own a TV) ran outside to light some unbelievably dangerous-looking minibomb.  I, having no access to this kind of firepower in my own country, ran after him of course.  Unfortunately because it had been raining all freaking week it was nearly impossible to get a match lit let alone ignite the firecracker-thingy.  The kid tried a couple of times unsuccessfully, until I wrestled the matches and 2 remaining bombs out of his hands to show him how it was done.  After a number of unsuccessful tries and lots of swearing in both Portuguese and English, I gave up and so did he, and we ran back into the apartment to watch the rest of the game.

The next game is Thursday, versus Japan.