Back Online Again!

Havn't been able to write for a few days because our internet has been down. At first we thought it was because of a big storm we had the other night, but it turns out that some moron in a big van tried to drive up our little street and went straight through the overhead cables, grrr! But we're back online now so that's ok! (Just difficult to remember everything of interest that has happened in the last few days!)

On Thursday with the kids we made bracelets and necklaces. It kept them amused for aaaages! We bought the stuff and sort of thought it would take maybe an hour at the most, but then as we were doing it I looked at my watch and most of the morning had gone!! It's always good when you find some way to keep them amused - stops them getting rowdy and fighting and stuff!!

That afternoon we went to a football match - my first football match ever!! It was Felipe's favourite team playing in their local stadium, so he was absolutely extatic!! He sent us this long email about how some people had been to a different game, but if we wanted to see a Real team play Reak football we had to come to this one! And anyone who didn't go he said wasn't his friend anymore! It was a good evening (although I probably won't go to another football match, wasn't really my thing, but glad I went for the experience!) The Botafogo supporters were insane! They had hundreds of different chants which were accompanied by some live drummers! Needless to say, they won 1-0, but because of all the flags and dancing and jumping on chairs going on in front, most of us didn't actually see the goal! Still, it was fun! And it also involved a long trip on a crazy train, so that was an experience too!

We were all absolutely knackered on Friday when we headed off to project. We finished off decorating the kid's photo frames and started making some Birthday Cards (on Saturday it was Leanne's birthday - she lives in the other house and has been to project with us once so knows the kids, and I also made one for mum with the help of a 5 year old girl... it's very glittery!!)

I didn't go out on Friday night in the end, but a few of the others did and they ended up meeting some GORGEOUS boys who we happened to meet up with on Ipanema beach on Saturday (I thought I'd tag along for that, hehe!). It was insane, we got to post 9 on the beach and it was so so crowded, we never thought we'd find them! But we said, ''If it's meant to be....'' and all of a sudden, they started walking towards us! Seriously, have never seen anyone so perfect in my LIFE! And he speaks English (with an Australian accent!) Perfection. Can't really believe I'm writing this on here where mostly family will read this, but honestly, after we'd seen him the 5 of us girls talked about nothing else for the rest of the afternoon!

Later on we all went out for a meal for Leanne's birthday. There were 30 of us trying to get into this restaurant, but fortunately the building was huge and they put us on the very top floor! We thought it was going to be a BBQ buffet, but it turned out to be another all you can eat pizza place (but unlike the other one, they also served past dishes which was a nice change!) Unfortunately, the pudding pizzas weren't quite as good this time. They were all covered in really bright sickly icing stuff, so any that we didn't like we tried to pass onto other people! It was very funny for a while, everytime someone turned around they ended up with 3 sickly slices of pizza on their plate! In the end, Danni ended up getting all of them - hahaha!

We were absolutely stuffed by this point, so we decided to walk into Lapa where there was a Bloco going on - an official street party to mark the beginning of Carnival. We thought it would be fun anyway, but also the gorgeous guy said he'd be there and try to meet us - so that was another good incentive! Alas, we didn't bump into him :( but it was fun anyway! The Bloco finished quite early (11 oçlock, but it had started at 5..!) and we'd met this guy who said he was going to be performing at this club nearby. It was supposed to be Samba with the guy rapping over the top. So we went! The guy never actually performed, but the club was really cool anyway! It was playing hip hop all night, and there was some awesome dancing going on!! Seriously, the Brazilians CAN DANCE!! It was brilliant fun for a while (although a little cringeworthy on our dancing-parts, did have alittle help from a professional dancer, so couldve been worse!) but for some reason, most of the clubs here only play one sort of music all night, so after a while it gets a little repetitive! We left quite early cos we were all so tired!

Today we are thinking of ehading to the beach again. Probably Ipanema - it's further away than Flamengo, but it is full of gorgeous people, and the sea is really really good for swimming in :) and then later on we're going to head up to Santa Theresa (need to get a tram upthe hill, which is kind of exciting!) because there's supposed to be really good live Samba on Sunday nights... fingers crossed that we find it!

Phew, long blog!
Tchau xxxxx