Adventures!!

The boys have had a blast so far. They find it very funny to try to understand the language and figure out all the things to eat. Eric met a kid his age at the tennis court and played with him several hours. Alan tried to understand "A Era do Gelo 3" (Ice Age 3) and forgot it was in Portuguese by the time it finished.

Fernando has dealt with getting lost a couple of times to and from work- the last time it took him 30 minutes to find a way back; he was already driving to Sao Paulo!!!

I, on the other hand, have had a good laugh just by looking at the people trying to figure out what I'm saying! Take today in the morning : we were having breakfast downstairs and a gentleman sat next to us, and like a good Carioca, started talking to us (in Portuguese, of course). He chatted away, telling us about his 8 children, 26 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren. I was amused at the whole story and was replying, and according to me , I was even asking questions... all of a sudden he abruptly and without any kind of sign or warning, changed into French and kept on going . I was able to keep up, but he never went back to Portuguese even though I tried... what an elegant way of letting me know he didn't understand a bit of what I said!!!

While at Barra Shopping, we saw a group of people playing "Rock Band" guitars and drums in front of a crowd, which we later found out was part of a sales event from Master Card (for every R$100 in MC vouchers you had one chance of "feeling like a rock star"). Guess who wanted to do that??? Well, both Eric and Alan were excited at the idea (my coy little ones) but when we turned in our vouchers we were R$32 short. The guy saw them so excited about it that he waived the amount, got them some Mohawk wigs, and set them on the stage, with the bright lights and loud music, the crowd cheering and photographers. Alan sang while Eric played the drums to "The Eye of the Tiger" and of course Mom & Dad cheered and clapped. They each got their t-shirt with the leyend (in Portuguese) saying "feeling like a rock star... priceless with Master Card").

We apparently have been surrounded by Brazilian tv stars and ignored them; a famous football (soccer) player stayed at the hotel. I saw him at the beach surrounded by fans, and the driver told me today that he's really famous.

As we came out of the hotel yesterday, we had to walk through cameras, buses, people, etc. - it turns out they are filming some kind of soap opera here.

We saw the Hannah Montana movie today (speaking Portuguese, it was hilarious!), and as we walked out of the movie theater, we almost bumped into two young ladies that were being followed by a HUGE camera that was filming something... hmmm guess we have to watch more tv here!!! OR maybe they know we are here already!!! HEY Paparazzi: can't you see we're hiding?!