Greetings from São Paulo
Prior to leaving last night we went out for a
nice staff dinner. Tidied up a few last minute details and we were off to the
airport to get ready for a 10 hour flight. Before the flight I stopped in one
of the stores me bought Shawnee and Lisa a couple of books on success as a way
to say thanks for letting me join this ride this summer. It has been a great
learning experience to say the least.
The flight was at 11:40 pm so my goal
was to sleep most of the way. Once we got airborne they served us a pretty bad
meal and then I heard something I had only heard on TV before. The flight
attendant asked if there was a doctor on board. Luckily including our team
doctor and another, the two took care of a situation quickly. Apparently a
woman was having a serious asthma attack. After this, everything went smooth. I
slept for about 7 hours. Woke up as they were serving a light breakfast.
The
approach into São Paulo was a cloudy and wet one. Rain and fog as we came in so
I didn't get to see much on the flight in. After we got our bags we had to wait
a little bit before we could head out. What we thought would be a 2 hour bus
ride to São Carlos is really 4. Our team leader had to track down a few cases
of water to have for the drive.
So I type this as we drive. So far the city
looks like an industrial city and we were greeted shortly after we left the
airport with a familiar face....Walmart. They're everywhere.
Lots of palm trees
around and so far have seen almost a dozen Volkswagen vans. Something you don't
see much of at home.
The bus ride will continue for a few more hours until São
Carlos and then we have practice at 7. I will update later tonight
So here I am in Sao Carlos. A neat little city of approximately 200,000 people. The drive took us about 4 hours and we stopped halfway at a big rest stop. We all got coffee and hot drinks as the bus was cool. There were also toasted ham and cheese sandwiches which were OK. I had slept most of the way on the bus so the coffee was a nice wake up. A harsh, bitter type of coffee that I couldn't even rescue with sweetener. It was funny to watch though when our video analyst, who hasn't travelled much internationally, tasted his coffee and said it was weird, almost too salty. Looked at the sugar packets he used...yep SALT. Needless to say he got another one.
Along the drive we got to see the countryside. Long, rolling hills. Quite green and you could see it was a lot of farmland. People were out working in the fields along the way and every once in a while a village would pop up with houses jammed very close together and often built into the side of a hill. Very interesting landscape. I am anticipating what the rest of the area will look like.
When we arrived here it was cool outside. I forgot that it was winter here ..late winter. People were all bundled up in big jackets and toques. I didn't mind it but I guess for this place it is cold. We immediately had to go to our snack/lunch which was meats and cheeses and bread. I made a sandwich and then headed to a coaches meeting. This meeting ended at 6 and we were leaving for practice at 6:30. I went to my room and grabbed a quick shower which felt incredible. Jumped back on the bus and headed to practice. Of course because it is winter, it is dark here at 6:30. Yucky.
Practice was held in an open air facility which means there are openings along the side of the building and there are heavy tarp like gates at different spots. The gym was very cold but the girls managed to have a very good practice.
We came back and immediately had our supper. Some kind of beef in gravy, a very nice tortellini, chicken, rice and potato & pasta salads. A nice meal. I exited fairly quickly afterwards as I just wanted to have some relax time. So here I am finishing up this blog.
We have a long day tomorrow and then we play Argentina at 6pm. The following day we play at 4pm and then Sunday we play at 1pm. We stay here on Sunday night and then drive back to Sao Paulo on Monday. Flight leaves in the night heading back to Canada. A whirlwind tour of Brazil. I will try and keep up to date as the days go on.
Until tomorrow.....
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