Muitos Japas!
New Home
Friday was moving day. After our EB meeting (yes.. an EB meeting on Friday night during vacations... aren't we dedicated :P ) Fernando and Renato (both Japanese so I can still use the main title) drove me back to Iza's house to get my bags. I finished packing and said goodbye and then we we off in search of my new home. Yep... in search. None of us knew exactly how to get there, haha. But after a breif stop at Habib's to refuel (us, not the car) we found it. I am now, for the next two weeks, staying at Guilherme's apartment while he is away for vacation. So that works out well, but I will have to move again in two weeks when he comes back.
Japanese Festival... with a Brazilian Twist ;)
On Saturday afternoon I bravely took a bus to the subway and met up with Koba, Judy, Barbara and Kyle (LCP of @ITA) to go to the Japanese festival. They had a Taiko drup set up that you could try (pictures forcoming) and lots of little shops. There was a whole shop filled with manga but it was all in portuguese, oddly enough ;) They also had booths set up with food from all the different reagions of Japan. It was interesting, though, how everything was still a touch brazillian. One of the stalls was serving sake caipirhina, called saikirhina (don't quote me on the spelling). Other stalls were selling pastels :P Haha, so very Japanese. I tried some icecream tempura, which was veeeeery good. Then I had the great challenge of getting home. I took the subway and then the bus and asked for help in finding the right street, in Portuguese! And I made it back just fine.
Field of Dreams....
Yes.... this picture (which will be coming soon) IS in fact a softball diamond in the middle of a farm!
I got up at 4:30 this morning and met some of the members from the FEA USP softball team at the subway. Then we drove for a good hour and a half to a small town and then into the middle of a farm... where there were a set of beautiful softball diamonds. And wow, what a sight for sore eyes that was! I was in heaven! Softball diamonds!!!!!!!
So how does this section fit in with the main title? Well according to the team members, it was the Japanese who introduced baseball and softball to Brazil, and it is still largely this group that plays it. So 95% of the people there today were Japanese. The whole torunement was sponsored by Japanese companies and at lunch time they even had some Taiko Drum players come and perform, which was really cool.
I was so happy to be playing ball. They started me at shortstop (what on earth gave them that idea???) in the first game. I went 2 for 3 at the plate with the out being a line drive right at the third basemen that she caught >_<. We lost though. The in the second game I started in Centre Field, then went to First Base and then Third Base. We were down 8-0 after the first two innings, but had a great comback inning where we scored 7 runs... but it wasn't enough and we lost 11-9. I was 1 for 2 with a walk, the out again a liner at the third basemen (darn it!). But the hit was a really nice one, and I was very glad to have at least one really solid hit :)
Ok, ok... enough of the play by play... it was interesting playing in Portuguese :P There were cheers of "Vai Vai Vai!!!" [Go, go go] and I felt odd calling for the ball and yelling in English :P The team thought it was pretty neat to have me playing with them, and they cheered "Go Jess Go" when I batted :P Overall they were a really great group and I told them to stop by the AIESEC office in Aug for a visit. And I might get to play again with them later.
Playing today made me realize how much I missed softball, and if I have to opportunity to play ball at any point in the rest of my life, I should take it ;)
Oh, another intersting note, the rules they had were a real insult to gender equality (in a funny way). The guys were not allowed to:
- hit a homerun (if they did they were out)
- hit the ball "hard" at a girl (if they did they were out)
- steal
- slide
- bunt
The only thing the girls were not allowed to do was pitch. I thought this was quite humorous because I could hit the ball harder than a couple of the guys. :P
FEA USP FEA USP Vai Vai Vai!!! ;)
Friday was moving day. After our EB meeting (yes.. an EB meeting on Friday night during vacations... aren't we dedicated :P ) Fernando and Renato (both Japanese so I can still use the main title) drove me back to Iza's house to get my bags. I finished packing and said goodbye and then we we off in search of my new home. Yep... in search. None of us knew exactly how to get there, haha. But after a breif stop at Habib's to refuel (us, not the car) we found it. I am now, for the next two weeks, staying at Guilherme's apartment while he is away for vacation. So that works out well, but I will have to move again in two weeks when he comes back.
Japanese Festival... with a Brazilian Twist ;)
On Saturday afternoon I bravely took a bus to the subway and met up with Koba, Judy, Barbara and Kyle (LCP of @ITA) to go to the Japanese festival. They had a Taiko drup set up that you could try (pictures forcoming) and lots of little shops. There was a whole shop filled with manga but it was all in portuguese, oddly enough ;) They also had booths set up with food from all the different reagions of Japan. It was interesting, though, how everything was still a touch brazillian. One of the stalls was serving sake caipirhina, called saikirhina (don't quote me on the spelling). Other stalls were selling pastels :P Haha, so very Japanese. I tried some icecream tempura, which was veeeeery good. Then I had the great challenge of getting home. I took the subway and then the bus and asked for help in finding the right street, in Portuguese! And I made it back just fine.
Field of Dreams....
Yes.... this picture (which will be coming soon) IS in fact a softball diamond in the middle of a farm!
I got up at 4:30 this morning and met some of the members from the FEA USP softball team at the subway. Then we drove for a good hour and a half to a small town and then into the middle of a farm... where there were a set of beautiful softball diamonds. And wow, what a sight for sore eyes that was! I was in heaven! Softball diamonds!!!!!!!
So how does this section fit in with the main title? Well according to the team members, it was the Japanese who introduced baseball and softball to Brazil, and it is still largely this group that plays it. So 95% of the people there today were Japanese. The whole torunement was sponsored by Japanese companies and at lunch time they even had some Taiko Drum players come and perform, which was really cool.
I was so happy to be playing ball. They started me at shortstop (what on earth gave them that idea???) in the first game. I went 2 for 3 at the plate with the out being a line drive right at the third basemen that she caught >_<. We lost though. The in the second game I started in Centre Field, then went to First Base and then Third Base. We were down 8-0 after the first two innings, but had a great comback inning where we scored 7 runs... but it wasn't enough and we lost 11-9. I was 1 for 2 with a walk, the out again a liner at the third basemen (darn it!). But the hit was a really nice one, and I was very glad to have at least one really solid hit :)
Ok, ok... enough of the play by play... it was interesting playing in Portuguese :P There were cheers of "Vai Vai Vai!!!" [Go, go go] and I felt odd calling for the ball and yelling in English :P The team thought it was pretty neat to have me playing with them, and they cheered "Go Jess Go" when I batted :P Overall they were a really great group and I told them to stop by the AIESEC office in Aug for a visit. And I might get to play again with them later.
Playing today made me realize how much I missed softball, and if I have to opportunity to play ball at any point in the rest of my life, I should take it ;)
Oh, another intersting note, the rules they had were a real insult to gender equality (in a funny way). The guys were not allowed to:
- hit a homerun (if they did they were out)
- hit the ball "hard" at a girl (if they did they were out)
- steal
- slide
- bunt
The only thing the girls were not allowed to do was pitch. I thought this was quite humorous because I could hit the ball harder than a couple of the guys. :P
FEA USP FEA USP Vai Vai Vai!!! ;)
posted by Jess at
9:13 p.m.
2 Comments:
I'm so glad you got to play some ball. It sounds like you really miss it. Hope there are pictures to come. Miss ya
By
Anonymous, at 11:18 p.m.
Ice cream tempura? Jealousy strikes!
By
Anonymous, at 2:17 a.m.
Post a Comment
<< Home