Big Noah and the Big Game

Big Noah at a Big Game

Greeting earthlings,

I am sorry for not maintaining contact yesterday because I was on a flight. 

Anyway, yesterday was the day my mom would have had an aneurism. We woke up ready for our last day in Recife to go watch USA play Germany. The moment I looked outside, I knew that I was in deep doodoo. It wasn't just raining cats and dogs, it was raining lions and foxes. I mean it was torrential rain. After only 2 hours of raining, the streets were flooded to people's knees! I right then right there got done on my knees and prayed to god that the game wouldn't get cancelled, or even delayed (reasons to come later). We packed our ponchos, and went outside to hail a cab. Now, it is hard to hail a taxi in the rain in Chicago, where there are millions of taxis, but in Recife..... Not so much. My dad, the hero in a blue, poofy poncho, stood outside in the pouring rain for no shorter than 45 minutes to hail us a taxi. Once we got in the cab, we would only had 4 hours left until kickoff, and it took about an hour and a half to from the metro all the way to Arena Pernambuco. By now I was hyperventilating not in a paper bag. At this point, my mom would start to have a seizure. Our metro stop was at the airport, which was only a seven minute drive in regular weather. In REGULAR weather. I took us about an hour of driving through puddles that would be up to my shins. Once we got to the airport with about 3 hours left, and the taxi dropped us at the ticket line for the metro. The line went the length of the entire domestic terminal, plus more. I was flipping out. My dad, the gutsy South African who would NOT stand in line, decided to go to the front of line and act like he belonged there. The line that would have taken an hour to stand in ended up being five minutes long. Everything was smooth sailing until I heard there might be a delay. That's not good seeing the we have a 5 pm flight and the game on ends around 3. Plus, it's a long haul back. This is the point where my mom might pass out. But it turns out that it wasn't a delay, so we were all happy, and poor Rachie was revived. Once we looked at our  seats, we noticed that the were in a corner, right on the field. They were amazing. Anyway.. USA lost but they're still moving on. Thank you Ghana and Portugal! We sadly had to leave 4 minutes early to get to our flight, which was so hard for me. The person who owns the apartment we were staying at said that she would bring the luggage to the airport. We show up there , and there is no luggage. Grace (the owner) said she wad trying to get a taxi for 40 minutes. This is the point where my mom would have a heart attack. Rami quickly jumped in a cab to go pick it up. It turns out she was sitting in the parking garage waiting for a friend to pick her up. As Rami is backing out of the apartment, the cab brakes. Rami begs him to keep going, and gives him all his money to the driver to pay for the cab. Once we got the luggage, we checked in and got on the flight. once at our gate, none other than Joakim Noah shows up. yes Joakim Noah from the Bulls. David Rami and Alan follow him and found John Wall. Yes, John Wall from the Wizards. It turns out that they were all traveling in a pack to all of the USA games. We then flew to São Paulo, then São Paulo to Rio, and go to our hotel safely. This morning we woke up, ate breakfast in the hotel, and went just across the street to the Fifa Fan Store, where I bought s hat. Now, I am sitting on my bed, my dad is packing, and blogging to you from half way around the world.

With Great Love,

Ben

Big Shul

He everyone,
First before I blog, I would like to give a shout out to Luis al Amarelar de Cagada and his tandem writer Francisco de Maracanã al Gluten-frėe Grànolá (Rick, this is your temporary name).
Anyway, today was fun. I was woken up army style, with Rina walking up and down the halls telling us to wake up because our dads were showing up in the cars they rented. Once we got in the car, we drove 20 minutes to the oldest synagogue in the new world/americas.it was very nice. It was very well persevered, as well. Not only were we able to see the Shul, we were able to go up to the bimah. Sadly, that was renovated ass well so it wasn't the real thing. In a glass case on the bimah was the Torah that they used. I looked at it and it seemed familiar. The more I looked the more it looked like my bar mitzvah porting. I got so excited by this weird coincidence, but then I realized it wasn't, and then I was bummed. After the Shul, we drove to Olinda, a small town 20 north of Recife. We walked around in the old city which was very nice, and then stopped for lunch at a steak restaurant which was also very nice. After the lunch, we started to drive to a beach 1 hour away from Olinda. W went a third of the way, which took an hour, and decided to go back home because it looked like the drive was going to be super long, it looked like it was going to rain, it was going to be dark in an hour, and my dad hasn't been doing so great. He has a cold. He's been hacking all over the place. It's been ugly. So we turned around and went to the shopping center where we watched the game. We then went home and ate dinner of pasta and hotdogs. Now I am sitting on my bed, getting ready to read, and blogging to you half way around the world.
With Great Love,
Ben

Beg Waves part 2

Hello world.
Today was not the most exciting day on my venture into the heart of Brazil. I slept in because I could until 11. Once I woke up, we headed to the beach, where we swam for 4 hours. the waves were very big, so it wasfun jumping them. We (Alan,David, Rami, and I) played soccer for a good part of those 4 hours. Thhr teams were me and david vs alan and rami, and me and david demolished. Most of those 4 hours it was raining, so soccer was even more fun. After the beach, we went straight to the pool on the top floor (also outdoors, so it was also raining), and swam for a half hour. In the pool we played POTUS. After our swim, we got dressed and headed to a buffet to eat that was recommended by the concierge. It was very VERY local. Te food was okay, not great, but everything else was good.  Te best part was as we were leaving they startedto play music, so the dads, bent on embarrasing us, decided that the only way we could walk out of the restaraunt was to dance. as if my. Dad wasn't embarrasing enough, the entire restaraunt had to see him shake his bum-bum, and worst of all, i had to dance with him. We walked home afterwards, and I am now in our apartment, watching Simpsons in portugese, and blogging to you half way around the world.
With Great Love,
Ben

Big Fans

Hi y'all.
Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. I was up until 2 am on a flight. Anyway... Yesterday, we woke up really early (7:30) to go to the "hippie fest" (by the way, I am still in Rio at this point). It was like a fair that sold everything from purses made out of soda can to art made out of soda cans.  We stayed there for about an hour, then want back to our apartment to get ready for our second game: Belgium vs Russia. The game was pretty boring, until Belgium scored in the 85th minute. After the game, we headed to our apartment to watch the highly anticipated USA vs Portugal game. My commentary on the game: USA played an outstanding game besides the absolutely stupid goal in the 5th minute, a nod giving up the tying goal in the final seconds. If they hadn't have scored, the USA would now be into the second round. Now all we have to do is tie, which seems pretty easy, except it is against Germany, one of the greatest teams around.

Anyway, as soon as the game ended, we rushed to the airport to catch our flight at 23:00 (or 11:00 pm for you Americans) that landed in Recife at 2 in the morning. We got to our apartment and fell asleep. Today was much more interesting. We were woken up by the Mizrahi's and their need to leave so we get there before the game starts. (5 hours before game started).  We were going to see the Mexico vs Croatia game. It was important because the winner moves on, and the loser is eliminated. We left at noon for the shopping mall to get the Mizrahis ponchos because it was threatening to rain all day, but in the end we didn't have to use them (thank god). We got to the game an hour and a half before, like we always do, and sat down in our seats. We found ourselves in the middle of the crazies!!! The game was a lot of fun, and Mexico won which made the Mizrahis extremely ecstatic. The only down side was that I had a huge headache, and I wasn't in the greatest shape, but I made it back to the apartment and took a cold shower (funny story: we don't have warm water. In an apartment building. It's not even an option!) and now I feel much better. I am now lying in bed, blogging to you, my adoring fans, from half way across the world.
With Great Love,
Ben

Big Waves

Dear beloved fans (and mom),
Today was not the most interesting day here in Brazil. The parents woke up at 7:00 in order to bike to the sugar loaf, while we (the kids) stayed asleep. Once we woke up, we went to Ipanema Beach. We played some soccer volleyball, which is volleyball but you can't use your hands, then we went in the water. We could only go in so much because the waves where absolutely enormous, and there was a huge undertow. We were there for 2 hours, then we left to watch the first game. We then walked to a restaurant for lunch,where most of them had pizza, but I had chicken.after lunch, me and my dad went on a bike ride from Ipanema to the end of Copacabana and back, and on the way there we went by the fifa fun fest. It was absolutely packed on the bike path, and we practically had to walk our bikes to be able to get through, but not without a couple of people swearing at us in a couple of languages. After our ride, we met up with the Mizrahis and went to play beach soccer on a beach. Once we were done, we went to Bob's Burgers, which was okay. Now, I am watching the end of the last game and blogging to all of you.
With Great Love,
Ben

Big Jesus

Hi y'all,
Today was a lot of fun. We were woken up by the sleep demons at 7:00 in the morning. We had to wake up early in order to miss the lines to go up to the "big Jesus". Once we got up to "big Jesus", we could see the entire city of rio. From the favelas to maracana. We managed to get there just in time because a fog was rolling in over rio. Once we got down back down the mountain we headed to a really good place for lunch. I would like to take credit for it, but it was my mom who was the one who recommended it. 2 for 2 so far mom, not to shabby. After the delightful steak that I ate, we decided to walk to a hike. A little redundant, isn't it? Our hike was a hike the squiggles would enjoy so much. A hard climb through the jungle over rocks and tree branches. The climb was to the cable car that took us up to the mountain Sugar Loaf. We climbed for half an hour only to find out that we had to buy the tickets on the ground. We walked back and went to the Fifa Fan Fest in order to sell our tickets for the game that we bought but it ended up that we are going to be in Recife during the game. We had 6 tickets, two were ours and four were the Mizrahi's, and we sold them $300 a piece. We then headed back to our room, and now I'm crashing on a couch and I'm about to fall asleep.
With Great Love,
Ben

The Steak of the Ages

Dear beloved fans,
I have been criticized about my work, and I respond to that: it looks like you're SOL. I write the way I want, and you can't do anything about it. You shall enjoy my work or don't read this. I don't care which one.
Now, back to brazil. Today we didn't do much because it was raining cat and dogs Brazilian style.  Barely got to walk around when it was not raining. We did however get into a restaurant down the street from our room that has been packed the entire time we've been here. We sat and had some drinks and some fries. We were going to walk to Copacabana, but it was still pouring, so we stayed here and watched some more futbol. The men went out to wait in a line for dinner, and we joined them as they got to the front of the line. We ate at a very well known restaurant, known for its meat that you get to cook yourself. It might have been the best steak I've ever had. I am right know chilling in my bed, doing absolutely nothing besides talking to all of you.
 With Great Love,
Ben