Pork's

Last night I went to a Palmeiras soccer game with my student and good friend Tulião. Tulio is from São Paulo and all the Italians in the region root for this particular team. They are currently in second place, and considering I haven't been to a soccer game since my first time in Bahia we made plans to go. I was feeling down and out because of my recent problems at my job but Tulio is an extremely affable fellow and he cheered me up. We picked up his cousin, who spoke English, because he had spent some time in Vancouver learning the language. We arrived at the stadium in a neighborhood of Florianopolis which Tulio and Ana, my other student, had dubbed the Bronx of Floripa, not knowing that Yankee stadium is located there, just hearing that the boogie down is a rough and tough burrough. As we walked through the crowded, active streets Tulio took in deep whifs of the BBQ meat pretending to express his interest in the taco bell quality meat. We got a beer before the game and watched the team arrive in their plush bus less than 2 hours before the game. I was surprised as generally American professional teams arrive significantly earlier. We sat in the Palmeiras section of the stadium which was rowdy but well behaved. The fans were predominantly male, and predominately dressed in green showing their team colors. The crowd belted out their team anthem, which happens to have the same melody as many other team anthems only the lyrics change. Palmeiras has over 20 hymns devoted to their nickname, Porco, or pig. It dawned on me, this must be my kindred team because of the Washington Redskins hog affiliation. During the half I braved the penguin-paced crowd to go to the bathroom, which was oddly like a trough, and to get an ice cold beer. Unfortunately after buying the beer I realized that because of hooligans they no longer serve beer with alcohol and I unknowingly had bought a non-alcoholic brewski. Tulio's favorite player is name Rocke and Tulio has dubbed him Predator because of his hair which is strikingly similar to the super-villain. Tulio and his cousins said that the entire soccer team would most likely be heading to one of the high class strip clubs after the game. The game ended in a tie, which is good as in I woke up today avoiding any soccer riot related black eyes or bruises.