Soccer – World Cup

 

Brazil is known as the soccer country. Many awesome players from the past started off their careers in Brazil, however, the really good ones move on to European teams so as to increase their income. While some of them increase their income, others also increase their egos and then when they come to play a World Cup match, they forget that they're playing for the sake of playing and not just for the money that they're making. I do not have to state names because everybody knows what I think about one of our players that the only thing he does is fall down or get hurt.

It's World Cup season out of season, end of the year, Christmas is approaching, the school year also ending - so much to do so much to do - and the World Cup is underway. Funny how people get together to cheer for a nation and it is so important to win the game. The traditional shirt is yellow and green or green and yellow, whichever way you prefer to say it, however, for four years this shirt has been attached to the horrible government that we are under. I myself do not have the courage hitherto to wear my yellow and green soccer shirt to watch a match. There are blue and white ones, too. I just wear an army green T-shirt and blue and yellow accessories to represent the Brazilian flag.

Although the elections were fair and democratic, the people who follow the government or better yet the president who's on his way out, praise him as if he were a myth. I've been thinking about this recently and I can't understand how people believe his lies and I'm not just saying that to say it out of spite. You just have to look around. There are more homeless people everywhere; prices at the supermarket have skyrocketed and I'm not talking about special products that are always expensive, I'm talking about the everyday rice and beans that people need to eat. It's hard for me to accept the fact that the people who believe in this president, who's on his way out, do you not see what's happening around in their own cities, in their own neighborhoods.

These blind followers blame everything on the government that was or shall I say, the president who will start his government as of January 1^st, 2023. Hopefully this situation in the country will start to get better, I do realize that it's going to take a lot of work and the president who is on his way out of office is not going to go so easily; he has disappeared from his social medias and even from the cameras. In addition to not even taking place in the transition phase from one government to the other.

Nonetheless, it is the World Cup and everybody is just happy to cheer for our country. It's as if there is no problem going on; as if there's no COVID and who cares if the numbers are rising large groups of people are getting together to cheer on the soccer team; close together and hugging each other with no masks on and just helping the numbers rise. But, of course, what is important is that Brazil wins the World Cup. The rest does not matter.

 Written: December 8, 2023

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Everything I know about soccer I learned from my Father

 

This is the first World Cup game that I am watching ever since my dad passed; Brazil´s very first game is against Serbia. As soon as the national anthem started playing the tears started rolling down my cheeks with so much saudades - Saudades is a word in Portuguese which is not translated in any other language.  It is a noun which means that you really miss someone or something and at this moment, while I was standing in my TV room singing the national anthem, as my dad and I always used to do, I realize how much I miss him. Don't get me wrong! I think about my father every day, it's just that all the 1st events hurt or are more painful than the others for example, the first Christmas, the 1st birthday, the first family gathering, the first Sunday dinner without his presence, and so on hurt much more than the second and 3rd and 4th … however this is the first real soccer World Cup games that I I'm watching without him since his passing in 2017.

The World Cup in 2018 was in Russia and the time zone or time schedule for me was not applicable therefore, I didn't bother to watch the games and I guess that I did not want to watch the games without my father's presence. Nevertheless, this time it's hitting me hard because of my emotional state I'm crying more. As I'm watching the game, I am speaking to my father as if he were watching the game with me.

You know, when people meet me, they judge that I might not know much about soccer, but dad taught me a lot. It makes me proud that I learned my lesson. It's funny how I still have the habit of yelling at the TV believing that the words that I'm saying is reaching the coach telling him who to whom with and also yelling at the players that whoever is on the left is free; things like, kick the ball, pass the ball to the guy, don't be so egoistic as to wanting to make the goal, just play the play, no! get the ball out of there… These things that I yell at the TV just like my father used to do. When Brazil makes a goal, there is jumping, there is screaming but that is like for what 15 seconds and then it's back to concentrating on the game.

Boy, do I miss him or as we would say in Portuguese: “aí que saudade!”

 Written: November 24, 2022

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Break a leg, “Merda”, Goodbye

The other day I was thinking about some expressions and their translations from English to Portuguese, especially because it's the end of the year and a lot of people are putting on shows. The expression that I'm talking about is what to wish someone who's going to step on a stage. You can't say good luck because then they believe that that will bring them bad luck. However, I looked up the expression and break a leg which means good luck does not mean that we want anybody to break a leg, but it is rooted to the theater community which is known to be superstitious so if you wish somebody good luck actually, you're wishing them bad luck so by wishing them to break a leg you're wishing them a flawless performance. It was around 1939 that people started using the expression break a leg.

Now, in Brazil, we wish people Merda which is translated to feces. It originally comes from French merde which in the 19th century people used to either go to the theater in wagons or on their horses. Therefore, if you saw a lot of horse manure in front of the theater, it meant that there were a lot of people in the theater watching the show, considered to be very successful one.

I have also read an account about man who to perform his first play and on the way to the theater stepped on poop. Getting there he didn't have to time to clean his shoes or change them, so he went directly on the stage and performed an incredible character, therefore you also have the superstition stepping on poop is good luck.

Another expression that I read about or heard about was the word goodbye written good-by, good-bye, good by, goodbye, believe it or not, all the forms of spelling are accepted. But the most popular is goodbye. Goodbye is actually a contraction of God be with you which is what people used to say in 1573 and it was registered as Godbwye short for God be with ye. Throughout the years this has changed and because of the influence of for such expressions as good day or good evening, people started saying goodbye. W also have this expression here in Brazil and it could be Adeus, Deus te acompanhe, the latter one still is used nowadays which literally means God be with you, but it is mostly used by religious people. The most common expression for goodbye in Portuguese is tchau pronounced chow.

Written: November 25, 2022

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