Just hangin out by a moat full of sand dollars, that's all.

The last couple of weeks have been eventful. They've included a professional soccer game, a group of Americans, and the beach.

The soccer game was awesome.

I've been to one other soccer game. It was great fun. But it was different. Our host took care of us. It was mellow...at least not a bordering on a stampede...and the stadium didn't shake.

But this game was fun. After running down the street and finding tickets, we were hearded into a gate as we held our ticket high. We gave our tickets away and were directed up the stairs. Problem is that there were about a thousand people trying to get up the stairs simultaneously. Never in my life have I been in such close quarters with that many sweaty men...and I grew up playing sardines with 8 brothers.

As we worked our way through the corridor, our group held tightly onto each others' shoulders. At one point, people were closing in from both sides. In my mind I turned into a PowerPuff Girl, put my hand on their big, nasty, sweaty faces, and shoved as I shouted "Nope! Not gonna happen!". As the guy to my left tried to pick himself up out of the stampede of people that had decided to step on him, in leau of going around his flailing body, the guy whimpered "Wow. This girl's strong." I looked at him, shook my head, and said, "Don't you try to break our line, Buster!"

Ok. It may not have happend exactly like that. But the point is that there were a lot of people and everyone wanted to go to the same place. It was intense. And I had PowerPuff powers.

So, we finally ascended the stairs and found some seats.
Wow! Was it a beautiful field! Big and green.
And guess what? It had a moat around it! Yeah! A moat! I wanted to go play on it, just for that.

Our team lost. But it was a good game. With lots of pretty saves by the goalkeeper.

A couple days later we headed to the beach. Coquerinho is a stunningly beautiful beach. We all got sunburned and found live sand dollars under our feet. Amazing.