This evening I searched for the pictures that I took 12 years ago when I visited Brazil. I was really surprised that I had not taken many pictures. However, I was using my first digital camera that stored pictures on a floppy disk. I think it was soon after that when I bought a new camera.

I have been thinking of Brazil, as many people are this week because of the World Cup. I have some thoughts about the World Cup, but first a little bit about my trip to Brazil in 2002.

I do remember the hotel room that I stayed in while in Sao Paulo. I stayed at the George V Residence Hotel in the Alto de Pinheiros district. The rooms were large and beautiful. I had a bedroom, sitting area, dining area and a full kitchen.

The hotel was close enough to the office where I conducted training, and we would walk there every day.

One of the other things that I remember about Sao Paulo was all the high rise buildings. This was a common sight when we did drive somewhere. I also like this picture because of the large Christmas ad for Coca Cola. I was there in December and there were definitely signs that Christmas was on the way.

I was in Brazil for two weeks and on the weekend between classes I went to the beach in Santos with three of my students. The beach was beautiful and we had a great time. Of course December is summertime in Brazil, so it was a bit hot.

On my last day in Sao Paulo we had a BBQ and then went to an indoor Go Kart track. I am wondering where the pictures of the BBQ are. I must not have taken any, but they are in my memory. It was a great experience and I am remembering the great beef that we had. In fact, I don’t have a single picture of food from the trip.

Oh, back to the Go Kart racing. Some of my students and other employees in the office were in a Go Kart racing league, so they took me along for a practice session. In the picture above you see me all alone, as I am way behind all the others.

This was definitely a posed picture. I came in last, not first. However, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed the bone rattling experience.

I flew home later that evening, and half way through the flight I started to feel the soreness as muscles tightened.

One of the other things that I remember about Brazil was the Football or Soccer.

The hotel was also right near a sport club and every evening you would either hear people playing football or watching football.

There were several big matches played while I was there and everyone was glued to the TV during the matches. If you needed to go somewhere, that was the time when there was no traffic.

Luckily, I don’t have a class full of South Americans scheduled during the World Cup this time. I remember 16 years ago when the World Cup was held in France. I was teaching a class during the first round and my students would stay up all night watching the matches. I had to make sure that I kept the classes interesting and keep the students moving around so they wouldn’t go to sleep. Every four years now I make sure that we schedule around the World Cup 🙂

See also, Euro Cup 2012, for more football madness.

Who will win the World Cup? Will it go to Brazil with the home field advantage? Will the U.S. make it out of the first round?

Steven