Day 7: Rio

Day 7: Rio

These weapons come with the mini-coffees

Weather: Very Hawaiian, drizzly and in low 70s at 7am, same pretty much all day until temp drops into high 69s

QOTD:

Music and passion were always in fashion

Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl
But that was thirty years ago, when they used to have a show
Now it's a disco, but not for Lola
Still in dress she used to wear
Faded feathers in her hair
She sits there so refined, and drinks herself half-blind
She lost her youth and she lost her Tony
Now she's lost her mind

Gotta get those steps in, we do 5K along Copacabana Beach before the breakfast of champions!

Department of Amplification, Sins of the Fathers category: Our local Cariocas say that the reason the Brazilians are booing out USA USA USA chants is because Brazilians are stating their displeasure with United States longstanding imperialist practices. Okay...and it does not say much about embracing the “A New World” Olympics.

THB is getting cocky: we leave for VB an hour before the opening match starts and arrive six points into the first match. Not to worry, China is in the process of toying with Puerto Rico. According to the stat sheet, China’s middle blocker is listed at 6’7”. That means the conversion from meters was off by 2-3 inches since her hands come to the top of the net while she is still in a slight crouch.

Dutch are grouping together

The Netherlands crushes Italy 3-0 even though their injured player sits out the match. When she went down two days ago, that helped the USA rally to victory.

 

These guys are stationed inside the big stadium next door

Now open

sushi with cream cheese, fish feijoada 

A silent killing machine?

Lunch at the now open fish restaurant. It turns out to be the mirror image of our last two lunches: you have the buffet and then they bring around fish dishes from the kitchen. The buffet is all varieties of fish dishes. Most are in heavy sauces, very heavy sauces. The fish coming out of the kitchen is many varieties, all fried. THB is enamored of neither the buffet nor the kitchen specialties. DA has a glass of wine that may not have quite finished its transition from grape juice. THB goes wild and orders a terrorist special, water with the cap still on.

USA is up first in the afternoon, and they master Serbia in 4 games. They look much sharper today, much! We’re in a section loaded with family members, including (unconfirmed) the family of Kelsey Robinson, a sub. In the last match of our day, Russia is on its way to annihilating Cameroon while we are on our way back to the apartment.

Between matches DA enjoys a Skol and THB finishes an awful iced thing of acai  that you get to top with a strange granola, $4 paid directly to the vendor (THB learns first hand why there was no line at her cart).

THB and DA don ponchos; probably not strictly necessary given that we walked in the drizzle in shirts and shorts this morning and this early evening mist isn’t all that much different.

Dinner in front of the TV: toast, cheese, butter, snacks, and a dark beer (and the opposite of the yellow swill served pretty much everywhere).

What are watching? Well, there are something like 20 commercial free channels covering the O’s. We have our choice or a replay of the Nadal tennis match, Columbia vs Nigeria in men’s soccer, Brazil vs Serbia in men’s water polo, table tennis, boxing, sailing, swimming recaps featuring Phelps, weightlifting, China vs Netherlands in women’s handball, men’s field hockey, women’s basketball, USA vs Australia men’s basketball, women’s beach volleyball, judo, women’s volleyball, and more.

Commercial free, no TV timeouts, just all sports all the time. Wait, that’s not what you’re getting in your country? Really? Hmmmmm…