Jayhawks' Brazil Tour: Day Three
May 25, 2008
Over the course of the next week, the Kansas soccer team will tour the country of Brazil. Kuathletics.com will follow the Jayhawks each day and chronicle their adventures through journals and photos from some of the student-athletes. Today, junior Jessica Bush checks in on an off-day for the team in the “soccer state.”<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Day Three – Jessica Bush
This morning we woke up around 9:30 and ate breakfast at our hotel. After that the whole team headed to the beach for some sun, beach soccer, and waves. The team split into two groups; one group started a big game of pick up soccer with the locals; and of course we won!
The other group began an entertaining juggling circle with Coach Francis’ wife Tiff, (the soccer staff), and a lot of the girls, along with two of the local boys. Not only was the soccer an experience in itself, the jumping in the waves was brought to a whole new level when the life guard had to reprimand our team for going out too far in the ocean and guess who was leading the pack? COACH FRANCIS!
After leaving the beach we headed to lunch at a nearby restaurant for a quick bite to eat, then into Santos downtown where we visited the city hall. Marcos our tour guide led us around the downtown on a trolley/train and gave us the history of the city. Later we were fortunate enough to visit the coffee museum just before National Coffee day!
Some of the girls were interviewed on the local TV station for their intake on the newest flavors of coffee. After coffee we waited around for our bus. While we waited we impressed the locals by playing Jimmy Paw (a legendary KU soccer traditional dancing game), the game got pretty intense, but was very fun; Tiff even joined in!
When the bus finally arrived we went to Santos Soccer Club Stadium: Home of Pele. We viewed the museum and went on the field. We even got a tour of their locker room and learned about the teams’ pre-game rituals. It was really great to be in such a competitive soccer-driven community.
Later on, after the tour was over, we went through the gift shop, Mo (Monica Dolinsky), Gravie (Kristin Graves), Missy (Geha), Rog (Sara Rogers), and I gave an amazing performance of Santos fight song; I’m pretty sure we can sing it better than the Brazilians (just ask Mo, I bet she won’t mind performing it for you!).
For dinner we went to a pizzeria where they served us all sorts of various pizzas. The pizzas had all kinds of crazy toppings; some that I couldn’t even identify, but probably tried just to be polite. After that, our dinner was interrupted by some high class karaoke from Demitrius; followed by Dancing Queen from Shannon McCabe and La Bamba from Coach Francis. Upon returning to the hotel we wrapped up the night with some relaxing time at the pool. What a way to end a great day!
