Pisces Iscariot

The English invented it, the Brazilians perfected it.

The title is in Portuguese (the "a" should have the tilde or the ~ sign above it). Pronounced as "obsesyaw de fuchebol," it means "football obsession." And as it suggests, the title is basically descriptive of the post-hiatus me. Yup! After a very long break from blog-writing, I have found myself obsessed with Brasil.

It all started with World Cup Germany 2006. The fever was simply contagious. I, together with my hubby, watched Brasil’s matches at the National Sports Grill in Greenbelt even if the match begins at 3am. Little by little, I was oriented into the world of football. And little by little, I was introduced to joga bonito or The Beautiful Game, which, of course, refers to the kind of game the Brasilians play— fair football: no cheating, just plain skills and for pure enjoyment. The Nike football website is full of videos showing how wonderful and amazing Brasilian football is. In the numerous interviews done about Brasil, only one thing consistently surfaces: there is no Brasilian who doesn’t know how to joga bonito. No wonder Brasil is the five-time World Cup champion and has won the award for fair play. Football is the larong kalye in Brasil. In the slums (which largely make up the Portuguese-speaking country), kids play the game with improvised ball (because a real soccer ball is expensive) and goal.

The fever didn’t stop even after the World Cup is over and the Jules Rimet trophy have been handed over to the Italians (Hail, Fabio Cannavaro! David Beckham is now just #2 in my hot guys list). My hubby and I have begun playing football during weekends in the park, in one of the vacant lots at The Fort and even inside the house (even Halo has her own Portugal soccer ball which she loves to kick— we hope this is the start of her love for football though we don’t really care what sport she gets involved in so long as she gets into one especially since I was into taekwondo and her dad was into swimming). We are yet to play in the Ateneo pitch but we’re planning to as soon as the rainy days are over. Wacks, my hubby, is TOTALLY into it. He has already acquired a soccer shoes and a soccer ball plus the high socks that soccer players wear. As for me, I just bought the newly released Brasil soccer polo shirt from Adidas in addition to the sleeveless Brasil shirt that I wore everytime there was a Brasil match.

All this craze brought me and my hubby (I’m glad I am not alone this time unlike before when Cuba was the sole object of my obsession) to the realization that we want to migrate to Brasil if fate will allow (in other words, if we get to have the money needed to fulfill this desire). I mean, it may be a postcard country but at least it’s not very different from the Philippines. We want to raise our Havana Loren and our future baby boy the Brasilian way. And hopefully, our baby boy, if not Halo, will learn and be good at football.

But this is a tall order, as of now. I really hope though that about five to ten years from today, we still want the same thing and that we have the necessary resources in order to fulfill our desire.

If not, can we just watch the World Cup 2014 live if it will be held in Brasil?

OMG! It’s been a very, very looooooooooooooooooooong time since I last made a blog. I’ve been into an equally loooooooooooooooooooooong unintentional hiatus due to so many reasons; two of them being my lack of Friendster time and access, and my pregnancy.

Yep, my pregnancy. I am now a mom! Yipee! It came early, yes. But I figured there can be no better time than now. After a grueling 9 months (the last 4 weeks was actually spent whining due to the ultra-heavy belly), my little Havana Loren was born on her exact due date, January 23. (Havana is the capital of Cuba, one of the foreign cultures I love aside from that of Brazil while Loren was taken from the second name of my late sister-in-law Lorena). She was 6.8 lbs then and was 47 cm long. She was so adorable but she didn’t waste any time in making me experience the first challenges of motherhood. When she’s asleep, all I could do was stare at her or shoot photos (the camera stays by our side even when we sleep coz you never know when the Kodak moment may happen). But when she’s awake… God, when she’s awake! Breastfeeding took away what little energy I have left due to lack of sleep. Like most newborns, she was a day-sleeper (and a light sleeper!). At night, she’s WIDE AWAKE. Now, I can barely recall our day-to-day schedule back then but what I can never forget was how Halo (yup, as in the one that angels have on their heads) woke up at 1030pm and never slept until 430am.

But all’s well that ends well. Babies grow up so fast!!! She’s now 6 months old and very, very playful (an understatement)! She loves jumping up and down whenever her feet touches ground. And we think she’s teething so she would bite everything. She’s not afraid of strangers. She would go with anybody so long as they’re human. When she sees a smiling face or a face she’s familiar with, she would smile and even laugh her heart out you would think you really look funny to her. She likes people. She eats baby cereals, banana and Marie biscuits. When you talk to her, she talks back in an attempt to create an intelligible conversation. It’s tiring yet rewarding to be with her.

So I don’t think it’s hard to understand how I have learned to love being a mom this early. When I learned that I was pregnant, I was scared and admittedly, didn’t want to push through with it. But when I had my Havana Loren, I had no regrets whatsoever. Being a mom is sooo exhausting but I wouldn’t have it any other way! =)