Rose Bowl

Jan. 4

Last night was a big night for the Fords. No, it wasn't a crazy night out. Somehow we got lucky enough to get the Rose Bowl on ESPN in our room. This is amazing for two reasons - 1) because they aired the Rose Bowl in Brazil (it started around 11pm and ended at 3:30am) and 2) we were actually staying at a hotel with ESPN. Our nasty, expensive hostel in Rio didn't even have ventilation, let alone a TV! In Petropolis for about $37 we got to watch USC and Texas! It was priceless, really. We had just checked in and Matt noticed that we had ESPN so all day we crossed our fingers. When we turned the TV on at 11pm we practically jumped up and down. Of course, I fell asleep in the second quarter. Matt stayed up for the whole thing. I have a picture of him standing next to the TV looking very excited that I'll post in a few days.

Jan. 5

It's day five of the rain. The weather is a lot cooler in Petropolis so at least we have that going for us. Today we toured the Imperial Palace. It was the summer home of the Emperor back in the day. It's a cool building decked out in lots of fancy European furniture. It is also Brazil's most visited museum, which I thought was an interesting tidbit. We had to wear giant slippers over our shoes while we toured it so that we didn't mess up the floors. It was something like ice skating across marble floors.

Hopefully the rain lets up because tomorrow we leave for Paraty. It's a beach town so a little time at the beach would be appreciated.