Navamaer

"I feel like there was something we were gonna do today." The waves lapped at my feet as the multicolor sunburst of light landed on my eyelids and created a spectacular show of reds and oranges in my eyes. "Like what?" Orlando asked as he handed me another cup of orange Fanta. It was cool and more sugary than I remember Fanta being in the U.S. "I dunno." The sun beat down on the small beach as you though deeply. "Seriously, we had like one thing planned today, it's not even 9 o'clock and we're on a beach and we already forgot what it was."

So was our life for the entirety of this week. We had left the Academy early on friday with members of the Judo team on a bus bound for Rio. Our destination? Escola Naval, the Brazilian "Annapolis" equivalent. This week, most cadets had off to spend time at home with their families and to celebrate Brazilian Independence Day (September 7th) (Side note, Brazil actually has 2 Independence Days; September 7th or "Sete de Setembro" down here, is the day that Brazil declared Independence from Portugal in 1822 while July 2nd, 1823 is the day the last of the Portuguese were defeated and actually left. September 7th is celebrated throughout the country as well as in global locations with large Brazilian populations (NYC, LA, Deerfield Beach in FL, and London) while July 2nd is a major holiday in the state of Bahia) but the varsity athletes and cadetes americanos earned the opportunity to spend their weeklong break laboring for the athletic glory of AMAN. "Navamaer" was the multi-academy sports tournament that was held at the naval school every year during the weeklong break and it was decided that the American cadets would love to watch these athletes compete. And by decided, I mean we had no say in the matter. The word "volun-told" comes to mind. BUT WAIT!!! Could this sea-side prison sentence perhaps be a blessing in disguise?!?!

Meanwhile, 3 days later, on the beach...."No, seriously, I feel like we're missing something here......" I replaced my cup in the sand and sat back in my chair. The beach was deserted save for a mother ("Dude, that's probably their sister, she looks really young") and her two kids, playing in the sand. Them and us. 3 bright white American shaped beacons of good international relations and military investment in cultural immersion. We were at the Brazilian Army's Physical Education School for the morning (EsEFEx, pronounced SFX, standing for "Escola Educação Fisica do Exército") waiting for our cadet counterparts to finish volleyball (volei) practice. We had explored what we could of the post to include a small olympic museum (we left after we found a picture of te American flag with 13 stars.........not happy) and found a small beach by the entrance road. We were wearing out issued AMAN track suits and were no way prepared for the beach but considering our boxers were more modest than most of the swimsuits found on the beaches in Rio, we grabbed chairs and sprawled out. Might as well grab a few hours of tanning in while we were here, right?

Practie finished up and we rolled back to Escola Naval for the remainder of the afternoon. We had to drive along the beach (as the school is quite literally on the water, situated on a man made island just past the airport), along one side of the landing strip (ok, so it's really close to the airport. As in we were getting waved at by people on the plane.........frantically, because they thought they'd hit us), and over a bridge into the school. We headed up to our room (4 bunks instead of 8, 1 point to Navy) and relaxed up there for a bit (napping on the beach all day really takes it out of you) before heading down to dinner (keeping ourselves occupied with the in room TV, mini-fridge, and shower, 3 more points to Navy) in the mess hall. The surrounding floor to ceiling windows gave views of the water, Pão de Açúcar, and Flamengo beach (ok, Navy wins)

Some rather memorable moments of the week include an almost 7 mile walk along Flamengo and Botafogo beaches to visit the mall and stopping by a poetry recital on the beach, watching "O Planeta dos Macacos" (or Planet of the Apes. Which was in English with Portuguese subtitles. Which was great because we were the only ones not reading the whole movie and we got all the jokes first. Winning) at said mall, spending time at an Irish pub and English oub (in Rio) owned by Americans and Brazilians, respectively, managing to again, fail at buying a cell phone (coming up on 4 successive failures. Granted, you need a Brazilian to buy one because it's somehow linked to their social security number or something........I don' know, I don't speak Portuguese), watching Army dominate in numerous sports during the tournament (to include my favorites to watch, Track and Field or "Atletismo" and Volleyball "Volei") and be a part of several raucous and celebratory mobs following their victories, and perhaps most memorably, a lot of Açai sorvete (purple ice cream)


We made it back safely to the Academy and are preparing with the other cadets here for their coming week ("semana que vem") of field training. Should be a good time. I'll have another update soon when I make it out of the jungle. See you all soon!

Tchau!