Brazilians on ice

Today I went to an event that was put on by the English school where I work. They called it "Cultura on ice" (the school´s name is Cultura Inglesa) and it was a partnership between the school, the shopping mall that is close to the school and Burger King. Basically the students paid R$18 and got to go skating, plus got a t-shirt and a 20% discount at good old BK. There were over 300 kids there, plus their parents, so it was kind of a zoo.

The school organized some other activities for the kids to do while waiting to skate. I got put in charge of the Burger King quiz station, much to my chagrin. I thought it was pretty lame that they passed out this questionnaire with questions like: "How many combo meals does Burger King have?" and "Name 3 Burger King sandwiches". Plus BK made a killing...the line was huge! Capitalism at its finest.

I actually did skate, and it was quite a humbling experience. Growing up in Vermont, I grew up ice-skating. Now I was never headed for the Olympics or anything, but I could skate fairly well- frontwards, backwards, small jumps and twirls- these were all in my repertoire at the age of 10. I thought that skating here would be a piece of cake. But I was wrong.

Strapping on my skates I thought to myself, "I´ll show these Brazilians how to REALLY skate". I had spent many a visit to the mall inwardly laughing at the ice-skaters tightly holding onto the rail, falling, and just not knowing how to skate in general. I mean come on, this is a tropical country! I was convinced that I would be skating backwards, twirling, and maybe even jumping a little.

Well, as you can see from this video, my skating was not a pretty sight.

But it was fun, and I can now say that I have ice-skated in Brazil... a country where the majority of the population has never seen snow or a lake covered over with ice. And where the only people who really know how to ice skate are the people who work at the rink.