Monday, May 4

Só no Brasil!!

Corinthians won the Campeão Paulista...I'm a Palmeiras fan, but it was still quite the experience to hear the city streets after they won...and for those soccer fans, Corinthians is the team that Ronaldo started playing for a couple months ago, he's older, fatter and slower but he is still amazing to watch and still one of the best despite all the criticism.

This video is from my balcony, there's not a lot to see, but just listen to everything...if I wasn't in Brazil I would think there was a war going on around me!! They love their soccer!

Only in Brasil!!! from Andrew Burcham on Vimeo.

Thursday, April 9

Randoms Around Sao Paulo

This first picture is some off the skyscrappers...imagine a city the size of LA but filled with 20+ story buildings.A busy walking street where you can buy almost anything
Lanchonetes...snacks that I eat a lot, coxhina on the right is filled with chicken, and on the left it is filled with cheese, I don't remember the name though...then the drink is Guarana, the BEST drink ever!!
The lobby of a movie theatre. They are quite nice here, and way cheap. On a Saturday night it is 9 Reais for a student, about $4...for a matinee during the week, 2 Reais, about $.80 (BTW...I saw Gran Torino, it was a really good movie...way worth seeing)Speaks for itself...this is from my apartment.

Sunday, April 5

Most People Kissing Simultaneously

"On Saturday,14 February 2009, Valentine’s Day, 39,897 people gathered in the Plaza de la Constitucion in Mexico City to beat the record for the most people kissing simultaneously."-Guiness Book of World Records

Does anyone else see something weird with this??

Who was the odd one out and who was he/she kissing...?

Just something random...

Tchau

Wednesday, April 1

Balance Beams

"Sometimes it seems seminary degrees uniquely qualify a person to make a simple message confusing or complicated--anything but clear." This made me laugh because it can be so true! Nothing against seminary degrees or anything, but things can be made complicated if you throw out too much "knowledge" in a conversation with somebody. Seriously...think about it...who were the people Jesus talked to the most...the lowest of the low, the poorest of the poor...they wouldn't understand a complex message, and, frankly, they wouldn't care. Jesus' message when he was "recruiting" his disciples was "Follow Me", you can't get much more basic than that and yet have pure truth as well!!

For me, I have never been someone who is very open about his faith. I understand that is a huge hindrance and something I need to work, and am working on. There is a fine balance between sharing your faith and living your faith. We are all called to share our faith and tell people about the beauty of Jesus Christ, as well as live in a manner worthy and reflective of Jesus...there needs to be both. I've gotten caught up in only living my faith (although I think it is a little more important than sharing your faith) and now feel far behind where I should be in sharing my faith with others. I need to...we all need to...get ourselves to a place where we are sensitive to God's calling at that moment. If we can gain the wisdom required to know when it is best to speak up or shut up.

When someone, like me, gets comfortable only living his life modeled after Christ (which is good) but doesn't share his/her faith people may never know you are a follower of Christ...maybe they'll just think of you as a "nice guy". On the flip-side, if all you do is share your faith, but are not living a life revolved around Christ, you will quickly be regarded as a "hypocrite".

None of us are perfect, and there is no "special formula" to be solved here, but what is amazing is that we are ABLE to ask the Holy Spirit for us to be sensitive to where or what we should be doing at this moment of the day...all the time.

"In our relationships with others, we need to emulate these (grace and compassion) characteristics of God." (Wendy Caress-http://wendycaress.blogspot.com/)

So lets all live they way Jesus lived and share His beautifully simple message!!

Tchau

Tuesday, March 10

I Can't...

...Believe that it's been 5 weeks since I got here. I was thinking about it today and that means that I'm already a fourth of the way through this trip...I can't believe that, I know time flies, but that's crazy

I tried not to have too many expectations before I came, but everything seems to be going way different than I ever thought it would. It's been awesome, hard many times, but God is getting me through everything

I'm excited to make friends from all over the world, it's only been a few weeks and I've already made some friends about 10 different countries

It's been a crazy trip and I am excited for the next three quarters of the trip. I don't know what's gonna happen, but I pray that I will be doing what God wants me to

Tchau

Thursday, March 5

If You Thought Google Earth Was Cool...

...check out what else Google has...

http://www.google.com/moon/

Sad Day...

Yesterday was a day that made me sad...why?...Because of the NHL

First it was very depressing to look at the Western Conference playoff standings and to see my three favorite teams as the three worst teams...I had so much hope this year, especially for the Coyotes since there were in 5th place in the West going into the All-Star break...but losing 9 of the next 10 games after the break, they quickly fell to 14th place...Sad Day...

On top of that, the trade deadline was yesterday, and again the Coyotes continued to disappoint...They sent off (in my opinion) their best scorer, Olli Jokinen, their best defenseman, Derek Morris, their best fighter, Daniel Carcillo, and their best backup goalie, Mikael Tellqvist. None of them make a ton of money, except Jokinen, so there wasn't much reason to dish them off...Jokinen makes a ton of money, so I can see why they got rid of him, but Morris has been an amazing leader for the Coyotes since aquired from the Avs. If any defenseman needed to be dished it should have been Jovanoski, making about 7 million a year and not even having 30 points then with a -15 rating on top of it!

The Coyotes have been rebuilding for the last few years and it finally looked like they had a set team with them soon to be making runs a playoffs every year...I was wrong.

Oh well...you take the good with the bad in sports...I know there's a lot more that goes into it, this is just from my perspective...gripes and all

Oh...and...all the Coyotes got in return was a couple no-name players and a few draft picks

Tchau