Game day! I am not yet sure of my plans for watching the World Cup final - likely just find a bar. Copacabana is packed with chanting Argentinians, which is fun and spirited, but I do not imagine I will want to join the masses at the Fifa FanFest on the beach. Too much for me.

At the end of my Brazil visit. Kind of crazy. In some ways, I can't believe I'm already at the end of the trip, and in others, I feel like I've been here for a long time!

Things I will miss [and will be happy to return to when I come back]:

• acai on every corner
• queijo minas (a wonderful type of cheese)
• tapioca - not what we think is tapioca; its a crepe-type dish popular in the northeast, and it's delicious
• the portuguese language

Things I will not miss:

• the absurdly, inexplicably slow lines at supermarkets (in which I have written this entire post)
• people on their phones when you're sitting with them at a restaurant