Nic's World Cup Sticker Collection

I don't know how it happened, but just by luck, we have gotten connected with one of those random things that tie you in to the local community; it has opened doors and created conversations we never would have had without it...

It is our World Cup Sticker Book by Panini. As it turns out, Panini cards are collected and traded all over the world, and we are just ignorant. We happened to find our book at the Toy Chest in West Hartford, CT when we were there picking up our Brazilian visas at the consulate: 

We bought the book and 5 packs of stickers on a whim, and started working on it during the 1st USA match against Ghana, while we were still in JTN (Note: Landon Donovan made the book, but not the team;)  

Since then, I am sure we have spent nearly US$50 buying packs of stickers... it took a couple of days in Rio to find where to buy them (the news stands), but once we did, we were off again in force.

Problem is, as you go on, you collect more and more duplicates, and get fewer and fewer ones you need. Luckily, at one news stand, a nice lady asked in Portuguese/sign language if we had any to trade (cambio) ... we rushed to the hotel and brought back our duplicate stack... and pronto!... we were part of a club ... an obsessive club, where some people keep hand-written lists of the cards they still need, and others use the on-line app to keep track of their collection.

We then started making friends wherever we brought out "the book" ... all the staff in our hotel have exhausted trading their collections amongst themselves, so they were happy to look at what we had to offer ... 

It's incredible! And I can't imagine a better way to engage the real people in Rio ... as compared to all those World-Cup crazed tourists who sit in cafes and watch the games and drink beer all day. 

to be continued...