Barra Da Lagoa

Today I had Portuguese lessons in the morning, and then in the afternoon went to the beach in Barra da Lagoa (the place I will be staying starting next week). It was my first chance to make it out to a beach since I arrived, and it was pretty cool. A little overcast, not unusual here in the afternoon (typical tropical pattern: hot, sunny morning, clouds roll in sometime in the afternoon, and maybe some evening showers after that) but still a good time.

Barra da Lagoa

Also, I received some pix taken with another camera at the churrasco I mentioned in a previous entry...the one with all the guitar playing...well, check it:

Me, laying some sweet tunes on the locals

Also got a nice pic of me and my friend Maria from the same party ( for those that don't know, we go to school together in Reno and have been good friends for about two and a half years):

More later. New Year's eve is tomorrow, so I don't know if I'll have time to post something. In case I don't, let me say this:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First Day of Lessons

Today was my first day of lessons in Portuguese. The school is in a house in one of the nicer residential areas of Florianopolis (not unusual, BTW; it seems that anywhere is fair game for setting up a business - zoning laws seem to be a little more lax here) and it was already pretty hot when I arrived at 8:30 this morning. I met up with Miguel, who runs the place, and he passed me off to Eva, who is a good instructor and as a bonus, kind of hot....

Felix (student from Germany), Eva, and Manuel.

It went pretty well. My feeble portuguese was exposed by an assessment exam, and Eva immediately began the task of setting things straight.

Ok, some random observations:

There are crocodiles here. I didn't know that. I saw one in a canal, in the neighborhood where my school is. Hope they warn the neighborhood kiddies.....

Croc!!

Brasilians have a different idea about home security than Americans do. They are a little more proactive:

This sign says, in a rather benign and matter-of-fact way, "Careful: energized area". It's a nice way of saying "Stay the fuck out or you're gonna get 50K volts pumped up your ass". Keep in mind, this is residential security in a nice area, not a business or military compound of some kind.

Tomorrow is day 2 of lessons. I have seen the beach, but not been to it yet....too busy. Soon I'll have about two weeks of nothing but beaches, so I'm not in a huge rush. I'm still enjoying soaking up the local culture....and the caipirinhas.....and the local women.....

Oh, one more thing: the place I am staying for the first week, the one the school set up for me, is a real shithole. Look:

Life is SO rough sometimes.......;-)

Quick, Quick...

OK, my laptop battery is running low, and I have negelected to get the correct power adapter for this thing. I'll score one today. For now, here's a pic:

This is the view from Maria's condo, centro Florianopolis, looking south.

Ok, another blur....

Today I got up after very little sleep, walked down to a local bread / coffee shop, had a cappuccino with LOTS of a chocolate / caramel sauce in it (apparently here cappuccino means "a really sweet caramel mocha") and then walked around a bit. Lovely place it is, a bit hot for me, but I expected that after acclimatizing to the cold in Reno already.

This afternoon, Maria and I went shopping for a few basic things, met her friend Renata for lunch, then met up with another friend of hers Nicole and her husband, and eventually ended up at a bbq (called a churrasco). Let me tell you, Brasilians do a bbq differently than we do. The main even is meat. Meat, meat, meat, and more meat. And it is flame roasted on a spit. The men hang out near the fire and tend to the meat while getting smashed on caipirinhas, and the women prep other food elsewhere while continuously making caipirinhas for the guys - all the while, throwing back just as many caipirinhas. Beer is in the general mix, too.

Then meat is pulled off the spit in small lots, cut up on a common board, and everyone eats bits of meat by hand, with bread, from that common cutting board. No one really needs a plate.

After a while, some guitars come out, and the music begins. Tonight, I started out playing a few American songs for everyone, and then switched to bongo drums while a couple of locals took over the melodies with a bunch of Brasilian songs. It was great.

Right now, It is 11:30 pm, and I am at the house of my hosts Carmen and Antonio. The place is beautiful! It even has a pool. I'll post some pix tomorrow. 

Gotta try to hit the sack now. I'm tired all the time still, and I gotta get up early tomorrow.

The little things you notice....

Good morning and greetings from Floripa!

Last night was a kind of blur, being very tired and all, but I went to Maria's family beach house in Barra da Lagoa for a BBQ. of course it was late, and dark, but here it is:





The house is beautiful. Maria's father Guilherme likes to cook all kinds of meats for this: pork, chicken, beef, ribs, etc. all very tasty!

So already I have noticed little things here that I don't usually see in my normal day-to-day life: for example, Brasilians keep eye contact with you longer than you would expect, just passing on the street. Also, what I have seen of Floripa reminds me of European cities of similar size: lots of people living crammed together in tall buildings, small streets and even smaller cars, and the place has a kind of laid back vibe that you don't come across in the US very often. Also, the drivers are crazy and the motorcycle riders are even crazier!!!!

This is Maria and her godson Gabreil, a nice kid who wants to practice his english with me. I'll be careful not to teach him some of the "saltier" bits of english language (at least not until he gets old enough)!!!!!

Today there is shopping, beach, and relocation to another part of town where I will be staying the rest of the week. More later...

Cell Phone Foo

OK, as promised, I am reachable in Brazil by phone. My mobile number here is

011 - 55 - 48 - 9136 - 8880

011 gets you international dialing 55 is the Brazil country code, 48 is the area code, and the local number here is 9136-8880.

Its late and I'm tired. I'll post a few fotos tomorrow.

I Made It!!!

After all the delays and crap, I made it to Florianopolis tonight. Maria just picked me up, and is now whisking me off to a barbeque. Haven´t even had a shower yet.

I am alive and well.

More tomorrow.

Stuck in Chi Town

Hello all - 

So I made it to Chicago, and the weather here sucks. Lots of delays and cancellations.

My plane is actually here, and ready to go - except for one thing: we are short one pilot.

He's in Cleveland.

They are trying to get him here / get a replacement. Flight MIGHT leave at 11:30, but they're not sure.

It's all good, though. I had a six hour layover ahead of me in Sao Paulo, so I have a little wiggle room.

More later - 

Let the journey commence

Right now, it is 9:40pm on Thursday night. I leave in the morning. I am both excited and nervous! I have a long journey ahead of me (about 25 hours total travel time) with some possible weather complications - but it also means that I get on a plane in a 19 degree icy city and get off one in an 85 degree summer paradise.

My next post will be from Brazil, sometime over the weekend.

Let the journey commence. I am ready.

 

Hmmm, things that make you worried...

So I was talking to my dad today, and I remarked how the weather was making me a little nervous about my trip - it's been really crappy all over the US, really screwing up travel. There was that plane in Denver that slid off the runway a few days ago, and just this morning a bunch of people got really sick on a plane in Seattle because ice jammed up a ventilation valve that was supposed to be closed, and when they sprayed de-icer on the plane, fumes got inside and made everyone sick. Yay.

Anyway, my dad laughed and said that wouldn't be a problem for me, because there is nationwide shortage of de-icing solution.

What?

Yes, that's right folks...a nationwide shortage of de-icer. So, If I hit bad weather on my outbound trip, there may not be a way to get the ice off of the plane, and therefore I might be stuck. In Denver. Or in Chicago. And of course, we all know how LOVELY the winter weather is in those towns.............

Anyway, I know it's probably much ado about nothing, but these are the things I think about now.

The Reno skies are going to crap some more snow (splash! splash! splash! <--- for you, cur cu par!)  onto us tonight and tomorrow, but Friday is supposed to be clear. We'll see.

Tonight I am going to hang out with a couple of young Brazilian guys I met recently (Maria's new roommates) and about 5 Brazilian girls they managed to meet in the short time they've been here...good Portuguese practice for me....;-)

Getting Ready

Today is Tuesday, the 23rd of December. I'm leaving on Friday morning, and there's still a lot of things to do. Up until this week, I haven't done much as far as preparation goes, except for renewing my passport, buying airline tickets, getting my visa and the like. Last week, someone I like a lot was getting ready to move away for good, and I spent as much time as possible with her, helped her pack, and took her to the airport last Saturday morning. As a result, I did very little to get ready for this trip.

That resulted in a kind of lost weekend. I was pretty sad about her leaving, so I just holed up in my place and didn't do anything at all. Then Monday came, and suddenly I had few precious days to prepare for it all - especially if you consider that almost everything will be closed tomorrow and Thursday!

So, the last two days have been a blur of errand running. Going to the bank, buying things I need, shipping packages, doing more shopping, going to the gym, going here, there, everywhere, running Maria to the airport for her flight to Brazil, and all that.

Also, my place is an absolute mess. I'm going to have to do something about that before I go.