Monday, June 30, 2008

cristo rey, Ipanema



Friday Dan arrived at 8h30.
Saturday all four of us went to Copacabana beach about one block from our apartment and spent an hour braving the waves.
around 11h we left for the Cristo Rey by bus. There was a long line so by 14h we arrived at the top.
We spent 1.5 hours looking around at the view.
got back at the apartment by 17h and relaxed for an hour or so.
Went to churascaria Porcão. The experience was awesome. I kept the red and green card that tells them to keep on bringing food or when to stop. Meat Meat Meat. So much for vegetarianism...
After this, despite our stomachs telling us otherwise, we went out for a few beers at two local bars.
Even the next night, after a whole 24 hours, my stomach still felt like it was full from the night before.
The following day we went to a `hippie´ fair which was basically a market for tourists. Didn´t get anything, I´ll wait for next weekend to buy presents. This week, my goal in relation to the exterior world is to write postcards...
I learned from Werner that the reason the words monday through friday are called ´second fair`(Monday) through Friday (sexta feira ) is because those were the days that they were allowed to trade and do market (fair, as in country fair) activities. Not sure why Monday is called the ´second fair` though.

Then, after the market, Ipanema beach. Famous, many more beautiful people than Copacabana.
Went for a swim with Felipe; the others were not up for it. Very nice waves and a great view of the surrounding mountains and a favela.
On the walk back along the beach from Ipanema we came across a cross dresser street comedian. Quite funny even though I could not understand much of what he was jesting.

That night we discovered a restaurant that serves asmuch pizza as you want for 14 reais. They have over 54 different pizzas to choose from...

ate logo!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Day two

Upon returning to the apartmen, Felipe began to play a game of Chess, teaching Dona Teresa how to play. Richard and I joined in as well and our match ended up lasting about two hours.
Then we went out to eat at the local Kilo restaurant where food is sold by the kilogram. It was delicious.
After this we went out to the supermarket to buy some groceries. Mostly we bought beer though. Upon return to the apartment we all watched the news in Portuguese. The big story was an ex president´s wife, named Carderoso I believe, who passed away recently.
Then Richard, Felipe and I sat up talking in my room over a beer, the skol beer, one of the most popular ones. This was accompanied by the sound of fireworks going off in our street in celebration of the soccer game that would begin about an hour later. After our first beer we went down to the street to see what was happening. A bar had set up a projector and was broadcasting the game in the street. This drew a big crowd right in the middle of the street where everyone was trying to sleep, I´m sure... Soon the police arrived but all they did was block off the street from more cars and stay there with the fans. I left after about an hour and went to bed. I woke up this morning at 8AM as the others were beginning to eat breakfast. We arrive at IBMEC at around 10AM.
OK! Dan Walsh will be arriving on Friday! This weekend we will probably go out to do some sightseeing as well as see what the beach has to offer!
Da gud life, I must say...
Cheers!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Night before Brazil

So these past few days have been very cool in general. Tonight especially, we had Uncle Rick and Aunt Karen over for diner. As always they were a blast; it's hilarious watching and listening to them. Their way of flirting is sums up like this: Uncle Rick says something hilarious/inappropriate/about something stupid he did "in my yout" and Aunt Karen tells him to be quite and then he follows up with something like "that's why I love her, how could I be happier?" or something sweet along those lines. It's a sure-fire riot!

Then I hung out with my sister a bit, we talked about random stuff but it was very nice. I tried to go over to the neighbor's but they weren't home so I asked her to give them the bottle of wine for me. We had a nice party on Friday night and they were very nice to me and my friends so I got them a bottle of wine as a thank you gift.

I also picked Jeff up from his ice cream shop. I waited around there at we were talking to this Jewish guy named Silverstein. He was there picking up his son who works there. We talked a bit about stuff in the Middle East...

Then Jeff and I rode our bikes over to zab's. I told Aurelie that I would stop by to say goodbye and that I would help Zac with painting. Well we got there just as they were finishing to paint for the night but we chatted and it was nice. Talked to Aurelie about chilling in Paris this summer.

And now here I am... at home doing laundry, facebooking, thinking about Melanie, a French girl I met at my going away party. It's a shame it had to be going away. We had fun on Friday together and she's very very cute.

Tomorrow I'll be in Miami and sometime tomorrow night I'll be flying over the Caribbean, carbon-footprinting myself over to Rio! Lets hope for a flawless day of traveling!

Friday, June 20, 2008

first post

first post.
I'm testing this.
I told Lana that I would start a blog to keep track of my life.
It might also be a good way of letting people stay in touch with me.
There it was! the first post!




This was the photo that Lana and I took to use to advertise my going away party.