O Primeiro

In retrospect, I would like to have started this blog months ago, when I began my road to Brazil. It has taken a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy and a fair amount of stress, and I wish I had been chronicling all that. But as they say, hindsight is 20-20, so I will start here and leave all that stuff behind me.

Not that all the bureaucracy is actually behind me...I actually still have to get my visa from the consulate in San Francisco on December 30th. Hopefully it'll be all ready and processed, because I'm slated to fly out on the 4th, and if I don't get my visa on time I don't know what will happen!

But assuming I get the visa, my next big hurdle is the packing problem. I know it's gonna be pretty hot when I get there, and it's never gonna get too cool, so I definitely won't need a lot of the clothes that I consider a staple in northern California. But I only have three or four pairs of shorts total! I don't want to buy new clothes, so I'm thinking about making some cutoffs. Kind of cheesy, kind of ghetto, and probably kind of gay. But I have so many jeans I don't really wear, so maybe I can make them look good as shorts.

An anxiety I am having right now (of the many) is where I'm going to live in Rio. I got my housing assignment recently, and I'll be living in a neighborhood called Laranjeiras (which means orange trees). From research online, it looks like it'll be a pretty nice place to live. The one thing about it giving me stress is the distance from the university. It's only five miles or so away, but on the bus that will take about an hour!! I'm thinking about getting a bike down there; not totally decided yet.

Anyway, I just wanted to get a post on here to get the wheels turning, but it'll probably be a couple weeks before I start posting for real. Keep checking back for updates!