Week 3

The gecko I found on the wall in the hall

Today, I'll be rounding out my third week in Brazil by visiting the Sambódromo (again). Every Sunday night they have technical rehearsals there in preparation for the parades during Carnaval, and these rehearsals are open to the public. We're going in a big group, and bringing at least one of the Brazilian friends we've made so that we have a local to help us out. It should be pretty fun!

Yesterday, the CCCI (I have no idea what that acronym stands for, but it is the acronym of the international student office of the university) took us on a passeio, or field trip, to the historical city of Petrópolis. It was where the Imperial Palace stood (and now stands as a museum), and was a vacation retreat of Emperors and later Presidents. It's about an hour away from Rio, up in the hills.

This is the house of inventor Alberto Santos Dumont. Brazilians say he invented airplanes.

He made it so you could only start walking up his stairs with your right foot.

This is me in front of a cathedral there.

This is part of my lunch. They had square eggs...I didn't really get it.

This is a road in Petrópolis.

This is the view facing away from the cathedral.

Week 2

Here goes my first Sunday post!

Right now I'm reclining in my bed (which is pretty much what I've been doing all day, exciting, I know) and I can hear some soccer game on the TV in the living room and also on at least one other TV in the apartment complex. I think that my host mom's real son is here visiting and watching it, but I haven't gone down to check and see if it's him yet. I'm pretty sure it is, though, because here, Sundays are the day that families visit each other, so it makes sense.

I've been googling and wiki-ing Brazilian birds for the past hour or so, because I've seen a lot of birds so far that I don't recognize and I've been trying to identify. I'm having a lot of success, although there are a couple birds that I don't know how I'm going to identify without having a proper bird book. Yesterday I went to the Jardim Botânico again, and this time I brought my camera! Unfortunately, a lot of the birds were a little camera shy, so I don't necessarily have the best pictures of them. But I'm going to start keeping a list of the new birds that I see every week, and I'll include pictures (either ones I've taken or ones I find online). So here is installment one of the Brazil Bird List:

At the Jardim Botânico, I saw the following:

Slaty-breasted Wood-Rail (local name-saracura do brejo)- I thought these were chickens or something at first, seeing them from afar. But they're more like coots, I guess.

Swallow-tailed Hummingbird- This is the biggest, prettiest hummingbird I have ever seen! But I didn't get a picture because it kind of swooped in out of nowhere, hung around for a second, and then flew away.

Dusky-legged Guan- This one looked like a weird pheasant/turkey type bird, and half jumped, half flew up into a tree.

Masked Water-Tyrant (freirinha)- I have seen a few of these besides in the Botanical Garden, and couldn't figure out what they were for the longest time. They're really striking!

Channel-Billed Toucan (tucano do bico preto)- This was definitely the coolest bird I saw at the Jardim Botânico. We happened to see it right before we left, because it landed in a tree over our heads. It was really hard to get a picture of, though, so my picture of it is kind of like a picture of Big Foot; if I told you it was of a toucan, you might believe me. Apparently there's a few subspecies of this type of toucan, but the picture I'm linking to is the one that looks like the one I saw.

I also saw some kind of dove at the Botanical Garden, but since I am not sure what kind, I will not include it yet. This also goes for some other random birds I saw.

In addition to the Botanical Garden, I've seen some cool birds at the beach:

Magnificent Frigatebird/Great Frigatebird (one of the two, not sure which)- These guys are always flying above the beach, really high up. I've heard that they steal food from people and stuff, but haven't seen that yet.

Amazon Kingfisher- A big kingfisher I saw skimming the water at Ipanema one time.

Anyway. That's the beginning of the bird part of my blog I guess.

Other than the birds, I have a few pictures to post of my apartment, and of some of the cool stuff I saw in the Botanical Garden.

My room

The living room

Living room again

The view from my window (note the jungle across the street)

A monkey! Macaquinho!

Little kid trying interacting with the monkeys!

Little macaquinho screaming in the bamboo.

Huge lizard! I would say it was a couple feet long!

After the Botanical Garden yesterday, I went to see a play with some of my friends from California and one of the girls from China. One of the girls from California is living with a host dad who knew someone who got us free tickets to the play. The play was called As Meninas and it was about the death of a woman and the subsequent effects on her female relatives (but it was a black comedy, so it wasn't too much of a downer). After that, we went to this apartment party in Botafogo. The apartment belonged to this guy from Harvard who is here in Brazil doing something with his company that tries to help ameliorate the situation in favelas. I guess he's already done some stuff in India, so he's working here now. There were mostly only Brazilians there, and a few Americans that have been living in Brazil for like 5 or 6 years...basically Brazilians. Got to practice a lot of Portuguese. And there was great music, and it was a really relaxed, chill setting. Basically yesterday, with the Botanical Garden, a play, and a chill party, was an ideal Brazilian day for me (maybe missing a quick visit to the beach).

This week we have a day off on Wednesday for a Brazilian holiday, São Sebastião. And then on Friday, I have to go to the international airport with a bunch of other students to register with the federal police. And then on Saturday, I think we have a field trip somewhere...I think to Petrópolis, which is a city of historical importance or something. So another big week starting tomorrow! I'll try and take lots of pictures and remember lots of important things to write about! Até logo!

Week 1.5

Today I didn't go to my Portuguese class because I wasn't feeling well this morning. I feel better now, so I am glad I didn't go and recovered instead. But since I haven't really done anything today (besides my Portuguese homework) I thought I should take this time to blog; also, I was about to go get food when it started storming again, so this is a good way to wait around for the rain to let up.

So the weather here is completely different than anything I've ever experienced. I knew it was going to be hot and humid, and I knew that the storms here would be different, but I really wasn't prepared for how different. Last night we had our first thunderstorm with rain and everything, and it was a sight to behold. I left my house around 8:30 pm, and walked a few steps. I noticed a few raindrops starting to fall. I then walked about 15 more seconds, when all of a sudden, the clouds let loose. The rain was falling in buckets. I ran under the cover of a nearby bar, thinking it would just be a temporary downpour. But it didn't stop for about half an hour. In addition to the water, there was almost constant thunder and lightning. It was quite an experience for me, since Monterey really doesn't have that kind of weather. I ended up going out anyway, since I had already been soaked, and in about 45 minutes it wasn't raining anymore and I dried off. However, later in the night the rain picked up again, and it's been raining on and off ever since. Seeing the rain like this makes it a lot easier for me to understand the landslides

south of here. Anyway, even though it's raining cats and dogs, its still really hot (I think about 82 ºF right now), so I'll probably just wear my shorts to walk to the grocery store now.

Also, I think I'm going to try and get a post up here every Sunday at the minimum, since Sundays are kind of the least busy day for me. Até logo!

Week 1

A waterfall na Floresta da Tijuca.

Walking down from visiting the waterfall

in the Floresta da Tijuca. The wall on

the left is solid concrete...but it didn't

stop those plants.

I have been here for a week (minus about 12 hours, but since I'll be sleeping for the next 9 or so I figure they don't matter too much). Some things are exactly how I expected them to be, but at the same time almost everything continues to surprise me. This city is nothing like any of the other big cities I've been in (i.e. San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston). The people here are so friendly, and loud, and have such energy, and they all seem to be connected to everyone else. In addition, even though there's a lot of vanity here, just like in any other city (maybe more, actually), at the same time there is a lot more tolerance of differences. For me, this is really clear at the beach, where you can see all the women wearing bikinis and all the men wearing sungas (that's what you call a speedo, here). Sure, a lot of these people are VERY attractive, but a lot of them aren't, at least not in a typical beach body sort of way. Also, the way people talk here is very different (besides it being in Portuguese). People use so many gesticulations and facial expressions here that, yeah, sometimes are used in the US, but I feel like here these gestures are omnipresent.

Bah. This is not the best blog post. I have so much more to say but I am SO tired and hot right now. Maybe tomorrow after class I will be able to blog some and get my thoughts out correctly.

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!