the daily(ish)

Brazilian public access television…

Good times.

reunion weekend

“I have found out there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them”.- Mark Twain (Tom Sawyer Abroad)

We enjoyed one last weekend with our friends from Sao Paulo and finally got a chance to catch up with our friends who live in Recife.  AND finally meet their ridiculously cute baby.  My uterus ached all weekend being around this little bundle of baby fat and preciousness.  His Renaissance Fair turkey legs almost sent me over the edge of mild baby fever to full-fledged baby-napper.  Seriously people, you’ve never seen a cuter baby leg.

I digress.

Everyone arrived on Friday and all 10 of us went out to a long, laughter-filled, beer-soaked, meat-laden dinner.  And yes, it was as fun as it sounds.  Maybe more.

We went to my very first football match on Saturday night and enjoyed the perks of getting box tickets from the Sponsor…

The game was actually pretty good. There were like 6 goals.  6!  By my calculation that is about 6 times more than an average game.  Sorry, soccer fans, but you know it’s true. 

Although the game was a small one, we got a glimpse as to how insane these fans are and had a good laugh at some of the crap the old men were yelling down to the field.  Thanks to M & S for translating.

Sunday we spent around the pool saying our last goodbyes to our friends from Recife and their turkey-legged precious little baby before their afternoon flight.  Then Jules and I went to lunch and took a walk on the beach with M & S before having to bid them farewell too.

Goodbyes are really a huge part of our life.  We say them all the time without really knowing when we’ll see that person again.  It’s hard. Especially when it’s people you hold so dear. 

I’ve missed having my fellow hotel wives so much since they left and hope to see them both again very soon!!!

 

 

 

Sorry, no photos this weekend, well not enough to post an album.  Especially since the Wife chose to ignore my two “don’t forget the camera” remarks and say to me in the cab “you got the camera, right?”.  Hahaha, it was only slightly better than my bringing a battery-less camera to Vienna last year.  It happens.  All soccer photos credit goes to the new cohort.  Thanks!

the daily(ish)

Solitaire…

the universal pasttime of slackers.

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I’ll met you in the metting room later.

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We were ready at any minute to be sprayed with blood and teeth. 

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Our hotel has a lounge and I can’t begin to explain what a huge perk that is for us, particularly me.  When you live in a hotel room 300+ days a year it helps to have somewhere else to go other than the actual room.  To have a place where we can sit in a seat instead of our bed, have a cup of coffee without getting in a cab to get it,  or just somewhere we can grab something to eat at night without a 3 hour “to-do” about dinner- it really  is priceless to us.

Some lounges are better than others, but we’re grateful for even the worst ones. 

The lounge here in Rio is one of the better ones.  I like having breakfast up here as opposed to the kid-filled madhouse of a restaurant.  I come up for my afternoon caffeine fix, we all tend to meet up here at some point in the evening and the Wife and I have had more than our share of cold cut dinners to save the hassle (and money) of going out to a long dinner every night.

The real gem in this lounge is one of the regular waiters.  He’s like an overly friendly giant (he’s well over 6ft and his hands are the size of baseball mits) who will do anything to make us happy.  Want a caipirinha with 7 different fruits 3 hours after the lounge is supposed to be closed?  “Okay”.  Want him to cut up a giant mango into bite-size bits?  “Okay”.  Want him to go in search of your favorite mustard? “Okay”.

Now, don’t go thinking we’re a bunch of divas asking for these things- he’s the one asking and we’re the ones saying “okay”.  He offers over and over until you say “Okay!!”

We got in late one Sunday without having a chance to grab dinner.  I was starved and ordered a burger with a side of gold (that explains the price-right?)from room service.  I immediately recognized the friendly giant’s voice and he in turn recognized mine- “Miss Julie!!” ( He calls me by the Wife’s name and her by mine.  I’ve corrected him numerous times, but now we just go with it.) When my burger arrived it was flanked by an almost overflowing glass of white wine- what I always drink in the lounge.  He called five minutes later to make sure I got his gift. 

This is the kind of niceness this guy possesses.  He’s sooooo nice- too nice.  He let that wild bunch of unsupervised kids run him ragged and he never stopped smiling.  Not even for a second.

I’m usually in the lounge by myself until the crew gets home from work.  I have come to dread being alone with him. I now find myself saying a silent prayer on the elevator that there will be other people present to act as my buffer. He smothers me with attention.  I can’t take one sip of water without him asking if I’d like some more.  If he wasn’t the sweetest man on earth I’d want to kill him.

Today he was out of control…

I was having a coffee and as soon as the last sip passed my lips he besieged me with other drink choices.  “More café? Juice-y? White wine-y? Coca Zero? Agua”?

Five seconds later I heard water running in the back room.  He emerged with a giant plate of washed grapes.  I thanked him profusely, although I hate the sour and seeded grapes here.  He’s asked me 5 times if I like them since he dropped them off.  I’m doing my best to eat the horrid things, but it's going too slowly for his comfort.

He then asked if I wanted some quiches.  Warm food is rare here but I had just finished my coffee and wasn’t hungry. Even though I had politely declined, he brought some over anyway. 

1 minute later and he’s bringing over a bowl of nuts. 

If you could literally kill someone with kindness I would have been dead weeks ago.

Bahia

We headed north to Salvador, the capital of the state of Bahia, this past weekend.  With all these lazy pool/beach/island hopping weekends we’ve had in Brazil it was nice to have a “normal” weekend of being tourists.  We spent Saturday shopping in the market, touring around the lovely old city, and popping into some insanely ornate churches…

We had a very informative tour guide which you know my not-so-inner dork loved. He was very good about encouraging us to try street food and explaining everything we came across in the city…like when the random, smiling guy came and threw popcorn on us…

Apparently it was a blessing and hellooo, I’ll take as many of those as I can get.  The popcorn symbolized a flower or blooming or something.  I never really understood that part as you can see from my face as he was trying to explain…

Oh and there was this awesomeness…

We had just enough time to get showered and ready before heading to the evening cultural dance show.

Salvador was the first city founded in Brazil and was once the largest slave trade port in the world.  The African influence can be seen throughout their food, music, culture and religion. 

The first dances were the sacred dances of Candoble, the local religion brought over from African priests sold into slavery.  Each Orixa represents a manifestation of their God, Olodumare…

We had seen statues of the one with grass over his face at the market and I have to say it was even more eerie in person.  I realize how incredibly ignorant that sounds, but he is the Orixa of illness so I’m thinking he’s supposed to invoke some fear in you.

The show concluded with capoeria, the Brazilian martial art that combines music, dance and well, martial arts. 

It was intense…

I never even knew some of these muscles existed in the human body.  These guys were incredibly fit, insanely athletic and very hard to capture on film.  You want to get in shape- start fight dancing.  This stuff is no joke.

Everyone told us Salvador was a must-see in Brazil and I’m thankful for their recommendation.  We really, really enjoyed it.

This weekend we’ve got our friends from Sao Paulo and Recife coming to visit!  We’re so excited to see everyone and enjoy Rio!

Pics from the weekend…

paraty

 

Remember the days when weekend posts and pictures were up by Monday…Tuesday at the latest?  Well, those were the days before my Spanish classes.  Urgh, I’m definitely at the point of defeatism with my lessons, but hey, we all knew it was just a matter of time.

I digress.

Our weekend in Paraty was a lovely one.  It is a lovely little town with beautifully maintained colonial buildings and when the tide comes in it actually floods some streets.  They call it the Brazilian Venice…

I  had gotten a recommendation from a friend for a hotel and although they were fully booked, they put us up in what may or may not have been the owner’s house.  It was a great condo and just a few steps from the hotel where we had breakfast and played with stinky dogs.  Wow, this entire town is full of docile, stinky, scrappy little strays-

I of course fell in love with them all.  It turns out the new cohort loves a stray even more than me though and she may or may not have let a dog lick her on the face that we later saw digging through a bag of garbage on the street.  Good times.

Friday night we had dinner and strolled around the town.  Okay, more like stumbled around the town.  The old stone streets do not make for much strolling.  I swear everyone around me was looking up and walking like normal human beings, but we looked like paranoid giraffes walking through landmines.  Whenever I hear the phrase “mean streets” my mind won’t go to NYC or Compton- it will immediately think back to Paraty…

 

There was a contemporary art festival going on, so we grabbed some beers from a vendor and enjoyed the light/music exhibition (and awesome people watching) in the main square after dinner on Friday night…

We had planned to take a boat trip to neighboring islands on Saturday and horseback riding on Sunday.  The sun disappeared pretty early on Saturday, but we still enjoyed having our own little boat take us around…

Our captain or skipper or whatever, Andre, was sooo nice and made an awesome caipirinha…

We had lunch in a hut on a tiny beach, saw some sea turtles and Jules and the new cohort even did some snorkeling.  I stayed on the boat and took pictures…

The water was freezing, the fish were all visible from the surface and there was not a speck of sun anywhere.  As I watched them both shiver the hour ride back to town, I knew I had made the wise decision.

We loved the day so much we skipped the horses and called up Andre on Sunday morning to do it all over again!  The sun was out a bit more and we lazed around on the boat and had lunch at little restaurant on a rock in the middle of the water.  Jules even enjoyed having her own little private island for a while…

Even with the weather not really cooperating, we really enjoyed the weekend.  Paraty was definitely worth the 4 hour drive from Rio.

This weekend we’re off to the capital of Bahia- Salvador!  We’re looking forward to exploring the rich culture of this region of Brazil. 

Pics from this weekend…

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A little glimpse of Copacabana beach…

It’s far from our hotel (well, not walking distance) so I only see it on the way to the office on Fridays. I’m counting on going when we stay in Rio in a couple weekends.  I’ve got so many pictures I need to take in this city. 

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I fell in love with this show, Idiot Abroad, in Ireland last year.  We left before I got to see a couple of the episodes, but thankfully I caught them on a flight to New Zealand.  Rio was my favorite and I literally laughed out loud on the plane while watching.

In honor of our upcoming adventure…

 

 

 

 

***American friends***- if you don’t know this show and you’re a fan of Ricky Gervais- you need to find it ASAP.  Hilarious!

round 4

Schedule is out and we're headed to Brazil next round! Rio to be exact!!

We're most excited to get to see our dear friends in Sao Paulo that moved back home in 2010. Can't wait to see you guys!!

Ooh and I'm praying we can swing a weekend in Buenos Aires on our way there so I can replace the purse and coat that was stolen from our storage unit. Seriously, if you ever see some redneck in Statham, Georgia wearing fine Argentinian leather- tackle her. Hard.