9 August, 2004

Graffiti on a wall in Flamengo:
"Medo existe para voce demonstrar coragem."
Roughly- Fear exists for you to demonstrate courage.
Rather uplifting message for graffiti. I'm more used to gang tags and swear words.

25 August, 2004

Ewww! Just squashed a big cockroach. It was kind of cool looking, but I'm definitely not a fan of the legs still twitching after it has been smashed to smithereens.

On a brighter note, Milton randomly sent me off to a bar this evening to celebrate the birthday of his friend's son. The son is an accordion player in a forro band, and so there was live music and a bunch of really good dancers. I got to dance with a guy who is apparently a forro instructor, and definitely an awesome dancer. He gave me a flyer about his classes, so maybe I'll look into those. At the very least I now know about a cheap place to dance on wednesday nights only a couple blocks from my apartment. Yay!

I spent a good chunk of the day working on this website. I think I'm making headway. Want to get it set up and launched by the end of this week so I can start pointing people at it for info about my trip and such. I need to figure out how to make accents and non-english letters so I can write things in portuguese properly.

25 August, 2004

FLIGHT DOWN (or, Delays, delays, delays)
I left Seattle, WA on July 25, 2004. My flight was initially scheduled to leave at noon, but was delayed for maintenance until 6pm. I went in search of food, and while I was away from the terminal they finished early and decided to leave at 3pm instead. I got back as the plane was pulling away from the gate. Luckily, despite earlier protests that there was absolutely no room on any of the other flights that day or the next, they squeezed me onto the next flight leaving for Atlanta. However, by this point I'd already missed my connection to Sao Paulo, so they put me in a Hilton overnight and on the next flight at 9pm the next day. This gave me a chance to wander Atlanta for a day. It was insanely muggy, but the Martin Luther King Memorial and mall I went to had air conditioning, so it wasn't so bad. I had never been to Atlanta before. My flight to Sao Paulo went smoothly, except when I went to grab my bags for the pass through customs I discovered they had left my checked luggage in Atlanta. I didn't get it until a week later, but luckily I had packed a couple changes of clothes in my carry-on (I remembered the same thing happening in Mozambique). Continued on to Rio where I was met by a woman who spoke very little english and put me in a taxi, whose driver also spoke no english. I arrived at an apartment complex and was handed a set of keys by the doorman pointed towards the elevator and told "sete" (seven). Unfortunately at that point I was greeted by two doors and had no idea which was mine, or whose apartment I had arrived at. So I knocked on both and the wrong one was answered by a maid. I asked for Milton or Alejandro, and was led to a girl downstairs named "Alessandra." Eventually we called Alejandro and he told me to go wait in the other apartment, which I did. I took a nap until Milton arrived several hours later.

SETTLING IN
Milton is a chemistry professor who was rather annoyed that I didn't speak french (he still makes fun of me). He claims that he doesn't speak english, despite the fact that he does. I was introduced to the tricks of the apartment, including a gas stove and hot water heater, almost broken tv remotes, and door handles that have to be held just so to close. In the evening Milton's girlfriend, Mara, and another friend arrived for evening tea, which substitutes for dinner around here. Mara conveniently speaks quite fluent english and has been extremely friendly and helpful. I was exhausted and went to bed early.

Milton is divorced from his previous wife, and has three kids who alternate between a week here and a week at her house. The oldest, Bruno, is eighteen and in his second semester of college, and the younger are 12 year old twins Ana and Tiago. They are all extremely loud and energetic. So my life alternates between a week of chaos and a week of quiet. It's a pretty good setup.

FAMILY TIES
The day after I arrived I finally met my mom's first cousin Alejandro who I had been communicating with. He is actually chilean, but he married a brazilian, Yana, and has lived in Rio for over 25 years. Milton is his wife's brother. Alejandro runs a travel agency that puts together ski packages to Chili (it is about the only way Brazilians ever see snow). Yana's other brother Nerval also works at the travel agency. He apparently spent a couple of years traveling when he was younger, and has been full of suggestions for places I should visit.

SAMBA SCHOOLS (or, The Good Stuff)
Alejandro has so many connections it is dizzying, but the one that has been most helpful to me is his friend Ricardo. Ricardo is a (rather good) samba composer for the Uniao da Ilha do Govenador samba school. I have gone to Ilha a couple of times now with Alejandro and Ricardo's families, and was introduced to the president and various head organizers, which is exciting even if my portuguese still isn't good enough to interview them. The samba school is HUGE! There are over 30 of them in Rio, and they all have more than 1000 members, usually at least 2000. Of course, it turns out that despite the competitive nature of the Carnaval parade, many people parade with multiple schools, and a lot of people go to the rehearsals who don't actually parade. For clarification, the weekly rehearsals are for the band, or baterilha, not for the dancers, and the "schools" don't teach anything. People just show up to dance because it's fun.