I finally beat the system and successfully uploaded my pictures. If you check immediately below this posting, you should see a separate posting with the photos. I used the website Snapfish, which wasn't overbearingly slow. You might actually need to create an account to view the album if you don't already have one, but that really only takes about 30 seconds. Unless you really have absolutely nothing else to do you won't be able to go through all the photos in one sitting; since I was barely ever able to upload them previously, I uploaded all of my pictures since about January 15th or so, and there are over 300. I captioned some of them, and usually a caption denotes a change in the subject or area of the photo, and all subsequent photos are from the same place until the next captioned photo. I wasn't able to upload my video clips on Snapfish, however; they are mainly from the Carnaval parade. I'll have to figure out how to do that a bit later.
The next bit of good news is that my next travels begin today, in a few hours. I'm flying down to Iguazu Falls, which is a spectacular series of waterfalls on the border of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. It's supposed to be magnificent. I'll spend 3 nights there, including tonight, and on Sunday I'll head down to Buenos Aires for about a week. I'm very excited, and hopefully it will be a great trip.
Carnaval was incredible; it was a lot of fun. The main celebration was from Saturday until Tuesday, though of course there was pre-partying and now post-partying. I was a bit partied out, so I took yesterday to recover. It was definitely way more partying than I've ever been used to, especially on consecutive days, but it was very fun. There were people everywhere; a main feature of Carnaval is blocos, which are street parties in various areas and neighborhoods in town. There were multiple blocos in different places every day throughout Carnaval, and that's mainly where I went. Some were absolutely packed to the point where it was difficult to move through the crowd. It was a really cool atmosphere to have so many people out with music and dancing everywhere; definitely an unforgettable experience. And the aforementioned parade was spectacular. Thousands and thousands of dancers in incredibly elaborate costumes danced continuously, and the floats were unbelievable. The effort put into this parade blows my mind; one costume must take hours and hours to assemble, let alone tens of thousands. And the dancers practice for months to perfect their parade. Plus, the bleachers were packed with people, all dancing and singing and cheering for hours. Spectators literally stay all night. I left very, very late, but there was still not a seat to be found. It was really amazing.
Not sure when I'll post next. I might have an opportunity during my trip, but if not, maybe not until March! Stay safe.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Brazil (312 photos), by Jared Neuhausen
I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos
Friday, February 12, 2010
Back in Rio
Some of you seem to have become quite impatient that I haven't written on this blog in a little while. I apologize for that; I have been traveling for the last week and at the hostels I couldn't really take an extended period of time to sit at the computer and write a post since there was only one computer for the entire hostel. Now I am back in Rio and will do my best to update you on the past 2 or so weeks.
First, though, Rachel's brother and sister-in-law had a baby girl last Saturday morning. Her name is Eleanor. Mazel Tov to them and to the entire Rubin family.
My trip began last Thursday, February 4th. That day was the last day of my intensive Portuguese course. Wednesday we had a written exam, and on Thursday we had a speaking exam. We also watched an old, Portuguese version of Sherlock Holmes that was quite entertaining. Overall, the intensive course was pretty helpful. It definitely got me going in the right direction and gave me a nice start. However, I felt that I could have gotten even more out of it; while the class was intensive, it was intensive in terms of the daily hours spent in the classroom and not in terms of the pace of the material. The class was brutally slow at times, and we definitely could have covered more than we did. That was really my biggest issue, and I just wish we would have picked up the pace. But at least now I can communicate with people somewhat. I often still don't understand what people say to me, and of course my vocabulary is still quite limited, but there are some random, brief times when both speaking and understanding simultaneously are working well.
I spent the last few afternoons before departing on my trip at the beaches in Ipanema/Leblon. I needed to prepare for traveling, you know. I couldn't and shouldn't have done anything too strenuous.
So after the oral exam on Thursday, I went home to pack and left for the bus station to catch my bus to Sao Paulo. I think I mentioned in my last post that I was traveling with two guys from California and a Norwegian. The bus left at 5, but one of the guys from California missed the bus. We did our best to stall the bus, and we stalled it for about 10 minutes, but the guy still wasn't there and we left without him. The bus ride to Sao Paulo took about 7 hours with a stop in the middle for dinner. That probably seems long, but it was a pleasant ride. We arrived late and took a taxi to our hostel.
For those of you who may not have known, Sao Paulo is the 3rd biggest city in the world behind Tokyo and Mexico City with something like 17 million inhabitants. The city is really huge; it encompasses a huge area as well as containing all of those people.
Friday we walked around a nice pedestrian area in the downtown of Sao Paulo for a little while. I left the group a bit early, however, to go meet in person with a representative of a firm down here who I had been corresponding with over email about the possibility of some kind of internship this summer in Brazil.
Saturday we slept in and then decided to go to some kind of soccer museum, which was at one of Sao Paulo's soccer stadium. When we got to the stadium, however, we saw that there was a game that afternoon and we ended up buying tickets. The main attraction was that one of the teams playing was the club team of Ronaldo, who some of you may be familiar with, but for those who aren't Ronaldo is one of the best and most famous players in Brazilian history. He's past his prime now, but he used to be a spectacular player. The game was fine, but it started storming and raining hard just after the game started. We left at halftime because we were soaking and there was no sign of letting up.
Sunday I went around the city alone for a while because the other guys had been out until 6 or 7 am and I can't do that. I spent a few hours at Ibirapuera Park, which is Sao Paulo's equivalent of Central Park. It's very nice. Then I took what was actually a very long walk through some adjacent neighborhoods to the park and took the subway to Liberdade, which is Sao Paulo's Japanese town. Sao Paulo has the largest Japanese population of any city outside of Japan. There were a lot of people walking around because there was some kind of Japanese/Chinese street market. It was pretty cool and I got some good food.
Found an Irish pub to watch the Super Bowl at Sunday night. It was really, really crowded actually, and there were a surprisingly high number of Brazilians there, too. Brazilians are weird football fans; nobody in the States watches football like Brazilians do. They make loud cheers or grimaces after every single play depending on what team they're supporting, and I get the feeling that they don't really know what's going on. I don't know why there were so many there.
Monday I met with a representative from another firm that I had been talking to. This guy gave me the VIP treatment; he picked me up in a taxi from the hostel, took me out for a light lunch, and after the meeting insisted on giving me the money to cover a cab ride to the airport, which was not that cheap. I was very flattered and humbled, but needless to say I enjoyed my first taste of the corporate world.
Took the cab to the airport where we flew to Florianopolis Monday afternoon. Florianopolis is a very pretty place. I'm pretty tired now so I'll sum up our activities in Floripa a bit more quickly than Sao Paulo.
After arriving in the general vicinity of our hostel in Floripa, it took quite a long time to actually find the hostel. We had forgotten to find the hostel's whereabouts the night before, so we found an internet cafe quickly to look up the address and map it out. Then we set out to find it, but we actually walked past it about an hour before finding it again. It didn't help that all the streets were named pretty much the same thing; they were all variations of Silveira. The street the hostel was on was something like Antonio da Silveira, and the street next to it was something like Joao Antonio da Silveira. There were like 5 other streets in the neighborhood also named Silveira, it was quite confusing. So we actually walked past the hostel, then up and down some of the wrong Silveira streets a few times before we were finally able to find it. This hostel was much nicer than the hostel in Sao Paulo; the Sao Paulo hostel had really thin, uncomfortable mattresses, smelled terrible, charged for internet, and was quite hot at night. The Florianopolis hostel was the opposite of all of the above, and was very pleasant. They ran a good hostel.
Among the activities I participated in in Florianopolis were surfing, hanging at the beach, walking at the beach, hanging around town, etc. Kept it pretty low key. It rained kind of often while we were there, which dampered our plans a little bit, but it was still nice. Florianopolis is a cute and pretty place; it's mainly composed of a large island. This morning I traveled alone to a part of the island that we hadn't seen earlier in the week and I took a really long walk on the beach. I didn't mean to walk for as long as I did, but I just kept going until I started running out of time and had to find a bus to the airport. It was very peaceful, though.
The trip was very fun and pleasant. I'm definitely glad that I did it. Traveling with the others was both and good and bad. It was of course nice to have company at times, but I also felt that it limited me and prohibited me from doing some things that I would have rather done. It wasn't too big a deal, because I went off on my own quite a bit anyway to do what I wanted rather than travel in a pack. But, as mentioned before, the other guys were interested in going out every night until about 6 or 7 am, whereas I neither can nor want to do that. I was more interested in just hanging out and eating well, which I did by the way. I followed some suggestions from my guidebook, and I was very pleased with the results. Sao Paulo is the culinary capital of South America, and you can bet I took advantage of that. That was actually one of the main incentives for taking the trip to begin with. So, I guess that it would be nice to still travel with other people in the future, and I can just do my own thing whenever I wish. I wouldn't hesitate to travel alone, though.
Now that I'm back from my successful trip, I'm back in Rio just in time for Carnaval, which is the highlight of the year. Carnaval happens all over Brazil, but it is most famous in Rio. You can parallel it somewhat with Mardi Gras, although I believe it's on a much bigger scale. People anticipate Carnaval for months and I've heard some crazy and cool things. The celebration is formally from tomorrow through Tuesday or Wednesday, but informally continues for several days after that and there has been pre-partying for weeks. I'm very excited, although I don't really know what I'm going to do yet. Basically, the point is that Carnaval is a very big deal and it will be awesome.
I've got 2 more weeks of break from school after Carnaval, so I'd like to plan another trip if possible. I've looked into a couple of options, but I haven't made any decisions yet. Stay tuned. The way this semester is scheduled has 4 weeks between the end of the language course and the start of the regular semester, which enabled my recent trip, coming back to Rio for Carnaval, and hopefully a trip after. Pretty sweet deal.
I've got quite a few pictures piled up, but I'm discouraged from trying to post them based on what happened last time. I'll try to work something out soon and I'll let you know.
Excited for Carnaval! Boa noite.
First, though, Rachel's brother and sister-in-law had a baby girl last Saturday morning. Her name is Eleanor. Mazel Tov to them and to the entire Rubin family.
My trip began last Thursday, February 4th. That day was the last day of my intensive Portuguese course. Wednesday we had a written exam, and on Thursday we had a speaking exam. We also watched an old, Portuguese version of Sherlock Holmes that was quite entertaining. Overall, the intensive course was pretty helpful. It definitely got me going in the right direction and gave me a nice start. However, I felt that I could have gotten even more out of it; while the class was intensive, it was intensive in terms of the daily hours spent in the classroom and not in terms of the pace of the material. The class was brutally slow at times, and we definitely could have covered more than we did. That was really my biggest issue, and I just wish we would have picked up the pace. But at least now I can communicate with people somewhat. I often still don't understand what people say to me, and of course my vocabulary is still quite limited, but there are some random, brief times when both speaking and understanding simultaneously are working well.
I spent the last few afternoons before departing on my trip at the beaches in Ipanema/Leblon. I needed to prepare for traveling, you know. I couldn't and shouldn't have done anything too strenuous.
So after the oral exam on Thursday, I went home to pack and left for the bus station to catch my bus to Sao Paulo. I think I mentioned in my last post that I was traveling with two guys from California and a Norwegian. The bus left at 5, but one of the guys from California missed the bus. We did our best to stall the bus, and we stalled it for about 10 minutes, but the guy still wasn't there and we left without him. The bus ride to Sao Paulo took about 7 hours with a stop in the middle for dinner. That probably seems long, but it was a pleasant ride. We arrived late and took a taxi to our hostel.
For those of you who may not have known, Sao Paulo is the 3rd biggest city in the world behind Tokyo and Mexico City with something like 17 million inhabitants. The city is really huge; it encompasses a huge area as well as containing all of those people.
Friday we walked around a nice pedestrian area in the downtown of Sao Paulo for a little while. I left the group a bit early, however, to go meet in person with a representative of a firm down here who I had been corresponding with over email about the possibility of some kind of internship this summer in Brazil.
Saturday we slept in and then decided to go to some kind of soccer museum, which was at one of Sao Paulo's soccer stadium. When we got to the stadium, however, we saw that there was a game that afternoon and we ended up buying tickets. The main attraction was that one of the teams playing was the club team of Ronaldo, who some of you may be familiar with, but for those who aren't Ronaldo is one of the best and most famous players in Brazilian history. He's past his prime now, but he used to be a spectacular player. The game was fine, but it started storming and raining hard just after the game started. We left at halftime because we were soaking and there was no sign of letting up.
Sunday I went around the city alone for a while because the other guys had been out until 6 or 7 am and I can't do that. I spent a few hours at Ibirapuera Park, which is Sao Paulo's equivalent of Central Park. It's very nice. Then I took what was actually a very long walk through some adjacent neighborhoods to the park and took the subway to Liberdade, which is Sao Paulo's Japanese town. Sao Paulo has the largest Japanese population of any city outside of Japan. There were a lot of people walking around because there was some kind of Japanese/Chinese street market. It was pretty cool and I got some good food.
Found an Irish pub to watch the Super Bowl at Sunday night. It was really, really crowded actually, and there were a surprisingly high number of Brazilians there, too. Brazilians are weird football fans; nobody in the States watches football like Brazilians do. They make loud cheers or grimaces after every single play depending on what team they're supporting, and I get the feeling that they don't really know what's going on. I don't know why there were so many there.
Monday I met with a representative from another firm that I had been talking to. This guy gave me the VIP treatment; he picked me up in a taxi from the hostel, took me out for a light lunch, and after the meeting insisted on giving me the money to cover a cab ride to the airport, which was not that cheap. I was very flattered and humbled, but needless to say I enjoyed my first taste of the corporate world.
Took the cab to the airport where we flew to Florianopolis Monday afternoon. Florianopolis is a very pretty place. I'm pretty tired now so I'll sum up our activities in Floripa a bit more quickly than Sao Paulo.
After arriving in the general vicinity of our hostel in Floripa, it took quite a long time to actually find the hostel. We had forgotten to find the hostel's whereabouts the night before, so we found an internet cafe quickly to look up the address and map it out. Then we set out to find it, but we actually walked past it about an hour before finding it again. It didn't help that all the streets were named pretty much the same thing; they were all variations of Silveira. The street the hostel was on was something like Antonio da Silveira, and the street next to it was something like Joao Antonio da Silveira. There were like 5 other streets in the neighborhood also named Silveira, it was quite confusing. So we actually walked past the hostel, then up and down some of the wrong Silveira streets a few times before we were finally able to find it. This hostel was much nicer than the hostel in Sao Paulo; the Sao Paulo hostel had really thin, uncomfortable mattresses, smelled terrible, charged for internet, and was quite hot at night. The Florianopolis hostel was the opposite of all of the above, and was very pleasant. They ran a good hostel.
Among the activities I participated in in Florianopolis were surfing, hanging at the beach, walking at the beach, hanging around town, etc. Kept it pretty low key. It rained kind of often while we were there, which dampered our plans a little bit, but it was still nice. Florianopolis is a cute and pretty place; it's mainly composed of a large island. This morning I traveled alone to a part of the island that we hadn't seen earlier in the week and I took a really long walk on the beach. I didn't mean to walk for as long as I did, but I just kept going until I started running out of time and had to find a bus to the airport. It was very peaceful, though.
The trip was very fun and pleasant. I'm definitely glad that I did it. Traveling with the others was both and good and bad. It was of course nice to have company at times, but I also felt that it limited me and prohibited me from doing some things that I would have rather done. It wasn't too big a deal, because I went off on my own quite a bit anyway to do what I wanted rather than travel in a pack. But, as mentioned before, the other guys were interested in going out every night until about 6 or 7 am, whereas I neither can nor want to do that. I was more interested in just hanging out and eating well, which I did by the way. I followed some suggestions from my guidebook, and I was very pleased with the results. Sao Paulo is the culinary capital of South America, and you can bet I took advantage of that. That was actually one of the main incentives for taking the trip to begin with. So, I guess that it would be nice to still travel with other people in the future, and I can just do my own thing whenever I wish. I wouldn't hesitate to travel alone, though.
Now that I'm back from my successful trip, I'm back in Rio just in time for Carnaval, which is the highlight of the year. Carnaval happens all over Brazil, but it is most famous in Rio. You can parallel it somewhat with Mardi Gras, although I believe it's on a much bigger scale. People anticipate Carnaval for months and I've heard some crazy and cool things. The celebration is formally from tomorrow through Tuesday or Wednesday, but informally continues for several days after that and there has been pre-partying for weeks. I'm very excited, although I don't really know what I'm going to do yet. Basically, the point is that Carnaval is a very big deal and it will be awesome.
I've got 2 more weeks of break from school after Carnaval, so I'd like to plan another trip if possible. I've looked into a couple of options, but I haven't made any decisions yet. Stay tuned. The way this semester is scheduled has 4 weeks between the end of the language course and the start of the regular semester, which enabled my recent trip, coming back to Rio for Carnaval, and hopefully a trip after. Pretty sweet deal.
I've got quite a few pictures piled up, but I'm discouraged from trying to post them based on what happened last time. I'll try to work something out soon and I'll let you know.
Excited for Carnaval! Boa noite.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
been a bit tired
I will start this post with a list of things that have broken in the last 7-10 days or so:
-my glasses
-my sunglasses
-1 of my apartment building's two elevators
-the shower's hot water
-something else that broke but I can't remember what it is
I'm not sure where this list is leading or what's next, but hopefully it's not a limb or my morality. Just kidding, I don't see how being in Rio could ever break my morality.
The past week was relatively slow. Monday through Wednesday especially were pretty quiet because I slept for significant portions of the day. That probably had something to do with waking up before 6:15 for 3 out of 4 days around that time. The adults reading this are probably like, big deal I'm always up then, but I'm definitely not used to it so it threw me off.
The first day waking up that early was last Saturday, when there was a field trip organized by the University to go the city of Petropolis, which is a little over an hour away from Rio. Petropolis is known as the Imperial City, and it was the former summer residence of the emperor during Brazil's colonial times. The city is pleasant, with various palaces and nice looking houses. The trip was a bit frustrating/boring though, because staff from the University kept us on a tight leash. I would have rather preferred to do my own thing there. The main sights we saw were the Imperial Museum, which was the emperor's palace, a grand cathedral where the emperor and his family are buried, and the house of this guy named Santos Dumont. Santos Dumont is heralded here as the father of aviation. Apparently he was the first person to take off on his own, whereas the Wright Brothers' flight was propelled by a catapult. Santos Dumont was also an inventor; I read that he invented the wristwatch, and that Cartier comes out with a special edition watch every year called the Santos. Anyway, the house itself wasn't really that cool. It was a pretty ordinary house with some pictures and letters hanging on the walls. The most interesting thing that I took was that Santos Dumont's bed was also his desk. Or his desk was also his bed. Not sure which one's right. But he basically slept on a hard wooden shelf. I guess that's how geniuses roll.
The next early wakeup was Monday morning, when I had to be at the University at 7 am to take a van to the airport where I had to register with the Federal Police here. The early morning was a bit tough to handle considering I had been up until nearly 2 the night before watching the football playoffs, with which I'm happy with the outcomes. The University assigned all exchange students to a group on a certain day to go to the police, and my day was Monday. All students need to register with the police within 30 days of arrival here in order to be here legally for whatever reason. However, when we got to the airport, we were told that we couldn't see the police because they had already given out the maximum number of tickets for the day. Apparently the police only give out 60 tickets per day, and although we got there at 8 am, they had given out all the tickets already and would not accept us. After waiting around for about an hour (if you recall from a previous post, waiting around is a favorite Brazilian pasttime) we headed back and were told we would need to come back tomorrow. I was just thrilled, so thrilled in fact that I removed my sunglasses from my head and hurled them at the airport wall; thus, that is how they broke. (Just kidding, that isn't actually how they broke. But they did break at some point during that experience, so I thought that would be a fitting story.)
Due to Monday morning's invigorating experience, we were informed that the next morning we would have to report to the University at 6 am in order to arrive at the airport early enough so that the police didn't run out of numbers. So I had to wake up about 5. We got there about a quarter to 7, and by the time the last of us was finished it was 1:00. It was a lot of waiting for a 5 minute process. The police registration is one example of a number of Brazilian processes that I have noticed are absurdly and remarkably inefficient. We didn't even get the worst of it, however; the group that went the next day didn't return until 6 pm, and the group the following day came back at 4:30. Pretty ridiculous.
So, now you know why I did so much sleeping during the days and evenings this week. To recuperate, I spent Thursday and Friday afternoons at the Copacabana beach. There were some very big and powerful waves both days; it was fun.
My Portuguese class was very frustrating this week; it was exceedingly slow and boring. We really need to pick up the pace. There were multiple times where I would have rather banged my head against a wall or jumped off a cliff than sit in that class. At least that old guy in our class continues to be entertaining.
During much of the time that I wasn't sleeping this past week, I planned a trip. Our Portuguese class ends this coming Thursday; later that afternoon, I will take a bus to Sao Paulo, where I will stay through the weekend. The bus ride is long, 6 hours, and I will arrive late Thursday night. On Monday afternoon, I will fly to Florianopolis, which is farther south and is supposed to be beautiful. Florianopolis is on a large island and is full of beaches. I have heard only good things. I'll stay there until Friday afternoon, when I'll fly back to Rio in time for the start of Carnaval. I'll be traveling with two guys from California and a Norwegian. I think the trip should be great.
Tomorrow I'm attending a soccer match at the Maracana stadium between Flamengo and Fluminense, which are the two most heavily supported soccer teams among Rio residents. To add even more intensity, the teams are tied for first in the league standings. People have said that games at Maracana, especially between these two teams, are incredible to experience. With a lot on the line, the game should be fascinating.
-my glasses
-my sunglasses
-1 of my apartment building's two elevators
-the shower's hot water
-something else that broke but I can't remember what it is
I'm not sure where this list is leading or what's next, but hopefully it's not a limb or my morality. Just kidding, I don't see how being in Rio could ever break my morality.
The past week was relatively slow. Monday through Wednesday especially were pretty quiet because I slept for significant portions of the day. That probably had something to do with waking up before 6:15 for 3 out of 4 days around that time. The adults reading this are probably like, big deal I'm always up then, but I'm definitely not used to it so it threw me off.
The first day waking up that early was last Saturday, when there was a field trip organized by the University to go the city of Petropolis, which is a little over an hour away from Rio. Petropolis is known as the Imperial City, and it was the former summer residence of the emperor during Brazil's colonial times. The city is pleasant, with various palaces and nice looking houses. The trip was a bit frustrating/boring though, because staff from the University kept us on a tight leash. I would have rather preferred to do my own thing there. The main sights we saw were the Imperial Museum, which was the emperor's palace, a grand cathedral where the emperor and his family are buried, and the house of this guy named Santos Dumont. Santos Dumont is heralded here as the father of aviation. Apparently he was the first person to take off on his own, whereas the Wright Brothers' flight was propelled by a catapult. Santos Dumont was also an inventor; I read that he invented the wristwatch, and that Cartier comes out with a special edition watch every year called the Santos. Anyway, the house itself wasn't really that cool. It was a pretty ordinary house with some pictures and letters hanging on the walls. The most interesting thing that I took was that Santos Dumont's bed was also his desk. Or his desk was also his bed. Not sure which one's right. But he basically slept on a hard wooden shelf. I guess that's how geniuses roll.
The next early wakeup was Monday morning, when I had to be at the University at 7 am to take a van to the airport where I had to register with the Federal Police here. The early morning was a bit tough to handle considering I had been up until nearly 2 the night before watching the football playoffs, with which I'm happy with the outcomes. The University assigned all exchange students to a group on a certain day to go to the police, and my day was Monday. All students need to register with the police within 30 days of arrival here in order to be here legally for whatever reason. However, when we got to the airport, we were told that we couldn't see the police because they had already given out the maximum number of tickets for the day. Apparently the police only give out 60 tickets per day, and although we got there at 8 am, they had given out all the tickets already and would not accept us. After waiting around for about an hour (if you recall from a previous post, waiting around is a favorite Brazilian pasttime) we headed back and were told we would need to come back tomorrow. I was just thrilled, so thrilled in fact that I removed my sunglasses from my head and hurled them at the airport wall; thus, that is how they broke. (Just kidding, that isn't actually how they broke. But they did break at some point during that experience, so I thought that would be a fitting story.)
Due to Monday morning's invigorating experience, we were informed that the next morning we would have to report to the University at 6 am in order to arrive at the airport early enough so that the police didn't run out of numbers. So I had to wake up about 5. We got there about a quarter to 7, and by the time the last of us was finished it was 1:00. It was a lot of waiting for a 5 minute process. The police registration is one example of a number of Brazilian processes that I have noticed are absurdly and remarkably inefficient. We didn't even get the worst of it, however; the group that went the next day didn't return until 6 pm, and the group the following day came back at 4:30. Pretty ridiculous.
So, now you know why I did so much sleeping during the days and evenings this week. To recuperate, I spent Thursday and Friday afternoons at the Copacabana beach. There were some very big and powerful waves both days; it was fun.
My Portuguese class was very frustrating this week; it was exceedingly slow and boring. We really need to pick up the pace. There were multiple times where I would have rather banged my head against a wall or jumped off a cliff than sit in that class. At least that old guy in our class continues to be entertaining.
During much of the time that I wasn't sleeping this past week, I planned a trip. Our Portuguese class ends this coming Thursday; later that afternoon, I will take a bus to Sao Paulo, where I will stay through the weekend. The bus ride is long, 6 hours, and I will arrive late Thursday night. On Monday afternoon, I will fly to Florianopolis, which is farther south and is supposed to be beautiful. Florianopolis is on a large island and is full of beaches. I have heard only good things. I'll stay there until Friday afternoon, when I'll fly back to Rio in time for the start of Carnaval. I'll be traveling with two guys from California and a Norwegian. I think the trip should be great.
Tomorrow I'm attending a soccer match at the Maracana stadium between Flamengo and Fluminense, which are the two most heavily supported soccer teams among Rio residents. To add even more intensity, the teams are tied for first in the league standings. People have said that games at Maracana, especially between these two teams, are incredible to experience. With a lot on the line, the game should be fascinating.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
I didn't forget
Just as you all were thinking, "Jared really should update his blog by now," I was thinking the same thing. I haven't posted anything in quite a while, partially because not much exciting happened especially soon after the last post, and partially because I've been exhausted most times I've had the opportunity the make another post.
I've now had 1.5 weeks of Portuguese. I'm definitely learning, and I can tell already that there's a difference between where I am now and where I was upon arrival here. However, of course there's much more to learn, and it's proving to be a difficult language. The class is from 8:30 to 1:00 with a 20-30 minute break. It often seems to drag on for a while, but it is productive most of the time. There are two teachers who split teaching our class each day, and I think they are both very good. One sounds quite similar to Borat, though, so I often have a bit of a hard time taking him seriously. There's also a 34-year-old guy who owns a strip mall in Cleveland in my class. I don't know what he's doing on our study abroad program, but I enjoy his company in our class because he's always a bit behind the rest of us. It seems like he's on a perpetual tape delay of about 30 seconds to 1 minute. The class has already moved on, and this guy asks a question about an activity we finished a while ago. He also says many ridiculous things, but they're funny because they're unintentionally ridiculous. I've started writing down the things he says so that I
don't forget them, and I've got a pretty good list going. We have a test this Friday actually, but it shouldn't be bad because it's been pretty basic so far.
Towards the end of last week I didn't feel so well; I think the contrast between the high heat and then cold air conditioning, and also a shortage of sleep finally caught up to me. I slept for most of the afternoon on Friday and then just stayed in.
Saturday I met a few kids in Flamengo, which is near my hood, and we played basketball along the Flamengo beach. Eventually some Brazilian kids came to the court, and we got a full game going. It was cool to play with the Brazilians, and I think they go there pretty often, so hopefully we'll play again soon. Saturday night I went out to Lapa with a group, which if you recall is hot nightspot in Rio. It's crazy how crowded it is; there's people everywhere. It's a pretty cool environment. We eventually went to a club and stayed there until pretty late. It got to the wee hours of the morning and the group I was with showed no indication of getting tired or wanting to leave anytime soon, so I finally left when the music got pretty bad.
Sunday I slept in late and spent the whole day at this Irish pub in Ipanema to watch the football playoffs. In between the game I took a break to go across the street to look around this square/park where on Sundays they have the "Ipanema Hippie Festival" or something, and there's a ton of vendors selling all kinds of things. It's interesting.
Monday afternoon I hung out at the Leblon beach . I rented a chair and eventually drifted off to sleep, but I was awakened by the guy who rented me the chair at 5:30 because he needed it back. I don't know what his rush was to go, but he woke me up in the middle of a dream too and I can't remember what it was. That night I met another guy for dinner at a Thai restaurant. Thai cuisine isn't very popular in Rio, but this place was very good. My dish was great, but it wasn't as big as I had hoped. It was nice too because I broke a string of getting some pretty cheap food that wasn't always good.
Yesterday afternoon I was misled and deceived into going on a hike. I went with a group who said they were going to walk to the waterfalls located behind the Jardim Botanico (Botanical Gardens). I thought, sure, that sounds cool. What they didn't say was that the waterfalls were located up a mountain in the Tijuca National Forest, it would take over 2 hours to get there, parts of it were life-threatening, and part of the trail is unpaved and you have to climb up and down rocks. So I went with this group, soaking my shirt with sweat. Also, I was wearing flip-flops. Mind you I was expecting a leisurely walk. So eventually we get to the Tijuca forest and find a waterfall. But then someone in the group said wait, there's more, and starts climbing onto a rock and going up a steep mountainous trail. I told them I'd wait for them at the bottom, but they screamed at me until I followed them. Oh, and most of them were wearing flip flops too; I thought they were crazy. The trail was pretty rigorous too; there were a few times I thought my life might be in danger. When it was finally time to leave, one girl took us down part of a challenging descent only to realize that we couldn't actually get down that way. So then we had to climb back up and go back down the way we came. Needless to say I took a bus back.
Last night I went out because today was a city holiday and we didn't have class. I took a taxi to meet these guys at a club in Botafogo. Problem was the taxi driver didn't know where it was, I didn't know where it was, and the guys who I was meeting that were already there didn't know where it was either. So I was wandering around Botafogo alone for a while trying to find it, and eventually after about an hour and asking a few people I got there. I think I did more walking yesterday than I have in the past 2 years.
Today on the day off I went to the Jardim Botanico. It is beautiful; I've passed by it everyday on the bus on the way to the University, and the front is lined with rows of tall palm trees. But today I actually entered and walked around most of it, and it was very nice. There are many different nice plants and cool trees. We also saw a few monkeys. There was an orchid greenhouse inside, which my guidebook said preserved 1000 different orchids, but I only saw about 25. I don't know how that discrepancy came about. But overall the Jardim was great.
Gotta get up early for class tomorrow. Boa noite.
I've now had 1.5 weeks of Portuguese. I'm definitely learning, and I can tell already that there's a difference between where I am now and where I was upon arrival here. However, of course there's much more to learn, and it's proving to be a difficult language. The class is from 8:30 to 1:00 with a 20-30 minute break. It often seems to drag on for a while, but it is productive most of the time. There are two teachers who split teaching our class each day, and I think they are both very good. One sounds quite similar to Borat, though, so I often have a bit of a hard time taking him seriously. There's also a 34-year-old guy who owns a strip mall in Cleveland in my class. I don't know what he's doing on our study abroad program, but I enjoy his company in our class because he's always a bit behind the rest of us. It seems like he's on a perpetual tape delay of about 30 seconds to 1 minute. The class has already moved on, and this guy asks a question about an activity we finished a while ago. He also says many ridiculous things, but they're funny because they're unintentionally ridiculous. I've started writing down the things he says so that I
don't forget them, and I've got a pretty good list going. We have a test this Friday actually, but it shouldn't be bad because it's been pretty basic so far.
Towards the end of last week I didn't feel so well; I think the contrast between the high heat and then cold air conditioning, and also a shortage of sleep finally caught up to me. I slept for most of the afternoon on Friday and then just stayed in.
Saturday I met a few kids in Flamengo, which is near my hood, and we played basketball along the Flamengo beach. Eventually some Brazilian kids came to the court, and we got a full game going. It was cool to play with the Brazilians, and I think they go there pretty often, so hopefully we'll play again soon. Saturday night I went out to Lapa with a group, which if you recall is hot nightspot in Rio. It's crazy how crowded it is; there's people everywhere. It's a pretty cool environment. We eventually went to a club and stayed there until pretty late. It got to the wee hours of the morning and the group I was with showed no indication of getting tired or wanting to leave anytime soon, so I finally left when the music got pretty bad.
Sunday I slept in late and spent the whole day at this Irish pub in Ipanema to watch the football playoffs. In between the game I took a break to go across the street to look around this square/park where on Sundays they have the "Ipanema Hippie Festival" or something, and there's a ton of vendors selling all kinds of things. It's interesting.
Monday afternoon I hung out at the Leblon beach . I rented a chair and eventually drifted off to sleep, but I was awakened by the guy who rented me the chair at 5:30 because he needed it back. I don't know what his rush was to go, but he woke me up in the middle of a dream too and I can't remember what it was. That night I met another guy for dinner at a Thai restaurant. Thai cuisine isn't very popular in Rio, but this place was very good. My dish was great, but it wasn't as big as I had hoped. It was nice too because I broke a string of getting some pretty cheap food that wasn't always good.
Yesterday afternoon I was misled and deceived into going on a hike. I went with a group who said they were going to walk to the waterfalls located behind the Jardim Botanico (Botanical Gardens). I thought, sure, that sounds cool. What they didn't say was that the waterfalls were located up a mountain in the Tijuca National Forest, it would take over 2 hours to get there, parts of it were life-threatening, and part of the trail is unpaved and you have to climb up and down rocks. So I went with this group, soaking my shirt with sweat. Also, I was wearing flip-flops. Mind you I was expecting a leisurely walk. So eventually we get to the Tijuca forest and find a waterfall. But then someone in the group said wait, there's more, and starts climbing onto a rock and going up a steep mountainous trail. I told them I'd wait for them at the bottom, but they screamed at me until I followed them. Oh, and most of them were wearing flip flops too; I thought they were crazy. The trail was pretty rigorous too; there were a few times I thought my life might be in danger. When it was finally time to leave, one girl took us down part of a challenging descent only to realize that we couldn't actually get down that way. So then we had to climb back up and go back down the way we came. Needless to say I took a bus back.
Last night I went out because today was a city holiday and we didn't have class. I took a taxi to meet these guys at a club in Botafogo. Problem was the taxi driver didn't know where it was, I didn't know where it was, and the guys who I was meeting that were already there didn't know where it was either. So I was wandering around Botafogo alone for a while trying to find it, and eventually after about an hour and asking a few people I got there. I think I did more walking yesterday than I have in the past 2 years.
Today on the day off I went to the Jardim Botanico. It is beautiful; I've passed by it everyday on the bus on the way to the University, and the front is lined with rows of tall palm trees. But today I actually entered and walked around most of it, and it was very nice. There are many different nice plants and cool trees. We also saw a few monkeys. There was an orchid greenhouse inside, which my guidebook said preserved 1000 different orchids, but I only saw about 25. I don't know how that discrepancy came about. But overall the Jardim was great.
Gotta get up early for class tomorrow. Boa noite.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
The pictures
Hi everyone. I finally posted pictures. I am at a computer in a computer lab on the University campus. It took me a very long time, and this website does not really cooperate. The pictures are very oddly spaced, and there was very little I could do about it. I tried to number some of the pictures, especially those that were closely space. Unfortunately, the captions are very messy and aren't all on the same line for each separate picture; I previewed the post, but the preview gave a false preview of what the final product would look like. So, I'm sorry that the page is so messy, but I hope you can follow the pictures.
The first section is the views from Sugar Loaf, then the Sambadrome, then downtown Rio, the Maracana soccer stadium, and the urban forest.
The pictures are the last post before this
Now I'm going to the Leblon beach for a few hours. Bye
The first section is the views from Sugar Loaf, then the Sambadrome, then downtown Rio, the Maracana soccer stadium, and the urban forest.
The pictures are the last post before this
Now I'm going to the Leblon beach for a few hours. Bye
Pictures
1. A large lizard
2. Downtown Rio and Flamengo Beach
3. Me and Copacabana
4. District of Rio called Niteroi, across the bay
5,6. Central neighborhoods of Rio
7. Botafogo Beach and central neighborhoods
8. Copacabana area with Ipanema in the back
9. Copacabana Beach
10. Copacabana and mountains
11. Some islands and ocean
12. Statue of Christ zoomed in considerably
13. Statue of Jesus
14. Part of the city
15. Copacabana
16. A funny looking monkey
17. Houses on the bottom
18. Looked nice
19. In the cable car up to Sugar Loaf
20. Downtown District and Flamengo Beach
21. Zoomed out downtown
22. Sugar Loaf
23. Sugar Loaf
24. Carnaval Float
25. Carnaval Sign
26. A girl in our group in a Carnaval costume
27. Carnaval costume
28. Carnaval costume
29. Some random people in Carnaval costumes
30. Random guy in costume
31. Sambadrome bleachers
32. Sambadrome alley
33. Sambadrome Alley
34. Bleachers at Sambadrome
35. Picture from the road
36. Building in downtown Rio
37. Walkway/alley downtown
38. Alley downtown
39. Start of Alley
40. Where the water used to come up to
41. Not sure what this is
42. Old Imperial Palace
43. Old Imperial Palace
44. Old convent from the 1590's
45. Statue
46. Cathedral
47. No significance; from the road
48. Church
49. Nice picture of downtown
50. From the road
51. Pele's footprints
52. Ronaldo's footprints
53. At field level
54. Goal at field level
55. Group picture in the warm-up room
56. Warm up room. It has special lights that simulate the actual heat on the field
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