Holiday Time!

La la la!  I'm off to Mexico today for a very exciting holiday!  A very good Canadian friend of mine is getting married in Mexico so we're off to the land of sombreros, tequila and mariachis!  Don't forget your poncho!

I felt it necessary to point out that my friend is Canadian (living in Canada) and not Brazilian because everyone who I've told about this wedding thinks that having a wedding abroad is 'que chique'.  And, well, I suppose it is, but the fact is travel from Canada is so relatively cheap!

Travel from Brazil, I'll have you know, is not.

In fact, its hella complicated!  For one thing, the all-inclusive resort concept is only just starting to creep into people's collective travel brains.
(In the collective-thought Brazilian-travel-brain, people go (and want to go - for unknown reasons even... this is a collective thought brain) to New York, Miami, and most recently Cancun - I will bet you a million dollars that if you ask any Brazilian where they would travel to if they could go anywhere, they would say one of those 3 places.  And if it's Europe, they want to go to Portugal.)

So because this kind of travel is not so common here, we booked though wedding package group but had to book a flight separately.  Booked through orbitz.com (which had the best prices of all) but finding a flight for $800 return each (yay!) means that we're taking about 4 flights to get to the wedding (boooourns!!!!!!) 

We are not going to Cancun (thank God for that!  Please don't go to Cancun.... it's way way way too touristy)  We are going to Puerto Vallarta (I'm sure will be touristy as well but it's less popular) and after the week in PVR we'll be branching out to 'backpack' some cities.  Actually, I'm not bringing a backpack this time, so we'll be branching out to 'suitcase' some cities.

On the itinerary is Guadalajara, Guanajuato and final stop Mexico City.  Caaaaaaaaan't Wait!  This will be my 3rd time in Mexico and it is a really cool country.  

I'll do my best to update on the where/when/why/how of all these places so if faced with the choice, you don't have to automatically go to Cancun.

Today we leave in about T-4 hours with our final arrival point being 28 hours after we leave.  Can I just take this moment for a blank stare?  :-|  Blink blink.  Yes, 28 hours from now, we will be in sunny Puerto Vallarta.

Yikes.

It's all worth it to see my best friend get married though and, did I mention, we'll also be celebrating two years of marriage while we're there too.  Happy happy days ahead!!

Boa viagem!

o fim de semana sempre passa muito rapido!!

Sunday night already... I could go to sleep right now! This weekend was one of the most entertaining/event filled weekends I've had since moving to Brazil. Serio!
Let's start with Thursday. Ro took the bus out to Botofogo to meet me after work so we could have a few chopp's and then catch an Anima Mundi film. The festival is playing animation films from all over the world. The set we went to see included two films from Canada, two from Brazil, an American, a Japanese a... Danish? British? I'm not remembering very well anymore. Anyway! We saw a bunch of different short animations which were all very... interesting.

Actually the whole thing really made me question whether or not I really enjoyed the films themselves or just the concept of going to the festival. I did LOVE the idea of going there... being amongst the artsy society of Rio, the bohemians, the creatives. But the films themselves were a bit out there - even for me, and I'm pretty open minded to the weirdest shit.
Y'know when you look at a painting that everyone has titled 'a masterpiece'... it's like a huge black circle with red streaks of paint all across it with one, single, tiny yellow dot in the middle that is supposed to represent something? And you are thinking to yourself "I don't get it." That's kind of how I felt with some of these films. One was about a man who hated to waste anything, who suddenly discovers a tree growing out of his head. In the end people start going to this tree as it blooms and having fun, partying, drinking, and end up leaving tons of garbage on his head. He gets so angry that he rips the tree out of his head in a giant rage. Then he has a big hole in his head which turns into a lake and the same people come back to go swimming and littering some more.

So umm.... I don't get it. I mean I get it. I get the symbolism. I also get that sometimes you aren't meant to get it. It's the creator's art and it's for them to understand sometimes.

Anyway, I DID love drinking chopps on a Thursday with my husband in Botofogo and going to the film festival after. Sometimes the idea of it is all you need.

Friday we went to see the Christ for the first time since I've arrived in Rio! IT was a beautiful day for siteseeing and the Christ was really impressive. Yep, that's all I have to say about that. Instead, here are some pictures.

SATURDAY, as you may have heard, I met up with Jim, Rachel and Greg for chopps in Copacabana. Guys, thanks for such an awesome afternoon. What I thought was especially great though - in addition to speaking at a normal speed with common expressions - was that BECAUSE we all live in Rio and therefore speak the same Brazilian slang, the conversation was also littered with these everyday Portuguese expressions we now use here in Brazil that are only REALLY understood by another foreigner living in Brazil. From the two kisses hello to the 'ti, ti, ti', to the 'opa' to the brushing off hand movements, to the mais tres chopps, and then mais quatro chopps (when Greg arrived) and, of course, finishing off with a nice saidera. This is what's nice about hanging out with other foreigners. We can talk 'foreigner' and we can also talk 'native'. Rachel, I don't know how you went to another party afterward. I definitely fell asleep on the bus on the way home.

Ladies and Gents, please schedule into your day planners the event on August 20-22 or 27-29. www.carnavaldasculturas.org, Rio's annual multicultural event by the beach. I know it's far for some of you (very far for some) but it would be a GREAT weekend away and you know we will all make time for each other!

What a great weekend!

So expsensive to volunteer?

I've been thinking lately about adding to the list of 'things I want to do'.  Specifically, while I am in Brazil, hang gliding and surfing are amongst the adventure items on my list. 

But, as always, I can't help but think new places I want to see.  Hell, you travel halfway around the world (or in my case,  down into the Southern edition of my home continent); you should see some shit while you're there!  Originally, I was making up a 2 year plan (as in 2 years from now).  Ro and I really want to volunteer doing something GOOD.  Habitat for Humanity was what jumped out at me as being awesome, but I wanted to go to Asia, somewhere like Vietnam or Cambodia. 

I soon discovered that this would be financially impossible.  US$1550 just for the volunteer portion.  Not including the US$2000 flight from São Paulo.  Each. 

Then I started looking at areas closer to us, to (like I said) take advantage of where we are living.  Somewhere we could consider taking the bus or catching a much cheaper flight.   But....
Equador = US$1450
Brazil = $1550
Argentina = $1500

What the hell?  I can't afford that!  I am trying to offer MY services to YOU!  Not only can I not just simply 'volunteer' (work for free), I actually need to PAY to work for you?? Only in Backwards Land. 

The crazy thing is I still want to do it.  Jeez, it looks SO amazing.  But if I have to pay, I want to go somewhere different and awesome!  Ie. Cambodia.  Africa.  Even Equador. 

Buuuuuuuuuuuut that's just another thing to add to the 'list of things I want to do'.  Ro has always told me I have expensive taste....

Finally!

Ohhh the long awaited update.  By me anyway!  I have been having trouble getting back into it AGAIN!  At least this time it's not just writer's block - I've been a little busy actually!  Emphasis on 'a little' but just enough that I'm not spending countless mindless hours online.
Also, Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album is AMAZING and it's absolutely inspiring me to write this blog right this second.  Buy and/or download this album right away (I say download because let's be honest, that's how I acquired it). 
ANYWAY.  What to talk about, what to say...?

This song 'Brushes' makes me SO freaking happy. 

Other things that make me happy at this moment in time.
1.  I got another class with the business school I teach with!  That means now I have TWO classes, hooray!
2.  I have THREE interviews set up in the next two weeks with other schools, one being another business school which I already know I prefer. 
3.  I went shopping all by myself tonight and then figured out how to take the bus home all by myself.
4.  I joined the gym FINALLYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.  Three months sans gym makes Homer something something.  Go crazy?  Don't mind if I do!!!!!!!  I hope you are laughing, Anna.
4b.  The results are happening REALLY fast at the gym - thank God for muscle memory - and I think I'm getting in better shape than before!
5.  I got my first paycheck.  R$90!  Whooooooo hoooooooooo!!!!!!
6.  I am going out for lunch with some other ex-pats girls that I met on Facebook...  It will be my first lunch with native English speakers since coming here!  (minus my mom and sis, of course!)
7.  "Rumours" is grrrreat!
8.  My portuguese has noticeably improved in the last month and I no longer feel so scared doing things on my own. 

Well, I think that's a pretty good list, eh?

Oh, I also think I should point out that while my mom and sister were visiting we discovered Paradise.  A.K.A. Ilha Grande.  I would reeeeally like to make it a regular destination spot since it's only about 2 hours away from here and is actually the most amazing place I've ever seen.  We snorkelled in emerald water, surrounded by fish.   Ro and I saw 3 squid, 3 sea turtles (one was making eye contact with us from under a rock for about 5 minutes before swimming away), lots of enormous star fish, lots of underwater fauna and HEAPS of different types of fish.  We had fun throwing crackers on my mom while watching the fish literally JUMP out of the water all around her to get them.  Ohhhh hahaha.  It was an incredible experience.  There is a whole world under the sea that is really missed by so many people!!!  Our next goal is to get our scuba license and explore the ocean a little further. 

Here are some funny pictures of snorkelling:

Walking to the first beach, Praia Lopes Mendez

Mom getting eaten by fish

On the way home....


What a great trip.