Stupid is as Stupid Does

Saturday I might have done something stupid. I had arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Friday night, and I was ready to go out into the city and see a few of the sights. As I stepped out on the streets from my hotel, the first person I saw asked me for spare change. I realize that I don’t look like most everyone else in Rio, but there are a few things you can do to minimize people asking for handouts. One is to look like you don’t have money. That morning I had put on my watch out of habit, and since it is all metal and shiny, I decided to take it off. There were a couple of street kids on the corner; the best word for them is mulekis. Anyway, they saw me taking off my watch and one of them approached me and grabbed my shirt and said something that I didn’t understand. I don’t know if he was trying to speak English, or just be quiet, but I understood the fact that he wanted to rob me of something. At the same time he was grabbing at his waistline, I think to imply that he had a gun. Based on the way his shirt and shorts were so loose to his body, I figured if he had a gun it had to be really small. Anyway, as he continued to imply that he wanted me to give him something, I just flat out told him “no.” I said “no” once or twice more, and he let me go and walked away. The way he left was pretty interesting. He was really upset, but not with me. It was almost as though he was ticked off as himself for not being more intimidating and not having more success in the attempted robbery.

I guess if he had really pushed the subject and actually shown me a gun, I would have reacted a bit differently, but in the moment I just figured he wasn’t that much of a threat. I spent the rest of the day shopping for souvenirs, and went to the top of Pão de Açucar, or Sugarloaf Mountain. The views from up there are awesome and it was pretty amazing to see all of Rio from that vantage point. This part of the world is a pretty amazing place with all the juxtaposition of amazing natural beauty against the sprawl of mankind, as well as the contrast of the rich and poor. Still it is an amazing country, and I love coming down here any chance I get.

10,000 Spoons when all you need is a knife

On the way to the Airport in Campinas I saw a church called “Evangelical Church of New Jerusalem.” The church wanted to be as accurate as possible in their assertion of being the Church of the New Jerusalem, so they had built a very cheap imitation of the gold top of the Dome of the Rock. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that a Christian church is using a replication of one of the most holy Muslim places in the world as their symbol?

Strange

Most of the people here in Brazil I am meeting with are able to speak pretty good English. That said, a majority of the time we are speaking in Portuguese about a variety of topics. I have actually been pretty happy that when I have a meeting they feel I understand well enough that they don't default to speaking English. That said, it is intersting that we can have an entire conversation in Portuguese, and then at the end they will say something like "I'll be back in 5 minutes" but they will say it in English. Really? After an hour of only speaking Portuguese you thought that phrase would be incomprehensible?

Maybe they want the practice, which I totally understand, but I still have to laugh to myself every time it happens.

Plus or Minus 20 years

Brazil is an interesting place. I think technically it is considered a third world country, although I might be wrong there. Either way, there are definitely parts of the country that are very well off and doing well in life, however there are more people on the other end of the spectrum with hardly anything. That said, Brazil to me seems to be either way ahead of the US or way behind.

Today one of the guys I was talking to was reminiscing about how 20 years ago you had to wait forever to get a land line for a telephone installed in your house. Well, were I lived 7 years ago, you still had to wait years for a land line to be installed. As a result, most people had cell phones. I don't know if this is still the case, but back then if you received a call on a cell phone it didn't count against your minutes. You only used minutes if you made a call from a cell phone. I think Brazil today has a more advanced cell phone network, and from what I can tell people here take advantage of it. Most people can't afford a computer to connect to the internet, but they can afford a cell phone and access the net. Speaking of cell phones, I have seen a few iPhones here, and there isn't even an official iPhone carrier in Brazil yet.

Also, in the States we are trying to get off our dependence of gasoline. Well here in Brazil, at almost every gas station you have three types of fuel: Gasoline, Alcohol, and Natural Gas. And a lot of cars are flexible between Gasoline and Alcohol, and a fair amount of vehicles use all three types of fuel. It is pretty amazing that here in this "poor" country they have the infrastructure to pull this off, and with all the wealth the US has we can barely make hybrids economical.

However, Brazil is a bit behind when it comes to traditional roles. One interesting thing today was the secretary of the office today spent most of the day bringing us drinks and snacks and making sure we were comfortable. Not only did she bring those things, but she brought them on a serving tray and poured our drinks for us. Also, at one point she got her boss his afternoon medicine to make sure he would take it. I don't know many secretary's in the states that do those kinds of things, but I imagine it would be rather rare. I could be wrong on that though.

And this has nothing to do with how "advanced" or not Brazil is, but they drink Coffee here like it is a shot in a bar. The cups are tiny, and they drink all the coffee in one swallow, maybe two. No wonder they think Americans are excessive. One Grande Latte Cappuccino from Starbucks is the equivalent of like 10 of their coffee's. To be fair though, I think there coffee is way more concentrated than a typical American coffee.

I am not trying to knock Brazil, just point out differences I find interesting. I love this place, and enjoy the time I spend here. Just trying to paint a picture of how some things here are different than Americans are used to.

Different Country, Same Customs

Today is the equivilent of valentines day here in Brazil. That actually makes my outing to the park earlier a little easier to understand - there were couples everywhere lounging and engaging in some light lip action. Then again, that was a typical Brazilian date in the Northeast part of the state, so maybe it is like that all the time. Anyway, tonight I went out for dinner in a neighborhood known as Vila Magdalena. It is a pretty cool part of town, with a bunch of restuarants and bars all close together. Lots of people walking around, decent music playing, and of course people are looking to hook up.

I picked a restuarant that looked fairly nice, and it was awesome. I ordered a dinner that consisted of a huge pice of beef, a piece of the shoulders of the cow I think, sausage with cheese in it, and potatoes. It was a dinner meant for more than once person, and I polished off the whole thing myself. It was so big I actually took a photo, which I will place online once I return to the states.

Anyway, to set the scene, I was at a table by myself. The table to my left had three guys who were probably in their thirties who were out on the town looking to hook up. One of these guys was the designated hitter, and he would be sent out to whatever table they thought had good looking women to see if they would be receptive to meeting the others and what they were up to for the night. He always came back to his original seat, and never took any of his buddies with him. The table to my right had three ladies who were probably in their late 20's to early 30's. They were quite attractive, and one of them reminded me of a Brazilian version of Scarlett Johanson. Needless to say, the men to my left were falling over themselves trying to hook up with the ladies to my right, and with me in the middle I had a front row seat. The guys were pretty goofy, and the girls wanted nothing to do with them.

Later on, the three guys asked if they could join me so they could be closer to the ladies. I agreed, since it would be fun to see how I did with my Portuguese in a social setting like a bar, a setting I have not been in here in Brazil. I was pretty pleased. I understood almost everything, probably 95%-98% of what was going on, and from what I could tell they were able to understand everything I was saying. Anyway, at one point two of the girls took off to the bathroom and the designated hitter went over to talk to the Brazilian Scarlett. He sat there for maybe 5 minutes conversing with here, and the second her friends came back they kicked him out of his chair without even asking his name. It was hilarious.

Half an hour later or so the four of us left and the guys wanted to show my one other bar, to which I obliged. We weren't there very long when they decided to leave and I needed to get a Taxi. I went back to the restuarant I ate at to get a Taxi and I ran into two of the three girls from the table next to me. I stopped them really quick and asked them what they thought of my "friends." If I remember correctly, they said "Eles sao chatos." Which, translated loosly, means "They are morons." I laughed and we chatted for a bit. I could tell they guys were not making a great impression, yet they thought they were the bomb. The ladies ended up being pretty cool once they realized I wasn't trying to hit on them. Different language, different country, but things are still very similar.

So, when it was all said and done, it was a fun night.

Oi

This is being written from the comfort of my hotel in Brasil. Got here this morning after an all night flight. The first cool thing to happen on the flight was the Flight Attendant actually assumed I was Brazilian. First time that has ever happened. That was about all thas good though - I didn't sleep all that well on the flight down here, so once I checked into my hotel, I took a nice nap.

The cab ride over to the hotel was fun. I got to talk about everything from the gas industry in America, to the Presidential race, to US geography. At the end the driver mentioned that he understood 80% of what I was saying. I'll take that. I haven't spoken much Portugues in the last two years, and I have never really politics or refueling cars. Hopefully I can get back into the groove here pretty soon. Along the drive I was able to recognize a few things from the last time I was here in Sao Paulo. I am actually at the same hotel I was last time. A pretty nice place, but this is no Marriot.

Once I had woken up and I decided to go out exploring. There is a huge park near my hotel called Parque Ibirapuera, and it's probably half the size of Central Park in New York. I walked over there and explored the park for a while. It was a pleasent afernoon, and if was fun to be out and about. Now I am back at the hotel taking a break. I need to get a plan for tonight. I know i could always go to a Brazilian steakhouse, but I will probably have a lot of that next week, and I really am not all that hungry, so well see.

Ate Mais.

Going Back

Next week I'm headed to Brasil.  Excited and nervous all at the same time.

It's been a while...

I know I haven't posted much here lately.  I have been busy with social events, travel, and homework.  I know I haven't been in school for two years, but I had a homework project due last week that I was working on.  See, my youngest nephew is in First Grade, and he his class read a book about a character named Flat Stanley.  You can read all about the book and the "Flat Stanley Project" here.  

Thomas had deemed me worthy to have his Flat Stanley for a few days, and so I needed to take him on some adventures and show Stanley around Atlanta.  This is not my first experience with Flat Stanley.  Two ye

ars ago his older brother also had a Flat Stanley to send off, and that Flat Stanley came to see my graduation.   Flashing back a few months ago to when my sister (the mother of these two boys) was in Atlanta, we were joking around as to how funny it would be if Flat Stanley "grew up" while he was away and returned as an adult.  So when I got Flat Stanley, my first project was to figure out how to make a large version of him.  A few digital scans, help from Adobe Acrobat, and a big cardboard box later, and you can see the result.

I took an exact-o knife to the edges, and cut out a 48 inch tall Flat Stanley.  Just as an FYI, that is the average height of a First Grader.  I also shrunk him down to about 8 inches, but that wasn't as fun or as challenging.  I took these various Stanley's out with me and took some documenting photos, and created the appropriate dialogue to chronicle our adventures together.  

Here is the final travel log of my adventures with Flat Stanley.  


















My intention was to make it fun for the kids and the teacher.  I hope both audiences get a kick out of Flat Stanley's adventures.

As a side note,  I was meaning to send back the life size Stanley back with the original, and I had even devised the method as well as a PVC pipe exoskeleton to support him.  Unfortunately, my bonding device didn't work as planned, and I didn't have enough time before the deadline to fix it.  If I had one or two more days, there would be a 48 inch Flat Stanley occupying the corner of my nephews first grade classroom.  Alas, it was not to be.  

This was actually a lot of fun.  I probably went a bit overboard (and over the head of a first grade sense of humor)  but it was worth it.  I'm am actually a bit sad that this is the last nephew, so I won't have another chance to do a Flat Stanley project.  I think that is why I did a lot with this one - I knew there wouldn't be another chance.