Hi all,
What is most foreign to me in Rio? Not the language, not the food, not the temperature – but the people themselves. 40% of Brasilians are under the age of 20. In Rio, 20 – 30% of the women seem to be pregnant. This is not anything like Nova Scotia.
And, the people are gorgeous! Both the men and the women. Skin colours range from deepest black to pale-skinned redheads. It’s so hot that the men walk around – except in the downtown where they wear suits, or at least dress shirts – without shirts, just shorts and sandals or shoes.
The women wear tiny little skin-tight skirts and even smaller tops. The tops are made with two layers in the top of the front, so no bras are required. This I discovered when I finally got around to trying on some Brazilian clothes. I can fit into them, even wear a medium and not a grande, though the clerk in the bikini store thought that my top would fit into a small! True, I suppose. I have not yet bought a bikini, as I have only been to a beach on New Year’s Eve. I would like to change that, but the sun is very dangerous. I got burnt on my shoulders a bit from about 6 minutes in the sun!
Everyone seems to think that the beach is very dangerous – that tourists are easy prey for theft, so I may pass on trying to swim here. Most of the beaches are polluted anyway. Perhaps I can get down to Copacabana very early some morning before it gets too hot and before the thieves get up! It’s a bus and a subway and a walk away from Don’s apartment, so it will be a challenge for me. I am doing fairly well with going out and around by myself.
Don is busy with arranging to buy the house, so I am left on my own quite a lot. I have learned how to say in Portuguese “I don’t speak Portuguese”, so that helps a lot. People are still friendly, and I will be a knockout at playing charades, I am getting so good at acting out things. I even managed to convey that I wanted my steak “rare” one night!
Sometimes I go to a museum, or a palace, sightseeing, but I also find it interesting to just wander around downtown and go into the many stores and look at things. I managed to locate some fabric stores today, wonderful cotton / linen blends and some nice silks too. Though, most of what they sell is 100% polyester, probably because you can wash it at night and it will be dry in the morning.
I am also getting brave enough to buy food from the street vendors. Roasted cashews, chicken or beef shishkabobs; every morning we buy fresh rolls for breakfast, and one night we got some giant cookie-like things that turned out to be like un-brittle, peanut brittle. Just peanuts in a solid kind of sugar syrup stuff, as sweet as fudge. Brasilians do like their desserts sweet.
I have also gone out to dinner all by myself, with Helene’s Eng/Port dictionary along. Thank you so much, Helene.
Don is correct – one portion is enough for two people. Don is too embarrassed to ask for one serving and two plates, but I am not afraid to do it. I have never minded being different from everyone else – I’ve rarely felt I was like most other people. But it does surprise me here when people speak to me in Portuguese – I figure I must look very foreign. I have stuck on one of those maple leaf tattoos, so when someone says “Americano?” I can point to the maple leaf and say, “Nao, Canada!” They have heard of Canada, but that is about it.
Well, I’m getting hungry again, despite eating a half a kilo of food at one of those buffets where they weigh your filled plate. So, off I go to find some interesting street food.
Love to those who warrant it, so long to everyone else.
