Está Chovendo em São Paolo!
I think they’re sisters. Full size version here.
This weekend was so grand that I’m not going to write about it. Well, the thing is that I’m not going to write about the whole thing because I did too much and I saw too much and one thing about this blog is that I wish it were always more concise. In fact, in a way, I’d like to think that you could just gaze at the full-sized version of today’s for a while and get a good general idea.
Really, you should just look at the pictures. They are divided into two parts:
Friday’s pictures are of an evening during which the battery in my camera ran out. Livia, one of the people who makes it a dream to work at CDI, invited me to see her father perform samba in an old plaza in downtown Rio. I plan on revisiting the area in daylight to take more pictures. Livia explained to me that it used to be a central port until the ocean receded (I don’t know how long ago), and they’ve maintained the 19th century facades in the plaza. The free samba greatfest is held only once a month (if that often) and it’s her favorite night out. It was my favorite night out too.
In fact, I felt on Friday night that I had finally arrived in Brazil. Recovered from all sore throats, comfortable and happy without an American in sight, eating churrasco and farofa, pretending to dance samba, and soaking contentedly in a cobblestone bath of happiness, people, and food. So, I’ve arrived.
Note: I told Livia and her friend Cebolinha (means little onion) my story about bus wars, and Cebolinha told me that bus drivers passing people is very common and they do it for one simple reason: they don’t want to stop. The part of my story about bus drivers racing to catch others was new to Livia and Cebolinha, but they bought it because a bus driver could conceivably enjoy forcing another to stop.
After the sambathon, Livia’s friend Renata drove us and a few other people to Lapa where we went to a party for a girl who was moving to Germany. All I know is this: Renata asked me if it was strange to travel to another country and hear hip hop or other American music and I said no. I’ve heard hip hop in the strangest of places (Missy Elliot in Thailand) and blah blah…and then I noticed that the DJ was playing “House of Jealous Lovers” by The Rapture rendering the entire conversation useless. So we danced and danced well into the night with the help of The Chemical Brothers and New Order and I don’t know what else, but it was grand grand grand. And Renata is just great.
I’ve arrived in Brazil.
As far as the rest of the weekend. It’s all in the photos and I had no new revelations. I did have repeats of old revelations: I love the countryside, I love looking remote houses and neighborhoods from a bus, I love boats (but especially small boats), oysters on the half shell with lots of lime juice are great (especially on the beach), Boards of Canada is a great band, little girls are the cutest thing in the world, etc. Look at the pictures.