Carnival Rio Style

What an adventure the last month has been. Prior to the furniture surprise, I left off with carnival in Tiradentes and it is now the end of march and I've finally make it back to the computer. In reading through the 557 blog posts on google reader I've missed these past few weeks, early march feels like last year.

Before March, I hadn't been to Rio yet and now I've been twice. I'll try to recap carnival part dois.


Rio is an easy plane flight from Sao Paulo, about fifty minutes and one of the most beautiful landings into a city you can find. Its much easier to truly take in the city upon reflection, while there it is usually too busy. This first trip the weather was mediocre at best but we still attempted the gondola to the top of Sugarloaf (Pao de Acucar).


The view should have looked like this

(photo Wallace Ugulino)

But instead on my camera, I got this. 

but I did get one lucky shot of the beach below when it cleared for a split second...

No worries, I will be back again another time. My father in law's friends picked us up and they live close to Barra and wanted to take us to their new favorite pizza place. Well lo and behold, we pulled up to our very own, Casa Braz! Cariocas can't complain about their pizza anymore, only the prices and the distance it may take to get to this location.

Saturday was spent resting up for the big night at the Sambodromo. We got last minute tickets through friends to the brahma beer camarote (box) for the finals celebration. Arriving home around 730am Alex called it the 8th wonder of the world. We were up close and personal with some of the most beautiful people I have ever seen in my life, both in the tent and dancing down the stadium path. It was simply a magical experience. I ate one too many Rochina popsicles but the sugar and pure beauty of the night kept us going till sunrise. Driving around the bending beach roads as the sun began to rise into a brilliant blue, through Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon with the windows down my hands weaving through the salty air I thought "this is really living in the world."  

and the sunrise....

I love rio, I love carnival and I just love living here. 

Icamento

I want to post about my trip to Rio for Carnival, and I will. I also want to wrap up my amazing trip with my girlfriends to Rio and Buenos Aires, and I will. But having just jumped back into blogging after a very busy hiatus I figured I would kick it off with flying furniture. Ill break it down.

Last week while I was traveling with my girlfriends I was also intermittently emailing Alex to check on things. We were supposed to finally have a few lights installed and some other little things and I was so excited. An empty apartment without lights was just starting to feel weird. So I was email nagging to see if the guy was coming to do the work and a little annoyed I wasn't getting any solid replies, usually just a quick word or two like "busy cant talk" or "stressed out!" However cryptic and strange the behavior, I was on vacation and I would deal with it later. 

Meanwhile back in Alex land. Thursday morning he gets a phone call, "Your furniture is going to be about 30 minutes late on the delivery this morning, is that going to be ok?" Ummmm WHAT???? As in our container is arriving TODAY????? Yea, a little miscommunication I suppose. We knew it was approved down at the port but it was indefinite as to when it would be delivered. So he drove as fast as possible to our apartment and of course there was a terrible accident on the marginal. He called back to say he would be late to meet the truck, and they said sorry we have other deliveries we have to move on. He was pleading to do all that he could to keep the truck at bay but to no avail, they were leaving. Finally and hour or so later he gets through and as he is driving up the steep hill to the house with a glimmer of hope they had waited... there in the distance is a truck with a giant container on top stuck under a tree. 

Not only that but there were about 5 cop cars swarming the situation as well as many other bystanders. He hadn't had a chance to explain to the building manager we were all of the sudden expecting a GINORMOUS delivery so that guy was just as pissed as the poor stuck truck driver over the situation. Finally they said no delivery, the truck is behind schedule and once removed from the tree claws it must move along. So he decided to wait and again beg as this situation clearly wasn't about to get unglued any time soon. An hour into this ordeal lawyers for the moving company showed up. Apparently the truck driver had illegally forged his license so he was in the process of being arrested. Yes, right there in the street next to his stuck truck. The lawyers realized it was silly not to start unloading while they figured out a way to trim the branches and several people showed up to begin the unload. Meanwhile I was writing an email to Alex that briefly mentioned I had forgotten to purchase my plane flight home from Buenos Aires (opps) and I needed his credit card number pronto. Timing is a beautiful thing. Thats a story for another day, and not nearly as exciting. 

So they unloaded into the evening and Alex was on the phone with the rental furniture people to have that picked up asap, and basically trying to find time to breath and realize after not having seen our things since August, we were finally going to have a proper apartment in time for April. At that point he decides not to tell me any of this and instead attempt to get the apartment in shape to surprise me whenever I was able to get home. 

The truck finally got unstuck, and the furniture people had to come back most of Friday to continue the process of unpacking and checking things off. The rental people came and picked up our small little life of a fridge, bed and table, the electricians came and Alex worked around the clock all hours of the night moving things, rearranging and settling in, mostly by himself. 

I cannot begin to describe my reaction when I walked in at 3am Sunday morning. In the elevator I was like why were you so busy? Busy with what? What in the world has been going on??? Why are you stressed? Is something going on I don't know about? Annoying I know. But the door opened and complete disbelief. I had gotten used to our bed with two twin mattresses poorly stuck together that allowed no normal sheets to fit, cooking without a stove, having no lights.... And all of the sudden we had pictures, and pots and pans, an iron, a real cozy bed... rugs, lamps and books! The sofa however was missing. It had been too big for the elevator and the stairs so it was being hoisted up the side of the building Monday morning at 830am. 

Alex had meetings so I stayed back from work to watch the spectacle. Apparently in Brazil this is extremely normal. 15 stories? Easy! My dad was like, "I bet they have a crane of some sort on top of the building for these things...." yeaaaaaa No! I was waiting for that part until they unloaded it out of their truck and brought it up to the apartment and set up it on the balcony and literally in 25 minutes the sofa was all the way up! Our balcony is off the bedroom and there is a narrow hallway to the living room. They tried every which way to get the couch through but it clearly wasn't going to happen. Most people would have probably given up, even hoisted it back down the building. Instead they preceded to take the couch apart and saw off the base. HOURS later and wood chips everywhere they pushed it through. Then they made new holes and screwed the base back together as best they could and there we go folks we had our apartment! Brazilians! Ahmazing. No way would they do all that in the US. I was acting like this was some crazy cool rarity but people tell me its quite normal, happens all the time. They take apart windows, balcony doors, saw, bend, cut, piece back together, whatever the issue they solve it and get it done. Regardless, unbelievable effort by those men and my man. I still can't believe it. The stove doesn't work yet, and the washing machine is 220v (opps) but our wonderful brazilian electrician says he's got it all figured out! And I'm sure he does in one way or another. 

Icamento: Google it. The portuguese word for hoistin' it up! (literal translation: Lifting)

Carnival Part 1: Tiradentes

Getting there was a rainy adventure. Old Gringo was in for the ride of his young life, we had never taken him this far so it was time to test the waters. The first few hours of our vacation boasted beautiful pastures and hills reminiscent of Ohio or Pennsylvania. Rodovia Fernao Dias is a highway of sorts with two double lanes and about 3 hours into the trip on the opposite side we passed an 18-wheeler that had flipped over completely perpendicular to the road blocking all traffic. Not only that, it was full of gravel… yes gravel had poured out along the road for at least a hundred feet.  It appeared as though it had just happened, but then as we started to pass the hundreds, then thousands  (I could be exaggerating just a bit) of stranded vehicles waiting in angst to start moving again we realized they were probably in for a minimum 10 hour wait AT LEAST! Also there was a nice ditch between them and us making it nearly impossible to cross over and turn around. Mind you, I think this was also the busiest traffic day/holiday of the year next to maybe New Years. However I think Carnival is even bigger as Brazilians get more days off. Never found out anything more about the truck mess but we were just glad to be on the right side of the world that day!

So a few hours into the ride there was that.... and then the fact that it was pouring down rain like some Brazilian God had really been betrayed. In addition we came upon a fun little detour. It was mud on top broken concrete with potholes that make Chicago roads look blissfill on a post winters day.  It was a minefield and another mess. By the time we pulled into Tiradentes mid afternoon (we left at 5am) it felt like we'd conquered a country and it was time for a local brew! When isn’t it time?

While there it continued to rain. All day. This was my first carnival and I only knew what I had seen on TV or heard briefly through friends and somehow I always pictured it bright and sunny. Was it possible that it could rain during ALL of Carnival?  As we huddled under the umbrella wearing sweaters and jeans we saw the stage set in the middle of town, streamers and masks on every light post and an abundance of party goers draped in ponchos and glitter, beer in hand in postponed cheer. This picture did not change until Tuesday. I have never seen a happier group of people in pouring down rain dancing like it was college spring break. We were voyeurs to the magic that is Brazil and its people. Ray told me to mind the cobblestones in the town center as it was designed 300 years ago to keep slaves from fleeing. He wasn’t kidding and so we can prepared, sporting our bright white tennis shoes like disney world pros! The brazilian women however STILL wore their 6 inch heels despite the rain and seemed to manage those cobblestones as if they were dancing on a Rio float. 

Our hotel was more than perfect. We made our decision based on a few recommendations from Alex’s friends at work and it was good we spent the extra money. You never need a good hotel until you need a good hotel. And unfortunately, we ended up spending more time in it than of out. So instead of being poolside, or out horseback riding in the hills like we imagined, we split our time between the bar around the corner smack in the middle of town so we could make fun of drunk people in the rain or we were hunkered down on a big old couch next to a fireplace watching Carnival in Salvador on TV where it was hot and sunny! 

Tiradentes has incredible arts and crafts and its fun wandering the streets full of furniture stores and linen shops. It is also known for its Dolce de Leite to which my father in law decided he needed to bring back enough to feed the city of Chicago. He also decided he would buy himself a matching american tourist style hat and t-shirt that read “TIRADENTES, MINAS GERAIS.” Minas Gerais is the state in which Tiradentes resides.

Maybe the funniest part of the weekend was when he walked out of the store to show me his new treasures and said, “well I had to buy memorabilia to wear at the gym when I get home and this was perfect, it has the name of the town AND Mardi Gras all written together so everyone will know I was there!" He was so happy, I hated to rain on his parade but he interpreted Minas Gerias to be Mardi Gras?!!! No more do Brazilians call Carnival Mardi Gras than they watch baseball instead of soccer. WRONG country, WRONG language, WRONG party... Poor guy BUT hilarious.

It finally cleared up on Tuesday and even though a storm was looming our cabin fever put us on the old steam engine train through the countryside to Sao Joao del Rey. As they say in Portuguese, ‘Valeu a Pena' = worth the pain. That day made all the others, spent waiting to get out, well worth while. Alex and I even took an afternoon run along the river on a muddy dirt road checking out all the farms where our lovely “Slow food” style dinners came from (check out Tragaluz if you find yourself in need of a wonderful meal!) 

Carnival, there! Each night a different bloco planned its parade through town, usually in a downpour but sometimes in a light sprinkle. Either way, we were there. To watch men dressed up regardless of sexual preference as women, women scantily clothed as beer maids and cops, disney characters and nurses or whatever their bloco theme designated. Those themes I observed, can range widely from roman gods to diapers. It’s a themed party and anyone’s invited to witness a bloco's practiced dance that vaguely looks synchronized after multiple pre parties. They surround a band, usually made up of teenagers and grandpas with drums and horns controlling the beat through the town singing songs and chants. That my friends is a small town bloco and we got to see about 5 of them. The blocos in Sao Paulo, Salvador and Rio however practice all year, invest sometimes millions in décor and strategy and are flawless and magnificent, charging hundreds of dollars to see. Our little Tiradentes Carnival was free and a perfect way to be introduced to such a wonderful Brazilian tradition.

It was fun to...

Watch drunk men hit on what they thought were women, “Hey snow white how youuuu doin…? Woah hey, sausage surprise!" (we heard a lot of that in so many words)

Drink a lot of caipirinhas at Conto de Reis. The owner of the bar looks like Santa Claus and has his picture painted on the wall inside. Outside lots of of boys were following groups of sixteen year old girls in teddys and other lingerie with blinking lights and bunny ears much like American Halloween. Except in the US I rarely see dads dressed as keg-orators with taps on their heads and their kids dressed as beer bottles!

Dance in the street with roman emperors in my ann taylor cardigan and sperrys... the most conservative obvious American in town! If you didn’t know it by my appearance you knew it by my dance, a la Tom Brady style (if you don’t know what I mean click here) something I clearly need to work on if I plan to attend more of these in the future. Yes the outfit AND the dance.  Less clothes more action in the hips. When in Rome… still an American.

Leaving there of course it was sunny and beautiful. Alex may have backed up into a stone curb causing a crunch and a bang so when we made it to the highway the bottom of our car rattled the entire way home. But even with a little jingle and shake, it was the perfect backdrop to reflect on our wonderful time there. Despite the rain and samba tunes that lasted well into the morning preventing our beauty sleep, Tiradentes is a must see if you have a weekend to spare. Great food, incredible history, top notch pousadas, wonderful and inexpensive furniture, a quiet peacefulness you cannot find in the city. An experience well worth your while!

Next up part 2: Rio @ Sambadrome

bookend in-laws

My father in law is coming to visit for two weeks tomorrow. My mother in law is then also coming to visit for two weeks in April. In the middle of this fun little sandwich my girlfriends are coming for a whirlwind tour I am calling:

'four fabulous girls see three amazing cities in two fantastic countries in one crazy week'

aaaand it kicks off tomorrow with the purchase of a futon to help situate all these lovely guests since of course, our container is trapped in never never land.

it does mean this blog is going road trippin' to do a little domestic traveling!

over the next month we area headed to:

:: Tiradentes (formally Sao Jose do Rio das Mortes) a little colonial wonder about 300 miles into the interior from Sao Paulo for a little culture check and then taking the train to Sao Joao del Rey for some more!

:: Iguazu falls, on the borders of Argentina and Brazil basically making Niagra Falls look like a stream...

:: Rio a few times, post carnival for the weekend and then with the girls for a few weekdays!

and hopefully many wonderful places in between and along the way! If you have any suggestions let me know!

(national lampoon's the truckster... quality)

suit'n up

stripes = american
funky pattern = brazilian

initial thoughts:

-thank goodness for that thick band right?
-ohh and that is a size "LARGE"
-skin to fabric ratio has now been reduced from a comfortable 4:5 to a denuded 1:5
-my tan lines will be amazing for the debut
-maybe the patterns will scare people off before they see the rest of the package
-americans and their excess!

Because

Because my friend said, I’ve never seen you so happy over a toilet seat for your birthday

            Well that was one of many things I bought myself back home to bring to Brasil, it was needed, it was cheap and it didn’t squish and make a puff sound every time it is sat upon like the current, need to now happily throw out one we had

Because I’m on cruise control

            The last three months feels like an airplane ride: Running to the gate, shew you just made it, sweating, boarding, finding places for your things in overhead storage sometimes inconveniently in the back of the plane when you are seated near the front, settling into your seat, then moving seats, mechanical problems once everyone was settled, waiting on the tarmac for hours not knowing when the mechanical problems will resolve, finally taking off, the shutter of the wheels on the runway, the bumps and turns to maneuver into the flight path groove, turbulence as you move through the elevation changes and… seat back we have reached cruising altitude.

Because I love champagne

            And so I drank a lot of it on my birthday. And the next day…. and the next….

Because you just never know

            I pinch myself sometimes and still think, wow I live in Brazil!

Because some things change

            I now wear spandex and perfume to the gym because a girls gotta fit in!

Because I do love ‘Glee’

            I am not going to be ashamed of it anymore

Because it was my birthday

            So I celebrated for two weeks and ate all my favorite foods, did all my favorite things and saw as many of my favorite people as I could from Bodo’s Bagels in Charlottesville to a little dinner in Itaim

Because I always wanted a lot of storms…

            To make me curl up and read on the couch with chocolate milk and now I get them at 430 every day!

Because it is just the sunset of my twenties

            Not the sadness of growing older

Because my birthday 

            Marked the exact day three months ago that we took off for this new adventure

Because I am one year older

            In a place I love with a guy I love and I’ve never been happier!

Because I love the fruit and colors of this country

blog woah

I spent last evening catching up on google reader and all of the sudden up pops pictures of me?! Yoola is a very talented designer and is always coming up with interesting creations so I follow her blog. I bought my wedding earrings from her shop on etsy and sent her some pictures as a thank you and kinda forgot about it. Now she is using them for a little bit of marketing, so I am going to market her!

Please check out Yoola's esty shop and her blog, her jewelry is one of a kind!

satisfeitos

I was homesick over Christmas, more than I ever imagined and while we had a blast doing our own little Brazilian holiday, I vowed to my husband no matter what from here on out we are going back for Christmas'. I needed my family and close friends, snow, home cooked meals and the traditions that only a home can cure. I hadn't planned on going back till this summer but my mom fell on some ice a few weeks ago and broke not only some bones but also her usually happy emotional state. This coming right after she had surgery last year and had finally recovered, I needed to be there.

I am sure every expat will concur, living abroad offers a wonderfully unique twist on life, one I've come to love but it all gets shaken up when family or close friends incur sickness or distress. I've always seen myself as someone who will be there come hell or high water so between my mother and my best friend who is caught in the middle of a wretched ordeal I did what I could. I found few moments for the computer but jotted down some thoughts as I came to discover in the end it was me that also needed the trip home. It was like giving thirst to a dehydrating body. I tried swinging in under the radar but quickly realized its hard to not try and see people and quench the appetite for familiarity.  Maybe it was the awful ride home that jolted my nerves but sitting by the fire drinking wine with my parents and the dog nuzzled in my feet gave a sense of peace to my soul. Laughing with friends till my face hurt and sharing an afternoon lunch like the old days reminded me I can leave knowing some things will always stay the same. Towards the end of the week I had a longing to get back to brazil.... I missed my life, my husband, the edge, the complexity, portuguese and the adventure that even a grocery store trip provides.

In that week I did it all... helped my mom recover and gain some cheer, shot some quick loving pictures of my best friend and her beautiful daughter, ate my heart out of my favorite French cheese, Indian food and homemade fondue and macaroni and cheese (yes I believe all of those have cheese in common, even my favorite Indian dish saag paneer) went to target and bought everything from a new toilet seat (more on that later) to shelf paper and a shower head, went shopping for a few summer things since mine are still hiding somewhere on the coast in customs and cured that need for some face to face affection.

Here are some highlights...

Momma and her little darling

SNOW!!!!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

FONDUE!

Sleepy Pup

accidental emotions

There is a place floating in the sky, suspended in some unknown quiet in the clouds where like children we imagined them like soft comfy pillows you could dance around in thanks to many hours of watching 'the care bears' as a child. In this case, my 'caring meter' was far on the rainbow side, signaling all was congruent with earth and that precious delicate world of wishes and wonder. That is the place I go in the midst of turbulence and shaky atmosphere.

The other night I was happily embarking on a quick journey home for the first time since I moved. Everything seemed quite smooth, I questioned various emotions I might experience upon landing in the US  as I waded through a 2 hour line into customs but all in all I was appreciating the chance just to be home for a bit. We boarded, I settled in with a glass of wine and proceeded to wait on the tarmac for 2 hours due to mechanical problems. It didn't matter though, it was 230am and I was intermittently doing the shut eye head bounce. Finally as we took off I grabbed a few quick glances back at my city down below and with another glass of wine and dinner in sight the 11 hours to detroit would soon speed by like a time warp.  Then, a half hour into the trip like nails scratching a chalkboard the flight attendants began to scram and dinner disappeared on its common trajectory up the aisle. My aunt was a flight attendant for years and told me never to worry unless its obvious the staff is. They looked terrified. Scrambling around they awoke most everyone and finally the captain came on to make the emergency announcement. We had lost all radar and had to return to Sao Paulo immediately. There was a storm looming so everyone was on edge as the plane turned around and headed back with the ease of a roller coaster.

Its hard to describe the next half hour as I tried to make my way to that place, to find calm amidst chaos. All the emotions I worried about regarding being back in the US were trumped by making it safely to the ground. It was then a 30 hour blur of more customs (after the de-plane at 4am we had 250 people that had to go back through customs to get inside the airport with ONE official's window open), lots of extra hours spent in the sao paulo airport, a tasty McDonalds breakfast, standing in a two hour wait for the american airlines counter to open for the morning while I was shaking from drinking too much wine a few hours earlier, new farmer friends from north carolina that were also trying to get home to the same area and even offered to drive me as close to virginia as possible once we got stateside... it was a mixture of sunrises, sunsets, tears, smiles and new friendships that finally got me home. I almost forgot to capture what it felt like to be back for the first time knowing this isn't really home anymore... my new home down south... well I already miss it.

Thanks to the clouds, that place that saved my sanity...

a week in pictures...

Sunday: The view from Terraco Italia... I think one of the best views in the city

Tuesday: Happy Dance, the air freight finally came, only 5 weeks later than planned! Spent the rest of the week wrapped up in soft towels, new sheets and using wedding dishes, silverware and other gifts we finally got to open for the first time.

Friday: Home Sweet Home USA... to be continued...

Done with Diapers

This weekend we went to the beach, Juquehy to be exact with some of Alex's schoolmates from Chicago that also moved down here and have introduced us to a great little group of expats. As I prepped for our 6am departure to beat all the traffic mongrels I was trying on bathing suits to figure out which one might be the smallest of them all so as to best fit in with the locals and my brazilianified buddies.  Finally I had my pick and I was prancing around stuffing the beach bag when Alex walked in and preceded to compare my bathing fabrics to that of a diaper. Lovely, thanks for the vote of confidence.

About 5 months ago we had a heated discussion with my mother in law and some friends over how quickly I would buy a brazilian swimsuit aka "post-it notes on strings." Since everyone figured me for a pushover I stood my ground and stubbornly declared NEVER. I love my bottom covered and secure and I own wayyyyy too many swimsuits already, I wasn't about get another one, especially any smaller. They made a bet with a wager we now cannot remember but it doesn't matter, I like winning and I'm stubborn so I never felt this would be an issue. Not only did my husband take my bikini for an overstuffed absorbant pad but my new American and UK comrades thought me silly for being so defiant.

Wheres my white flag. Im defeated, the brazilians have won and therefore challenged me to decrease the extra and in the way? material and dispose of the diaper. Whatever conservative modesty I clung to in my move from the north has washed away deep into the Sao Paulo sea. I am now on the lookout next time mall errands are on the agenda for the best 3 inches of water wicking thread suitable for my next foray on the beach. I've never seen my husband happier over such a vacuous victory. I now even feel silly for ever worrying about it in the first place. Who cares? There might be a little extra space for skin cancer but the liberating adoption of something so vernacular to the beach scene here makes up for it. At least with brazilian swimsuits you dont have to worry about fitting it all in, its more about stringing it all up.

Pic and "post it notes on strings" from Rachel's blog

honesty: brazilian style

This morning in portuguese class

Teacher: Good morning Jana, are you pregnant?
Me: Huh?

Teacher: Yes are you with child... ? Oh i guess maybe not now, a lot going on in your life eh?
Inner Dialogue: is she serious right now?
Teacher: Did you eat a lot this weekend? Like feijoada or lots of churrascaria?
Me: Ummm no, lots of salads actually? (seriously, I went to the market this weekend and ate the healthiest all month)
Teacher: Well my you sure look, shall I say in english Chubby?! (no smile on her face either)
Inner Dialogue: Blunt force trauma
Me: Here is my homework for lesson 4.

Gotta love brazilian honesty. Im off to the gym for the next 87 hours

Jackpot

Saturday we found THE greatest venue ever. Hello dear Vila Madalena farmer's market, I am your long lost local friend. Yes, I have marveled at the Mercado Municipal down town, paid the 5$ foreigner price for one mango and gawked at the wondrous displays of color and variety of harvest. But, I don't have the time or the patience to go over there every time I want inexpensive (minus the mango hangup) produce, spices, cheeses and meats. I think our new found gem beats the MM, its cheaper (they 'list' prices rather than negotiate) and you can sample anything you want without getting stalked by some rambunctious chap needing validation. You might have to put up with a good deal of screaming and yelling as one banana man stands off against his banana man neighbor in hopes one will be the winner of your dollar, but thats just par for the grocery green course.  All in all though, we were the winners. Spending a lonely R$20 bill ($12 USD) on:
1 big bag of cherries
10 bananas
2 heads of lettuce
6 eggs
1 bag of spinach
3 large red peppers (seriously 60 cents?)
3 mangos
2 cleaning rags
2 notebooks
1 heavy duty scissors
2 very happy happy Vila Madalena residents.

Oh and we had change. Take that coupon Suzy!  Who said this city was expensive?

You can find this lovely event Saturdays on the corner of Mourato and Aspecuelta....

Happy Pickin's