Tudo bem? It's been a while since I've updated. I've attached a few pics from a place I visited in Rio called Pedra Bonita. It was absolutely amazing. Some friends of mine came in town from Belo Horizonte and we went there a Saturday a few weeks ago. I didn't know this was the place where people can hangglide or paraglide down to the beach. If I had known, I would have brought enough money to do it. It costs $R250 which is around $150. I just knew we were going to a mountain. What is interesting is that several cariocas that I told about this place never heard of it. I want to hangglide and paraglide before I leave, for sho.
Last week I wanted to visit Jardim Botanico which is a botanic garden. I waited kind of late to go. To begin my journey I printed out directions from google maps. I wanted some exercise so I decided to walk instead of taking a bus. Well, I started walking and started noticing I was going up hill and there was a lot of doggie doo on the sidewalk. The climate of people seemed a little different too but I kept on trucking. It kept going uphill and the area didn't seem to improve. I finally see these police officers and one kind of speaks English and they are talking to this couple. I'm kind of thinking that I'm in a favela and turns out I was right. I ask them for directions and what I can understand is that Jardim is very difficult to get to from here. I'm not good with directions that involve more than two turns in English much less someone giving me detailed directions in another language. They stopped this motorcycle taxi and asked how much he would charge to take me there and he said $R15 which is pretty expensive for a mototaxi. Yeah, it's a motorcycle where they slap a helmet on you and take you to your destination. Not my first choice so I said that was too expensive and I would walk back to where I came from. Because of my late start I did get there but had to meet a friend and didn't have time to go in and have time to enjoy it but I did see it from the outside and it looked nice. I'll catch it from another day.
I'm currently looking for another apartment because this one is so expensive and the pay as a teacher is not stable. My schedule is pretty full and if everyone that is scheduled comes to class then there would be no problems but life as an English teacher here is not stable. You never know who is going to cancel. I'm gonna have to find a place with a roommate and that will save me a lot of money plus it will help me with learning Portuguese. I found this site and have been emailing apartment owners and it hasn't been promising so far but I know I'll find the right place.
I went to a place Wed night and they had two rooms in this place with 3 other people who seemed nice but the two rooms were smaller than a prison cell (don't ask me how I know how big a cell is). They wanted $R800 for the smaller room and $R900 for the "big" room. Nah! I said "Thanks"and smiled and thought "There is no way I'm gonna pay that much money to live in a glorified closet."
Today I went to a place that I really wanted because of the price. I needed someone who spoke Portuguese so I took a friend with me to help negotiate. I found out why it was so inexpensive. Yeah, another favela. The house was kind of dark and gloomy and I didn't have a good feeling but I was so focused on the price I was ignoring the bad vibes. I'm glad my friend came with me because she talked some sense into me after it was over. My friend I went with reminds me of my uppity cousin Lee Ann who is one of my favorite people. I'll keep looking and my goal is to find the right place this month. Just pray for me to get the right one and the best price.
Today I was in crisis mode because it's the first Saturday of college football and I couldn't watch. It was difficult. I was supposed to get cable this week but there was some sort of issue so hopefully it will be in time for next week. I did find ESPN streaming radio at night so I did listen to some football and got a Domino's Pizza and Coke and listened. It felt so good. I did have a Portuguese class with another teacher from the school I got my certificate from. She speaks very little English and I speak very little Portuguese so it was a good match. It was very helpful for me. Sorry for the long entry, it's been a while. I'll try to update more.
