HALLOWEEN

Saturday was Halloween in Rio. It is not to big of a deal here. I didn't see anyone dressed up in the streets or anything. We were invited to a birthday party for Marcelos sister, Pehna. It was in Mesquita so unfortunately we had to travel an hour and a half away. That afternoon Toni had to go to his English classes so afterwords we bought Beer at the supermarket and took a Taxi home. We quickly got dressed. I though we would wear normal clothes but Toni wanted to dress up. Since this was extremely last minute we just threw on some black slightly goth things that we could then say we were vampires. Lucia came over and the three of us took a taxi. The trip is a little expensive but we all wanted to drink and we did not want to spend the night. We got there in the evening and started drinking beer. Family members and neighbors came over. It was the usual loud samba and dance music. There was a lot of snack food. Everybody was very nice. I am starting to speak a little more but in a loud crowded party it can be a bit hard. Toni got upset because he though I was checking out this young neighbor. Leave it to Toni to be jealous of a boy from Mosquita. Around Three in the morning the Taxi came to pick us back up. I was pretty tired in the backseat so I just looked out the window most of the way home.

Locuria

I think everyone in Brazil is crazy. I hope any Brazilian person reading this isn't upset by this statement but I believe it to be true. There are different kinds of crazy of course. There is good crazy and bad crazy. There is a little crazy and a lot crazy. There are young people who are crazy and old people that are crazy. There are people crazy from being poor and people crazy from the heat. There are crazy people that one sex and crazy people that want money. Whatever the reason everyone here is crazy. I am sure if I stay here for two many years I will probably become crazy too. Hopefully in a good way and not in a bad way. I tell Toni he is crazy all the time. His response is that he is crazy for me. Whatever the reason he is still crazy. Maybe I am already crazy. I did sell my apartment ( well, almost ) quit a good job and moved to the another side of the globe.

We have still been drinking a lot. The other night we made it till 1030 am without drinking but then we ended up having 4 beers while playing Playstation 3. Friday we had nothing to do so I demanded we go to the beach. We went to the bank first because I still need my CDF card. A CDF card is kind of like a identity card that you need to buy anything really expensive or even get phone service. They are suppose to be pretty easy to obtain. You just ask for one in the Banco do Brazil. Unfortunately they wanted a bill or statement with Toni's address on it. We did not have it so we continued to Copacabana beach. I helped Toni with his English homework as we drank beer. The water wasn't too cold but the waves were huge. Most of the other swimmers had boogy boards so I guess it is good for that. After the beach we had a late lunch. It was another pay por kilo restaurant but it was really good. I had spaghetti with cheese sauce, baked chicken and breaded pork. We then went to see Toni's friend Luiza, the dentist. Toni has a small space between his two front teeth ( kind of like Madonna ). It had been filled in but it somehow fell out. We spent an hour there. We then went to the market and got more groceries. We also went to the liquor store because we were getting low on whiskey.

When we got home I started cleaning and Toni started cooking. We also drank Whiskey. It was Halloween but my box with the Halloween costumes had never arrived so we decided to stay in. Toni also had a client coming in at 9am on Saturday. After dinner we did watch Halloween on TV. It felt a little strange seeing a movie that I have seen a hundred times and is quite normal to watch in my new life that sometimes feels so strange. Toni says he wasn't scared but he was clutching my hand the whole last 15 minutes. The next day he told me he had a nightmare I was trying to kill him with a knife. We are all crazy here in Rio. Happy Halloween.

Rio Comprido

Yesterday morning the phone rang early. A young man from Ponto Frio was here to put together are furniture. The young man was pretty cool and was able to put everything together in 2 or 3 hours. Watching him I could see it would have been horrible for us to do. Once everything was together we were finally able to arrange everything.

After being in Rio Comprido for three weeks I don't think it is as dangerous as Toni says. Its not terrible exciting either. Basically there is the one main street that goes to the main plaza. It takes me about 10 minutes or less to get to the plaza. At the plaza is a park surrounded by stores. There are two supermarkets, a video store ( Yes they still have them here ) a hardware store, a gift store and Bobs hamburgers ( which is there version of McDonald's even though they have lots of McDonald's here too ). After making this claim I have to tell you me and Toni witnessed our first crime today. We were walking to the plaza to go to the hardware store when two men come running down the street ( Rua ) at full tilt. The first guy was really skinny in baggy shirt and pants and the second guy was young and dressed like a student. He was yelling Solta bolsa! ( drop the bag ). The man was caring something and as he went a few more feet he did drop a purse. The man continued running after his though. Toni saw that the man was rummaging through the purse as he ran so he dropped it after removing the wallet. A few older men on the street picked up the purse. A few minutes later the young man returned and took the purse. A few minutes after that we reached the Plaza and I notice everyone was milling about watching something. We walked over to the Hardware store which was closed and Toni pointed out the Federal police walking the thief down the street. His pants had come down so he was walking in his underwear. Even though I am not happy to notice the first crime in my neighborhood but at least the police got him. Since we were at the plaza anyway we went to the supermarket and bought 2 more 12 packs of beer.

When we returned we cleaned the house. Toni's' friend Luzia was visiting. She was the lady we had dinner with the first week I was here. She brought two bottle of wine that is always a good thing. Toni served a spicy cheese we had bought earlier. We not only opened both bottles of wine but two bottles Toni had. We talked, well they talked and I mostly listened, for about 4 hours. Luzia is a dentist. She is a nice older lady with blond hair. I had made Tacos for Toni the other day but he did not like them because they were to spicy. I made one for her though and she loved it. Mexican food doesn't seem as popular here as in the United States. We called a Taxi for her and she left.

This morning Toni woke up late. I got up and watched Smallville and two and a half men on the Warner channel. My main channels here are Warner channel, Sony, FX, Universal channel, TNT and FOX. For the most part all the TV shows are in English with Portuguese subtitles. Movies being the exception, they are mostly dubbed. I do miss my TIVO dearly though...hopefully they will discover DVRs here soon.

This morning it was raining again. Toni does not have to work. I am going a little crazy staying in the apartment so much. We are going to Copacabana tomorrow because Toni's' client Aparacida needs her make-up done. Today we will probably work on the apartment. The owners' driver is suppose to come and pick up somethings she still has here. Hopefully everything will be finished soon. Until then I think I will start looking at ways to make money online. Anyone have any ideas?

Third week in brazil.

Saturday we ended up meeting Tonis friend Helena and her crew. The restaurant was really beautiful. It was located in Botafago which is west of us and north of Copacabana. It was right on the water. We started with wine and then switched to whiskey and red bull. We had duck in orange sauce served with rice and mango. After dinner we returned to the sushi restaurant in Ipanema.

Sunday after a late start at home we finally went to the beach. It was hot and pretty crowded. We chose a location at the end of copacabana beach because the waves are a little less strong. We ordered beers from the sellers that walked by on the beach. I got into the ocean twice. It was freezing but still great. Toni told me that in the northeast the water is a lot warmer..but of course the waters are filled with sharks. Knowing this I know prefer the cold beaches. Toni is worries a lot so sometimes I take what he says with a grain of salt but when someone mentions sharks I tend to believe them.

After the beach we met up with Tonis' friends Jean Willis ( winner of Big Brother brasil season 5 ) and went to a drag show. It was in a theater a short walk north. It was somewhat entertaining but not the best since I missed a lot of the jokes. Plus the classic Brazilian songs are pretty well lost on me.

After the show we went and had dinner at Eclipse. It is located in Copacabana on Nossa senhora avenue. We ordered steak with potatoes for two.

Monday we got up late and took the dogs out. One more of my boxes arrived from New York so that was good. Me and Toni went to the supermercado ( supermarket ) and bought groceries for the week. It is always interesting to see what they have that's different. There is a lot of fruit from the amazon that I have never seen. There is a lot less variety though of boxed and canned items. Today we are staying home. Neither of us have anything to do so I am going to make Mexican for dinner. Tomorrow we have errands we have to do in Copacabana.

life goes on....

The drama with our furniture hasn't ended. Ponto Frio charged tonis card twice on the one transaction so he had to get in and yell at them for like an hour. Later that night they called us to say they would give him cash back. We then went all the way into copacabana and went to the store. They finally did give us the cash but we had to wait a half hour for them to find it. We then went shopping but it was so late all the furniture stores were closed. We took another Taxi to Rio Sol which is a large mall. They didn't have any good furniture stores so we ended up going to a jewelry store and ordering are rings. We got plane bands of white gold. It would take a few days for them to arrive. We then had Pizza at the food court.

A few days later i went with Toni to his clients house. Her name is Aparacida and she made us a wonderful lunch. She warmed up rice and beans. The beans in Brazil normally contain some sausage or pork. She fried some eggs and served them with peas. She fried everyone a steak. For desert she served oranges, watermelon and Dulce pudding with coconut. I was really full. I left and went shopping as Toni did her hair. I found a really great CD store called Modern Sound. It is the best CD store I have found in Rio so far. It had a great collection of Brazilian and Import music. I bought RBD ( Mexican group ) in Portuguese and Rihanna for Toni. I met up with Toni and we went to the beach. We sat in one of the restaurants and drank beer. I finally got to go into the water which was freezing cold but still great. The waves were really big so I didn't go to far from the beach.

Later we went Table shopping again. Unfortunately the only table we liked that was cheap was Ponto Frio. Toni had to talk to the salesgirl for an hour because she kept on one to make us pay for insurance which we don't want to pay for. She would say it protects the chairs if they break. We would tell her we don't care. Finally we did get it rung up. She still charged us 30 extra raeis but we were to tired to care.

Friday we went to see the Lawyer. The anti discrimination laws that protect Homosexuals have only been around since last February so the lawyers are still getting used to them. We had two lawyers that were really nice ladies in there early 30s. They said that for the formal proposal we have to be together a year. That means we have bank accounts and pay bills together. Of course we just started living together so it basically means I can't get a work visa until after a year. I also can only stay in the country for 3 months on a Tourist visa. I can go to the airport and request 3 more months but that is still only half a year. The lawyer said a good option would be a student visa. Normally that is done from a foreigners country so I might have to go back to New York to do it. I was of course concerned about the time this would take and the money. Toni doesn't seem to upset about it. He is pretty positive everything will work out.

We went shopping afterwords in a huge market downtown. It is crazy and there are small booths and shops everywhere. We got a lot of things for the kitchen and bathroom. We did splurge and got two more games for the Playstation 3. Unfortunately we paid two much but games here are hard to find. Brazil has there own video games units that I thing would be very bad compared to our. At home we cleaned the whole house. Scrubbing all the floors. Toni hooked up the hose for the washing machine so we were finally able to do a load of wash. We also drank beer while we were cleaning which made everything a little less painful.

In the evening we went and had dinner with Helena and her friends. It was at a sushi restaurant on the lake. We drank lots of wine. There was a musician who sat at our table and played the guitar and sang for us. Helena held my hand and sang too me. It was pretty late by the time we got home and we were both pretty tipsy.

Saturday Toni was hungover. Punto Frio called and they brought up our table. It all came in boxes to be assembled so Toni spent and hour on the phone trying to arrange someone to come assemble it. We still have the other things to be assembled too. I find it pretty humorous that you buy something and have to wait a few weeks to have it put together. Later the front door man called and said that we had a box. It was one of the three I sent. It had gotten knocked around and a few things were broken. Everything else I unpacked. Toni heated up our lunch which was a stewed fish he made the night before. You serve it over rice. Today we have to go to Copacabana because Toni has English school. I will probably go along and get some exercise. I am not sure what we are doing tonight but tomorrow we will spend a day at the beach.

Tuesday in Copacabana

Last night we stayed up a little late. Helena called and invited us to have drinks. We went to one of the same restaurants as we did on Friday. It is located on the coast of the lake ( Lagoa ). There were seven of us in all. Me and Toni drank Whiskey and red bull. We were served Empanadas and later a pasta with chicken dish.

We woke up to the phone and it was our new lawyer. She is going to send us an email about what we needed to do. She wasn't extremely encouraging. She said we had to prove that we are together for at least a year. That would mean that I won't be able to work for a year. She also said that I can only stay for 6 months. I could tell Toni was a little upset but its best to stay calm until we know what really is going to happen. Definitely living in South America is teaching me to live one day at a time.

Toni had a client in Copacabana beach so we walked the dogs quick and made breakfast ( cafe de manha ). I went with him and walked around the neighborhood. Copacabana to me seems like a much busier and bigger south beach. I had lunch at one of pay per kilo restaurants which are big in Rio. You go in and they give you a ticket. You take your plate and fill up and then they weigh it. You sit down and someone comes to take your drink order. I got some potatoes and chicken with a Empada ( a baby empanada that is round in shape ). Afterword you go to a cashier and pay and finally you give the receipt at the lady at the door so you can leave. I walked over to Ipanema beach and walked in the sand. I was alone so I couldn't go swimming so I turned around and got back to Copacabana just as Toni called. We ran some errands and then took a taxi back home. In order to get to Rio comprido you have to go around the lake at Lagoa and then pass through two tunnels. Unfortunaley a truck and broke down so there was a traffic jam. We got home and played video games. Tonis' friend, Claudia, Called and ended up dropping over for a coffee and Toni cut her hair. I think this is the first time in the past 9 days I haven't had a drink. It is only 1920 ( 720 pm, in Brazil they use military time) so who knows about later.

The cave / Churrasco

Saturday night we ended up going out after dinner. We started at this gay bar called La Cueva ( The Cave ) in Copacabana. Fittingly the place looked like the inside of a large yellow cave. The place was nice but the scene was a little older and bearish for my taste. The next place we went to was Galaria in Ipanema. There was a little bit of a line outside and inside was packed. I have been here a few times and really like it. The crowd is a lot younger and hipper and the music is much better. We had two more beers and a caipirinha. We were dancing on the side and watching the video monitors that played music videos.

We got home and the dogs, drago and Cacau had gotten out. We have a gate that keeps them in the kitchen. They can not be trusted alone, especially with the new sofa. Unfortunately Drago has eaten part of the door to get out. We are going to have to buy a new metal gate to keep them in the kitchen.

Sunday we got up late. We were going to Toni's brothers house to celebrate his brothers birthday, which was actually a week ago. We drove about an hour to get there. It is just outside the city. We stopped at a supermarket first to buy a bunch of meat. We also ended up buying some things we still needed for the apartment. When we arrived there the whole family was on the front porch. Toni's other brother was there with his wife and new daughter. We lite the fire for the barbecue and opened the first round of beer. Toni had to drive home though so he could only have non-alcoholic beer. The day passed in a lazy haze of beer and sausage, steak and chicken. Everyone sat on the porch and listened to popular Portuguese dance music. The children played ball in the front yard. The women gossiped and told stories. We left around 9pm and got home at 10pm. I had purchased a cable for the Playstation 3 my friend Andrew had given me so I connected it. We then ended up playing the video game Wolverine till 2am. All in all it was a pretty good day.