Still in Brasília

I should have known. I should have known that I couldn’t get away with tempting fate like that, and that publishing my dislike of this city was going to blow up in my face. I thought I was safe once I had my plane ticket safe in hand for tonight. Nooooooope.

So now that I’ve changed the plane ticket, I’m here until Tuesday evening, which I think will be excellent for my research but hard on my budget and horrible for my mental health. So to keep myself sane I would like to announce that I am going to make my peace with Brasília, every last ugly hotel and too-large plaza of it. I would like to announce that Brasília is in fact a wonderful place, even though I don’t yet have any firsthand proof to support that statement. But seriously, there ARE some things I like about this city. The architecture — modern’s not always my favorite, and they do have some pretty awful buildings here, but there are also some pretty cool ones, and some that are actually quite amazing. And okay, Brasília’s no Rio, but that can be a good thing, too, because the crime rate here is what Rio wishes it could have. The people are nice, and the ones that I’ve talked to for my research have been fantastically helpful. And if you like malls…

I would also like to announce that I did not change hotels after all, and that since I don’t have a cell phone you can practice your portuguese by calling the desk at 55-61-3962-6162 and asking for room 611 (that would be QUAH-toh say-CENT-ohs OHN-zee, or if you prefer MAY-uh OOM OOM).

Brasília

… and I’m missing Rio already. I got here on Tuesday night around 10 and checked into my hotel. And immediately resolved to leave it as soon as possible. So I checked out the next morning, and took a taxi to another hotel… which turned out to be, literally, right next door. Ahem. The taxi driver was nice, and he politely refrained from charging me for the 50 meters he drove and the back-breaking work of lifting my suitcase into and out of the trunk. He almost managed not to laugh, too. Good man.

I’m not crazy about the hotel I’m in now, either, but since it’s definitely not worth switching again, especially with all the luggage I’m toting, I figure I can deal. And it’s really only for another night or two — I’m leaving on Saturday night for São Paulo anyway. I’ve been telling myself that my lodging issues are affecting my perceptions of the city, which is undoubtedly true. However, even the Ritz wouldn’t change the fact that this city is really, really weird. For those of you who don’t know, Brasília was designed and built from the ground up in the 60s by people who were just a little too avant-garde for their own (or anyone else’s) good. And other people who just plain hated pedestrians. In Copacabana I could take care of pretty much all of my day-to-day business without leaving the block. Here I think the closest grocery store is a long, freeway-crossing hike away. All of the commercial parts of the city are divided into sectors. Naturally, I’m in the hotel sector, which means that it’s hotels, and more hotels, and more… well, you get the point. And one fairly large shopping mall, which is where I spend most of my time, because it has a food court, Internet access, and people that aren’t here on business.

Luckily I was warned before I came not to walk anywhere. It’s so flat and empty here that things look a lot closer than they really are. I tested this theory out accidentally trying to find a restaurant that, at least from the map in my guidebook, looked like it might be a manageable distance away. Close to another shopping. I started walking down the highway, toward a couple of distant buildings, and walked, and walked… and finally figured out that the buildings weren’t getting any closer, and that it would be a better idea to just grab a taxi back to the mall.

On the bright side, I’ve actually gotten way more done here than I was expecting to. The guy I needed to talk to at the MINC is on vacation, but the people at Planejamento were surprisingly accessible. Very few people I’ve talked to speak good English, so my pathetic, broken phone-Portuguese is getting a lot of use. I did another interview in Portuguese today as well — I definitely prefer talking in person, but it’s still kind of hard. Names are the worst — I’m not familiar enough with how things are pronounced in Portuguese to be able to understand even normal-looking names or titles. If asking the person to repeat and/or spell the name fails, my fallback tactic is to nod and pretend that I understand, then hope that I’ll be able to piece it together later. I was reminded today that this is not a good way to deal with the problem: I had written down an address and name from an earlier phone call, but when I went back to look at the stuff, it made absolutely no sense. For about 10 panicky minutes I was sure I was going to have to go from building to building in the Ministry and tell the doormen, Hi, I think I might have an appointment with someone here, but I didn’t understand his name and I’m not quite sure what office he’s in. I was fortunately able to figure it out, and at least show up at the right place, and the name didn’t really matter because they were expecting me anyway. So don’t worry, I have officially learned my lesson.

In fact, I was getting so many contacts that I was worried I’d have to stay here all weekend to finish things up on Monday. But I was able to schedule everything really efficiently for tomorrow, and in a token of divine mercy, two or three of the people I called were out of town. One of them was even in São Paulo! So I get to leave as soon as I want to, which will probably be on Saturday. I’d like to take a tour of the city to get the story on the architecture and see if anyone can come up with a way to make me appreciate all these wide-open spaces, so I’ll do that Saturday morning and then leave in the afternoon.

I tried to speak Spanish today and nothing came out. At this rate, Argentina will be very interesting.

still in Rio

Hi Mom. I figured I’d just write this to make you happy, even though we talked today. Plus I’m pretty sure that you’re the only person who reads this blog anymore, most of my friends gave up (except for Anna, I think… HI ANNA! it was AWESOME to talk to you also, I can’t wait for Midd, less than a month away, crazy…). Well, as far as I know… if there’s anyone else who wants a shout-out, send me an email I miss everyone! And even though it took me awhile to realize it, I’m excited to be going back to the States, even though it’s strange and sad to think that S. America is almost over. Maybe living alone for 2 weeks has assisted that realization. It sucks. Really and truly. Only not so much anymore, because 1) Nichole was here for 4 days last week to keep me company, which was awesome, 2) I finally have a cellphone, and 3) I only have 2 nights left, and I can stand anything for 2 nights. Plus having 2 nights left is giving me the start of sort of a Rio retrospective, and I’m realizing that I am really starting to love the city, in spite of… well, everything. I’m definitely going to miss how open and friendly people are here — even in just 2 weeks I’ve met some awesome people and made friends that I hope I’ll be able to stay in touch with after I leave.

Last night I went to a barbecue at the house of a guy who works at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas. His apartment is completely sweet — an 18th-floor penthouse in Botafogo, with a to-die-for spectacular view of Rio (to the north and the south). It was a little bit cloudy, but the city was stretched out and sparkling, and the city lights were reflecting off the clouds. And the Christ (which is, well, Christ, on top of a mountain) kept going in and out of the clouds and fog, so it would be half-there, and then completely gone, and then in full view, crazily white (it’s illuminated with white light at night, which means that it looks more like a ghost than anything else) with the moon setting behind it. There were even fireworks. Although that made me happier before I knew what they actually meant. Apparently fireworks in Rio come from the favelas, and are basically a signal to all the drug dealers in the city that the latest shipments have come in. That’s Rio, I guess… so full of contrasts and contradictions, but somehow even the ugly things can be beautiful, at least for a little while.

Rio got a hold on me without me even realizing. So even though I am excited to see other parts of Brazil (and get out of my lonely apartment!) I’m a little sad to leave, cause who knows when I’ll be able to come back? It’s like that conversation I had last night, where someone asked me where I live and I said Copacabana, and he said, no you don’t live in Copacabana, you’re staying in Copacabana, so where do you live really? And I didn’t know and couldn’t really say anything to that. Because right now I don’t live anywhere. Not here in Rio, or in Brazil, not in Argentina, not in Iowa, and not really at Middlebury either, because we have so little time left before graduation. And I don’t have the faintest idea what I’m going to do after graduation. Come back to Rio? But who knows, and a lot can happen in a year, or a month, or even two weeks. Like these last two weeks for example.

But anyway, I’m going to be in Brasilia for I don’t exactly know how long. A few days, probably, but I have kind of a sinking feeling that it’s going to be a dead end, partly because government people in general tend to be hard to get in touch with, and partly because Brazil’s right in the middle of it’s Watergate. Only worse, I think. Basically what happened, as far as I understand, is that one deputy was accused of corruption. And they had pretty solid proof, so instead of denying the charges, the guy stood up and said, Okay. I’m corrupt. But who here isn’t corrupt? I DARE any one of you to stand up and tell me you’re not corrupt. And the first couple people that stood up, he cut them down so badly, giving details of illicit deals and all kinds of things. So that’s how it started, to the best of my knowledge, and now it’s a full-blown scandal, top ministers are implicated and although the president hasn’t been involved yet there are people who think the government could fall. In fact, it’s kind of interesting, because in a roundabout way it affects copyright policies, mostly because the guy who used to be in charges of technology policies is now implicated in the scandal and fighting for his (political) life.

So if the politicians in Brasilia turn out to be “too busy running from justice” (to quote the last guy that I talked to about my plans) to talk to me, I’ll probably leave early for São Paulo. And the awesome news is that Juliano just emailed me back, so I have a place to stay! He’s really cool, I met him in Bolivia while we were both backpacking last summer (winter), and aside from being excited to see him again and meet his family, it’s just always a hundred times better to know at least one person in any new place, especially if it’s a city as big and scary as São Paulo. I don’t know anyone in Brasilia, but it shouldn’t matter cause I’ll only be there for a little while. So anyway, that’s the latest stuff, in a very general way, and I’ll try to write again when I get to Brasilia.

Rio de Janeiro

Yeah, I know it’s been a long time. But the good news is that I’m here in Rio safe and sound. The other good news is that after a long hunt I managed to find the apostrophe on the keyboard, so no more dash-filled abbreviations. So can you assume that I’m fully accustomed to Rio and Brazil and am having the time of my life? Well, sort of. I am having a fantastic time, but it’s a different sort of fantastic than just lying on the beach all day. I always thought of Rio as a vacation city, so the experience of actually trying to get things done and get places on time seems odd.

I guess you could say I have a love-hate relationship with things here. For example, I love the beaches, but I hate that it’s not safe to walk on the beach at night (well, at least not for me) — night is always my favorite time by the ocean. The city is gorgeous, but right now there’s kind of a smog problem, I guess because of the temperature and a lot of other atmospheric factors I don’t bother to understand, and everytime I see the brown smudges blurring the horizon, I think “i’ve been breathing THAT all week?” And then again, my research is actually super interesting, but the Internet connection and printing costs that are involved give me a small (and don’t worry, easily controlled) urge to jump out the window. I love my apartment, and its location is perfect (2 blocks from the ocean!) but to be perfectly honest I HATE living alone — especially since the place doesn’t have a phone and my cell phone is currently nonoperational. I don’t like Rio’s reputation as a dangerous city, even though most tourist crime is relatively minor and I personally haven’t had any trouble since getting scammed by the taxi my first night here… but it’s still so easy to get paranoid if you pay attention to what everyone tells you. love the way Portuguese sounds, too, even though it drives me nuts that I can’t speak it (my skills have improved, but it would still be a compliment to call my portuguese “shaky”). And with all that said, I loooooove the people, the Brazilian “onda” is fantastic, not to mention it’s nice to see some real diversity again after spending all year hearing the Italian v. Spanish diversity debate in Buenos Aires. But somehow, even with all the diversity, I am still “exotic”. I suppose I should be used to that by now, right? but it’s still weird.

So yeah. That’s obviously not everything, but it should give you a start. I spend most of my time here reading, trying to set up meetings with people (that has only sort of paid off, but next week should be busier), paying through the nose to use the Internet, or watching people eat french fries with a fork and knife and sampling weird flavors of so-so sushi at the quilos (strawberry sushi, anyone? surprisingly tasty, although it did seem vaguely wrong to be knife-and-forking it even in the absence of chopsticks). The other part of my life is devoted to the beach (usually Copacabana, to the disdain of my Carioca friends, who claim it’s the worst beach in Brazil), to bothering the people at the hostel I was staying at before I moved into my apartment (I get soooo bored living alone!), and to swearing eternal vengeance against the people who had the brilliant idea of blocking my cellphone to make sure it only works in Argentina. And practicing Portuguese. I’ve gotten used to being laughed at.