Family Christmas in Goiânia, Brasil

Patricia's family rented a chácara for the weekend for a big family Christmas party. It was a nice ranch with an adult pool, a great kids pool, foosball tables, pool tables, huge projection TV screens for music and karaoke, a huge common area, kitchen, bar, soccer field, and river. I was impressed and we only spent the equivalent of $30 for us and the kids.

The food was great and endless with everything from whole roasted baby pigs to a fantastic bitter palm salad. The beer flowed freely and was served in the typical Brazilian style, so cold you can feel the ice crystal are just starting to form. I stuck to wine mostly, but you cannot argue with beer that is that cold when you are hot and sweaty from playing soccer. There really is nothing like relaxing in the pool with a coooold beer and eating pizza.


I played soccer for the first time in my life with people that think soccer is a religion. You cannot imagine how fanatical Brazilians are about the game. When your team loses, it is perfectly normal, and half-expected, for you to tear off your teams jersey, fall on the floor and cry your eyes out. It is a good thing this was a family game. The guy you see falling in the picture had his arm in a sling and he still played hard.

I quickly discovered that I am a terrible attacker because I lack all the fancy footwork skills for controlling the ball and faking out opponents. Seeing how well these guys can control a ball is humbling. However shameful my attacker performance was, I held my own as a blocker. I blocked 11 shots at our goal, stopping the painfully fast moving balls with everything from my feet, legs, stomach, chest, head, and unfortunately, my nose. The last one stunned me for a few seconds, but since it was not gushing blood, I kept playing. My team lost the first game on Saturday and crushed them on Sunday! There was a sudden torrential rain storm while we playing that didn't faze anyone. We just slid around, falling and laughing our butts off at each other. Notice we are all barefoot.

It has been raining a lot and the river was as brown with mud. Although that did not stop her crazy cousin from diving in. We saw some medium sized monkeys, toucans, and giant scary looking ants that bite. I am wearing the required shorty-short swimming trunks that are the fashion here. It was the uniform for the weekend.

We even had Santa Claus (crazy cousin) come to give out presents to the little kids. He had a terrible beard that would not stay in place so none but the littlest of the kids bought it.

And now I am home, sunburned, I hurt all over from abusing my underused soccer muscles, I have big bruises, my ankle is swollen from being kicked, my mosquito bites itch like crazy, I am sleep deprived, a little hung over, feeling fat, and would do it again anytime.

Merry Christmas!

Election Night Party

We were invited by a friend to the private election night party for the US Embassy and I could not have been more excited. I have been waiting for this election for a long eight years, but I could never have predicted that I would be rooting for a candidate that inspired so much hope in the world.

There were about 100 people at the party. There was a lot of food, drinks, a good band, and TVs with the major channels. The life-size cutout of Obama was the most popular for pictures, and the Obama buttons disappeared right away. The bowl of McCain buttons stayed full all night. I only saw a few older people with McCain buttons and strangely, about the same number of obvious Obama supporters. Why? Because the embassy staff is not allowed to demonstrate any kind of party support. So where did all those Obama buttons go?

The US ambassador made a few remarks to the hoardes of press about how historic the election was. He did a good job of hiding his true feelings as a republican Bush appointee. But when I was standing next to him watching the positive Obama results on CNN, he was unusually silent and somber. His time to leave will soon come.

I did an interview with a newspaper reporter in a mixture of Portuguese and English because I did not know all of the words in Portuguese that I wanted to say. It felt good to see my comments in print next to the Ambassador's. This is what I said:

Votei no Obama porque é preciso uma nova forma interface dos EUA com o mundo. Ele é muito inteligente, tranquilo, e vai saber diplomático nas negociacões. Obama tocou o coração das pessoas com esperança.

Roughly translated: I voted for Obama because a new form of interface is needed between the USA and the world. He is very intelligent, calm, and knows how to be diplomatic in negotiations. Obama touched the heart of people with hope.

We went home early(12:30) since Patrícia and I both had to work in the morning, but I watched CNN until 3 am local time for the networks to call the race. I thought it was too good to be true and yet it happened. It still feels like a dream. Let's see what happens.


In my travels around the world, I have seen first hand what the world thinks of Bush. I met many many many people that are disgusted with him, fear him, and even a few people that want to kill him (some scary young men in Jordan). I love my my country dearly, but I have not been proud of my government's actions. All this has changed with such sudden, overwhelming force, that it is almost too hard to believe. How can it be possible to switch from almost universal resentment and fear of the American government to a truly polar opposite worldwide feeling of goodwill and hope? Obama has an immense challenge before him. Thankfully, he also has an unbelievable amount of support behind him: a popular majority, a Democratic congress, and the world. Facing the terrible crises that we are, I still feel hope.

Work work work

I have been loading old entries and photos but not blogging lately, so I will try to blog every time I upload.

I am working a lot, from 7:30 in the morning to 9:30 at night with a lot of driving and spaces between classes. This schedule is tiring. I put about 1100 kilometers on my scooter each month. Sometimes those kilometers are relaxed and easy, and other times time is short and I have to push the limits a bit to make it on time. Driving on a two wheeled vehicle in Brazil can be very exciting/terrifying at times.

Basically I spend my days talking to people about all sorts of subjects from personal issues to worldwide geopolitical problems. It is a fascinating cultural experience. I have come to realize just how similar humans are, as in they are primarily emotion driven creatures and only secondarily logical. I feel travel has really deepened my understanding of humanity as well as my own mind. I still think I am as emotionally blinded as the next person, I have just acquired a little personal insight and self-awareness about it. I may do something emotional and stupid, but now I am more acutely aware that it is (this certainly does not mean that I will stop doing it though, I am human after all).

This picture is Braília Shopping where I have some classes at a small school.

Risking My Life in Rio

It was only a matter of 40 cents and my life was in real danger.

Was it the crime for which Rio is famous? Hardly. I felt less safe in New York City.

It was a streetcar. And it didn't almost run me down like you are probably thinking. And it wasn't because the driver was crazy. It was just dangerous.

Let me explain. You can ride inside or outside. If you ride outside, you stand on a little step and hold on tightly because you cannot stand comfortably, you are leaning back. Supposedly it is free if you are standing, but I ended up paying the 40 cents anyway, no big loss.

There is no warning by anyone about any potential dangers and I am so accustomed to tourist sites that warn you with signs, verbal warnings, and safety equipment that I was not on guard. The difference is that this streetcar is primarily transportation for locals and secondarily for tourists, hence, the low price and lack of warnings.

The danger starts when you leave the station and cross a high and narrow aqueduct. I was leaning back, enjoying the air, when I realized that I had about half a second to squeeze my feet as close to the streetcar as possible or I would be knocked off by the ankle high concrete wall the runs across the aqueduct. There was only about an inch and a half( 3 cm) of extra room.

I was marveling at how close of a call that was when I barely missed getting knocked off by a post that is remarkable close to the side of the streetcar. All the way up the mountain there were posts, poles, walls, cars, and signs that forced the people riding on the outside to flatten themselves to the side. I tried to look at the view while keeping an eye out for the next danger flying past. It was a dangerous to be inattentive. I loved it. It was exciting and completely contrary to anything in the states. If you get hurt, there is no chance to sue anyone, so take care of yourself.

The best/worst part was on the way down. We were not going too fast and I was clinging to the back, when I heard a terrible crunching scraping noise and I saw my fellow standers jumping up into the air. We were squeezing past a car that was parked too close to the tracks. The problem was that if you stayed standing it would crush your legs between the vehicles and we had to jump on top of the car, sliding and bouncing over the trunk, top, windshield, and hood, the whole time keeping hold of the streetcar because it was not stopping. We just kept going down the hill.

It was quite an exciting adventure.

Rio de Janeiro

Almost all of my life I have known about the city of Rio de Janeiro. I knew Ipanema, Copacabana, Christ the Redeemer, and carnival. Oh, and crime and violence too. Finally, after almost two years of coming to Brasil, I got to see it for myself.

It has the most natural beauty of any city I have ever seen and the beaches live up to the hype. It is a stunningly beautiful place, even though it was overcast most of the time I was there. It looks like god threw a handful of mountain size rocks down along the coast. The picture does not do it justice. Go to google images and search Rio and you will see. I loved it. I loved the sand, the cool water, the cheap food and drinks, the people watching, and the relaxed atmosphere.

It was also great that I can speak Portuguese well enough to manage most things. I didn't feel like I was a complete tourist. In fact, there were a few times that I only spoke Portuguese and Patrícia only spoke English because she wanted people to think she was an oblivious American. I felt very comfortable the whole time in Rio. Cariocas, people of Rio, are a friendly lot in general.

Patrícia was in Rio on business and I went down to meet her for the weekend. It was only two and a half short days and I left wanting much much more. We managed to see Christ the Redeemer just before we left, but the sun went behind the clouds just before we got to the top. It was still a breathtaking view.

As for the violence and danger...

There are many favelas, or slums, right beside the richest areas. The favelas are not places the police can go lightly because they are controlled by drug traffickers with serious weaponry. Normally they have to fight their way into the mountainside slums in huge gun battles. I, of course, love a little danger, but I am not stupid and I stayed far away.

I desperately wanted to go hang gliding over the city, however, the visibility was not great and I decided to wait for Eric to come and then we can go together. It is very safe, I am told.

The beaches and tourist areas are very safe if you use some common sense. There are a lot of tourist police and the drug traffickers know that tourism is important for people to earn enough money to buy drugs, so they try not to scare too many people away. Although, there are many oblivious tourists who are asking to be robbed and the poor people take the opportunity.

The most dangerous part of the visit was where I least expected. My safety was genuinely in danger. I have got to go now. Check my next post for details.

Uploading old blog entries

I am getting the original entries loaded in order. Be patient.

US Embassy's Fourth of July Picnic

The fourth of July picnic was on the 6th since this is Brazil and for some reason they don't consider our day of independence as a national holiday. Go figure. It was held at the former Ambassador's residence, a big house with a huge park area that is perfect for the 1,500 or so people that came. Only about 200 were Americans.

There was a lot of food, many games for the kids, a high climbing wall, a really good cover band, the Marine Band, a lot of food, and fireworks at the end. While the Marines made the best big juicy hamburgers, there were hotdogs, cotton candy, popcorn, Outback Steakhouse, Burger King, TGI Fridays, and Hooters (with the Hooter's girls). Everything was free of course.

When Ambassador Sobel spoke, I was ashamed. He has been here for two years (appointee not Foreign Service professional) and the small amount of Portuguese he spoke should have reflected that. The little he threw into his address was beyond terrible. It showed that he has put no effort at all into learning even the most basic pronunciation. He sounded like a phrasebook toting tourist that was 10 minutes off the plane. It made me cringe in embarrassment.

He introduced his new second in command, a woman only in-country for a week and she proceeded to continue his lack of sensitivity. She was quoting a Bush speech that would have been appropriate in the USA, but in front of a predominantly Brazilian crowd, the comment that "the US is the greatest country in the world" fell a little flat.

After these two things I was a little worried when, during the fireworks show, the fireworks display that spelled out the words "We love the USA & Brazil" lit up, it only said "We love the USA &". Not a good thing. The "Brazil" part was delayed by about 6 seconds. It was a good show though.

Overall, it was a great picnic, good food, good decorations, it felt generally American. I talked to a few Americans (all embassy family or staff) and one said I spoke very good English. Every time I spoke to an American I could always see a question in their face as to whether or not I was a fellow citizen. You cannot tell a Brazilian by their looks since the country is so diverse, but it is funny how easy it is to spot Americans among the Brazilians by the way we dress.

4th of July Picnic

Like every red-blooded American, I celebrated the 4th of July with patriotic dignity and a big fat juicy hamburger. Where better to do that than at the British Embassy, where I could stick it in the face of our former overlords with a "ha-ha! Look who the imperialist is now!" I wanted to wear my American flag t-shirt, but Patrícia "talked" me out of it.

Actually I behaved myself quite well, particularly considering that I was not able to drink anything because of the new drunk driving law in Brazil that makes 0.02 the legal limit. And because I need a little to loosen up my dancing parts, I had to watch Patrícia have much more fun than me in the Parrot Perch, the Embassy's outdoor bar/dance floor. I sort of danced, but not really, just that dorky, stuffed-shirt white guy thing. The sauced up Brits and Brazilians were really funny to watch dance.

I did have a really good hamburger with some great homemade barbecue sauce.

We went home at 2 am.

A New Life - A New Website

I know that I have been unreasonably delinquent in my blogging--shame on me. I'm sorry. I will now attempt to correct the error of my ways, but not all my ways, if you know what I mean.

A quite a lot has happened since I abruptly stopped relaying my adventures (and or misadventures). The last thing I said was that I was leaving Hawaii with Eric.

In a nutshell, I went back to my beautiful woman in Brazil, took a side trip to twisted little Paraguay, then back to Brazil, decided the time had come to let a few years of dust settle on my backpack, ran back to the states to get some stuff and introduced my family and the woman of my life, went back to Brazil again, and started doing the best thing a now poor traveler/business manager/photographer/entrepreneur is qualified for: low paid English teacher. But, I am not complaining. Well, actually I am, but only about the low-paid part.

I will soon give more details about the gap events and I am working on a way to upload all of my posts and pictures from my old site, be patient. This is my first post after a frickin long time so I am starting slow.