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.