Feliz Natal

It's been a few days since I last posted so I figured I'd catch everyone up on past events.

Christmas - as you can see by the picture on the left - was pretty fantastic. Most brasileiros celebrate Natal on the 24th and stay up until midnight to give out presents. So on the 24th I ate and ate and ate (No presents though). Typical food is turkey, rice, farofa - a fried flour type thing with a little bit of meat, potato salad, chicken salad, habanada - similar to french toast with cinnamon and sugar, rice and carrots, fruit and sangria.

Thursday night was pretty laid back, I watched part of a movie and went to bed.

Christmas day was less eventful: The streets were nearly empty, most people were at home with their families and I was painting walls. Oh and I called my mom to say Merry Christmas, as well as both sides of my families during their respective holiday meals. It was great to hear everyone's voice and I realized it was the first Christmas in my 23 years of life that I haven't been with my family. I am, however, already planning a barbecue for the spring so I can still see the fam.

That night we went out to a club in Botafogo which was fantastic. It's odd, I have never really been part of the club scene in the states, but there is something really enjoyable about it. I tend to avoid crowds, but when people are together for the purpose of having fun and dancing and when you're out with a good group of people it's just fun.

Anyway, Saturday night was similar to Friday, out to a club, but in Lapa (Botafogo and Lapa are neighborhoods in Rio, much like Fishtown in Philly) and home to sleep. And today, I'm going to the beach and coming home early to sleep.

-Josh

Pre-Christmas entry

I have finally settled in down here. I'm working at the hostel (Painting rooms for now) and just enjoying everything. I can't believe it has been two weeks already, where does the time go?

Tomorrow is Christmas eve already and I get to eat tons of food with the hostel employees. It should be pretty wonderful, but I already miss my Grammy's ham and singing on Christmas eve. And mostly I'll miss my family. But there is Skype, which has helped me stay connected so far and I realized that I don't really miss the snow. I'm perfectly fine with the heat for now, although it's supposed to get up to 110 Degrees F sometime next month, which will probably be pretty rough.

As for the images, the top two are from the botanical Gardens in Rio de Janeiro and the bottom two are of Copacabana.

Anyway, FELIZ NATAL everyone, try to stay warm!

-Josh

It Never Hurts to Ask

I think my housing saga has finally come to an end and I think it will end better than expected. Thanks to a last minute, last-ditch attempt, I think I might be doing some work/trade for the hostel I'm in in exchange for a bed (oh, and breakfast).

Over the past week and a half I've become friends with the employees at the hostel and learned about it being high-season here AND that they're doing construction on another hostel just up the road. That little bit of information was fantastic to learn for two reasons: I have construction experience and half the staff is leaving in January to go to the new hostel. People tend to need construction help towards the end of projects to meet deadlines and "free" help is the best kind. Also, once the work is done, they'll have two hostels to run, in the high tourist season, and will most likely need help.

So I asked.

And Henry (O chefe, the boss) said yes. Albeit it's going to be 36 hours a week, but it's a fantastic opportunity to meet and people and be surrounded by portuguese speakers. Then at night I can come back to the hostel and hang out with the employees (pictures coming soon) who are about my age and speak in more portuguese. Oh yea, and it doesn't cost money.

In the end, there are more pros than cons for this option and and more pros than staying in a room farther out of the city by myself. So we'll see how it goes. Also, as an addendum to my previous entry, maybe it's not so bad to wait until you arrive. I feel like I've met more friends out of necessity of finding shelter than I would have by sheepishly talking to people on the streets.

And one last thing that I find odd in Rio: There are so many key-making kiosks on the streets. I have no idea why so many people need keys made. I walked around Copacabana for an hour and I think I found about 10 different kiosks, all of which were making keys as I passed.

High Season

For anyone reading this looking to travel: Find accommodations ahead of time if you want a less stressful experience.

I decided to come to Brazil at the worst time to find housing: High season. Meaning many tourists and increased prices. I have e-mailed about 10 people, gotten 4 responses and have only looked at one room. Granted it doesn't help that I'm not fluent in Portuguese yet, but I probably should have looked ahead.

Places I looked for housing:

Easy Quarto
Craig's List

Anyway, the place I found is alright, a little dirty and about a twenty minute bus ride from the fun stuff and more than I really want to pay, but it's a place!

And tomorrow I'm going to ask if I can do work trade in the Hostel I'm in. It has been, by far, one of the best experiences of my life and I would love to continue it for as long as possible. If I get it, I could even afford to take a language course while I'm down here which would be amazing!

So, wish me luck.

Boa Noite,
-Josh

O Primeiro Nota

I've been in Brazil for four days and so far it's fantastic. The first few days the weather was cloudy and rainy, but it gave me a chance to explore the city and go for a run along the beach. It's beautiful here: The forest covered mountains nearly touch the white sandy beaches and the old colonial architecture is amazing.

However, I don't have too many pictures of this stuff yet, I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to walk the city and take pictures. I did go to Cristo Redentor (The giant Christ statue) yesterday and the trek up was amazing. I hiked with 7 other people for about two hours up the side of the
mountain. There were beautiful waterfalls and
the plants were incredible. Also, the weather has
been between 70 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit: I
love it

As for the pictures:
The first one is of a favela near Botafogo where I'm staying.

The second is a view of Rio from the Christ statue.

The third, ruins in the Tijuca nature reserve.

Fourth: All the people I hiked up to the statue with. From left to right: Ali, Andy, Mattie, Maggie, Montse and Thomas. The fifth picture


Fifth: Another view of rio.

Sixth: Cristo Redento.

Location, Location, Location

Less than a week until I head down to Brazil and I still haven't found housing.

I booked a hostel for one week so I could look around for housing, but I was hoping to find something before hand. A few months ago I tried to find anyone I could who knew someone in Brazil and might be able to offer housing: I recommend this to anyone who wants to travel.

For starters I asked all of my friends, which gave me few results. One friend had a brother who traveled to Argentina and stopped into Brazil for a short stay. Another friend had a friend whose brother stayed in Brazil to study Samba for awhile. And that's about as far as that got me. I did receive some good information (Spirit Air is great for cheap flights to Peru), through these two friends I e-mailed a few more people, but nothing came out of it.

Next I joined a meet up group in Philadelphia, this was pretty neat, yet a little over whelming. If I stuck with it , it could have been advantageous, but the hours never seemed to work for me and then the group ended a month later.

I also contacted my Portuguese professor from RIT, my Capoeira Instructor, and all the colleges in my area with a Portuguese class (I was hoping to sit in on the class for free - no luck though). My professor wasn't much help, but she was nice about it. My Capoeira Instructor (http://www.comexpressao.com/) sent me some e-mail addresses from his friends in Brazil, sadly they never responded to me, but I probably could have sent more than one e-mail. Lastly, the colleges: UPenn and Temple. UPenn's professor was strictly by the books and told me to go through admission. Temple's professor, Dr. Marco Silva, is amazing.

When I first contacted him he told me he was no longer going to be the professor because his contract had run out, yet he offered to meet with me and talk about Brazil. When I met with him we just talked about what I wanted to do and he had some great stories about Brazil. He also mentioned he was moving back to Rio de Janeiro in a few weeks. Since we met he has moved back and I've kept in touch with him. One of the reasons I decided to travel to Rio is because he lives there and it can't hurt to have a friend in a strange new place. He's given me tons of advice on where I should look for housing and the places I should avoid. In fact, Marco even looked for a few places and sent the e-mails along to me. And so far I might end up staying in one of those places (Casa Convivio). Or I might not, and this is why I booked a hostel for a week.

In that week, I plan on finalizing my housing arrangements and checking out more places if need be. I'm hesitant to give anyone money without seeing the place first and so it's hard to secure housing on my words alone. Maybe I'm being to cautious, but I recently heard about someone from California who paid $1,800 for a place in Philadelphia, when she got here the address didn't even exist. So, I'll err on the side of caution.


Some other things I looked into were Couch surfing and WWOOF. Couch surfing seems great for short trips (Maybe a week or so), but I was hesitant to ask for anything over that because I felt it might be a burden on someone. I don't think I would want anyone staying on my couch for a few months and if I didn't like them then I'd need to find a way to kick them out, but knowing me I'd be too nice. WWOOF is a farming exchange program. The family gives you housing and (possibly) food for 20 - 30 hours of work a week. This sounds like a great program, but I've found positive and negative reviews online and I wanted something with a little more positive assurance. I'm also going in the rainy season when not as much farm work needs to be done and so my options would have been greatly limited.

All in all, I'm excited and terrified. And it's a great thing to be. 6 days, I can't wait.