I posted these pictures because the graffiti here is amazing. I haven't seen any other place with so much good graffiti. Granted, I haven't been to much of New York City, but Manhattan was a little bit lacking compared to Rio. I am a little surprised that it's difficult to find "fine" arts and crafts in the city but the graffiti is so beautiful. I guess this could just have risen out of the lack of public funding, but I wonder what would happen is more money was put towards educating these artists in different media. Or providing other outlets for displaying their works.

I feel like this city (like most cities in the world) have a lot of work to do to move forward. And so I can understand why arts are being pushed back, but I wonder if it will ever change. Will people realize the need for arts is important? Will they ever start putting money back into the development of culture? I think I might start researching cities that are known for their funding of the arts and try to see if there any any differences in lifestyles or development of the city: Are people happier or more sad? Wealthier? Poorer? More relaxed?

Does anyone know of a study like this yet? If so I'd love to read about it.

On the side of fun, touristy stuff: I hiked up the first hill of Pao de Acucar (Sugar Loaf) which is a tall hill, just about in the sea and it offers a great view of Copacabana and Botafogo. It's made up of two hills (I forget the name of the first) And you can take a cable car up both or you can hike up the first and take a cable car up the second. Each cable car ride is R$22 and so I decided to explore and hike up the first.

It was a beautiful hike through a little nature preserve. There are tons of trees and different types of plants and you get to overlook the ocean and the praia de Vermelha (Red Beach). I'll try to get some pictures next time I go up. I also got to see some monkeys! They were pretty damn adorable, people were feeding them (Shh, they weren't supposed to) bananas and apples. And they were getting about two feet away from them, it was fantastic.

I haven't gone to the top yet, but I probably will this week. I'm hoping to go towards sunset, I hear it's one of the best views you'll ever see.

And last night I enjoyed the first bloco: The Blocos are parades where people march and dance behind different samba groups. Every weekend day up until carnaval there is a different bloco in a different neighborhood in Rio. During Carnaval it's very similar with different groups dancing through the city. As of now, it's still two weeks before Carnaval and people are already partying, I have never seen anything like this.

After the parade we went for a swim in the ocean around sunset and it was fantastic. Then I went to bed early and it was probably one of the best nights yet. I have a feeling this city is going to be pretty amazing in the next coming weeks.

Also to answer a few questions from a faithful reader and because they're good questions that I should have answered earlier:

Is the exchange rate favorable now?
The exchange rate has been going up for the past week, I'm not sure why, but I'm not complaining. When I first go here it was US$1 to R$1.75 now it's up to US$1 to R$1.89

How is your money holding up?
My money is holding up well. Since I have been working in the hostel for my accommodations, I haven't had to spend anything on an apartment and so I should even be able to travel after Carnaval.

Is the price of food, housing, travel (bus, etc) the same? Price of gas? any surprises?
The price of cooked food can be a little cheaper than in the US, but generally it's still pretty expensive. Shopping at the supermarket is definitely the way to go. I can make a good meal for R$3.
Housing is definitely cheaper is you're going to get something for long term in the off season. December through February are very expensive because of Carnaval and New Years.
Travel by bus costs about R$10 per hour, I'm not sure how that relates to bus travel in the states. And I think by plane is about the same as the states.
Gas is definitely more expensive, about R$1.70 per liter (or about US$4 per gallon).
And I was surprised at first how expensive it is down here. I assumed it would be a little bit cheaper being in South America, but I guess I shouldn't make assumptions.

Are you language skills improving adequately?
My language skills are improving enough to get around. And I'm beginning to become comfortable with the language.

Is it the immersion experience you hoped for?
When I first planned the trip I was hoping to be nearly fluent by the time I left. Looking back, that was a pretty unrealistic goal in such a short time. Another three months and I think I could be pretty close. However, I wouldn't change this experience for anything. It is an extremely comfortable environment for me to be in. If and when I come back I will probably try to work on a farm in the middle of no where with people who only speak portuguese, however, I have a good start of the language under my belt.

Does everyone want to practice their English with you?
Nope, only a few people so far. Brazilians are very proud of their culture and language and they're generally very excited to see a foreigner trying to learn their language.

Does the hostel cater to Brazilians or foreigners?
The hostel caters to both. I think more foreigners than brasilians, but since the hostel is cheap it's great for people on vacation in the country.

What is a typical day like for you? Do you work all your hours at once and have days free at time, or a little each day?
I don't really have a typical day. I work six hours a day and six days a week, but I can work when I want. Generally I work 1 - 7, that way I can sleep in a little, check my email, cook some lunch, go running if I want. Then I'll work, and afterwards make some dinner and hang out or go out to a bar.

Do you take day trips to other cities/suburbs?
I haven't yet, I've been exploring Rio quite thoroughly: Checking out different neighborhoods and beaches and sites.

Do you miss Ekta, Tastey House, Noodles? Does Rio have a Chinatown? pockets of other cultures?
I miss them all terribly. The food isn't very exciting in Brazil unless you have money. I went to a Churrasco a few days ago and it was one of the best meals I have ever had. A churrasco is a place where there is a small buffet of salads and breads and some fish, but the main courses are from men who walk around with skewers of meat and you just eat as much as you can. It's pretty fantastic. The downside was that it cost me about US$25. So it's not something I can do often.
There is no Chinatown and there aren't really any pockets of other cultures. There's a strong Italian and Japanese influence here because of previous settlers.

Do more people smoke in Brazil?
Yes, far more.

Are people less obese there than the US?
Yes and no. I think there are places in the US with fewer obese people. Everyone here seems to be skinny until the age of 35 or 40. I imagine after that the metabolism starts to go downhill, and the food they eat isn't really the most healthy.

Do you get around by bike as you do in Philly?
Nope, for the short time I am going to be here, it's not as cost effective. Also, It's scary on these roads.

What do most people do?
Most people have normal jobs and go to the beach when they're not working. It''s a very blue collar town, although I feel like there's a large portion that's on the lower middle class to lower class side of blue collar.


Sorry for the length of the post, I'll try to keep them a bit shorter :)

-Josh

Architecture

Welcome to Rio everyone.

I finally went around and took some touristy photos; hopefully this will help you get a taste of the city. I think there's something oddly amazing about the contrasts in this city. There is new and old, bright and dull.

All around the city you see newer buildings juxtaposed with beautiful old architecture. Recently (I'm not sure how recently) the city of Rio enacted a series of laws dictating how much you can alter a building. Some can't be touched except to be repaired, others you can only change the interior and other you just can't touch the front facade. It's pretty amazing to see a building built about two feet behind the facade of an old building. I'm sure you can find some wonderful metaphor within that, but I'm not that much of an abstract thinker.

As for bright and dull I think it describes the city perfectly. There is such a great sense of hope for the future and a pride for their past and their culture. And I'm not sure what else to say here, someday soon the thought will gel into something tangible and I'll write about it here.

Including these contrasts I absolutely love the architecture here. I'm always finding something different and amazing. It's great to see some buildings that were built before the US was founded and to see the current houses in the favelas where shacks are just thrown together and practically stacked on top of each other. It really is something I would have never seen in the states.

And as for what I'm up to these days, well, I'm still working. However, on a more exciting note I changed my flight home to the 17th of March. After Carnaval (Maybe around the 18th of Feb.) I'm going to do some traveling to the south of Brazil and into Argentina. I'm hoping to stop in Ilha Grande, Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Florianopolis and Buenos Aires. I figure since I'm already a hemisphere away from home I might as well see some of the continent. If anyone has been to any of those places and has some insight on things to do, let me know.

And to close, advice (More of a suggestion of something to try) to fellow or future travelers:

Don't plan everything.

When I went to Europe I planned my whole trip: Buses, trains, hostels, flights, locations. For me it became a thorn in my side. I was always worrying about making the bus or squeezing everything into a short amount of time. If you can do it, I say try to leave it open. That way, if you really enjoy a place, stay an extra night or two, or if you don't, head out sooner. You might meet someone in your travels who tells you of an amazing place to visit (For me: Ilha Grande) and as long as your schedule is flexible you can see things you may not have seen otherwise.

As always, any comments are appreciated.

Boa Noite,
-Josh

More Fun. More Decisions.

Sorry everyone, I'm not so great about posting here. I've started to get settled into the life in Rio and because of this I feel like fewer things are new and exciting. However, some fantastic things are still happening and this week I plan on doing more touristy trips.

But I can still catch you all up on the week of events:

For the fun stuff (well it's all fun, but the partying stuff for the kids out there) I have been going to Lapa for the past few nights and I really need to sleep tonight. I've been to a Samba club and a Forro club and a hip hop club. All of which are pretty fantastic. I found out that I really like to dance, but I need to learn how to do it. I'm starting with Forro.

I also went to the beach in Ipanema on Saturday and Sunday. It was really nice to just relax, watch the waves and read a book. I just finished the book "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I recommend it to anyone. It was a quick read and really well written, pretty depressing, but really well written. But the beach and clubs wasn't everything I did this week.

I visited a few more museums about a week ago and they were much better than the previous museums. The first I went to was the CCBB or the Centro Cultural Banco Brasil (I think?). Currently it's between exhibitions and doesn't have an art show up, but their money collection was AMAZING. They had coins from the Roman empire up to coins from today and coins from all over the world. I would say it's definitely a good place too visit.

The second place was next door to the CCBB, but I can't remember the name right now and it had an exhibition by Iole de Freitas (Not a site for the exhibition, but the third image is similar to the work) and the work was beautiful. It filled an entire room and to walk through it and be able to move around it in three dimensional space was great.

The third museum was the Paco Imperial and probably my favorite so far. It's all contemporary art with rooms for sculptures, paintings and videos. For one piece the artist had about ten plants all about a foot tall and tipped them over. He let them grow sideways, some died, some grew well and grew towards the sun and I don't understand the meaning or reasoning behind it, but I thought the idea was interesting. He also had a video of one plant growing up sideways that was sped up. It only took about five minutes to run through, but it was amazing to see how the plant moves towards what it needs to survive.

The fourth museum was right next to the Fine Arts Museum, but I can only remember that it had "Justice" in the name. Another good museum with exhibitions showing off some work relating to Carnaval and work from local painters.

The following day (Monday, Jan. 11) I met the woman in charge of the kiln at an art opening in Lapa. The little coffee shop/gallery reminded me of home, but they are far and few between. The show was of local artists working in recycled papers and plastics as well as a hip hop show of 14 year olds. It was pretty wonderful.

The woman, Katia, and I talked for a while (Mainly because she doesn't speak English, so it was slow) about art in Rio and two ceramic artists that she's doing her thesis on. I found out that the two artists don't really want to get the wood kiln up and running, but instead want funding for a new electric kiln. And once they get that kiln they want to start up a little art program for anyone interested. This was a llittle bit of a bummer to hear about, I would like to get the kiln up and running and used every once in a while, but it may not happen. Regardless, I'm hoping to see the kiln and meet the two artists sometime this week or next.

And on that note of the kiln, I'm starting to change my mind about the Fulbright. I think becoming fluent in Portuguese might be a little more difficult that I had hoped. And once I return home, will I be able to afford to take classes? I can go to the Brasilian neighborhood in Philly, but will that be enough to keep up with the language? Also, is studying the ceramic history of brasil what I really want to do?

And so, maybe there's something else I can do. Maybe I can look into the Peace Corps again? I'm starting to think about starting a little art school somewhere or a place where I can make kilns to purify water as well as fire pottery (Can I even do this? I need to do some research) and the school could help educate children about art and culture.

But perhaps I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. I think for now I need to slow down, keep pushing for the Fulbright and see where I end up. I usually have a hard time with these big decisions, but I also have plenty of time to figure it out.

And so, Valeu.
-Josh

Getting down to business

Oi Gente,

A few days ago a good friend and employer and landlord Steve Ford said I should probably use this blog to track my progress towards getting a Fulbright Scholarship. At first I was intending this blog to document my trip as a whole and to share my adventures with anyone interested. Also I wanted to Outline the steps I took in being able to take this trip as an artist with debt and no stable job.

That being said (And I think accomplishing the latter part) I am going to start documenting everything. The fun and the more research oriented stuff. I'll start to document who I talk to and where that leads me and my ideas.

A couple of days ago I visited two museums in Rio, trying to get an understanding of the arts culture here. First I went to the Museum of Fine Arts, then the Museum of Modern Art: Both were a little disappointing.

The Museum of Fine arts was a beautiful building architecturally, but it was small, there were many areas closed off and I felt the work didn't show a complete view of the work that was produced and is still being produced. I think there were about 70 or 80 paintings, a handful of etchings, and less than 10 sculptures.

The Museum of Modern Art was equally beautiful architecturally and equally lacking in substance. The space was gigantic, but I felt it was poorly organized and again the collection was sparse.

Later that day I met up with Tiago, a ceramic artist in Rio whom I met in Philadelphia through Hope Rovelto. He was a visiting artist at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, but he's originally from Rio de Janeiro Brazil. I was just lucky enough to have met him prior to my trip.

Anyway, I met up with him and talked a lot about the arts in Rio and in Brazil. He said there is a lot of passion and appreciation for the work, but there is no funding for it. Looking back at the museums, I started to understand why they were lacking. He also told me about four other museums that should be a little bit better and I'm hoping to check out some of them tomorrow or later this week.

I also asked about the state of artists in Brazil. From my perspective, they seem difficult to locate and I haven't found any art galleries as of yet, the only arts establishment I found was the Art School in Parque Lage. Tiago said that most artists are "outsider artists" or artists that need to sell their work for much less than it's worth and also tend to be uneducated in the arts. I think I would consider them to be "folk artists."

These conversations let to a more important point. We started taking about ceramics and he mentioned that there's an old wood kiln in one of the neighborhoods here. The people in the neighborhood want to start using the kiln again, but lack funding, and there's a woman at a university who is trying to get the project up and running. I think it would be fantastic if I could help out. I would love to dig up clay or chop wood or clean or build.

And more importantly, I think a fantastic project would be to start a little art school based out of the neighborhood. It could help get kids off the streets and start getting people to be more interested in art. I think I might be able to turn this into my Fulbright project as well, I would love to research the ceramic history of Brazil and incorporate that into the school.

My next step is to contact the woman and see if there's anything I can do now to help. And I also need to meet some more ceramic artists in the area: Maybe they can give me ideas of where to find supplies or tell me more about the art history and culture of the region.

Any thoughts about this idea are greatly appreciated!

Valeu,
-Josh

Feliz Ano Novo e mais

It's been awhile since my last post because I'm a bit of a slacker. Everything has been great in Rio. And New Years was incredible. It's estimated that there were two million people on Copacabana beach and the fireworks were incredible.

The day before New Years there was a party in the hostel for all of the guests and it was great to see everyone hanging out and talking with each other. There were people from all over the world (Mainly Europe, Australia and the US) talking, drinking, playing pool and just hanging out. I wish the rest of the world would act like that all of the time. I feel like everyone would be much happier.

Then on New Years, around 10PM everyone made their way to Copacabana beach. The crowds were still pretty thin by the time we got there, I could walk around pretty easily and not have to push through anywhere. Then around 11:30 I noticed the crowds getting much much thicker and it was difficult to move anywhere, so we just hung out where we were, drank some champagne and watched the fireworks at Midnight. They were amazing, the whole beach lit up and everyone was yelling and jumping up and down and spraying champagne into the air and having a good ol time. Then, after the last firework went off, we wandered through Copacabana until four in the morning, came back to a little bar near the hostel, had a few beers and went to bed.

The following day was pretty quiet, most stores were closed, not many people on the streets, plenty of people in the hostel nursing their hangovers. I woke up around ten and just hun gout most of the day. At night I ended up going to Lapa (The party area in Rio) and danced in the streets. I'm getting really good at pretending to Samba by myself, although it would be nice to actually learn.

If anyone ever gets down to Rio, Friday night is the best in Lapa. There are thousands of people on the streets just hanging out and dancing. Saturday is better for clubs, there are plety of samba schools that play live music, or you can go to dance clubs that play funk (Similar to the clubs in the US) or just go to a bar and hang out.

Today I went to the beach in Barra de Tijuca (Where I took the pictures above) and it was a beautiful day. I'm still amazed by the beautiful scenery on the beaches (Not just women, also the mountains, the clear water at some beaches and the giant waves) and I don't know i I'll get tired of it too soon.

Anyway, I hope everyone back in Philly and Allentown are doing well! Any questions about Rio, let me know!

-Josh