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