Nom Falha Portuguese
As usual I have to apologize for a brief hiatus from my blog – I was away in Brazil for vacation. I had access to a computer, but why would I want to spend time indoors when I could be on the beach in Rio?
As far as vacations go, this one was pretty typical (meaning it included tons of drama). One of the main reasons I went to Brazil was to visit a good friend who I have not seen in four years. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago. But let’s just say that time flies, except when you are stuck on a plane for nine hours on your way to Brazil.
My trip began on the morning of Friday January 13th. Perhaps, this should have been an omen as to what was to come in the following days.
I arrived at LGA at 9 am and jumped on a 10am flight to Atlanta. Because of bad weather, and the fact that I was flying standby for the entire trip, I made sure to get out of NYC as early as possible. I arrived in Atlanta at noon and found a comfortable corner and waited seven hours until my 7:35pm flight to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. One of the perks of flying on a buddy pass is that you can get upgraded to 1st class if it is available. Unfortunately, I was one person away from getting the upgrade and had to sit in back of the plane with the rest of the riff raff. Before departing for my trip I had gone to the doctors to get Antibiotics to help get rid of a sinus infection, and while I was there I got a prescription to Ambien – I can’t sleep on planes so I thought I would get some help. But I didn’t fill the prescription because my doctor also gave me samples of Rozerm (a new sleep aid). Well needless to say nine sleepless hours later I landed in Brazil – I should have gotten the Ambien.
After a long wait at customs, I finally came down the staircase to the pick-up area. I was expecting to see my friend’s smiling face waiting there for me – he was nowhere to be seen. The Cariocas (the people of Rio) are very aggressive. I was asked multiple times by multi people if I needed a taxi. Mind you, no one in the airport spoke any English. So after 30 minutes of waiting, I realized my friend was not picking me up. And to add insult to injury I had lost the piece of paper with all his contact information. So next I had to find an Internet place (they call them LAN Houses). I paid $3.00 for 5 minutes of Internet time. But I was able to get the information I needed for my e-mail. I then had to buy a $10 phone card, so I could call my friend. He had gone out the night before, got back to flat really early in the morning and fell asleep. The front desk was supposed to give him a wake up call but forgot!
Now this was my first indication that this trip was going to be drama filled. I mean why would he go out and have a booty call the night before I arrived. After all it had been 4 years since we saw each other last. I had to bargain with the cab drivers and ended up spending R55.00 (Brazilian currency) to get to Copacabana.
We spent the first few hours catching up, gossiping about people in NYC and talking about his new life in Brazil. We then took a walk to the beach, after all that was what I was there for, right?
The sun in Brazil is HOT. At 3 pm in the afternoon, you can still get horrible sunburns. Which I did! My scalp was fried, as were my shoulders. My friend ran into some of his friends at the beach, none of them spoke English. So I stood around, bored out of my mind, while he socialized. He didn’t want to translate (its gets tiring he says).
So after getting too much sun too quickly and working of off little to no sleep, I begged that we go back to the flat for a nap.
It was my first night in Rio, a Saturday, so I figured we should go party. We ended up at this club called Cine Ideal – it was in an old movie theater. The space was cool, but the crowd was not. They were all cracked out on E, K and GHB. I know that people in NYC do drugs but I had never seen so many people so out of their heads. I love to dance and I love happy house music with lots of vocals. Needless to say these drugged out queens had no appreciation for vocals and would get restless if the DJ spun a “good tune”. I wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep.
When my friend lived in NYC, he didn’t drink or do drugs. That had changed since he had been back in Brazil. And he was not a fun drunk. That night at the club, we had our first of many fights. He knew that I was exhausted, burnt and had no clue how to get back to the flat. But he insisted on staying out and kissing boys! I thought that was selfish. I mean he lived in Sao Paulo and was working in Rio and could go out any other weekend. To me, if you invite someone to visit you in your country you should feel responsible for making sure they are having fun and stay safe. But I guess that is just me.
Needless to say, I waited for him and we left the club at some ungodly hour of the night. I paid for the cab, cause he had spent all his money on alcohol – what if I had didn’t have enough on me either?
Well needless to say I was prepared to get back on a plane and go home. I had not been back to Brazil in four years for several reasons, one being the expense of it all and the other being the language barrier. And the language barrier was proving to be a sore spot for me again.
So I decided to stayed, but unfortunately went through the same scenario each time we went out. He hooked up and I was left to fend for myself. I will admit I am a survivor so was able to get back home each time. But the whole situation was not cool for me. Not being able to speak the language sucks, and then once they figure out you can’t speak, you never know if you are getting taken for a ride (literally and metaphorically).
More to write about later: Sun Burn 101 and The Good Parts of the Trip (including Monkey Sightings, Corvado/Cristo and Flying Business Elite!
As far as vacations go, this one was pretty typical (meaning it included tons of drama). One of the main reasons I went to Brazil was to visit a good friend who I have not seen in four years. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago. But let’s just say that time flies, except when you are stuck on a plane for nine hours on your way to Brazil.
My trip began on the morning of Friday January 13th. Perhaps, this should have been an omen as to what was to come in the following days.
I arrived at LGA at 9 am and jumped on a 10am flight to Atlanta. Because of bad weather, and the fact that I was flying standby for the entire trip, I made sure to get out of NYC as early as possible. I arrived in Atlanta at noon and found a comfortable corner and waited seven hours until my 7:35pm flight to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. One of the perks of flying on a buddy pass is that you can get upgraded to 1st class if it is available. Unfortunately, I was one person away from getting the upgrade and had to sit in back of the plane with the rest of the riff raff. Before departing for my trip I had gone to the doctors to get Antibiotics to help get rid of a sinus infection, and while I was there I got a prescription to Ambien – I can’t sleep on planes so I thought I would get some help. But I didn’t fill the prescription because my doctor also gave me samples of Rozerm (a new sleep aid). Well needless to say nine sleepless hours later I landed in Brazil – I should have gotten the Ambien.
After a long wait at customs, I finally came down the staircase to the pick-up area. I was expecting to see my friend’s smiling face waiting there for me – he was nowhere to be seen. The Cariocas (the people of Rio) are very aggressive. I was asked multiple times by multi people if I needed a taxi. Mind you, no one in the airport spoke any English. So after 30 minutes of waiting, I realized my friend was not picking me up. And to add insult to injury I had lost the piece of paper with all his contact information. So next I had to find an Internet place (they call them LAN Houses). I paid $3.00 for 5 minutes of Internet time. But I was able to get the information I needed for my e-mail. I then had to buy a $10 phone card, so I could call my friend. He had gone out the night before, got back to flat really early in the morning and fell asleep. The front desk was supposed to give him a wake up call but forgot!
Now this was my first indication that this trip was going to be drama filled. I mean why would he go out and have a booty call the night before I arrived. After all it had been 4 years since we saw each other last. I had to bargain with the cab drivers and ended up spending R55.00 (Brazilian currency) to get to Copacabana.
We spent the first few hours catching up, gossiping about people in NYC and talking about his new life in Brazil. We then took a walk to the beach, after all that was what I was there for, right?
The sun in Brazil is HOT. At 3 pm in the afternoon, you can still get horrible sunburns. Which I did! My scalp was fried, as were my shoulders. My friend ran into some of his friends at the beach, none of them spoke English. So I stood around, bored out of my mind, while he socialized. He didn’t want to translate (its gets tiring he says).
So after getting too much sun too quickly and working of off little to no sleep, I begged that we go back to the flat for a nap.
It was my first night in Rio, a Saturday, so I figured we should go party. We ended up at this club called Cine Ideal – it was in an old movie theater. The space was cool, but the crowd was not. They were all cracked out on E, K and GHB. I know that people in NYC do drugs but I had never seen so many people so out of their heads. I love to dance and I love happy house music with lots of vocals. Needless to say these drugged out queens had no appreciation for vocals and would get restless if the DJ spun a “good tune”. I wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep.
When my friend lived in NYC, he didn’t drink or do drugs. That had changed since he had been back in Brazil. And he was not a fun drunk. That night at the club, we had our first of many fights. He knew that I was exhausted, burnt and had no clue how to get back to the flat. But he insisted on staying out and kissing boys! I thought that was selfish. I mean he lived in Sao Paulo and was working in Rio and could go out any other weekend. To me, if you invite someone to visit you in your country you should feel responsible for making sure they are having fun and stay safe. But I guess that is just me.
Needless to say, I waited for him and we left the club at some ungodly hour of the night. I paid for the cab, cause he had spent all his money on alcohol – what if I had didn’t have enough on me either?
Well needless to say I was prepared to get back on a plane and go home. I had not been back to Brazil in four years for several reasons, one being the expense of it all and the other being the language barrier. And the language barrier was proving to be a sore spot for me again.
So I decided to stayed, but unfortunately went through the same scenario each time we went out. He hooked up and I was left to fend for myself. I will admit I am a survivor so was able to get back home each time. But the whole situation was not cool for me. Not being able to speak the language sucks, and then once they figure out you can’t speak, you never know if you are getting taken for a ride (literally and metaphorically).
More to write about later: Sun Burn 101 and The Good Parts of the Trip (including Monkey Sightings, Corvado/Cristo and Flying Business Elite!
posted by Pablo Perez at 6:07 PM
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