a day in rio

I'm back in Rio at Daniel's house, a welcome respite from the pounding trance/hiphop music and beer stench that was inescapable in Buzios. Before I move on from the buzios adventure, let me post a couple pictures of the rowdy crew. One picture is of the group on new year's eve, or Reveillon as it is called here, one of the two biggest party-going occasions of the year. The other is a picture of the condo we stayed at in Buzios the morning Daniel and I left to return to Rio. I especially enjoy the guy in the top corner of the picture passed out on some nasty old couch cushions.

Anyway, enough of that. Today, I spent the day taking in some of the simple and, to me, most satisfying pleasures of travleing--experiencing the small ways in which daily life is different here than in my home country. First, we went to the supermarket to buy groceries, which was striking in its similarity to an American grocery store, with many American food items (like Frosted Flakes and frozen pizza) and modern check out lanes with the requisite stands of fashion and tabloid magazines. Yet, when we were done paying, rather than having to drag our eight bags of groceries back to the house on a city bus, we simply gave the supermarket clerk our address and asked that the bags be delivered to our house, a service the supermarket provides for free. This convenience, beautiful in its utility, also only makes economic sense in a city where a substantial portion of the people do not own cars and where the cost of labor is cheap, two qualities that no American city i know of can claim. Still, I left the market enjoying the unexpected gift that I had just received.

With our hands grocery-free, we grabbed lunch at a boteca, or juice stand. These botecas are generally hole-in-the-walls where people eat at counter-tops, akin to a small American diner, and one can find them all over the city. They generally serve small pastries and simple brazilian dishes, and people tend to shuffle in and out quickly. I don't know if i was deluded by my hunger or the novelty of it all, but this was one of the most satisfying meals i have ever had. In addition to devouring a star-shaped pastry filled with ground beef and a tangy mixture of herbs and spices (a taste i was too busy enjoying to bother trying to identify), I also ordered their plate of the day--a bed of lentils and rice covered with a spicy tomato-based ground beef sauce and topped with thin fried strips of sweet onions. It was an unusual combination for sure, but served fresh and steaming hot, it was simply fantastic. I washed down the meal with a cup of orange juice, fresh-squeezed as juice is always served here.

I spent the rest of the day walking around Ipanema. I took a tour of H. Stern, a famous Brasilian producer of precious gemstones and jewelry, and pretended like I could buy the 3,000 dollar sapphire-faced watch that I was trying on. I also browsed around a lovely bookstore that carried brasilian and english titles as well as a large cd collection. Somehow, being around all those books and music, I felt a powerful sense of comfort and familiarity. In the evening, I cooked a simple Chinese meal of stir-fry and broccoli for my hosts. The stir-fry was a hit. The broccoli wasn't.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. The rain that has lingered these past few days is forecasted to clear, in which case it may be a beach day.

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