Living in Brazil

Some of the story below will have to do with living in an apartment in a city, but a lot of the problems to my mind are not too unusual for Brazil, and are worse in places like Rio.

Last week there was finally some action resolving a problem I’d been having with my air conditioner.  I only have one small AC in my bedroom and the lack of air circulation here in the summer means it can be a little warm in other rooms.  The AC has always been old and crappy, but worked well enough and I could sleep with it on during a hot night.  Well, the plastic button broke and it became impossible to easily turn on/off or adjust the settings.

After a few calls, someone came out, cleaned it up, and said it really need more work than just a button and they’d have to take it in.

So, someone came to take it in after consulting with the apartment agency, and promised to have it back in one day.

Right.

On the second day without the AC, I decide to go buy a fan.  I walk to the local grocery store, which carries fans.  Only 220 v fans, and Porto Alegre is 110 v.  Great.  It’s getting late, and I want a fan.  I take a cab for R$15 to a hyper market (think super Wal-mart).  They only have 220 v fans.  Fine.  I buy one, R$50, and spend R$20 for the cab ride home.  Because of all the problems getting the wrong washing machine back in October, I do have a transformer and can move it to run the 220 v fan.

When I get home, I can’t assemble the fan.  There’s a piece to remove that won’t come off.  Nothing in the instructions either about how to do it.  Sucker was fixed tight, and had to be removed to allow the blades to be installed.   My girlfriend tried to assemble it, similarly failing.  Fine.  There was still enough time to take it back.  Another R$20 for the cab.  Once there, we talk about exchanging it, and a guy comes out to check out the fan.  He removes the problem piece in about 5 seconds.  There was a little trick to it that was far from obvious.  Anyway, he assmbles the whole thing, and we go home in another cab, another R$20.

Day three without the AC, Friday looking toward the weekend, I get a bunch of calls right as I’m trying to head out the door for Portuguese class.  I talk with the apartment agency twice, but one time is on hold for about ten minutes.  Also talk with the  AC repair guy (or my girlfriend did).  There’s a problem with payment.  Basically, since my colleague officially has the apartment in her name, she needs to authorize it, since they are not taking responsibility for the AC problems (we didn’t note it as a problem when I moved in).  R$200.  And then they will either just add it to the rent or have it paid cash.

I’m only 45 minutes to my 90 minute Portuguese class.

I had moments of pure frustration.  This sort of problem would have never happened to me in the U.S.  My Brazilian friends assure me this sort of hassle is normal, and may explain the laid-back attitude here.  If you don’t cultivate it, you have regular heart attacks.  Remember, I was hot and sweaty and was working my ass off to be cool, on a day I was also exhausted from sleeping in the heat and busy spending hours on a problem when I didn’t have the time.

Anyway, it’s not always so bad, but Brazil has its moments.  Still catching up on things here, and will continue to catch up…

My rate of blogging has dropped off for two reasons.  First, I have been pretty darn busy recently.  And second, I am settling in here and there are fewer and fewer things that are surprising to me that make me think, “Hey, I should write about that.”

My parents were visiting last week and they shook me out of my routine and I found some new surprises that I had not noticed before.

My parents wanted to eat cereal with milk for breakfast.  It turns out that the milk you buy here comes warm, in boxes, off of shelves.  You have to cut the box open to pour the milk.  This is very different from the United States with its deep refrigerated shelves of chilled cartons and jugs of milk.

My dad wanted to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  Plenty of bread and jelly to be found in the store, but peanut butter…that took a while.  There was only one type and it took up maybe a foot of shelf space on one shelf.  In the United States there are a dozen kinds and they take up half an aisle in the supermarket.

So I fell far short of my blogging expectations while I had guests in town and I took a trip to Rio.  I will begin to rectify that and have several things I want to write about.  The first is a story I saw on the local news in Rio but that has had international audiences.  I think it illustrates a lot of the contradictory cultural issues here in Brazil when it comes to religion.

Brazil is a rather Catholic country, and a lot of the laws here reflect the positions of the Catholic Church.  Abortion is against the law except in cases of rape and when the life of the mother is threatened.  Then you get awful stories like this one, about how a nine-year-old girl was impregnated by her stepfather with twins, and everyone involved in the ensuing abortion has been excommunicated.

Here’s another take from a blog I frequent concerning issues of evolution, separation of church and state, skepticism, and atheism.  Always lots of comments at the blog.

Basically, I think Brazilians are sensible people with their own culture and the Catholic Church is an alien parasite.  The Brazilians for the most part use condoms, have guilt-free sex, and seem to have access to abortions when necessary (I’ve heard a few second-hand stories about this).  It isn’t like anyone anywhere is for abortions, just abortion rights when the situation is difficult.  Brazilians live life here on Earth and make practical choices about their lives and can enjoy themselves and be responsible, too.

The Catholic Church prioritizes the next life over this one, and the church and the pope frequently get angry with Brazilians and vice versa.

Still, it’s part of life and culture here.  The 100-foot-tall statute of Christ in Rio watches over the city day after day, and the people in the city sometimes watch back.  You have to believe in Jesus because you can look toward the sky and see him there.

Probably all sorts of subtleties I don’t appreciate, but it’s strange to live in a country that is so much more sexually open than the U.S., and doesn’t have abortion rights.

Sorry for posting so sporadically.  Busier here than expected, here being Rio now.  I am taking a few days vacation post-Carnaval when things are not so crowded or expensive.  I showed my visiting student around, got a visa for China, and am waiting to show my parents around.

My parents were supposed to arrive Tuesday.  Now it will be Friday.  They had bad weather in the U.S., missed their connection in Washington D.C., and now have to wait for an open flight on Thursday (today).

And I don’t know when I will have a window to see The Watchmen movie opening tomorrow!  The earliest showing is after 2pm, when I need to be here to meet my parents, and the movie is long.

I have to say though that finding out about movies in Brazil is easy thanks to the internet.  I just go to google and type “movies Porto Alegre” or “movies Rio” and the first hit lists the movies/theaters/times with an option to look at coming days.  Seems like only two theaters in Rio showing The Watchmen tomorrow, with the closest being a 15+ minute cab ride away from Ipanema in Botofogo.

Oh, and here’s the request.  There’s a big astronomy meeting in Rio in August, and some of my colleagues back in Porto Alegre are researching hotels.  Apparently the meeting is close to Centro, and they’re looking at primarily hotels in Copacabana at the east end of the beach.  My colleague asked me to look into these while I am here:

Hotel Mar Palace: Av. Nossa Sra. Copacabana, 552  (at the corner with
Figueiredo de Magalhães).

Hotel Tulip Inn Copacabana: Av. Atlântica 2554, also close to the corner
with Figueiredo de Magalhães.

Hotel Astoria Palace: Av. Atlântica 1866

I have received good recommendations for hotels at Posto 6, like
Portinari Hotel, but I think they are a bit far if one wants to go to
downtown (where the meeting is going to be) in the morning and come back
in the afternoon withough spending too much time due to heavy traffic.

Other suggestions in Copacabana welcome, too.  Thanks!