one week in recife

And now I’ve been in Recife for a week. The place is amazingly different, and really quite amazing. A massive city in the tropics – very much another world. I live with Erica and Italo – and Minnie the shar-pei - in a seventh-floor apartment four blocks from the beach. I haven’t seen much of the city yet, but I walked the dog with my host dad a couple days ago, just a couple of blocks. Some of the trees here have flowers that smell absolutely amazing; there are canals that don’t smell as amazing. I met my first couple of boratas (cockroaches) on the walk. Totally caught me off guard, and my automatic reaction was this little dance to step on them. I adore the rains here, and it makes me laugh when everyone runs for cover. It’s such a refreshing thing. Ahhh; agua de coco was so refreshing, after today’s run. The beach 60 clicks north of here (where the family has a house) is super swell, and next time we go, I will snap some shots.

I can think of so many things I’d rather spend twenty-five hours of my life doing than sit in noisy planes and busy airports (with the TVs blaring the same news every half-hour). Sleep, for one. But it really was an okay trip. And a few really nice things happened on the way. I got to watch some doves and sparrows that had taken up residence at JFK, New York. Tremendous. I always like birds, though.

In Atlanta, I met a group of people headed to Fortaleza, and spent the last leg of the trip with a sick Ana Luísa (also sick as in very cool). She was kind enough not to get me sick, and really good company. I meant to practice some Portuguese, but it is so, so difficult. Still, I am amazingly grateful for the Portuguese that Monica managed to teach me. Without it I might be feeling not-so-hot about being here. And there was also the foolish drunk guy across the aisle: I had to help him with his customs card since he’d forgotten his reading glasses. A little bit entertaining.

Only one horrible thing has happened so far – on Friday morning, as Italo and I were rushing out the door to get to school on time, I realized that my tube of toothpaste was empty. I grabbed the next tube on the counter, and started brushing with the most foul stuff, assuming it was toothpaste. Nope. Shaving cream, which I didn’t find out until the evening, having doubted it all day. Gross. Apparently the people in charge at school find lateness very upsetting, perhaps connected to Brazilians seeming pretty relaxed about timing. They’re not so relaxed about school (and they did put me in the last year of high school, after all), and they seem to spend every weekday studying. So I need to find some good things to do when everyone else is freaking out about their uni. entrance test.

Oh yeah, this one’s for Matt: I had to decline some food the other night (my host grandparents are worried I’m not eating enough, and I worry the reverse). So I said “não neste noite”, NOT ON THIS NIGHT