The last two nights have been epic. Friday night, basically our entire group went out to this club called Proto Ze. Met a couple dudes who turned out to be really fun to be around, didn't catch their names but they were pretty cool and fluent in Spanish, which was useful for me. Language wise, I'm getting much better at Portuguese but my Spanish still trumps it for sure. I keep on explaining to people I meet who also speak Spanish that Portuguese isn't too far off, but the conjugations and pronunciations are just different enough to confuse the shit out of me and make me sound like a total foreigner. Whatever though, people here are very welcoming to help me learn to speak.
That being said, we had to spend most of the next day sleeping, lounging out by the pool and what not. Hung out with some pretty cool Brazilians from the hostel during the evening and enjoyed some cervejas by the pool. Nothing rowdy, it's just how people casually like to hang out. On some level or another, regardless of how you feel about drinking, you have to respect how chill it is here. People don't see drinking as a big deal... I think that the reason that it's so over-glorified in the US and why so many people binge drink is directly related to how "forbidden" it is, or that it can be looked down upon. Here's my advice: chill out America. Open container laws, drinking age being 21, social stigmas that look down on people drinking... it really doesn't accomplish anything in the end except breed negativity towards it... Jussayinn.
That being said, I made a good Brazilian friend here. He's 20, and he's got a bright future in law most likely. Speaks very good English, and is a very generous, cool dude. He took a group of us to the park, which is known for having epic sunsets. Every night around sundown, they close off the streets so people can walk around, eat some chucasa (spelling? but it is means a traditional Brazilian BBQ), and watch the sunset. It's pretty hard to feel any anxiety or negativity in a situation like that.
Later on, we went out to this great bar in the "rich district," just me and him. Let's just say that he showed me the ways, and that it's so much fun being a foreigner. Fantastic night.
Just bought tickets to Planeta Atlantida! It's a stupidly big music festival, in two weeks from now. It's in a beach town a couple hours away called Xangri-la. Lasts two days, and apparently there will be 70,000+ people there... Too excited!!
Watching the playoff games... Go Falcons and Ravens! Sorry 9ers fans, I can't stand Jim Harbaugh, that guy is a horribly annoying crybaby. I'd hate to watch him give a Super Bowl winning speech. And Ray Lewis deserves a title in his final season.
Hope all is well back in the states! ~1/20/13
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