After spending the past week in Rio de Janeiro and now holed up in a hotel in the heart of Sao Paulo (if it has a heart), I can say from the bottom of MY heart that the United States is a pretty awesome place to be! Hopefully you all know that.

In Rio, it is known to be dangerous, as I said in my last post. But worse than that is the ‘feeling’ of being in a place where you can’t just walk freely. Now I know that where I live in Santa Barbara we are very lucky (after all, we do call it Paradise) and I do know that there are parts of the US where people do NOT walk freely but the point is, I think (don’t know for sure) that there’s more places you CAN walk freely than can’t.

I spent a few hours this afternoon roaming down the main drag I’m on for the next week. Added to my experience in Rio for a week, this is what I’ve learned:
1) people here, though they don’t acknowledge each other on the streets much, are VERY friendly when you talk to them for what ever reason. For instance, in a hotel or restaurant or store, if you ask someone a question or just want to chat for a bit, they come alive and are friendly as pie (not that I’ve ever seen a friendly pie:-).
2) people eat smaller portions of everything here.
3) coffee, pronounced caffe`, is served in these cute little adorable cups and is very strong. I wouldn’t recommend it after about noon if you’re anything like me.
4) people generally don’t eat and walk. They sit or stand at a bar in the coffee house or dessert house (of which there are tons).
5) sidewalks are made from these flat little stones anywhere from 1/2 to 2″ in diameter. White ones make up the majority of the walkway with black ones used for design. They are NOT flat and you have to be careful walking or you (me) trip.
6) pedestrians do not care what the traffic light says. Walk means walk, Don’t walk means look then walk.
7) cars don’t care if there’s lanes on the street. Drivers drive in the middle, on the side, etc. and they get WAY TOO CLOSE to each other for my liking. Yikes.
8) there are no hair dryers in hotels, or Kleenex or washclothes. Only large towels. Also, no fitness center, no instructions on how to use the phone, no phone book and the rooms are small. OK, the two I’ve been in are smaller than we’re used to:-)
9) people don’t talk on their cell phones in public like we do so much.
10) the sidewalks outsides of buildings seem to belong to the building, both in terms of maintenance and in terms of what it’s made of and how it’s designed. Some sidewalks are marble for 20 feet and then you have crumbling concrete for 20 feet. Very strange and hard to walk on.
11) Learning Portuguese is diffucult but I’m catching on a bit. Boa Noite (good night).