Brazil 2012 Day 1-6

Week 1 Summary: Departed from MD, arrived in Rio de Janeiro. Bus trip south to Itajai, attended Paula's graduation.  

Shout-outs: Jose, Felipe, Felipe's mom, Maria Clara, Luiza, Gustavo, Bianca, Leco, Luciene, Studio FUN Training, Paula, Carol, Tiago, Mamae, Papae, Kalen, Vanderson, Anny.  

August 20, 2012 (Embarkation)

The way that trees are supposed to look, the way that roads are supposed to wind, the way that food should taste - everything is in its most familiar form to me on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Today I depart after a grand summer of family fun, wonderful gigs, and lots of fresh Maryland air. Jose gives me a lift to BWI, where a flight for Rio de Janeiro awaits.  Currently being loaded into the belly of plane are my two checked items:

a.)    my Gibson Midtown Custom semi-hollowbody electric guitar, and

b.)    a small roller bag filled with clothes. This little red suitcase, which I found abandoned in the halls of my fraternity house years ago, harbors a few items of questionable utility, which nonetheless I couldn’t resist bringing, e.g. rock climbing gear, slack line, more than one pair of shoes)

Carried on my person are the following two items:

a.)    70’s silverface Fender Vibro-Champ guitar amplifier,

b.)    a recently purchased Epiphone Electar Zephyr lap steel guitar from the 1940’s (which I don’t even know how to play but couldn’t leave behind, an impulse buy that I’m trying to validate)

The inside pocket of my jacket holds my passport, some cash, and my baggage claim tickets. 

I have a short layover in Miami, and I almost miss my flight as I watch NFL preseason game in the terminal.    I'm one of the last to board.  I stow my lap steel and vibro-champ in the overhead compartment. It's an older 767 with a projection screen and ashtrays in the armrests. The moment I feel like my life has changed is when I see that the tray table stickers are written in portuguese. Here we go!

August 21, 2012 (Day 1)

I get through customs in Rio, and pick up my bags.   My friend Felipe meets me on the other side and we head back to his apartment.  I ask him if I can use his razor, and he presents me with two disposable ones that I bought during my last visit. Apparently the supply I provided has been slowly dwindling over the past two years.  We go slacklining at the beach and exchange some of my American dollars. Then we head to the grocery store, where I try to translate all the labels.  I discover the goiaba fruit. We head back to the apartment for a series of naps, guitar playing, and reading (he has a copy of Tina Fey’s “Bossypants”). Felipe goes to a theatre class while I go for a run around the Lagoa (Lagoon). I come back and play some bossa nova songs with the housekeeper, Luciene. At around midnight, we go to Gavea to meet Felipe’s girlfriend, Maria Clara, and her friend, Luiza, who has recently returned from a month in Europe. She regales the other two with vivid tales of her European adventures while I try to decipher some telltale clues as to what the hell she is talking about.  While she speaks, her hand gestures fly around the table with a wider radius than I’m used to.  I’m amazed she hasn’t knocked over a drink or broken my nose, and I say this to emphasize how entertaining it is, my aloofness notwithstanding. We drop her off after about an hour of storytelling, and drive up what seems to be an interminable mountain road to Alta Gavea, where Maria Clara’s parents live.

August 22, 2012 (Day 2)

I wake up in a huge, fantastical villa high in the hills above Rio.  There are old statues, multitudes of narrow staircases, huge windows swinging out into the mountain air, and beautiful hardwood floors throughout. Combine that with the displays of childhood art created by Maria Clara and her two sisters, and you get something that looks like the Royal Tenenbaums house, except carved into a mountainside.  Outside, their 6 small dogs roam around in a pack, swarming wherever the human activity seems most interesting.  To say the estate is picturesque doesn’t do it justice.  I sit down at the piano that sounds more like a harpsichord and pluck out some Brazilian folk tunes from the sheet music.  There are stone steps and a small bridge to the boulder into which their freshwater pool is carved. We go for a swim after breakfast and spend the afternoon in a state of leisure befitting the surroundings. 

August 23, 2012 (Day 3)

I wake up at 8 am to go to the gym with Gustavo, Felipe’s sister’s boyfriend.  The gym, “Studio FUN Training” offers treinamente funcional (functional training), which emphasizes simple movements using mainly body weight with elastic bands, kettle bells, medicine balls, etc.  Gustavo has a trade with the gym, offering his services as a social media expert in return for treinamente funcional from his childhood friend, Leco. It’s a fun workout, and the studio is basically a 20x20 glass enclosure in a mall. Gustavo and Leco chat for a while afterwards and we burn through a package of “Bis”,the Brazilian take on Kit-Kats (dark chocolate, way better). We stop by a music store on the way out and I buy new strings for Gustavo’s guitar. We take the bus back to the apartment where I pack up and have lunch with Felipe.  Felipe’s vegetarian so his maid has cooked some delicious soy-based dishes, which we combine with the more traditional rice and beans for a hearty meal.  Felipe accompanies me with all my luggage down the steep walk to town from where he lives, Alto (High) Leblon, to Leblon.  I take a taxi to the rodoviaria (bus station), and make friends with the taxi driver, who it turns out has been to Santa Monica and whose daughter studied English at Berkeley.  Antonio writes his number down for me, I give him a CD, and we are friends.  I make it just in time to catch my 16 hour bus ride to Itajai ($149 reals = about $90 USD).  I’m not sure why the bus porters won’t let me stow my guitars on the bus; I gather that I need some kind of identification proving I am a musician, otherwise I need to pay for the bags.  Or it might be something else altogether.  I show them my CD, which displays a picture of me, and all is well.  I let the porter keep my CD, and he is all smiles.   I should have brought more of them.

August 24, 2012 (Day 4)

I arrive at the bus station early at 5:30 am. My friend Paula and her mother come to pick me up a couple hours later.   I’m getting used to not having a cell phone.  When I was staring out of the window of the bus, I felt distinctly peculiar because I can’t remember the last time I spent over an hour alone with my thoughts, without electronic interference or otherwise. I’ll be staying in Itajai until my friend Veronica’s wedding in Minas Gerais on September 22^nd.  This visit starts the same way as the last, with a stop at the local bakery for some pao de quiejo (cheesy bread balls) and other treats.  Paula goes to work and I go to sleep in her sister Carol’s room.  Carol is living in Criciuma for medical school, so I get to have my own room.  I go for a run to the shopping mall and back, and when I get back, Carol has arrived for Paula’s graduation tomorrow.  I accompany Paula to the salon, and later we go to a California themed bar in Balneario Camboriu.  Some of these people have the L.A. look nailed - plaid, thick rimmed glasses, apathetic facial expressions, etc. I see my friends Kalen and Anny there, and meet a bunch of new people too.  Everyone will be at the graduation party tomorrow.

August 25^th (Day 5)

It’s graduation day for Paula.  I go for a run to Beira Rio, a small anchorage.  I return and get dressed for the graduation.  On the way to the venue, Carol drives me, her aunt, her uncle, and their two-year-old son, Lucas.  I realize later, as Lucas and I pretend to be angry dinosaurs, that my Portuguese vocabulary may be slightly more advanced than his. 2-year-old level of fluency ACHIEVED. Maybe. The graduation ceremony is elegant yet raucous.  There are a bunch of jumbo screens with some nice multi-camera work going on, which includes shameless close-ups of graduates’ tears rolling down their cheeks during the parents’ tribute.  The audience is rife with air horns, exploding streamers, and large banners.  Our colorful “PARABENS PAULA” banner is the only homemade one, and therefore the best.  Every graduate has their own 20 second theme song, like pro-wrestlers.  When we return to the event venue for the graduation party, which starts at around midnight, it has been transformed into a concert hall and by one a.m., there must be 2,000 people there.  There is a live band with on-stage go-go dancers, and someone has purchased a large supply of bottles for our table.  I don't ask questions about these things, I just enjoy. Carol’s boyfriend, Tiago, has set up an informal hydration station; guests are placed in a chair, a capful of tequila is poured into their mouths, and someone shakes their head while they drink it down.  I dance the night away, and I’m so tired that I leave early with Paula’s parents.  And by early, I mean five in the morning. 

August 26^th (Day 6)

Everyone is in various stages of recovery.  Around dusk, Mamae (mom) and I go for what turns out be a really long run from Beira Rio to the end of the beach.   It’s an especially wonderful experience because I get to exclusively speak Portuguese for over an hour.  We get back, eat some hot dogs, and I watch “Batman Begins” with Papae (Dad).