2012 New Year Eve

   


 I have been here over a month now. I don~t have a cell phone or a watch. I cannot drive. It costs over R$200 to obtain a 30-day driver license, plus certified translation of my Canadian license. I just let Adriana does the driving. She is the best woman driver I have ever met, except I am slightly better. Ha!

Every time I come here, I lose weight. I am absolutely spoiled by Vancouver~s Chinese food. Brazilian food is just not my ~bowl of rice~. 

I must have been here about 8 times. My curiosity is diminishing. My Brazilian relatives and friends are nice to me. My routine here is similar to Canada - breakfast+coffee, internet, lunch+coffee, internet, coffee, internet, shower, dinner, internet. Cigarette breaks here and there. 


TOM365.com  provides me a few pretty new HD movies.
  
  

I am kind of used to not knowing what the Brazilians are talking around me. I don~t feel left out. Occasionally I get a translation. 

Despite different culture, language, customs and traditions, people are all the same regardless of their country origin. People complain. People shop. People here have no lack of passion. They watch TV. They pursue what everyone else is pursuing. 

So far it is warm but not hot. I get to sleep in an air conditioned room. The sky is mostly cloudy but only scattered shower. I had only a few mosquito bites. So lucky!!

On Boxing Day, Adriana fell and fractured her left wrist bone. That makes her less active - letting the house works go. Good thing she still can drive. 

We~ll be off to the beach again in a week, this time with Rubens and his gf. 

New Year firework in Rio de Janeiro is the most grand in Brazil.
2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI6QQoEUgjU

We don~t like crowds. Will watch it at home.