When I sit down to write this week´s update, the first thing that I think of is the fact that in Brazil everything takes a long time to do... I have come to this conclusion after a long month now, lost in translation, trying to sort out the necessities of my existence. It has really been quite an experience. As for the timetable of things, I have learned to not try and rush so much. Many times already, I have been told that a situation is urgent and action must be taken immediately so I hurry to prepare myself, only to find that as soon as I am ready, the urgency is negated by things like lunch or afternoon coffee. It will take some time, because I am not used to doing things slowly. When I have an objective, I like to rapidly achieve it, no matter how much difficulty or hardship I must endure to just get it done.
On the way into Brazil this time, I had estimated that I would find, rent, and pay for an apartment within the first two weeks. That has turned out to be a very incorrect estimation. Back home I know that I could view, rent, and pay for an apartment within the same day, but here, almost 3 weeks went bye between the day I requested my apartment and the day I finally moved in. To this day, I have never understood what that 3 weeks of sitting around was for, but apparently it was some kind of administrative work to go along with the 15 pages of paperwork that were initially required.
However, my apartment is now mine and I have the rent paid through March. A shame that the rental company took so long to process my request, since now if I do not return, I will be sitting back in the USA with an apartment in Brazil paid through March, but I will not be in it. A waste that I hope to avoid.
In Brazil, (As far as what I have seen.. I´m sure if you are operating in a situation with more money involved, it is different), when you move into your new apartment, you will not have a toilet seat, any appliances whatsoever, or a showerhead. These things must be acquired by your own means. Also, there is a good chance that your new apartment (even nice places) will have several electrical sockets and light fixtures with an amount of wiring exposure that I am certain is illegal in America. Not much effort is made by the landlord or rental company to improve these displays of tangled electrical wire and the perspective is that if you have a problem with it, it´s your problem.
In my apartment, my two favorite dangerous features are both ones that I have observed in many places thus far and both reside in my bathroom. Traditional electric composition here dictates that in the bathroom, the switches for the lights go directly above an electrical socket. So, keeping your hands dry when you are fooling with the bathroom lights is definitely a good idea. I have already envisioned walking out of my bathroom from a shower, flicking the lights off, then recieving a huge electrical shock that send me careening towards the floor, splitting my head open on the ceramic toilet bowl (if only a seat had been there to save my skull). My second favorite dangerous element here is the design of the showerheads...
When I moved into my apartment, the condition of my shower was like many others I saw during the touring and viewing phase of renting; there is a threaded hole in the wall where the head should be, with two electrical wires dangling below it, metal tips dancing about in their uncovered liveliness. The reason for the electrical wires is the fact that in most places here, there is no in-home water heating system. Unlike the U.S., where we have the big cylindrical monstrosity hiding in closets and under staircases, ensuring that hot is hot and cold is cold, here the water is heated IN the shower head shortly before it falls on your face. When you buy a shower head, the head is attached to the hole by a pipe of your choosing and then the two electrical wires are plugged into the heating system of the head. Showerheads are quite expensive here, as with all other things electronic or slightly advanced in any way, but I got my on loan from Kenia´s grandfather... Very appreciated. I took my first shower with it this morning and the temperature was very good. An interesting feature of my apartment.
Exposed electrical sockets are actually not a probelm in my little apartment... I have some light fixtures that are like a scene from Star Wars, with red a blue wires pakced behind the bulbs like celtic patterns, but none of them are making trouble for me.
The security of my apartment is incredible and I think it may actually be the safest place I have ever lived... A good thing, since society is a bit more dangerous here. My apartment used to be a store so aside from the huge front gate and steel front door, there is also a huge roll-down door that I can pull down.
Safety here is essential. I have yet to experience anything bad, but I think I am fortunate so far. I know that the reality of it is looming over my head constantly, a mental sensation I derive from my own observance of sincere paranoia amongst everyone I meet here. I told Kenia, ¨ Oh my apartment is so cute! I want to get a little table and chair to put outside so I can sit... Maybe some plants!¨, I said. Very worried she replied, ¨All the time?! You cannot have these things outside! Someone will steal them!¨. I laughed, but was a bit alarmed by the level of criminal desparation it would take to climb over a 7 foot gate to steal an old table, chair, and some plants, and then climb back out with all of those items. However, that is the scene out here. If you have something that is worth anything, someone will take it from you if you do not watch out... Your table... Your plants... Your life.
Also, the other day, A friend of Calebe (Kenia´s brother) came bye to change the locks on my front door and give me a new set of keys (done for about $20 in 10 minutes). This change was recommended to me by Kenia and her mom who explained that because my apartment was one that the rental company allowed people to view without an escort, it is possible that some of the people could have had the keys copied with the intention of coming back to the apartment later to rob the new tenant. I sleep with my CRKT M16 Knife under my pillow in case I get unexpected visitors.
Shitting without a toilet seat, I don´t really mind. It´s like doing a horse stance exercise. The only thing I have a probelm with so far is with the piping for my sink. Some genious plumber decided that to hinge the water supply from the wall to the sink, it would be smart to use a ¨T¨internsection elbow to connect the angles. So the pipe from the wall goes into one tube and then, at a right angle, another tube goes up into the sink. Therefore, the third opening, without any pipe attached, was left to spew out a jet of water any time the water was turned on. It would appear that this has been remedied by jamming a plastic shopping bag into the whole. After a few showers and toilet flushes, I have decided to leave my water off until it is fixed. Already, there is a reporduction center for mosquitoes forming on the stagnant water of my bathroom floor. During my first night, I was paid a visit by the firt wave of offspring from this little lake, who zoomed by my ears on the way to bight every single area of skin that I could not conceal.
So, during my first night, I got maybe 30 minutes of sleep. To protect myself from the mosquitoes, I pulled my blanket over my head and held my pen in my hand, upright, by my face, to create a little tent pocket for air. At about 2 in the morning, as the heat and sleep deprivation started to mold my reality, I began to laugh hysterically. I thought to myself, ¨Lord in heaven. After everything I´ve done and everywhere I´ve been... The Ritz in London, suites in Vegas... Anyone who is thinking of me right now could not imagine that I am in the middle of Brazil, in an apartment that used to be a store, sleeping under a blanket to hide from mosuitoes.. What squalor.. What a time. HAHAHAH¨. The other funny thing I realized is that basically, for the next few months, or until my income improves (or appears rather) I will be an ¨urban camper¨. The tent I made with my blanket brought me to realize this fact... I cannot spend much nor do I need to yet. I have no refrigerator and no apparatus for cooking anything. All my tapwater is unsafe to drink and too-rich with minerals, and intestine spelunking critters. Hence, I must purchase items of food that are unparishable if I intend to keep them at my home and if I want something fresh, hot, or ice-cold, I have to go to the store to get it when I want it. There will be no waking up in the middle of the night or a cold sip of juice or microwaving a snack. The humidity is too substantial for bread and the bugs come to quickly for even fruit... Meat, milk, juice, things like that have already been deleted from my wonderful kitchen dream. So, in my apartment it will only be the same kinds of things I take when camping. Dried meat.. Canned meat. Canned everything. Maybe some fruit if I will eat it soon enough. I will also have to buy large jugs of water in various gallon dimensions and I am thankful that at least I can have that around.
On my first morning at home, I decided to inaugurate my living-room area with a little workout. Exercising on tile and then tile covered in sweat is a bit danrouge at time, but I figure I had better adapt to the situation since I do not and, looking at the way things are going with money, WILL not have any way of paying for time at a gym. So far, that is the biggest tragedy for me. Not the food, the electricity... Only the fact that I am surrounded by some of the greatest places to train that I have ever seen, but I cannot afford them, and to make the money to attend, I will need a schedule that eliminates the time to train at them. I have already mentally comitted myself to training alone with my surrounding environment. Exceptionally challenging, because of weather and self-discipline, but free. Guys in prison do it. I can do it. From now on, I will post the workouts that I myself am doing here. I have space at home and when I get a bicycle or time, I plan to ride down to the lake, a good place for jogging, doing pullups on the football goals, and step-ups on the benches. I will find some way to do some work.
Eating well (as in; avoiding starvation) is not a problem here. However, it is definitely a challenge to replicate the diet I used to adhere to back home that focused on smal portions every 2-3 hours, 7-8 times a day. Loads of water, fruit, vegetables, lean meats, and a lot of fiber. The culture out here is all about big breakfast, big lunch, big dinner, MSG, sugar, sugar, sugar, salt, more salt. Pork, pork, beef. Eggs, pork, beef. Chicken, pork, chicken. Oh, a vegtable. Fruit. Coffee, coffee, coffee. Have no doubt, it is heaven, but I hate it when my body is not running like clockwork. So, the challenges of stress and nutrition have definitely affected my performance, but I am determined to continue on in my way; instinctually.
My blogging will inevitably be affected by the fact that I will have no internet in my home, but I will keep trying when I can. Until next time.
On the way into Brazil this time, I had estimated that I would find, rent, and pay for an apartment within the first two weeks. That has turned out to be a very incorrect estimation. Back home I know that I could view, rent, and pay for an apartment within the same day, but here, almost 3 weeks went bye between the day I requested my apartment and the day I finally moved in. To this day, I have never understood what that 3 weeks of sitting around was for, but apparently it was some kind of administrative work to go along with the 15 pages of paperwork that were initially required.
However, my apartment is now mine and I have the rent paid through March. A shame that the rental company took so long to process my request, since now if I do not return, I will be sitting back in the USA with an apartment in Brazil paid through March, but I will not be in it. A waste that I hope to avoid.
In Brazil, (As far as what I have seen.. I´m sure if you are operating in a situation with more money involved, it is different), when you move into your new apartment, you will not have a toilet seat, any appliances whatsoever, or a showerhead. These things must be acquired by your own means. Also, there is a good chance that your new apartment (even nice places) will have several electrical sockets and light fixtures with an amount of wiring exposure that I am certain is illegal in America. Not much effort is made by the landlord or rental company to improve these displays of tangled electrical wire and the perspective is that if you have a problem with it, it´s your problem.
In my apartment, my two favorite dangerous features are both ones that I have observed in many places thus far and both reside in my bathroom. Traditional electric composition here dictates that in the bathroom, the switches for the lights go directly above an electrical socket. So, keeping your hands dry when you are fooling with the bathroom lights is definitely a good idea. I have already envisioned walking out of my bathroom from a shower, flicking the lights off, then recieving a huge electrical shock that send me careening towards the floor, splitting my head open on the ceramic toilet bowl (if only a seat had been there to save my skull). My second favorite dangerous element here is the design of the showerheads...
When I moved into my apartment, the condition of my shower was like many others I saw during the touring and viewing phase of renting; there is a threaded hole in the wall where the head should be, with two electrical wires dangling below it, metal tips dancing about in their uncovered liveliness. The reason for the electrical wires is the fact that in most places here, there is no in-home water heating system. Unlike the U.S., where we have the big cylindrical monstrosity hiding in closets and under staircases, ensuring that hot is hot and cold is cold, here the water is heated IN the shower head shortly before it falls on your face. When you buy a shower head, the head is attached to the hole by a pipe of your choosing and then the two electrical wires are plugged into the heating system of the head. Showerheads are quite expensive here, as with all other things electronic or slightly advanced in any way, but I got my on loan from Kenia´s grandfather... Very appreciated. I took my first shower with it this morning and the temperature was very good. An interesting feature of my apartment.
Exposed electrical sockets are actually not a probelm in my little apartment... I have some light fixtures that are like a scene from Star Wars, with red a blue wires pakced behind the bulbs like celtic patterns, but none of them are making trouble for me.
The security of my apartment is incredible and I think it may actually be the safest place I have ever lived... A good thing, since society is a bit more dangerous here. My apartment used to be a store so aside from the huge front gate and steel front door, there is also a huge roll-down door that I can pull down.
Safety here is essential. I have yet to experience anything bad, but I think I am fortunate so far. I know that the reality of it is looming over my head constantly, a mental sensation I derive from my own observance of sincere paranoia amongst everyone I meet here. I told Kenia, ¨ Oh my apartment is so cute! I want to get a little table and chair to put outside so I can sit... Maybe some plants!¨, I said. Very worried she replied, ¨All the time?! You cannot have these things outside! Someone will steal them!¨. I laughed, but was a bit alarmed by the level of criminal desparation it would take to climb over a 7 foot gate to steal an old table, chair, and some plants, and then climb back out with all of those items. However, that is the scene out here. If you have something that is worth anything, someone will take it from you if you do not watch out... Your table... Your plants... Your life.
Also, the other day, A friend of Calebe (Kenia´s brother) came bye to change the locks on my front door and give me a new set of keys (done for about $20 in 10 minutes). This change was recommended to me by Kenia and her mom who explained that because my apartment was one that the rental company allowed people to view without an escort, it is possible that some of the people could have had the keys copied with the intention of coming back to the apartment later to rob the new tenant. I sleep with my CRKT M16 Knife under my pillow in case I get unexpected visitors.
Shitting without a toilet seat, I don´t really mind. It´s like doing a horse stance exercise. The only thing I have a probelm with so far is with the piping for my sink. Some genious plumber decided that to hinge the water supply from the wall to the sink, it would be smart to use a ¨T¨internsection elbow to connect the angles. So the pipe from the wall goes into one tube and then, at a right angle, another tube goes up into the sink. Therefore, the third opening, without any pipe attached, was left to spew out a jet of water any time the water was turned on. It would appear that this has been remedied by jamming a plastic shopping bag into the whole. After a few showers and toilet flushes, I have decided to leave my water off until it is fixed. Already, there is a reporduction center for mosquitoes forming on the stagnant water of my bathroom floor. During my first night, I was paid a visit by the firt wave of offspring from this little lake, who zoomed by my ears on the way to bight every single area of skin that I could not conceal.
So, during my first night, I got maybe 30 minutes of sleep. To protect myself from the mosquitoes, I pulled my blanket over my head and held my pen in my hand, upright, by my face, to create a little tent pocket for air. At about 2 in the morning, as the heat and sleep deprivation started to mold my reality, I began to laugh hysterically. I thought to myself, ¨Lord in heaven. After everything I´ve done and everywhere I´ve been... The Ritz in London, suites in Vegas... Anyone who is thinking of me right now could not imagine that I am in the middle of Brazil, in an apartment that used to be a store, sleeping under a blanket to hide from mosuitoes.. What squalor.. What a time. HAHAHAH¨. The other funny thing I realized is that basically, for the next few months, or until my income improves (or appears rather) I will be an ¨urban camper¨. The tent I made with my blanket brought me to realize this fact... I cannot spend much nor do I need to yet. I have no refrigerator and no apparatus for cooking anything. All my tapwater is unsafe to drink and too-rich with minerals, and intestine spelunking critters. Hence, I must purchase items of food that are unparishable if I intend to keep them at my home and if I want something fresh, hot, or ice-cold, I have to go to the store to get it when I want it. There will be no waking up in the middle of the night or a cold sip of juice or microwaving a snack. The humidity is too substantial for bread and the bugs come to quickly for even fruit... Meat, milk, juice, things like that have already been deleted from my wonderful kitchen dream. So, in my apartment it will only be the same kinds of things I take when camping. Dried meat.. Canned meat. Canned everything. Maybe some fruit if I will eat it soon enough. I will also have to buy large jugs of water in various gallon dimensions and I am thankful that at least I can have that around.
On my first morning at home, I decided to inaugurate my living-room area with a little workout. Exercising on tile and then tile covered in sweat is a bit danrouge at time, but I figure I had better adapt to the situation since I do not and, looking at the way things are going with money, WILL not have any way of paying for time at a gym. So far, that is the biggest tragedy for me. Not the food, the electricity... Only the fact that I am surrounded by some of the greatest places to train that I have ever seen, but I cannot afford them, and to make the money to attend, I will need a schedule that eliminates the time to train at them. I have already mentally comitted myself to training alone with my surrounding environment. Exceptionally challenging, because of weather and self-discipline, but free. Guys in prison do it. I can do it. From now on, I will post the workouts that I myself am doing here. I have space at home and when I get a bicycle or time, I plan to ride down to the lake, a good place for jogging, doing pullups on the football goals, and step-ups on the benches. I will find some way to do some work.
Eating well (as in; avoiding starvation) is not a problem here. However, it is definitely a challenge to replicate the diet I used to adhere to back home that focused on smal portions every 2-3 hours, 7-8 times a day. Loads of water, fruit, vegetables, lean meats, and a lot of fiber. The culture out here is all about big breakfast, big lunch, big dinner, MSG, sugar, sugar, sugar, salt, more salt. Pork, pork, beef. Eggs, pork, beef. Chicken, pork, chicken. Oh, a vegtable. Fruit. Coffee, coffee, coffee. Have no doubt, it is heaven, but I hate it when my body is not running like clockwork. So, the challenges of stress and nutrition have definitely affected my performance, but I am determined to continue on in my way; instinctually.
My blogging will inevitably be affected by the fact that I will have no internet in my home, but I will keep trying when I can. Until next time.
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