Hello! Things are great. Have made much progress since yesterday. Found a working ATM (they don´t all have the Visa logo), bought a cell phone, figured out the basics despite the fact that all of the menus and recordings are in Portuguese...also did some networking on asmallworld and couchsurfers to see what´s going on this week. Made a short list of what I want to do - explore Ipanema, Leblon, Copacabana, Lapa, and Santa Theresa...hike up to Sugar Loaf and take a tram up to Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado...go
hang gliding, take a
favela tour, and go see a
soccer game. It´s raining today and I am on my own (yikes!) so I am going to stick with the basics and start with bikini shopping in Ipanema. So excited! Then Nora Ammar, from Brown, and friends arrive tonight at 6pm. I got in touch with my aunt´s friend´s daughter Rafaela yesterday - I am excited to meet her as well!
Yesterday afternoon was lovely - Pedro took me to his friend´s birthday party in the Lagoa neighborhood. I had such a great time! His friends are incredibly lively and fun. Many had suggestions for places to visit and things to do. The view from this apartment was stunning - it looked out onto the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and the mountains. The food was fantastic (and professionally prepared) - roasted chicken, rice, beans, butternut squash, this roasted grain stuff that was delicious, and some kind of green vegetable that was really good too. Laura, the host, kept refilling my champagne to the point where I had five glasses - whee!
OK - here I go. xoxo
