London vs Rio

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Did I mention that I’m back in London for 2 weeks? I’ve been really busy since I got back, but I started writing this on Monday morning as I made my way to work:

 

This is the first time I’ve been back to England in a year. I landed less than 24 hours ago and already the contrasts with Brazil have been jumping out at me. Here’s how today started…

 

Duvet

Everyone in Britain sleeps under a duvet (sounds like DOO-vay). A duvet is a thick quilt, traditionally stuffed with goose or duck down, nowadays more commonly filled with cheaper artificial fibres. Outside the temperature is just a few degrees above freezing, so the single sheet that I used back in Brazil would be useless.

 

Duvet

A duvet (AKA quilt). It keeps you cosy when it’s cold, but getting out of bed in the morning can be tough.

 

Morning Water Torture

Getting out from under the cosy duvet is really hard, but things get worse when you get to the shower. Of course the water comes out hot, but in older houses especially, the bathroom itself is often freezing! Back in Brazil I used love a long, cool, refreshing shower in the morning (and usually at least one more later in the day). Here in London it is like cold water torture…

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Who wants to be a Brazilian?

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I want to start by saying that I really love Brazil and Brazilians. Brazil is a beautiful and diverse country and if I had to characterise Brazilians, I would say that they were kind, warm, hard-working and thoughtful people. Of course Brazil has its fair share of problems, and not every Brazilian is kind, warm, thoughtful, but I think Brazilians have plenty to be proud of.

 

Flag of Brazil

Ordem e Progresso – the motto on Brazil’s excellent flag.

 

I wanted to make that clear because I don’t want the rest of this post to be mistaken for being somehow anti-Brazilian. With that out of the way, let’s continue!

A few weeks ago I finally received my official Brazilian ID card for foreigners (RNE – Registro Nacional de Estrangeiros). It was a great moment, the culmination of 2 years of filling in forms, making visits to the Federal Police and waiting – with the arrival of my ID card I was finally an official resident of Brazil! When I mentioned this to friends and colleagues, several people asked if I would now go on to seek Brazilian citizenship. This got me thinking – do I actually want to become Brazilian?

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Photo Post: Tomato vs Mushroom and the harbinger of death

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In case you haven’t worked it out, ‘Photo Post’ is my way of saying “I haven’t really prepared a long narrative, but here are a couple of pictures that you may (or may not!) find interesting”. Today I’m going to show you a couple of curiosities that both appeared very suddenly in the last 24 hours.

I planted some tomato seeds a few weeks ago and was very happy to see a nice healthy seedling appear:

 

Tomato-seedling

This was yesterday. My healthy, happy tomato seedling sits contentedly in a pot of its own.

 

It has rained a lot over the last month and everything is kind of damp and soggy. Today I woke up to find that my tomato plant has some competition!

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Photo Post: Departures and Arrivals

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Today I thought I’d try a new format which I’m calling Photo Post – not an original title, but as we say in Britain, it does exactly what it says on the tin. More photo, less text.

I woke up this morning at 6am, fully clothed on the sofa. Urgh. I was about to drag myself to the bedroom and grab another few hours sleep when I looked out the window. Wow! Sunrise was in full effect so I grabbed my camera.

As I looked out over Guanabara Bay, I saw a huge cruise ship coming into port. I’m not a huge fan of cruises (I’ve never been on one and don’t have any desire to go), but I thought that it must have been an incredible way to see Rio for the first time. The captain honked the ship’s fog horn for a good 15 seconds, probably trying to make sure that all his passengers woke up and looked out of their windows.

cruise ship

 

I continued snapping and caught this plane taking off. I can’t imagine what it would be like to leave Rio for good, but I pictured everyone on this plane telling themselves “I’m definitely coming back here!”:

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C-Arnie-val Creep

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Have I mentioned recently that carnival is just around the corner? As you may have noticed, I’m finding it hard to think of anything else right now.

Lots of Cariocas love carnival, but there are also quite a few who don’t like it. For both groups, this period between New Year and the carnival is just one long waiting game – either you’re waiting for the party to begin, or you’re waiting for it to finish so you can get on with your life. They say that the year doesn’t really start until after carnival – this can be a problem in the years when carnival starts in March.

 

Dancing, drinking, chatting to strangers and generally getting down. It just works better when the sun is out.

Dancing, drinking, chatting to strangers and generally having a good time.

 

Personally I love carnival! I may be in my mid-thirties now, but I still jump at the chance to forget about all the boring stuff and concentrate on having some serious fun for a few days/weeks. And I’m not the only gringo with a taste for Rio’s big party. They say that over 1 million people visit Rio for carnival each year. I read somewhere that they’re expecting closer to 2 million visitors this year.

Most of these carnival visitors are swept up in Rio’s carnival spirit and are very well behaved. But you know what it’s like – there are always a few bad apples aren’t there? Take this creepy guy for example (warning, some readers may find this difficult to watch…)

 

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