Brasilia

Today, same stuff as yesterday. Pretty uneventful – had no problems with permission. Language is really a huge barrier here for some strange reason. Usually when I have a problem it’s not that hard to deal with, but I’m wishing I was able to say a little more than bon tard and bon noch and obrigado. It’s an odd sense of uncomfortableness walking into a store. I can picture how odd it would be if someone came into my store speaking only some strange foreign language, like French or Italian. I would think it was really strange they couldn’t speak my language. I think that’s how they feel here, since Brazil is such a large country and the city is land-locked surrounding the rest of Brazil. I don’t normally feel this way about international cities, but I’m kinda starting to feel like the locals are wondering why the hell some random American who can’t speak Portuguese is hanging around in Brasilia. I relate it to a French tourist traveling to east-bum-f*** Montana – I’m sure they would wonder why someone who doesn’t speak English has even wandered into the country.

The city is very modern so the availability is very good, (except for name-brand clothing). There is an eery sense of security here, whether or not it is true or known is relatively unknown; though the locals seem to express that it is a safe city. Patrick mentioned that maybe that’s why it was built here some 50 odd years ago – it’s away from the rest of civilization – let’s build a city in the middle of nowhere and ask people to come live here and we’ll call it the capital of our country. Sure, makes sense. It’s perfectly methodically planned out unlike any other city in the world. As boring as that makes it, it’s actually quite captivating at the same time. And the building structure is uniquely modern in an outer- space 70’s style kinda way. I’m still trying to get a handle on the city so I’m not quite sure what to make of it just yet.

Patrick and I had a productive first half of the day at the grocery store and then at a nearby mall. We went to some surrounding stores as well and then decided to call it a half-day and do some bookwork at the hotel. We planned on doing some calls/online work as well, but beer got in the way of that plan. I then checked out the gym for all of 20 minutes and got ready for dinner. By recommendation of the hotel, we went to a steak house just around the corner from the hotel. It wasn’t what we would normally consider a steak house, because it was what we would call a Brazilian barbecue. I had never been to one. What better way to experience it than in Brazil itself. The food was all wonderful. The salad bar was incredible in itself. And I tried so many different types of meat which I can’t remember what they are for the life of me. Except I do know that I ate a chicken heart. Yum. Service here at the restaurants is pretty unique as well. Fairly exquisite. They pull your chair out, place your napkin, make sure there are more than enough guys to take your order and get you anything you need. It was a nice dinner. After talking online tonight, I’m exhausted. Goodnight.