Rio Revenge, Day 2

Wedgewood in Seattle History commented:

Um… new job? Or temporary? Why is it revenge?

Here’s what’s happening… first of all, same job (I’m still a high school languages teacher); however, I am on summer break as of last Friday afternoon. I finished grading my finals, put final grades to bed, cleaned out my classroom… and now I get to live my own life.

So I’ve made it down to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I’m only here for two weeks, but I’ve signed up for classes at a language school. Besides having Portuguese classes for Spanish speakers, they also set me up with an apartment share and a ride to/from the airport. It’s a pretty sweet deal.

The reason this is “revenge travel” is because if left up to me, I would be home with my two baby nieces right now. I had no intention of being away from them for this many weeks. I would rather be with them than traveling alone.

However, my sister (their mom) had to take a work trip for a couple of weeks to observe the parliamentary elections in Europe, and she took my nieces with her! I couldn’t join them myself (although I would have liked to) since I was wrapping up the school year. Anyway, it ended up that I had a week to myself after school wrapped up, and what was I going to do at home by myself? Clean the garage?!

So I cooked up this “revenge trip” to Rio as a consolation for a week of long-distance uncle-ing. It’s “revenge travel” because my sister heard my plans and said, “I wish I could go with you!”

Ha ha! You can’t come with me! This fleeting moment of envy on my sister’s part is the “revenge” aspect of this adventure. It’s not much, but this is how I market it to myself. If I wasn’t here learning Portuguese and exploring Rio I would be on the couch in Rainier Beach watching Star Trek Voyager re-runs and eating saltines with sugar free nutella.

Anyway, here’s what I did today.

I woke up before 7am and made myself a bowl of rice and a tuna omelet. I walked 0.4 miles to my school in the Ipanema neighborhood and paid them what I owed them, then it was off to class.

My class is from 10am to 1pm in a tiny classroom; just me and a woman from Ciudad de México, and he instructor. So far so good. We have a 20 minute break at 11:00, which is just enough time for a leisurely stroll to Ipanema beach and back.

After class there was an orientation for new students. I was on my own after that, so when I got hungry I sat down at a sidewalk patio restaurant and ordered the “salmão gelado” which I thought was a cold salmon. When it hit the table, I realized I must have read it wrong, it must have said “salmão grelhado” which means grilled salmon (i.e., not cold) but what actually hit the table was a fried salmon, with a lot of sautéed veggies on the side plus a scoop of broccoli rice. I think it was a $9 USD lunch, with a bottle of water.

I explored Ipanema a little bit; found a stationary stop and bought a notebook um caderno. Found a cellphone shop and bought a cable to charge my iPad with un cabo USB-C. I stopped at a farmácia for a shower scrubby uma esponja de banho corporal and a nail clipper um cortador de unhas.

I came home and rested for a little bit before striking out again on a mission to discover Copacabana beach, which is all of two blocks away. My street, a Rua Sá Ferreira, takes me straight to Posto 5.

Um pombo na praia

I sat in the sand for a while, walked in the waves, and then walked barefoot on the wave-tiled beach walk on the Avenida Atlântica for a little while, while the sand on my feet dried off. Then I walked into the Copacabana neighborhood and tried to get lost a little bit, found my way back to the apartment without gMaps.

Before going upstairs, I ordered um brotinho vegetariano and a Heineken at the sidewalk café. As pizzas go, it was a shock. I was ready for the cut corn, but I wasn’t expecting can of peas! Still, as a dinner it was pretty good.

It wasn’t even 7pm when I laid down to go to sleep. It’s now 11:30pm as I’m writing this; I’ll go over my class notes and then go back to bed when I’m tired.

Tomorrow the school has organized an activity, they’re all going to Boulevard Olímpico after lunch. I’ll probably join. I might try to have breakfast at secret Aussie coffee shop.

O vocabulário de hoje

• uma dúvida
• torcer
• o México, mexicano
• as Filipinas, filipino
• fraco
• hum, sim, pois nåo
• pronto
• os óculos de sol, os óculos oscuros
• o cabo, o fio
• um benjamin, uma extensão