So the ball is well in motion with respect to the whole brazil thing. I've (sorta) been in contact with ben; i think we've resoolved the whole when-we're-going-to-meet-up issue. it's going to be awesome to go down to brazil with that kid. I still need a job, but my cousin's friend is desperate to have me join this company of hers that teaches english privately to working professionals, so that could be some bank just in tips. I also still need a job up here or i'm going to wear down all my graduation money before i even get to brazil! it's not easy finding a job for just a month, so it's lookin like i may be a pizza delivery boy, but i also hear that doesn't pay dick, especially if you work day hours.
also, i've been shopping around for a laptop. now, my much more computer savvy friend kyle thinks i should not get a laptop and just get a much more powerful desktop later down the road. He raised some good arguments in our last dialogue (over eMail), so i've definitely got a lot to think about. i've wanted a laptop for a while now anyway, so this isn't just about going to brazil. But i'd have to be super careful with the thing; lord knows the beach humidity in ubatuba could thrash it, and it's 20 times more likely to get stolen (and make me a mugging target in general) every time i leave the house than it would in the US. Still, i'd really like to be able to take my work around with me, and it would make it super easy to collect music in brazil.
i really like that all my problems right now are really frivolous. I've been having a pretty good time since graduation, and it seems like i'm going to continue to for at least a little while longer.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Frustration
What is the deal with my internet? we finally got highspeed at my house, but we're using a wireless router and the signal strength in my room is really low. Consequently, i am constantly losing and re-establishing my connection. Most of the time, the internet runs so slow it feels like i still ahve dial-up. At least with dial-up the internet didn't keepdying though; i can't even download powerpoint presentations!
the internet wouldn't bother me so much if i didn't have all sorts of small errands I need to run online. I need(ed) to do a bunch of recert stuff for the fire department which required that I download powerpoint documents, then do a bunch of online quizes. I also need to do online training that is supposed to take an hour for kaplan. There's no way I can keep my internet connection for 10min, less an hour! the problem here is that I can't fill out my hours until I've done this damn training. That means I'm going to have to go to the library, but the local library only let's you use the computers for an hour a day, so I have to finish the training real fast. Still, i don't really feel comfortable connecting to my account for work from a library computer...
in the words of charles schultz, UGH!
even using facebook is a hassle. how silly is that?
the internet wouldn't bother me so much if i didn't have all sorts of small errands I need to run online. I need(ed) to do a bunch of recert stuff for the fire department which required that I download powerpoint documents, then do a bunch of online quizes. I also need to do online training that is supposed to take an hour for kaplan. There's no way I can keep my internet connection for 10min, less an hour! the problem here is that I can't fill out my hours until I've done this damn training. That means I'm going to have to go to the library, but the local library only let's you use the computers for an hour a day, so I have to finish the training real fast. Still, i don't really feel comfortable connecting to my account for work from a library computer...
in the words of charles schultz, UGH!
even using facebook is a hassle. how silly is that?
Friday, June 8, 2007
Rolling with it
So I don't think of myself as the most spontaneous person, but I'm starting to realize that maybe i am much more spontaneous than I see myself. I've had this "roll with it" attitude towards life for a while now, and it really rules me when I'm out on the open road. I guess the freedom of not having any commitments or responsibilities and just being able to point my car in any random direction and say "I feel like checking this place out" makes me feel very at home with myself (if that makes any sense).
But yeah, returning to the point, tonight I probably made the most significant spontaneous decision of my life. short version: starting mid july i'm going to be living in Brazil for four months.
This happened so suddenly, LITERALLY no one knows it yet except for myself and my mom. not even my dad knows yet (you're probably hearing it before he does :-p).
The Long version
So I got a pretty sweet graduation gift from my family: on top of a decent chunk of cahs, they payed for gas for my drive home (which really made the drive possible, given how insane gas prices were this summer), and they also were going to buy tickets for me to fly down to Brazil and go to the beach with my family down there. My friend Ben Brokaw is going to be in Bolivia during the time I planned to be in Brazil, so we started kicking around ideas of traveling around south america a little.
A couple of days ago, a wrench was thrown into the brazil plan in the form of an opportunity. one of my relatives in Sao Paulo works at a school where I could potentialy teach english. The catches: 1) very little pay2) Sao Paulo is kind of a shitty city (lots of crime, bad traffic, and not much to do)3) I would have to kill my previous travel plans
Now, don't get me wrong, this is totally something I've wanted to do for a while now. I've been thinking about living in Brazil anyway, and teaching english was the main job I had in mind. My friend Mike de la Paz had similar ideas and had told me that after looking, he learned that such jobs were basically non-existent for kids like us, so when Helio called me up I felt like I was being handed a really golden opportunity.
Well, despite how cool this would be, I decided getting a no-money job in a lame city wasn't worth killing my much cooler travel plans.
So tonight, I sat down with my mom to start working out the ticket details (we hadn't done this sooner because I still had to work out some issues with my brazilian passport, but we had to get it done ASAP because this shit was getting pricey). kinda out of nowhere, we decided to extend my stay. I'm going to visit my family as planned, meet up with ben in Rio. then my plans end after he leaves, up until my return flight december fourth.
Summary
I intended to buy a ticket to visit brazil for 4 weeks, and ended up commiting myself to live there for four months. beyond the first few weeks, i have not established places to stay or jobs while i'm down there. I might not even be staying in rio de janeiro; for all I know I might end up living in a different city every week. That's the beauty of Brazil: my mom has contacts all over the place! I've got family and friends I can crash with all over the country. Thing is, -I- don't really know anyone there except for some family in Sao Paulo (which is probably not going to be where I spend the bulk of my stay), and I certainly don't know anyone my age.
I've never lived anywhere except home and college. I've traveled outside the country alot, but this is different. This trip is unstructured like one of my drives, but I won't have a car. I'll have some money, but I still don't have a place to stay. I have family, but I still feel like I'm moving to an area where I don't know anyone.
I'm not going to lie, I'm intimidated as hell. Mostly, I think it's just how suddenly this all happened. I'm not concerned, sure Brazil is not the safest place in the world; most of my family has been held up at gun point at least once, and my cousin was even abducted from his car at a red light and held as a security hostage by bank robbers. I really think that this is going to be an incredible experience for me, and that i'm going to have an amazing time. Mainly, I just feel really wierd about committing such a huge block of my life without any real thought.
guess I'll just roll with it
But yeah, returning to the point, tonight I probably made the most significant spontaneous decision of my life. short version: starting mid july i'm going to be living in Brazil for four months.
This happened so suddenly, LITERALLY no one knows it yet except for myself and my mom. not even my dad knows yet (you're probably hearing it before he does :-p).
The Long version
So I got a pretty sweet graduation gift from my family: on top of a decent chunk of cahs, they payed for gas for my drive home (which really made the drive possible, given how insane gas prices were this summer), and they also were going to buy tickets for me to fly down to Brazil and go to the beach with my family down there. My friend Ben Brokaw is going to be in Bolivia during the time I planned to be in Brazil, so we started kicking around ideas of traveling around south america a little.
A couple of days ago, a wrench was thrown into the brazil plan in the form of an opportunity. one of my relatives in Sao Paulo works at a school where I could potentialy teach english. The catches: 1) very little pay2) Sao Paulo is kind of a shitty city (lots of crime, bad traffic, and not much to do)3) I would have to kill my previous travel plans
Now, don't get me wrong, this is totally something I've wanted to do for a while now. I've been thinking about living in Brazil anyway, and teaching english was the main job I had in mind. My friend Mike de la Paz had similar ideas and had told me that after looking, he learned that such jobs were basically non-existent for kids like us, so when Helio called me up I felt like I was being handed a really golden opportunity.
Well, despite how cool this would be, I decided getting a no-money job in a lame city wasn't worth killing my much cooler travel plans.
So tonight, I sat down with my mom to start working out the ticket details (we hadn't done this sooner because I still had to work out some issues with my brazilian passport, but we had to get it done ASAP because this shit was getting pricey). kinda out of nowhere, we decided to extend my stay. I'm going to visit my family as planned, meet up with ben in Rio. then my plans end after he leaves, up until my return flight december fourth.
Summary
I intended to buy a ticket to visit brazil for 4 weeks, and ended up commiting myself to live there for four months. beyond the first few weeks, i have not established places to stay or jobs while i'm down there. I might not even be staying in rio de janeiro; for all I know I might end up living in a different city every week. That's the beauty of Brazil: my mom has contacts all over the place! I've got family and friends I can crash with all over the country. Thing is, -I- don't really know anyone there except for some family in Sao Paulo (which is probably not going to be where I spend the bulk of my stay), and I certainly don't know anyone my age.
I've never lived anywhere except home and college. I've traveled outside the country alot, but this is different. This trip is unstructured like one of my drives, but I won't have a car. I'll have some money, but I still don't have a place to stay. I have family, but I still feel like I'm moving to an area where I don't know anyone.
I'm not going to lie, I'm intimidated as hell. Mostly, I think it's just how suddenly this all happened. I'm not concerned, sure Brazil is not the safest place in the world; most of my family has been held up at gun point at least once, and my cousin was even abducted from his car at a red light and held as a security hostage by bank robbers. I really think that this is going to be an incredible experience for me, and that i'm going to have an amazing time. Mainly, I just feel really wierd about committing such a huge block of my life without any real thought.
guess I'll just roll with it
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