day 2: buses and bikinis

Today was my second full day in Rio. Yesterday we moved into our homestays, I'm living with a woman named Nancy who's really nice and very animated - essentially the stereotypical Brazilian. She designs jewelry and does something else which I did not even begin to understand and just nodded along and smiled when she tried to explain. We also live with her 25 year old daughter who I haven't met yet. In Brazil it's normal for children to live with their parents until they get married (which makes it a little difficult to use the "does he live with his parents" loser check for potential male suitors, but I digress). My room is decent sized, and I have a lovely view of a tunnel and the edge of a cliff. But most importantly, I have plenty of storage space and an industrial level fan to keep me from being wildly uncomfortable in this heat. Not to mention - WI FI! Probably the most important perk of all.

My day started with Nancy walking me to the bus stop and trying to explain the ins and outs of the "onibus" system. Essentially, buses drive down a few main drags and don't stop unless you hail them. They also don't announce stops, so you pretty much have to know where you're going at all times. Which is GREAT for someone with no sense of direction like me. Somehow I made it to PUC (my school) in a somewhat timely fashion without any major catastrophic incidents. After our (second) orientation today, me and a few girls from my program decided that first and foremost we needed to prioritize getting Brazilian bikinis before heading to the beach. Naturally, I found a tie-dye one at this epic ritzy mall that is right next to the beach in the neighborhood Leblon. After that we headed to the beach and all squeezed on my friend Megan's travel towel. Apparently all Brazilian women use sarongs as towels/blankets so we looked pretty ridiculous. Can I just say that Brazilian women WOULD use something sexier than a towel to lay out on?

Things don't get dark here till around 8, so me and my friend Ellie decided to head back to our neighborhood in Copacabana and get some dinner before heading home. We ended up eating at this Japanese place which actually isn't as random as it seems - Brazilians LOVE Japanese food. On campus there are about 3 restaurants, and one of them is sushi. They're also really big on buffets where you pay by the kilo, which is especially difficult because I have no sense of what a kilo of food should look like or weigh. At around 9 my host mom got all nervous that I'd gotten lost so she called to check up on me, which I thought was pretty sweet. Oh! And in a throwback to 8th grade me, I now have a very hilarious unmodern Nokia to my name.

More updates to come,
Tchau! (yes I'm going to become one of those pretentious people who uses foreign languages to say regular things like "hey" and "see you later")