Madness (and Serenity)

So we arrived yesterday morning and finally got to our hostel at noon.   I ´ve never really experienced jet lag before, but holy crap was it bad.   We set the alarm for 1:30 and didn ´t wake up until 6.   **oops!**   We thought after that, we ´d only need five or six hours that night.   Wrong again.   We meant to get up at 6:30 (yes, a.m.), but somehow managed to sleep until 10.

And this not-knowing-Portuguese stuff is just not going to fly.   We ´re limping by on those who speak English and my Spanish, but both Pat and I are desperate to get some language under our belts.   And yet, instead of finding a language school, we ´ve spent most the day touring the city and seeing the sights.   I ´m having a great time, and it ´s really fun watching Pat ´s reactions to the city.   I ´ve been in several big cities and  am finally comfortable with the hustle/bustle/smells/lights/honking/subways/jumble of foreign language, but watching Pat reminds me of my first time in a huge foreign city.   It really makes your head spin, and it ´s really stressful because you ´re always on high alert and kind of scared.   It ´s hard to slow down and be excited when you ´re trying desperately not to get lost.

Last night was *really* funny – perfect reason we need to learn Portuguese.  We went out for dinner with no real direction.   We were just going to find the metro for the next day and stop at an eatery.   Well, the food place we picked wasn ´t a restaurant.   After observing the crowd and getting stared at for five minutes, we finally figured out that you pay at one counter and then take your ticket to the other.   The hitch is that no one waits their turn – at the second counter you just thrust your ticket at one of the workers, say something in Portuguese, and they take it and get your food.   Well, of course we didn ´t figure this out for awhile, and we were incapable of asking anyone what was going on, so we just kind of stood there while 10-15 changing faces milled around us.   Finally we got up the nerve to get one of the workers to take our ticket, not really sure what was going to happen next.   The end result was two delicious sandwhiches, but getting them was hilarious.

Today, like I said, we slept in four hours past the alarm, so there went the game plan of checking out cheaper hostels and moving to the centro before our noon check-out time.   Instead we just checked out cheaper hostels – we found a way nicer hotel for $5 less (which is a lot on our budget) in the centro, so we ´re moving tomorrow morning.

Next we battled the language barrier to get lunch and try to find our way up to the Banespa Tower to overlook the town.   The elevators were broken (or at least that was my estimation of the translation to Spanish and then English), so we ended up just going to the two beautiful churches.   São Bento Church was the prettiest (I thought) – with an organ containing 6,000 pipes!   The Metropolitan Cathedral was incredibly majestic   – but I didn ´t think the interior was as beautiful or as ornate.

We have talked about moving on to a smaller city to take Portuguese lessons to save money (everything is more expensive in cities), but it might be easier just to stay here and ride the subway everywhere.   Also – I hope we don ´t have to wait the whole weekend to arrange lessons.

Tomorrow… who knows?   Maybe we will rent bikes and go ride around their version of Central Park?   Or maybe we ´ll get on a bus?   Or maybe we ´ll spend five hours in an intensive Portuguese class?   Can ´t wait!