A Little Tour of Belem

Not much going on today. Last night I decided to sleep in a hammock instead of the bed, and it worked out pretty nicely, besides the whole me waking up at 3 am thing. But it was comfy, and I look forward to doing it on the boat from Manaus to Belem for 4 days. I couldn't figure out how to open the milk carton at breakfast today and was too embarrassed to ask for help, so I just quietly put it back in the fridge and drank some of the avocado smoothie Lea made the other day (abacate, but in Brazil, at least in the North, the avocados are quite different, very sweet) and snagged an apple for the road. Got to the office early...as usual, but didn't have to wait too long before it opened up and I could escape the heat. Portuguese went well, tonight our licao da casa, homework, was to write up a schedule of what an normal day is like here so far. We also got to try and bunch of Amazonian fruits in class today, and learned the basic words for describing food. Some of the fruits were really good, others....very interesting. It'll be neat to see what we get to eat later on, especially in Manaus.

Today I went to the mall again to try and buy a prepaid cell phone with a friend who has a Brazilian passport, but turns out that you need a Brazilain ID card to buy one, so, no dice today. It turned out to be an ok experience in the end, because we decided to walk back to the SIT office, which is a 2 hour walk, a little less once you factor in the times we got a little lost. Felt good to get some exercise in, although I kind of blew that by giving in to a Guarana craving, this awesome Brazilian soda.

Right now everyone is our group is basically trying to get cell phones and figure out means of transportation so that we can go out an explore the city a little at night, which I would love. It was good walking from the mall today, because it basically gave me a little look at the main route from mall to office, which are mais ou menos the polar ends of the city. Might go to a jazz club tomorrow night, should be fun, especially figuring out the taxis here in Belem...although today in the cell phone store I had to try to convey that I needed a cheap prepaid cell phone, and I think I did fine, so, a little confidence boost in the Portuguese department:

...Eu preciso de dois telefones celulares preparados mais baratos, por favor

Yeah. Time to finish my Portuguese homework, read up on the Health and Happiness Project for ISP a little, maybe watch some more TV with the host family, and rock out in the hammock.

Boa noite