I arrived in Rio on June 17. I spent two weeks in Rio and then went to Salvador, where I went through a very intensive 6 weeks of Portuguese coursework. After that, I went to other places in Bahia, and, finally, spent a little over a week in Rio again before heading back to Ohio.
I’ve now been here in the US for about 3 weeks.
So ask away.
What did you miss that you didn’t think you would?
Do you mean, “What did you miss from the US while you were in Brazil?” or “What did you miss from Brazil once you were in the US again?”
Go with both.
How “in your face” was poverty?
How would you contrast your experience with social distinctions (e.g., due to economic class, skin color, etc.) in Brazil vs. the U.S.?
There are so many Brazilian models that are hot right - Giselle, Adriana Lima, the one that looks like a cat, etc…how did you find the Brazilian population in general attractiveness-wise? Any other thoughts or stories related to this topic?
I am married to a brazilian, so i have a few for you:
(1) are things getting better for the poor people? President “Lula” made a lot of promises…can he keep them?
(2) why are Brazilian cities so run-down? You would think that the govt. would put all of thos unemployed to work pushing a broom!
(3) is Brazil planning to develop nuclear weapons?
(4) Do you like feijoada?
To ralph124c:
As a brazilian I think I can answer your first three questions.
1 - Just to make things clear: I don’t particularly like PT and I voted for the other guy ( Serra ).
No. There’s been lots of excuses but no real improvement. This is unarguable. All the discussion is on whether(sp?) they could have acted differently or whether or not their decisions were the right ones.
Personally I don’t think they are doing all that well but Lula’s actions have been more responsible than I would have dared to hope for.
2 - A number of reasons. First one is that we don’t have enough money. The owners don’t have enough money to keep their property properly conserved and the cities haven’t enough money to keep the streets or to pay people to go around cleaning.
Also, there’s no “no-trash” culture. The average person simply doesn’t care and will throw trash on the streets and won’t feel guilty. Other people won’t think what he did is wrong. Its very hard to change this mentality and isn’t really a priority to anybody.
3 - Absolutely not. We are trying to develop a nuclear energy program ( since the seventies, actually ). If you ask me its a huge waste of money. However, I don’t understand how anyone could have interpreted the information in a manner to come to the conclusion that nuclear weapons have anything to do with this.
Did you get a Brazilian?
I heard that way down among Brazilians
Coffee beans grow by the billions
So they’ve got to find those extra cups to fill
Is there an awful lot of coffee in Brazil?
You can’t get cherry soda
'Cause they’ve got to fill that quota
And the way things are I’ll bet they never will
Is there an awful lot of coffee in Brazil?
A politician’s daughter
Was accused of drinking water
And was fined a great big fifty dollar bill
I hear there’s lots of coffee in Brazil!
Wow. I thought this thread had died.
I can’t answer anyone’s questions right this second, but I’ll respond ASAP.