A pasty girl in the city of sin: liveblogging day 4

I feel like there is something wrong with me because I don't really have saggy pancake flaps for butt-cheeks, and all that is saggy and jiggly on me...is too white to be interesting. And I certainly don't wear the odd lycra contraptions these people call bikinis, so that my flesh oozes all around it. And everything jiggly on me (except my midriff) is covered.

For this reason, I do not get ogled. There were some 14 year old boys on the beach the first day that found me interesting. They did not ogle me. They just spoke to me with wide eyes in Portugese and taught me how to spell "beer." I wonder the same thing you're wondering right now.

Children wear speedos (boys) and thongs (girls) - except they're those slightly wider thongs.

I am the "foreign" or "exotic" looking girl here, to be sure. But they don't care. Apparently I'm vanilla, because I'm not showing my uterus. They do find Beeze and Evvie fascinating because these are the whitest kids you ever saw. The Brazilian people on the beach kept coming up to us and MAKING us put more sunscreen on them. I also had someone tell me to cover up my camera everywhere I went. I stopped bringing it places.

Rbf would roll over in his grave if he saw me not learning more Portuguese, so I have to google some phrases. Pretty sure he's watching me and laughing. Or fuming.

Men pumping iron for the ladies (and/or each other) on a platform specifically built on the sunny beach for others to look upon. Women are not the only objects in this country. And it is good.

The Christus was originally meant to be a be-robed Christ with a cross in one hand and the globe in the other...the cross obviously representing His crucifixion, and the globe representing the world. The Art Deco movement came storming in and cleaned house. The end result was Christ himself forming a cross, and the city of Rio itself representing the world. Such arrogance and bad-ass-ness mix together to make this one of the most incredible sights I've ever seen. Here, the Christus overlooks Anaga pushing Beeze on the swings.

Beeze and his superhot nanny-figure who does not nanny him at all, but rather swears accidentally in front of him and hopes his parents either don't care or don't hear.

Me, Evvie and John (to the left) showing that there was one (1) and only one (1) Caucasian family on that beach for miles. Too bad a wide angle lens wasn't available to truly demonstrate this.

The food is so-so. We haven't been chowhounds. I just keep eating bread and nutella. The Rodizio places are KILLER, I will say that much. The introductory buffet thing was as good as the best restaurants in the U.S. They put Rodizio, Tucanos, Braza and Samba to utter shame. That's not to say that those places aren't great. Gabi, Anaga and I walked around the madness last night while the guys stayed at the apartment with the kids. Some douches on the corner heard Gabi talking. "London?"

G: "No."
Douches: "You?" {looking at me}
Me: States.
Douches: "States?"
Me:  Yes. America.
Douches to Gabi: "States"
Gabi: "Australia."

I have to hand it to the douches, because they spoke enough english to know that Gabi's accent was either British or Australian. But not enough to know that I wasn't Australian. Gabi's accent is beautiful. I love the sound of her accent when she says "No." The douches kept following us around, building up this preposition slowly, about this "tradition" they need to tell us about, which is an old Rio Carnival tradition.

Anaga: "No thanks"
Me: "Bye!'
Them: "You don't even know what we're going to say yet!!!"

I love the sound of Gabi's accent when she goes "You know how you can tell what country a person is from just by looking at them? We can tell what you're about to say, that same way."

Our tickets to the Main parade event at sambodromo are tomorrow. I am STOKED. Marianne, be very jealous of the flesh-watching I will get to do while eating things.

While in Brazil, I received news that both my friend Jason and I were BOTH selected (1 in 3 chances each) as adult members of the 2010 YMAD leadership training group. (ymad.org). I was convinced I would not get picked. Meems emailed me to congratulate me, and I had not even heard yet! I need to skype into my voicemail and hear for myself. I was beyond stoked. This has been a dream for a long time, and I finally get to do it.

Please excuse me. I need to rest now while eating more nutella and bread while reading my Tucker Max book.

Beijos,

km