They nagged me into upgrading and now nothing is showing on the front page. Oh God, why did I do that? It was not necessary.

Update:
Master Blaster rules Bartertown.

I left my homestay yesterday.  The 2 weeks turned into 3 weeks of language school are over.  My host, Anna, was a major reason for my quick integration into Rio. She was always friendly and always willing to talk. She walked me to class on the first day and made sure I got on the right bus for my first trip to Ipanema.  I felt at home in her apartment. Maybe someday I can go back and have a real conversation in with her in Portuguese instead of this mash of English and toddler-level Portuguese. Right now, it doesn’t feel like I’ll ever be able to speak, but a man can dream.

The first part of my trip to the NE part of Brasil is under way. As soon as I arrived yesterday, I went for a very long walk down the beach. The pace of life here is quite a bit different than that of Rio. You can walk down a portion of the beach and see people fixing their rickety fishing boats while gruff, old men play cards and laugh over beer. I watched one man create a fishing net on the sidewalk. He had two lengths of thick fishing lined tied to two trees. One was above the other by about 4 or 5 feet. He then set to work weaving thinner fishing line between them. His work took his entire focus. I don’t think he even knew I was there.

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