With 2011 behind us, as I recover from a week of jet lag and NyQuil-induced haze, I begin to write about my next big adventure...my upcoming return to Rio de Janeiro in February. After almost two years of longing for the Marvelous City, of boring all my friends to tears by rambling without end about how wonderful those eight days were, of making crazy plans and then realizing exactly how crazy they were, the ticket is booked, and I'm going back.
Once I had clicked "purchase", and let out the breath I'd been holding, I began thinking about starting a blog about this next, longer trip---partly due to the seeming lack of blogs written by Americanas who either desire to live in Brazil or are already living there for any reason other than a boyfriend or husband (if the blogosphere is to be believed, I am the only gringa who ever traveled to Brazil and came back unattached). Partly also, to better record the experience this time around. Rather than an eight-day-long vacation spent in a hotel a few blocks from the beach, with security guards and English-speaking concierges, this upcoming visit will be more an attempt to immerse myself in the day-to-day life in Rio de Janeiro (as well as São Paulo and Florianópolis). While I wouldn't say I was necessarily shielded from the "real" Rio during my first visit, there were a lot of things I never saw or had to deal with. I was indeed a tourist, an outsider, albeit a welcome one, and I had my guide with me nearly at all times, translating and helping me cross streets and (despite my protests that I at least knew how to read a menu) ordering all my food for me.
(OK. So maybe there WAS a guy. Moving on!)
When I returned to LA, I had fallen so in love with Rio that all I could think about was going back. I immediately resumed my Portuguese lessons and threw myself into the language. I dragged my poor friends with me to screenings of Brazilian movies, to Brazilian restaurants, to Brazilian festivals, trying to "matar a saudade". It didn't work. Finally, inspired by a friend who had quit her job to get her ESL/TESOL certification and moved to Seoul to teach English, I decided that I was going to save every penny and get my own certificate and move to Brazil, cat in tow, and live there for at least a year. It seemed to make more sense than spending all my vacation days and nearly all my money going back over and over, just to come back to a life and a job in LA I didn't feel completely happy with.
It took long enough but eventually I took a step back from that plan and thought, "Wow, that's crazy. I was there for eight days. What was I thinking?" As I slowly began backing away from the ledge, I realized that the two years I'd spent saving to move abroad had left me with what would probably be enough money to go for a longer trip, and then to either come back to LA to actually change my life here, instead of running away from it altogether, or to really make the move to Brazil after all, if I still could not stand to be away.
Say I got cold feet, or whatever you like. I delayed signing up for the Oxford English Seminar ESL course three times and made up a new reason every time. But in less than thirty minutes I searched for and booked my flight to Rio de Janeiro for a month, hesitating only to walk to the other room to double-check with my roommate that the dates I'd chosen would work for her. It felt scary, but right.
So, a little more than a month out, here I am. I have a few intense weeks of doubled-up Portuguese lessons between now and then. I have to call my bank, and see about changing my cell phone plan for a month. I've joined the ranks of all the resolution-makers at the gym, trying to get my chubby gringa butt back into that quarter-yard of brightly colored fabric that makes up my Brazilian biquini. I have to stock up on sunscreen at some point. Suitcases sit in the hallway, empty but waiting to be packed. Emails are being written back and forth, making housing arrangements entirely in my second language (go me!). It's happening, and fast, and before I know it I will be back in Rio, and I will have no idea what I've gotten myself into.
But it will all be worth it.
I'll post a bit in the weeks leading up...a few photos from the first trip, and interesting things along my way to preparing to leave my real life behind for a month, in a state that I can return to. And then once I get there...this will be the place for all my new pictures, stories, experiences, and sketches. Stay tuned. Vai ser interessante!
