Marcus in Brazil: Saw Ipanema, didn't find the girl

I took my first (and second) bus ride today. I'm feeling more and more comfortable here each day. Today I even managed to get around, order food, and buy a beach cloth without helplessly telling everyone I saw "eu não falo muito portuguêse." With Martina's help the beach cloth has transformed my room, which we had begun referring to as gitmo due to the loose cut wires and stark white up, down, and all around.

Anyway, while I was Ipanema, and Martina had a meeting with some video producers here for the project she's working on, I took a walk down the postcard beach. I made sure to get a tree in the picture that I took from on top of a big hill at the end, so it would be clear it wasn't a postcard. I guess the cloudy day helps too...

I drank fresh coconut water, and lay on the beach for an hour or so when the sun came out. We ate at a quilogramara, a buffet restaurant where you pay by the weight, and although the food wasn't great, it was cute little place. Martina asked me at one point if I had thought at all about staying here (for a long time), and it was sweet to realize that the main reason that I know that I don't want to because of the incredible amount of community I have in the bay area. I feel so close to so many people, and I can't imagine giving any of you up to live in another part of the world.

I also realized that I've been a bit stressed about what I'm doing here exactly, and meaning and purpose and all, especially because I don't speak portuguese and Martina and Dom are so focussed on what they're doing. I'm looking forward to making some Brazilian friends, and I'm going to call the Theater of the Oppressed center tomorrow and see if anyone speaks english. I know I will find meaningful stuff to do, so I think I just need to relax a little, mostly, while pursuing the things I want to do at the same time. As Dom wisely wrote to me, things tend to work out quite late in the day here, or not at all, it's part of the charm of the place.

We finished the day by visiting praia vermelho (the red beach), and it wasn't red at all...I guess it's a different light you need to see it by. From the beach you can see Pão de Açúcar (sugarloaf mountain) from the "other" side.