TimsBlog

Let me start off saying I’m suffering from the same thing I did in Bangkok. I am one week into my stay and speaking in broken English. Making this hard to write and a little odd when talking to Andrew since we both find ourselves talking to each other from time to time in broken English.

Saturday after our first shoot we were asked to a BBQ at this studio a few blocks away. The studio is a huge warehouse space for photo shoots below an apartment building. This studio was really big. They have 7 areas for shooting in various settings. The owners Marcus and Pauline are in the process of buying a farm house next to a river in the country for shooting as well. Prices are rather cheap at $150 a day. Both of them were incredibly nice and warm people.

Took me an hour or so to understand the dynamics of this group. I mean for one when we first got there they was a guy giving out hair cuts. Marcus and Pauline are the mother and father figures to this rag tag group of kids. Well not really kids, they are in there early twenties. They were all actors. I think Andrew and me were the only photographers. Well Allen is a photographer as well but acts 95% of the time. I don’t know how old marcus is but Pauline told me she was my age or 6 months older than me.

The food was slow cooked and went on till dawn. The sausage was some of the best I have ever had and the beef here is just top notch. The beef was covered in rock salt to retain heat. Man Brazilians can drink. We filled a big industrial sized trash can with beer and ice three times. There was only about a dozen of us there.

When marcus noticed I was making over his cat he proceeded to tell me in broken English how he rescued it of the street and was being lazy in getting her “fixed” and how that worried him. I talked to Marcus and Pauline most of the night since the others were all busy hanging on there partners. Heres a side-note. Brazilians are very passionate people. I had to witness a couple damn near fucking in our elevator on the 18 floor ride. anyways when I was talking to Pauline she told me her story. I was sort of surprised since we just meet. She told me she was half Italian and her family was very wealthy. This explains the building and how they acquired such a huge place along with the farm they are buying. She said her parents don’t like Marcus since he is poor. Maybe I should also explain that Marcus is a very common looking portly man were Pauline is drop dead gorgeous. Pauline told me that she is in university to be a vet. Marcus and her share a love for animals. Horses in particular. Which explains the farm. I should also explain that she speaks English very well. English speaking people are very rare here. So after more personal conversation about their life she goes on to explain that Marcus has no friends outside of work. She is very insistent on me going to their farm to spend time and make friends with Marcus. i found this a bit odd since I am also in the business. I’m assuming she meant people that are not actors. I should also explain that Pauline is a straight shooter. She’s not afraid to speak her mind. So I took it as a complement when she took a liking to me. At first I thought she just wanted to practice her English. I soon understood that I was just a down to earth guy that didn’t need anything form them. Our social classes aside we were more like peers vs someone they needed to look after. So when I was asked to go to the country with them I asked if there would be fishing. When I asked about the fishing Marcus appeared out of nowhere grinning ear to ear. I gather that none of his friends like fishing. Being that all of them are younger and more interested in drinking and sex. Pauline was reading me like a book at this point. I mean I was having a lot of fun, but she could tell I wasn’t so interested in partying and/or had my fill at my age. She then went on to insist that she hook me up with a friend of hers from university. Explaining that she knew I wasn’t the type to be interested in actors and prostitutes. I would also like to take this moment to say that here in Brazil no one is the type to worry about their wife or girlfriend talking to another man. Its very refreshing. It also is rather sad considering how insecure it makes most americans look. I mean short of my close and old friends back home I can never talk to someone’s wife or girlfriend without some problem back home. People wonder why I stay in when i home. I just never shared the American attitude in a lot of cases.

On to other matters. Let me take the time to assure everyone that my security worries are a little more at ease. Basically if we are by ourselves (without a local) after 9 pm we are pretty much fucked. That is the only time it is not safe for a gringo. Now ATMS are still a hassle since they are so far away and only at banks.

We were eating lunch Saturday and everyone was watching a football game (soccer) the favored team scored a goal and everyone cheered. Three seconds later what sounded like a four or five bomb went off. To which I laughed because they were just loud firecrackers set off in celebration. I then became very confused when someone pointed out that there was a ton of smoke coming from a 20 story window. I mean did someone set these off in their apartment? I still have no idea what that was about.

So today (Sunday) we walked to the bank to get our weekly money. half way home we go stuck in a sudden down pour. I mean I lived in Key West where sudden and hard rain falls were a daily thing in the wet season. This one was hard and strong. the street became a river. We hailed a taxi and took the last few blocks in comfort. The taxi was plowing thru standing water like nothing. You could only see maybe 5 yards in front of you. At one low point on a side street the taxi actually floated. I’m not making this up we were started to drift. I was waiting for the car to stall but it never did. The taxi driver insisted that it was no big deal after we both sort of freaked out when he plowed into about a foot of water that was at least 20 foot across. So at some point between the lobby and the apartment I now was worried about our open windows in the apartment. The maid had closed our windows once when she was cleaning and I now understood why. When we entered the apartment there was about a half inch of water in the living room. I was spared I only had a wet side of my bed. Andrew was also spared since he had just moved his workstation away from the window the day before. A few things got wet and need to dry out good before we power them back up. If Andrew had lost all his electronic equipment we would be sort of fucked. We found out early that there is no where in Sao Paulo that sells Apple products. Well thats not totally true Pauline told us there was a place in a fancy mall that sells them, but at a high price. Thats really not good considering apple shit is expensive anyways. We had asked her where to get apple stuff right after introductions since we meat in her all apple office. Lots of things here are expensive. Like my camera is about $1000 more here.