Ole Ole Ole!

If there's one sin that I need to exercise control over it's gluttony. I put this particular case down to a couple of factors. Firstly, living in the big brother house (aka Baron Garden House) has forced me to start doing some cooking of my own. Given the limited duration of my stay, I've skipped out on a couple of essential items that should be staples in most kitchens. Salt, sugar and pepper are some that come to mind. Best way to describe my cooking would be ad-hoc, temperamental, experimental cooking. Most of the staple food groups are there and with only soy and honey to flavour my meals it does start to get repetitive. I think the other reason for my constant hunger could be the weather, it warrants a lazy lifestyle of waking up, doing a couple of activities, eating, sleeping and repeat until the day is over. Finally being in a new country opens up the new variety of different foods and dishes. Those are the excuses that I put down to the over-indulgence.

Tonight was no different, we somehow ended up at an all you can eat Pizza and Crepe place. Those words "all you can eat" and "pizza" should at the best of times never be used in the same sentence. Consequently here I am nursing a sore belly as I ready myself for bed, what better way to digest food than to type up my Sunday exploits.

Woke up rather late this morning, which my only excuse was "because I wanted to sleep in". Nothing terribly exciting to report which kind of explains my lack of blog posts. Headed down to the local shops to grab my weekly groceries. A couple of items that are missing from the shelves of Brazilian supermarkets that I have been craving are: Mushrooms, non-UHT milk, peanut butter and Mee Goreng. Still I managed to grab a couple of fruits, vegetables, meat and cereal for the week before heading back to Baron Gardens for a leisurely swim.

Now here comes the exciting part. Today was the first leg of the Rio De Janeiro Football Final. Two Brazilian heavyweights were set to do battle at the legendary Maracanã Football Stadium. The finalist Botafogo FC and Flamingo are two arch rivals in the city of Rio. We managed to score tickets to the final for 30 Reals (Approximately $20AUD) and headed in with the Volunteer coordinator and the other volunteers who are mostly all Botafogo fans (Black and white Jersey). We were stationed with the rest of the black and white army who abused Flamengo fans whenever they passed, throwing verbal insult and hurled objects to anybody wearing the Flamengo colours (Red and black).

Brazilian fans are by far the most vocal I have ever seen bear in mind this was my first football/soccer match ever. At one stage the Botafogo army fell into possession of a Flamengo jersey. What proceeded was an attempt to show true team colours that ended up in comedy. First they tried to burn it, 5 minutes later they were still trying. Since this ultimately failed, the next best thing was to try to shred it to pieces, again this failed. So they resorted to blowing their noses on it. After countless more attempts to burn, attach fireworks and deface this jersey it finally began to singe. The crowd erupted in jubilation!


The amount of paraphernalia at these games is ridiculous, flags, banners, streams, coloured flares. Botafogo fans were indeed outnumbered today, but the noise that was generated from singing, cheering and the constant beating of drums was extraordinary. The actual quality of football has to be said wasn't outstanding but was played at an entertaining level. Each time the other team failed to score the fans would give the opposing fans the finger. The final score was Flamengo 1 - Botafogo 0. The red and black army at triumphed for today.

Leaving the stadium was no easy task, the place was swarming with fans, both sides still extremely vocal, shuffling through the many team songs. Even the losers were still belting their lungs out in anticipation of the second final the following weekend. To avoid confrontation fans were split up among the trains. Botafogo supporters to the front, Flamingo to the rear. Unfortunately one unsuspecting Flamingo fan rushed onto our carriage only to find it full of black and white. What eventuated was a mild scuffle resulting in the flamingo fan being punched in the face. Despite not understanding Portuguese I can only imagine it to be over something trivial. Here's my take on the situation:

"Your team is dumb"
"Oh yea?"
"Yea!"

He got punched in the head and immediately fell to the ground in self-preservation. So I took a photo (See above). The train was stopped and the persecutor was removed from the train. What an exciting way to be introduced to Brazilian football! I can't wait for the second final next week

Brazilian Life 101

I won't lie, the language barrier is causing me grief of astronomical proportions. The amount of English speakers that I've encountered is far and few but they know some of 'our' basics and I know some of 'their' basics. The pocket phrase book is one thing I do not leave the house without. It is as essential as the local currency and without it I feel totally naked. My main form of communication is my terribly pronounced Portuguese (which I just read straight from the book) as well as the supplementary series of animate and superfluous hand gestures. My body-language vocabulary consists of thumbs up, handshakes, pointing and a wide selection of quizzical facial expressions. That being said, it is actually getting me by.

The streets of Brazil aren't exactly your Sunday morning walk in the park. Precautions aren't strict but are definitely advised. The main advice given to me by locals and previous travellers was "don't act as if you have money". Which is fine by me, it just means no public display of what would be deemed as luxury items. Jewellery, electronics, brand name clothing, etc. I have only recently mustered up the courage to take my camera out with me in public. I try not to bring my backpack out if only not to attract too much attention. Majority of the time I stash my valuables (cash, camera and keys) in a plastic shopping bag which is supposed to negate the attention and allow me to hopefully blend more into the crowd; I'm not entirely convinced that it's foolproof.

Walking down to the local shops around my area the pavements are littered with homeless people and the constant smell of urine. There are many street vendors selling items ranging from clothes, food to even junk found from bins. There isn't a day that goes by when you aren't stopped by a street kid begging for money. Only today I was approached by what appeared to be a half-naked, hysterical man who tried to grab my arm suffocating me with Portuguese. I smiled, avoided him and walked away only to hear "Sayo-nara" after I left his grasps.

One thing I am getting used to is the quality of the food. It could be the weather but I'm finding my food consumption has increased over the last week in Brazil. I'm constantly hungry and always trying to find excuses to walk down to the local food vendors. The deserts and sweets alone are worth the visit to Brazil. Funnily enough one area of my Portuguese which is slowly getting better is the ordering of food. I'll probably put up a separate post documenting all the different types of foods that I've sampled.

Baron Garden House

As previously mentioned my Brazilian sojourn is no fruitless holiday. Well at least not advertised as one. Towards the end of February this year I decided to enroll myself in a volunteer project in Brazil. The project aptly titled Work Experience at a Surf School in Rio is one of many volunteer project offered by the organisation i-to-i. For a somewhat debatable sum of $1800 AUD I have been given the opportunity to work in Brazil with the locals and been given temporary accommodation. The place where all Rio De Janeiro based volunteers are setup is in the small local suburb of Glória. Due to sheer laziness this post will again be predominantly photos.

The place is called Baron Garden House where guests stay in a hostel-esque arrangement. The place itself is locate on top of a hill with the local shops below. Walk up from the Glória shops to the Gardens takes about 5 minutes, the climb is quite steep and most people are left short of breath by the time they reach the house:

The house:

Baron Gardens offers different living arrangements, rooms are not strictly reserved for volunteers and there are always travelers showing up. There are also long term residents who look after the estate. Currently I'm sharing a 3 person room with another volunteer. The male volunteers stay downstairs with majority of the female tenants upstairs. Our room:

My mattress, actually mattress is an overstatement, I would rather considerate a large foam sponge which I suspect is home to many fleas and pests:

The main bathroom:

The kitchen/eating area:

Each house member is given a small tray and allocated a fridge to store groceries and cupboard space to store condiments and food:

Filtered water:

Entertainment Quarters:

Upstairs:


The courageous protectors of the house who by day sleep and laze around the house but are at their noisiest during the early evenings and even earlier mornings.

The Local:

So far my time here has been enjoyable and definitely a new experience. Most of the other volunteers are easily approachable and some of the most entertaining people I've met. That is the insurance of living with people who have put aside their own time and money to give a little back. Majority of the volunteers are English with a handful from America and another from Australia. My latest dilemma is deciding if I should extend my trip...

Road Trip

What better way to get to know the other volunteers than to be invited on a weekend road trip out to the Brazilian resort town of Búzios? The locals of the volunteer house, Baron Gardens rounded up a 13 man group and caught a 2 and a half bus ride out of Rio. Of the 13 people, all 9 Baron Garden residents attended with the rest making up friends from previous volunteer programs and workers from the Fevelas.


In my honest opinion the actual trip wasn't all that, to drive out for close to 3 hours to be put in a beach city in overcast weather isn't ideal. The beaches surrounding the area weren't that spectacular either. The main town of Buzios reminded me a lot of Thailand, plenty of people had made their way out of Rio for the long weekend and in the evenings the streets were crowded with families and party goers. The upside for me was that it gave me a chance to get to know the other people who I will be staying with in Rio. Nothing like a road trip to forge new friendships over a nice quiet beer.

One interesting incident involved the words "Hey, you might want to watch out for this toilet, I think it's clogged". Now, given the topic sentence of this paragraph you would expect something to happen. So if you're not a fan of toilet humour (excuse the pun) then you may want to skip the next few paragraphs. For those sickly people intrigued by all things disgusting continue.

Me one not to subscribe to the warning went a head and used it and of course it did everything I expected it to do, that is, it wouldn't flush. Not only did it refuse to flush the toilet decided to fill up half way.Now being an IT person when something goes wrong with a computer the first thing that comes to mind is to restart the machine. Aka. Re-flush. This proved to be NOT the right solution, what I had expected to happen did not, it overflowed. The toilet was now a cauldron of all things putrid.

This probably wouldn't be so much of a problem if Brazilians had some form of plunger market. Unfortunately this WHOLE beach house had no plunger. Improvisation were required. I managed to unclog the toilet with a variety of objects from the kitchen, the bush and particular limbs of my body. I warned everybody in the house not to use the toilet and put a bath matt over it to deter people. At 3 am in the middle of the night one of the room members was sick and proceeded to vomit into the cursed toilet. He flushed. It overflowed. The toilet was now a quarantine zone. The toilet had won.

The start of the trip was slightly awkward, I felt a little out of my comfort zone. One reason was because being in a new country, another would be trying to break into an already formed group of people desperately feeling like the odd one out. Towards the end of the trip this subsided as I got to know a couple of the people slightly better. I think the main reason why I felt so out of place was because I didn't have any of my own clothing. Part of me was sitting in a red suitcase in Rio De Janeiro. Having to wear the same pair of shorts throughout the whole day with a 3 t-shirt rotation scheme is definitely an experience for anybody. I yearned for my luggage and despite staying only one night in Barron Gardens I wanted to go back.


The variety of different insects that have bitten me this weekends range from mosquitoes, fleas and ants. I've lost count of the many times I've whacked myself in the head at night at the suspicion of critter on my face. They're relentless, I've bitten on areas I did not think could be bitten, elbows, knuckles, heels, toes and earlobes. I feel like an itchier version of the Michelin Man. First thing I invest in after buying my groceries this week is some industrial strength insect repellent.


What a terribly, non-sequitur blog post. Since then I have arrived home to find my luggage in one piece, it's one thing that has made me feel more at ease. Going to finish up this post and get to bed early for my first day on the "job" tomorrow. The volunteer coordinator is scheduled to pick up me up at 7:30 tomorrow for my first day at the Surf School in Ipanema, cannot wait!

So it finally happened...

Ever stood at the bagage claim section of the airport and wondered "What if my luggage doesn't arrive?". The doubt initially sets in when a similiar looking peice of luggage remains on the conveyor belt, each time passing you, fooling you for that brief moment. Slowly but surely the crowd thins out, people retrieve their items and still that cousin of a suitcase goes around. You begin to wonder "I hope nobody has taken my luggage in mistake of theirs". Then somebody claims that imposter of a suitcase. Only then you realise that your luggage in fact is not coming.

So here I am, in Rio De Janeiro luggage-less and sitting in an empty dorm room. My suitcase is currently stuck in Miami and won't be arriving until tomorrow afternoon, which wouldn't be so bad except that the other volunteer workers have arranged a road trip away for the Brazilian long weekend. I managed to duck down to the local markets and purchase some essentials, jocks, tshirts, and shorts and of course necessary toilettries.

Arrived at Baron Garden House in Rio De Janeiro and despite the hold up inside the airport I was greeted by the Brazilian Representative for i-to-i. He took me on a short drive in his 25 year old VW Beatle and within 40 minutes I was at the volunteer lodging a loft a mountain in the suburb of Glória.

Food of New York

New York food, let alone American food does leave a lot to be desired. I think it may have been our own fault. So with that being said I've dedicated a separate post for the food and its consumption.

I had come over with the expectation to be leaving America a heavier being. What I did not realise was that American Commercial food should in fact come with a complementary defibrillator. Check list of foods I wanted to share and experience.

Sights of New York

As with most holidays (or vacations as the Americans like to call it) time is never consistent. One day you could be cruising along wondering why time is passing so slowly, next thing you know you’ve been living out of a suitcase for 2 weeks. I think that’s where I am now, 2 weeks on the road and it feels so negligible. With that being said my time in New York has flown by. I suspect that’s also because there were at times I no longer felt like I was on holiday but in fact living as a temporary resident in the Big Apple. Getting familiar with the proxemics and the geographical makeup of New York, where the districts link up. Where each subway connection exists and how to deal with social ettiquette. So this post is a lazy recount of what has happened over the last few days.

Little Italy:



Truman Capote's House in Brooklyn:Wall Street Bull:


Erh: Queens Boulvegard:
Times Square:

Central Park Bicycle Rental:
Cenral Park:

View from Empire State Building:
Chrsler Building:
Central Station:
Blue Note Jazz Bar:

Random Surburban Street:

Brooklyn Bridge: