Monday, February 16, 2009

There are lots of middle-aged men with beer bellies wearing bikini bottoms

Well I arrived this morning around 830 after 18 hours in the air, so I was a little beat but I´ve managed not to crash just yet. The taxi driver from the airport to my hostel was pretty cool, and even though he did change his shirt while he was driving, he was very nice and patient as we tried to speak broken Spanish to each other. I asked him about soccer and he told me what teams he liked, and I tried to tell him I played in the US but I don´t think it made quite an impact on him...we then discussed the weather and the traffic while listening to Marvin Gaye, so really it wasn´t too big of a stretch from being out of LA.
These first couple of nights I´m staying in a hostel called the Mellow Yellow Hostel and it´s pretty foreign to me considering I´ve never stayed in one. I´m in a 10 bed mixed dorm with a couple guys from New Zealand, one other girl and some other guys I have yet to meet, and with the exception of exchanging idle ´´hellos´´ we haven´t interacted much. I´ll have to come out of my shell a bit I think...
I took a walk down to the famous Copacabana Beach and strolled along the strip until I stumbled upon a boys´soccer team practicing in the sand. They were doing speed and agility and skill work in this 85 degree weather, so naturally I sat down to watch them while having my first Caipirhina (similar to a mojito but without mint and made from sugarcane rum). I marveled at their level of skill since a lot of what they were doing was stuff I didn´t learn til my last year in high school and even in college. Soccer is different down here.
I´m possibly meeting up with a man who owns his own production company down here to pick his brain about the business. He produces mainly documentary films, which is something I´m very interested in, so I hope he can spark some ideas and maybe even help me get my foot in the door. If nothing else he´s a good contact to have and will be a friend to me if I need anything.
Anyway, I´ll do my best to update this frequently and thanks to all who helped me get here. Now we´ll just have to wait and see what happens...

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