Actually, with Rio de Janeiro, it's always a charm. I love this city.
I'm a glutton for punishment: I always seem to hit Rio when it's at its busiest. I've celebrated New Years on the beach with a million of my closest friends and danced samba until dawn during Carnaval. Why not come back during the World Cup?!?
Playing tour guide a bit, we visited some of my favorite places - the Botanical Gardens, Posto 9, and Cinelândia - plus some new ones, such as the Urca neighborhood and the Selarón Steps. I now feel well-versed in navigating the subway as well and the city buses. Some day I'll return at a non-peak time and wonder where everyone is!
The Botanical Gardens are a place I doubt I will grow tired of visiting.
I came across the globe-trotting Buddy Bears on my run from Copacabana to Leme Beach one morning.
Soccer on Copacabana Beach
Pão de Açúcar under a cloud.
Watching the sun set from the Urca neighborhood.
The Escardaria Selarón (Selarón Steps) are a completely tiled pedestrian
way in the Santa Teresa neighborhood created by Chilean artist and
Rio transplant Jorge Selarón.
Since his suspicious death in January of 2013, the steps have only gained
tourist attention and have become a recognizable Rio landmark.
The first tiles Selarón scavenged in abandoned construction sites, but as the
project gained publicity, tiles were donated from around the world.
In 2003, Snoop Dogg and Pharrell used the steps as a scene in the video for their hit "Beautiful". The steps have been added to significantly since. I'm attempting the channel my inner Pharrell.
Rio Scenarium is a cool bar/restaurant in Centro with three floors and live
music nearly every night of the week.
First Botanical Graden photo taken by Alissa Monfre.
While at times I feel I am lacking in general activities of any and all type, this week was an indulgence by comparison. On Tuesday, I attended my first Brazilian futebol (soccer) match and on Thursday I visited the Sala São Paulo to hear the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (OSESP) play.
The soccer game was hosted by one of Campinas' two professional teams, Ponte Preta. Brazil has several leagues which move after each season, depending on the teams' standings. (The worst two teams go down a league and the best two move up.) While Ponte Preta holds the honor of being one of the oldest clubs in Brazil, they have never won a championship and, historically, have resided in the lowest league. Recently, however, they have had some successes and are busting out of their "loser" reputation.
"The most loved monkey in all Brazil"
Lovingly called the "macacas" (monkeys), their fans are loyal and animated. With fans dressed in the requisite black and white, the stadium was decently full for a Tuesday night game, which the home team won, 1-0.
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The Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP) plays in the beautiful Sala São Paulo, which was once a train depot. One of the world's best orchestras, we had seats in the "choir" which was a uniquely situated section directly behind the musicians, prime seating to watch the conductor.
Norwegian conductor, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, leads the ensemble.
The orchestra frequently brings in top international talent, both as conductors and musicians. This night the orchestra was conducted by Norwegian Eivind Gullberg Jensen, and performed Mozart's "The Magic Flute" (featuring Soprano, and fellow Norwegian, Mari Eriksmoen) and Sibelius' Symphony No 5 in E flat Major.
My friend and colleague, Raquel, and me took advantage of our prime seats
with a little #selfie action before the musicians take the stage.
Having played violin in orchestras for several years, I am used to seeing the conductor, albeit with a left side profile. It was interesting to be back in the POV of the musicians, but with different vantage and nothing to do other than listen and enjoy.
Inspiring or ominous?The race's starting point.
The inscription beneath the obelisk
reads: "They lived a little to die well.
They died young to live forever."
Anyone truly wishing to "get in touch with their inner self" ought to just run a marathon. At one point or another, all of your selves will make an appearance, often at the same time, though many don't have the discipline to stick around too long.
Rest assured, they're all there! The enthusiastic "this is so much fun" voice. The competitive one. The pessimistic "this sucks" side of your brain - mine has quite the potty mouth - and its good friend the self-destructive, cynical voice who tells you you're not prepared, points out every ache and its potential for fatality, but who usually peaces out after you finally break through "the wall." There's the rational one who negotiates with you when you don't want to run up that hill at kilometer 37, saying that if you make it halfway, then you can speed-walk to the crest.
And I have the reflective one who is composing this blogpost in real time, making observations along the way. Sometimes this voice in annoying - I mean, seriously, can you please focus! Other times it has a humorous side. I mean, I think it does, but then I'm often strapped for oxygen to my brain so, it's questionable.
The Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge:
An impressive piece of art and engineering.
The Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge is one of the city's iconic landmarks. The race ran underneath and then across it. Mostly because occurred a mere 10 kilometers into the race, it was spectacular. However, in mentally preparing myself for the return trip on the out and back course, I wanted nothing more than to "not see that @#%!*$ bridge again." We didn't, so I'm glad I was in better spirits when we did cross it.
Usually I spend time composing a playlist that collectively builds in tempo as the race progresses, for pacing purposes. Then there's some aggressive hip-hip, rock, or reggaeton in the middle with some inspirational wailing songs at the end. This time I simply threw a bunch of the normal fare into a playlist and hit random. They didn't always work out, but Gym Class Heroes' "The Fighter," Mase's "Breathe, Stretch, Shake" (old school, I know), Pink's "Try," and Jonny Lang's new "Blew Up the House" helped me out a lot. In addition, though it came at the beginning when I didn't need it, Christina Aguilera's new "We Remain" (from the upcoming Hunger Games sequel) is amazing.
Oh, yes! Goo! I love goo! Chocolate?!? Blech! Seriously? Not while I'm sweaty, exhausted, and parched. Never then. Ever. Why does that flavor even exist in goo?
Around kilometer 18 I remember distinctly thinking that this had to be the sunniest day to ever occur in São Paulo history. I'm reminded of this now as my face emanates heat. Isn't São Paulo grey pretty much always? Rainy or grey. I thought that was the deal. Hmm...
Runners are always anxious to see where they will hit "the wall." I thought I hit it at around kilometer 25. Wrong. That was a ledge. Kilometer 30 was the wall. Needless to say, the intervening five kilometers were a huge let-down.
Also, right around hitting "the wall," the good people handing out water and other refueling goods, were distributing baby potatoes. Is this a thing? Really? Really. I didn't eat them. I did stuff them in my back pocket to take a picture later, under less distressing circumstances.
There was the older woman handing out orange slices somewhere along kilometer 36 who awkwardly chased me down to ask where I was from. When I told her, she responded with, "Oh, foreigners are the only ones who say 'Thank you'." How nice? (And, yes, an old lady was able to keep pace with me while holding a bucket of orange slices.)
After a while you kind of keep passing and getting passed by the same dozen or so people. They become your "rabbits" and you, theirs. You exchange places based on if you physically stop at watering stations or simply because of your general fluctuating states of dying. Yellow Shirt and I were playing switcheroo for nearly all the second half, until I eventually lost sight of him after a few walking episodes. Then on the last half-kilometer, I saw him up ahead. The competitive side of me would like to be able to say I chased him down. That would be a lie. I was not capable of moving any faster than what I was already doing. Yellow Shirt, on the other hand, was toast. Dude was done. And I passed him. I didn't even need to try and I kind of felt guilty. Not guilty that I passed him, but that it took no extra effort; it was basically the marathon equivalent of a mercy kill.
Me talking to myself is no longer
the craziest part of this post.
In the end, I crossed the finish line in 3 hours 24 minutes and 41 seconds. The last full marathon I ran was Duluth, Minnesota's Grandma's Marathon in a PR time of 3:24:36 in June of 2009. I will admit to being under-trained for this one, but, four and half years later, I'm impressed and pleased with the result! Only five seconds slower; in the marathon world I think that's a tie!
It wouldn't be a real marathon without leaving
a few toenails behind, now would it?!?
Happy 2013 from Rio de Janeiro! Better yet...feliz ano novo!
To say Rio is crazy during the end the year would be the understatement of the year. Many bucket-listers put a visit to Brazil's iconic city as a must-do. In honor of the experience and to ring in the New Year, I present 13 favorites from my week here:
1 - "Take You To Rio" In full-disclosure, I admit this song is terrible. Rhyming "Rio" with both "eagle" and "gazebo" may be one of the more ludicrous moments in songwriting history, not to mention the fact that Rio is known for neither eagles or gazebos. Regardless, this song, from the animated film Rio, is catchy and we may have played it in our rental apartment at least once a day. (I put this song first so that you can play it while reading.)
2 -RéveillonFrom the French word referring to a "long dinner", in Brazil it is appropriately used to describe New Year's Eve. Imagine throwing a party for around three million people (last official count, anyway). Rio does it successfully and with seeming ease every year, and that's not counting Carnival.
Streets and Avenues several blocks from the shore are closed as dusk approaches, people begin showing up to the Copacabana expanse of beach around dusk dressed in white, and all along the sand are huge stages set up with free concerts all night long until about 3am.
At midnight the masses direct their attention toward the bay where a spectacular fireworks display rings in the first minutes of the calendar change. Shortly afterwards people make their way a few more paces to the actual surf and hop or leap over the first seven waves as they come in. Other bring flowers and toss them into the Atlantic as a symbolic offering to Iemanjá, an indigenous sea goddess.
One of the pre-fireworks shows: Baby Consuelo do Brasil
Like a Brazilian cross between Lady Gaga and Cher?
Feliz ano novo!
Jumping over the first seven waves of the new year. When in Rome Rio...
3 -Underwear Since so many revelers are heading into the sea at midnight wearing white, it has become important to consider what color underwear one is sporting underneath. For this reason, Brazilians have determined that the wearing of certain colors serves as a sort of wish or destiny for your coming year.
I wore light blue: here comes some "tranquility and health" in 2013!
The iconic wave-like mosaic pattern of Copacabana.
4 - Jogging Copacapana I did not stay out late with the rest of the crazies for Reveillon. After the fireworks, we wandered the ocean-front drive until that distinct moment of the night when girls that spent hours getting ready go from "runway" to "rundown" and a rolled ankle in the wrong direction can lead to pavement cage-match brawl between 'roided out strangers. The line between show-stopper and shit-show in paper thin and sneaky; blink and its there. That's my 31 year old cue to call it a night.
My 31 year old morning cue, however, was to go for a run down the mostly cleared out Copacabana beach front, made famous for its unique mosaic pattern, which has come to be another symbol of Rio. Dodging the myriad orange-suited sanitation workers and a handful of marathon partiers - who looked more like they had just been dropped off my aliens in a strange new land than the sentient beings they likely were twelve hours before - I had a more or less clear path to enjoy the morning sun and the expansive sidewalks, starting out the year with some calm and cardio, much like my underwear foretold.
Not to be outdone, Ipanema has its own pattern, though not as famous.
5 -Morning-after Infrastructure While running I was supremely impressed by the coordinated efficiency with which the city's trash workers and favela citizens worked to return the streets to their prior shine. Choreographed as if by habit, there seemed to be an unspoken allowance that the sanitation workers acquiesced to those from the slums to collect heaping mounds of black garbage bags filled to the seams with aluminum cans and glass beer and champagne bottles, while they snaked slowly behind, like a trail of bright orange ants following the curbs, sweeping whatever else constituted un-beach-like debris.
I was impressed. By 9am you would have been hard-pressed to find physical evidence of the spectacle that took place the night before, save for the still-standing stages in the sand.
Ipanema's Posto 9
6 -Posto 9 Our go-to location along the Ipanema Beach. This is supposedly the beach to see and be seen. It is also the beach closest to the bar where, in the 1960's, bossa nova musicians Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes penned the now world-famous "The Girl From Ipanema."
7 -Beach chairs & Umbrellas Every place around the globe known for its beaches has its own "beach culture." In Rio, aside from speedos and thongs on full display on and off the sand, it's umbrellas as far as the eye can see. During the peak of the day it appears as if you could walk from one end of the beach to the other across the tops of the thousands of multi-colored domes. All along the shore are tents renting folding beach chairs and umbrellas for as little as $5 USD a day. You may not get strange looks for having a G-string but you might if you're the one lounging flat on the sand on a beach towel!
Ipanema & Leblon Beaches in all their holiday glory.
Need a new bikini top? Vendors have you covered, literally.
WARNING: Gingers on the beach. May cause blindness.
8 - Açai à praia Açai is a delicious fruit popular in Brazil. It is made into a juice, often augmented with blended bananas or strawberries and topped with granola. It somehow becomes infinitely more tasty when consumed on the sand under the shade of an umbrella.
9 -Barraca do Uruguay SandwichesFood Network personality and chef Anthony Bourdain visited this sandwich shop smack in the middle of Ipanema Beach near Posto 9. (In the video below, skip ahead to the 5 minute mark.) Marked by the Uruguayan flag - because the stand's owner is named "Uruguay" and not because the sandwiches themselves have anything to do with the country in the least - if you are anywhere near this stand at lunch time and do not eat here, you should be deported.
What else do you need?
10 -Jardim Botânico With over 8,000 plant species, some birds and monkeys for good measure, Rio's botanical gardens have been around since 1808 in a beautiful and expansive location a short taxi ride from the beaches. A refreshing stroll beneath towering palm trees and winding paths, the gardens offer up a nice break from the heat and human density of the shore.
Clockwise top right: heron statue, red tree flowers, tiny monkey, waxy leaf
in the Japanese Garden, fountain, pitcher plants
11 -Pastels Deep-fried doughy pockets of goodness. The bakery on the corner, dangerously near our temporary abode, served up some of the best I've had since coming to Brazil.
12 -Centro walking tour Thanks to the Lonely Planet, we took a Saturday afternoon to do a self-guided walking tour of the historic Centro district of Rio. Many colonial and baroque churches and palaces dating to the 1700 and 1800's dot this neighborhood, mingling with modern buildings and skyscrapers.
Typical façades along Rua da Carioca in Centro.
One of the highlights was the very modern Catedral Metropolitana which, built in the 1970's, resembles a Mayan space ship. From the inside, however, four wide strips of stained glass line the sides at ninety degree angles beginning 60m above the circular pulpit; inside, due to this shape, the cathedral can sit about 20,000 worshippers.
Statue in silhouette at one of the cathedral doors.
Paço Imperial (Imperial Palace) built in 1743.
Looking across the Praça Floriano at the Theatro Municipal, built in 1905.
13 -Pão de AçúcarSome cities have skylines recognizable by their buildings' collective cut-out imprint on the blue/smoggy expanse above them. Rio is recognizable from a distance by its hills, specifically the Pão de Açúcar. We hit up the "Sugar Loaf," as the steeply mounded hill is known, first thing in the morning to avoid the mess of inevitable tourists we encountered at Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) earlier in the week. (Also note that the mountaintop Jesus is not on this list, partially for that reason.)
Accessed by cable-car, from atop the Pão de Açúcar a view of Rio is laid out before you like none other, even from the aforementioned Christ statue. We could see Rio's main harbor, Copacabana and Leme Beaches, the Centro district, and the rollings hills that the city seems to be nestled into.
Obrigado, Rio!
Rio treated us well for Réveillon and I expect nothing less in February when I head back for Carnival, Rio's other big party...
Teaching Middle School students has given me a newfound appreciation for what I apparently do not know. This is a semi-frequent post series high-lighting things I, according to my students, should be educated on. I share my education with you all...
This is One Direction:
They are a British boy-band from some prior season of that country's X-Factor reality show contest. Every middle school girl wants to marry them. They are the imported N*SYNC - and New Kids On The Block before that - of this generation. Except they all look twelve.
Except they're not twelve. They are [average age] nineteen.
They also apparently have names. If you don't know them you are old and lame.
Two of these 19 year-old pop tarts have tattoos. These two go by "Harry" and "Zayn" (not a misspelling, by the way). One's social standing amongst friends could potentially be ruined if you a) do not have an opinion on said tattoos and b) if your opinion is wrong.
How did I escape this loaded question unscathed and blissfully still ignorant?
Well, it turns out "Harry" has been inked only a couple times. "Zayn," however, has eight. Or maybe nine. Or eight. This was a hot-button issue and, fearing for my life, I saw my escape and side-shuffled away just in time.
Lesson Learned: "Clean-cut," parent-friendly teeny-boppers singing harmless, catchy puppy-love songs apparently rival some bikers in the tat department. What would Joey McIntyre think?!?
******EDITED TO ADD (21 - September, 2012)******
These girls aren't messing around. Today I received a quiz. One question, five points, spelling counts.
I failed.
Fortunately, the policy at my school holds that for any summative assessment where the student scores less than 70% they have the opportunity to do a "retake." As you can see, I was kindly extended this option.
