-Last night on Rua Augusta, Dani and I passed a naked woman on the sidewalk. She walked in the opposite direction alone. Naked. And I mean completely naked. Heads turned, looked, giggled or frowned and then kept walking in a way that only a city of 20 million can do.
-Headed home to the US again soon. Before I went home for the first time in August, I thought about it every five minutes. It's more relaxed this time. Not everything has to be perfect. I just want a Five Guys burger every 2.5 days and a lot of friends around me.
-The latest food trend here is Mexican popsicles. They sell them in the mall and the line is always like 50 people long. I don't know what makes them Mexican other than the cacti and sombrero decorations around the register.
As an American, I find this successful marketing campaign greatly amusing because it would clearly never work in the US. Of all the great Mexican cuisine out there, popsicles aren't the first thing that come to most people's minds. Or the hundredth. If you offered a group of American children some "Mexican popsicles" they would probably just stare at you blankly.
-Since the wedding, I've been in the gym more than any time since probably 2005. It feels fantastic. I'm up to about an hour a day, six days a week now.
-In the coming months, I'm back in the US about every two months. I think it's a good schedule for me. When I think about being in the US every day, it feels overwhelming. How does anyone get anything done? How did I ever do it? There's just so much to do and so many people to talk to all the time. My life here is the square root of my life in the US.
It's like living on a private island. Even though I'm surrounded by millions of people, I can only communicate with like 3% of them. It's really very nice. The amount of time I have to focus on whatever I'm doing, it's a luxury I don't know if I'll ever have again. It makes me want to move to Japan. Or Sweden. Or Mexico City. Or the Moon.
-Still don't miss having television at all. Last time I was home, I would return from work, have a seat, find Seinfeld reruns and slip deep into the couch.
-I've formed a regular group of friends that I hang out with on Sundays. We all go to the local gringo bar and watch football. Sorry, I meant to say real football. It feels good. Strangers walk around in their Eli Manning, Colin Kaepernick and LeSean McCoy jerseys. My friend John is amazing at bringing people together. There's a strong sense of community among everyone. Except for the Brazilian soccer fans. Come on. You're in a gringo bar.
John-Mark and John.
-Ben and Jerry's. As soon as I land.
-Elections are on Sunday. It's a law here that every citizen has to vote. I haven't followed the race very much. Just as long as the incumbent doesn't win. I don't think the odds are in my favor.
I want whoever is the furthest right candidate to win. Here, the furthest right candidate would probably rank just left of a typical American Democratic candidate. A moderate here would fall in the deep liberal base back home. A liberal candidate here ranks just left of an state-purchased Marx statue.
-I'm beginning to feel 30 all over me. I googled "kale smoothie recipe" yesterday. That's not a 20s move. Then I had microwave popcorn for breakfast. That is a 20s move. But I also intentionally took it out before it finished popping so that I could technically say I didn't eat the entire thing alone. Back to 30.
-I got a text from Daniela today saying that as she was walking to work, she glanced at a man on the sidewalk standing nearby. He growled at her, "If you keep looking at me, I'm going to hit you in the face." He then proceeded to take a swing at the air right beside her face.
It made me furious. I offered to run over to her work to walk her home. She said she was fine. That the guy looked like he had some mental issues.
After calming down, I began to feel a range of things. Even though my anger persists for this man, I feel bad for him at the same time. Clearly, he's mentally unstable and he's living in a city that can do little to help with the problem. Unchecked mental illness is all around us every day in Sampa. Whether it's a man threatening a young woman or a young woman tearing off all her clothes and taking to the street, it has to be one of the city's biggest issues.
Without help, this man is definitely going to cross paths with the wrong person soon. That's a situation that's bad for everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment