BRAZIL: salvador!

Q. What do you wear if you are a Brazilian woman?
A. High cork wedge shoes, short skirt, long, long hair

Q. What do you look like if you are a Brazilian man?
A. soccer tank top, flip flops and a chain

Q. What do you wear in Brazil if you are a German?
A. man - glasses, buzz cut, hiking boots and backpack that mathces your spouse´s perfectly (who also has a butchy haircut)

Q. What do you wear in Brazil if you are me?
A. Well, you can either wear an extremely sweaty pair of track pants and a soaked-with-sweat spots purple t-shirt or quick, you have 1/2 hour before the stores close because you finally got into town and all your luggage was lost!

So I am sporting - the soaked with sweat purple tee, new blue flip flops with the brazilian flag on them and the shortest skirt I ever thought I would wear - also featuring the brazilian flag and stripes with the flag colors. yep. I had literally 1/2 hour to buy some clothes after FINALLY finding my hostel. It is so hot here I can´t wear what I had on. I was dying! i ran down the main square and found something that fit. Well, something that fits here. that could be anything. People wear clothes of all tightnesses here and the brazilian flag combo was all I could find. I think it actually looks less dorky than it sounds. Or maybe I´m delerious with no sleep for 1.5 days. No, I haven´t showered.

I am in Salvador finally, after like 2 days of travelling. My Chicago flight was delayed 1.5 hours so i had to run, run like the wind to my miami/rio connection. The Rio flight was funny. It was one of those looooong flights where you just can´t even think about the time because it´s SO disapointing when you do. You think you have one more hour and it´s always 4 or 5. I sat directly in front of two Brazillian gentlemen who kicked and tugged on my seat every time they had to get up, and they got up a LOT. They talked constantly and they both had nasal problems. the whole flight was like this, them talking:

blah blah blah something something blah blah...pause...sssnnnoooorrrrttttt!!!!!! blah blah

then the friend would be like blah blah blah something something..hahahaa...sssnnooorrrt!!!!

the whole time. Well, they did sleep for 2 hours. But is was all kicking and snorting for the other 6. The only thing I regognized that they said was one of them said: ´´I haf to take a peees!´´ Then, after I had been awake all night, I realized that there were no stewardesses on the flight, only stewards. They all looked alike, like brothers. It was so freaky. There were 5 of them. They were all 40-ish, tan, swishy, with significant sun damage and all looked like a deranged cousin of Antonio Banderas. Same facial features. At 7AM, I thought about it and started giggling until I was shaking with laughter for 5 minutes. I sat next to a nice Brazilian girl my age who also thought it was funny. Then, when we landed they plane blared take me home, country roads, a ´REGGAE version - LOUD - for no reason at all. Just piped the music in as we were landing. Then silence. It was the strangest thing. Then we went to the luggage carosel where there was a guy playing Stan Getz Brazilian songs on his sax with a synthesizer. I thought it was a nice touch. Until an hour later, he was still playing, and 20 of us still didn´t have our bags. So I just flew to Salvador anyway after waiting several more hours. Well, I tried to. We got on the plane, then had to get off because something was wrong with the plane! After all this, it was just funny. So I got a $7 massage in the airport and waited. and waited... for the next plane. And here I am, in hoochie clothes in Salvador. Tomorrow, I think - I hope, my luggage will arrive. After all the LMDA stress at work, this is nothing. I just have to laugh. My last 5 days have been a blur of putting buys together as fast as possible, sour gummy coke bottles, swearing, chocolate on every table at work, running around in the snow, being stressed, running to the airport and now this. No wonder I just broke out in bad acne.

Right now I am in the internet cafe - pronounced the internesh cafe. There is a live band outside my room window and another one outside here. Playing live Christmas music and other Brazilian stuff I don´t know. Salvador is so shady, most of it. I took the bus from the airport (a 1.5 hour long bus ride) and rode through some harsh neighborhoods. The whole time I kept thinking - I hope my neighborhood isn´t like this, I hope the whole town isn´t like this. Just me and the German tourists and a whole bunch of brazilians on the bus. It reminded me of Lima and parts of San Jose. But I´m in the nice neighborhood after all. I flew up here so that I could meet Kathy for the cool beach towns. She comes in a few days. Then we drift south to meet Kate. Salvador isn´t bad though. I can´t wait to actually see it in the light! At least it´s lively. I wanted lively. My neighborhood has pretty cobblestone streets and old architecture. Art galleries, etc.

Well, I told you I liked to babble at the internet cafe. the rule is, you read, you have to leave at least one comment.

more later! I hope to hear from you guys in one way or another. Ate lago, schirmy