Day 3

A bit more settling in. I just found out that the school we are taking the language classes has wireless internet…woohoo! This is a really good thing since I’ve been having trouble finding an internet café. Well today we finally took care of activating our cell phones. It was quite a sight about 10 foreigners invading the Tim office asking how to take advantage of a deal that gives us 500 free minutes of calling within the Tim network. That’s more than I pay for my cell plan back in the States and a lot fewer minutes. But the funny thing was that I was acting as translator for two of my fellow classmates one from Bulgaria and one from Hungary. It was quite a site to see me translate in my broken Portuguese but it seemed to work out all right. And in the end I learned everything about the Tim service network and their plans, so I think I will have to just get a job with them.

The prices here are quite a bit more than I expected. The exchange rare is R$2.2 for $1. But all the prices just seem to be higher. My last few meals have cost me R$12 for a modest amount of food (I miss those Bolivian prices). I will have to do some more exploring because I know there are cheaper food options around, just not in my area.

Well I did find a deal this evening which was a bowl of Yakisoba for only R$2.50. And it was quite good. Or course there was a heaping dose of MSG, but hey, that just makes it better.