Monday, July 14
Location: Porto Alegre, Rio
Grande do Sul, Brazil
Today's weather: 18░C, Sunny
This morning we got up at 5.30am, had a big breakfast,
then set out on the drive back from Nova Brescia. We
stopped off to visit other members of Susi's family along
the way. They all live close to Nova Brescia, but in
bigger and more developed towns. Most of the houses were
a little more basic than New Zealand houses – but
they were neat and tidy, showing that people obviously
took pride in them.
Susi's driving still took some getting used to. She
almost rammed us into the back of a truck at one point,
but it didn't seem to worry her. I think that next time I
will sit in the back seat and keep myself happy by
reading a book so that I don't have to think about the
dangers of Susi's driving.
We arrived back in Porto Alegre at 10am. Susi went
straight to her work because she was late. She works as a
computer programmer at Banco do Rio Grande do Sul (Banrisul). In the
meantime, I searched town looking for a power adapter so
that I could plug my computer into a Brazilian power
supply. Adapters are necessary because the power sockets
in different countries have different plugs. Hence,
equipment designed with New Zealand plugs will not plug
into a Brazilian socket. It would be almost impossible to
find a converter between NZ and Brazilian power plugs
– so I cheated. I brought a converter with me to
convert NZ plugs to an American standard. I was then able
to easily find a converter from American to Brazilian
plugs in the local shops. This means that I need to use
two adapters – but it seems to work. In the
meantime, it was a good excuse to look around the local
shops.
Shopping in Porto Alegre is very lively and
interesting. Many of the streets are closed off to
traffic, so and there are hundreds of people walking
through the shopping district. In addition to the many
shops, there are many stalls in the middle of the street
where people sell locally produced goods, plus walkmans,
batteries, and toys. A new shipment of alarm clocks and
electric razors much recently have arrived in Porto
Alegre because there were street vendors every 100 metres
displaying the same beeping alarm clocks and electric
razors, trying very hard to explain why their products
were better than the previous vendors' ones. Next week
the vendors will probably all be trying to sell a
different set of identical products.
In one street, next to a park where office workers
were having lunch, musicians from Bolivia were
entertaining people by playing the pan-flute and
traditional Andean folk music.
At midday I met Susi and some of her friends for
lunch. Afterwards I caught a local bus back to Susi's
apartment. Brazilian buses are a little different from
New Zealand ones. Instead of getting on through the front
door, you need to enter the back of the bus. Here, you
pay the conductor your fare (60 centavos to travel
anywhere along the bus route), pass through a turnstile
and find your seat. Senior citizens and the disabled get
on at the front of the bus and show the driver a special
pass which enables them to ride free. The seats at the
front of the bus are usually reserved for these people.
The buses are all quite new and are reasonably
comfortable. The ride back to the bus stop near Susi's
apartment took about a half hour.
I worked a little at Susi's apartment, then went
shopping at the supermarket around the corner. Although
most supermarkets around the world are generally the
same, visiting a supermarket in foreign countries is an
interesting way to see what local people buy. I soon came
back with a small shopping bag of exotic fruits, ice
cream, and drinking yoghurt.
   
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