Nothin' to see here, folks...

I'm here. Brazil. Alive. Unharmed.... and thriving? I'm attending a conference in Curitiba next week...the International Union of Health Promotion and Education conference, to be exact ("I'm so fancy"). The conference is only a few days long so when the news came that I would be presenting at it, I thought I'd take the opportunity to turn it into a bit of holiday. This will be the first of many posts for the next few weeks as I make my way from Vancouver to Rio to Curitiba to Recife/Olinda to Praia de Carneiros to Brasilia and home. Thanks in advance for allowing this self-indulgence (loooove yoouuu). I can promise, however, there will be no selfies to exacerbate what is the already masturbatory act of blogging...travel blogging is particularly awful.

Welcome to Rio de Janeiro, home of the 2016 Olympic Summer Games!!! (a clogged toilet at the international airport upon arrival...not a promising start)

And now, here it is, for your pleasure or your lament, the non-stop chitter chattering of Adrienne (or "Adrienne-y", my Portuguese name which I'm not particularly fond of) about her anxiety-ridden, solo Brazilian adventures.... 

"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?But am I talking too much? People are always telling me I do. Would you rather I didn't talk? If you say so I'll stop. I can STOP when I make up my mind to it, although it's difficult.”--LM MOntgomery, Anne of Green Gables

This Anne-girl quote from my childhood heroine has a couple dimensions to it that reflect how I have felt about this trip and, so far, what I have experienced...much to my great surprise. I had been eagerly anticipating this solo adventure for quite some time thinking about how "splendid" and "interesting" the world is and that I'm so fortunate to have the opportunity to continue to learn more about places that, to be fair, I wouldn't usually take too much time to intentionally learn about for no good reason. Especially not with all the "splendid" and "interesting" netflix shows I have yet to find out about!

However, my excitement turned to horror last week as, prior to my departure, I accidentally stumbled upon  the Government of Canada's security advisory on the foreign affairs website. Some not very reassuring gems from the site included:

"Crime is a serious problem throughout Brazil. Rates of both petty crime and violent crime, including homicide, are highest in urban centres, including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Recife, and Salvador". [pretty much every city I'm going to]

"Foreign tourists are most commonly affected by theft but incidents of violent crime against tourists have occurred, due to the high  prevalence of guns..."

"Unaccompanied female travellers should exercise caution...avoid travelling alone at night and avoid carrying a purse..."

"Robberies occur regularly, even during the day, and are sometimes violent and at gun- or  knifepoint."

"Armed robberies at restaurants are a growing concern."

And my personal favourite because it is just about the only thing I can do to take some control back from all the gun-toting drug lords, thieves, pimps, and murderous scalliwag Cariocas :

"Tourists are more vulnerable to crime when they look and act like tourists, so try to blend in."

After reading this website, my first thought was: "what the hell am I getting myself into travelling around this nation of treacherousness and evil POOR and DESPERATE South Americans??"

Then I proceeded to think about the clothing I was bringing with me and promptly googled: "Do Brazilian women wear birkenstocks?". To which the interweb's response was a unanimous, "NO WAY! NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS WOULD A BRAZILIAN BE CAUGHT DEAD IN BIRKENSTOCKS!!!". This created even more anxiety for me as the only footwear alternative I own that can support my "strong" arches for long periods of travel pedestrian-ism are icky Asics runners which are not very stylish...and in Brazil, style is pretty important. 

I arrived in Rio and immediately purchased what are known as the ubiquitous "democratic" shoe that I hope will contribute to me "blending": Havainas!

"It is ever so much easier to be good when your clothes are fashionable." -LM Montgomery , Anne of Green Gables

Oh they're not much to look at but they are like walking on fluffy, soft rubbery/plastic clouds.

And I also was fretting about my purse being too purse-like so I purchased this nylon beauty from the ariport...

In my opinion, this colourful, formless 14.99$ sack, coupled with my new Havainas, have made me into a chameleon. I AM CARIOCA!  Nothing to see here, you Brazilian perpetrators of EVIL WHO ALL WANT TO STEAL ALL MY THINGS, EVEN MY 3.5 YEAR OLD SAMSUNG GALAXY FABLET!!!  

After all this fuss and muss about "blending", I actually felt immediately comfortable as soon as I arrived at my airbnb in the neighbourhood of Ipanema, where my airbnb host greeted me and got me settled into my tiny little apartment:

My airbnb on Rua Visconde de Piraja, Ipanema

Rua Redentor, Ipanema

Day 1 of successful AND highly PLEASANT-not-scary-at-all touristing included walking in the rain along Copacabana beach (I feel like I have regressed back to the Vancouver winter I just emerged from :-( ) and accidentally thanking everyone by saying "gracias":

Copacabana, the hottest beach south of Havana

Stopping in for steak snack at a churrasqueria:

Followed by a cooking class where we learned to make some, allegedly, traditional Brazilian food:

Cook In Rio-- group cooking classes with Simone

Enjoying some sneaky, easy drinking juice-like caipirinhas and flambe-ing

And I did this all without a map or a taxi! Public transit warriors 4-Eva! (I also can barely pronounce the names of the street I  am staying on and those around me so trying to give my destination to a taxi driver seems more frightening than accidentally getting a wee bit lost on the public bus in a city of 7 million people, weirdly).

And as for the other dimension of my AoGGs quote that I started this whole post off with... that I will leave for an outro dia when I feel like spending  a rainy Rio evening reflecting on normative gender ideals and travelling and daily life, etc.... (BOOORRRING!)...am I talking too much? If so, I can stop!