As some of you know, I applied for a web design position at Hartshorn Health Services on campus.  I first sent them an email a few weeks ago, then sent in my resume, then last Friday I did an interview via Skype.  After waiting all weekend, I receieved an email today saying that I got the job!

Anyway, I’ll be working a full 40 hour week during the summer.  I keep telling myself that it will be worth it when I actually have some money saved come fall.

Speaking of web design, I also had the opportunity to very briefly speak with Jeffrey Zeldman on facebook chat today.  Whoa.

A common sight walking through Liberdade. There were hardly any signs in Portuguese.

On Saturday Alisha, Carol and I took a bus to Liberdade (Liberty), the Asian neighborhood of Sao Paulo.  ’Taking a bus’ would actually be understating it, as we first went to Itu and then came back to Salto when we found out that Lai Wei had come to Salto and had already taken an earlier bus to the city.  When we arrived in Barra Funda Terminal, we found Lai Wei was patiently waiting for us there, even though he had already taken the train to Liberdade.  From the terminal we took the metro to Se, transferred once, and emerged wide-eyed on the other side of the world.

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[NOTE: This is a photo heavy post, which means that it may take an obscenely long time to load on slow connections.]

I realize it’s been quite a while since I’ve updated my blog, so once again I’m going to compile the last few months into a single giant post.

Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

For Easter I decided to go to take a bus to Itu to see the Judas festival. Every year on Easter there is an enormous street festival where a (fake) Judas is literally hung from a pole and exploded.

Unfortunately there was no better vantage point to get a better photo of the explosions

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The last week has been more or less uneventful since my host mother is travelling (I believe she’s visiting her parents). Without her, we don’t cook meals (although I’ve discovered a new continent of delivery–everything from yakisoba to esfihas) and there is NOTHING to say. When I leave the house, I tell my host father “I’m goin’ out…” to which he predictably responds “mm-hmm.” The only thing missing is a rocking chair and a corn cob pipe.

I have been using my time constructively though, mostly reading and studying web programming. I can almost code in javascript now. I’ve also been walking around town a lot, finding new areas that I haven’t been to before. I always forget to carry my camera, so I haven’t taken many photos in a while.

I went to hang out with Alisha last night and we ended up at her house. It turns out that her host father is an avid SCUBA diver and has a friend who owns a dive school near here. He even has all his own equipment and said that he’d let me go for a dive in his pool some time. We’re going to talk to his friend in Itu who owns the dive school, and I’m going to take the course to get certified. Hopefully, my dad and I can go on a dive trip when he comes to visit in June…

If you’ve ever read On the Road by Kerouac, then you’ll recognize my allusion to one of the characters.  In the story there is a character who always moves to new places looking for inspiration for his poetry, but ends up getting bored at every turn when he realizes that the novelty of his new environment can’t last forever.  In despair, he declares “Damn these Denver Doldrums!”, the same line he had written in Dakar before.  The point I’m trying to make is that the novelty of a new place can’t last forever, and that’s where I’m at right now.

I’m not miserable, but it seems like there is more and more ‘down time’ now where there’s not a whole lot to do.  I have started to take the dog for a walk every day, which is actually pretty nice.  We go to the park by the waterfall and I can let her off of the leash there without problems, although I’m always a little nervous that she’s going to jump on someone or try to get away, even though she never does.

Walking all the time has been really good for me; I’ve lost over 10 kilos (22 lbs).  I’m going to start going to the gym as well when I get back from Blumenau next week.  Hopefully I can drop another five or ten kilos by the time I go home.

I went back to Sao Paulo with Alisha on Wednesday.  Enio and Alisha and I walked all all around Avenida 25 de Marco, which is more commonly referred to as just 25, pronounced “veenchy-sinko”.  No one ever says that they’re going to Avenida 25 de Marco, they say just that they are going to 25.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much happening in one place in my life, even though we were there on what was considered a very light day.  On top of the normal traffic and the stores there are people selling things on tarps and cardboard boxes on the street.  The most interesting thing to watch was when the police drove down the street.  Just like any Brazilian crime film, someone yelled “Policia!” and within seconds everyone was gone.  All of the street vendors disappeared.

Later, in a nearby area known for selling electronics, we came across dozens of guys selling pirated games and software.  I bought a copy of Photoshop CS4 for only R$8, about $3 and some change.  I saw copies of Sonar 7, SQL 2008, Visual Studio, Vegas Pro 2008, 3ds Max, and thousands of dollars worth of other assorted disks.  All for $3.