W3

With the kids starting school, we are now developing our new routine. A part of our routine consist of driving to and back from school. At least until we have the house, where we hope to have them take a little bus.
It is a 2-kilometers long route, and takes 7 minutes if there is no traffic. I usually count 10 to 15, depending on the time of the day. And after one trial, with two boys in their ultra casual walking speed, it takes 30 minutes by foot. Not yet an option - but maybe later.
Our route is fairly short, taking us from our lovely Quadra 106 across Quadra 306 via 2 round-abouts, stoping at a light at 506 to cross the W3, drive a little further for a retorno (a U-turn) before driving back along the W3 in the right direction. We then proceed to drive along this W3 for less than one kilometer, turn at Quadra 709, drive along to more one round-about and veer right, to finaly reach the school parking lot.
Well, I admit, this is not really interesting.

However there are a few things that are interesting. The first one is the driving experience. I have never lived in a city where I needed to drive my kids to school. (OK, I admit, our kids are really small, thus limiting our possibilities). It is certainly a time that I did not expect much of - yet it appears already as quality time. We chat about what has recently happened, what is to come, we share some most important thoughts and questions. It is a time I learn more about my kids than I had imagined.
Second, the landscape. The road we are on for the longest is called W3 (how can one lack imagination so much!!). The W3 crosses the entire two wings of the city, and it is an important thoroughfare as it can feed the residential quadras, the medical and educational quadras (at least for the south wing). One of its most important aspect, in my mind, is its commercial side. It is in fact a rare continuous commercial road, very different from the very short and disconnected commercial strips of 20 stores in each quadra. I can only think of another set of purely commercial street - of much less important scale - in a area called Sudoeste, just north of the Parque da Cidade, the City Park. Other main thoroughfares do not havea  similar use; commercial streets were in fact not part of the master plan of the city. The master plan rather imagined people taking their cars to go shopping, so specially dedicated malls, supermarkets and hypermarkets are all concentrated in one area at the periphery of the city.
For me, this W3 is for me the most surprising place I have seen since we are arrived in Brasilia. On one side, it is a real american-style semi-abandonned downtown strip, with a portion of stores trying to look correct, amidst a series of store fronts covered in graffitis, and a number of them keeping their shutters down. It looks like the kind of place that you should not walk at night. And maybe during the day too?
Then on the other side of this W3, there is a series of garage doors, some painted and graffitied, some more respectable, all tightly nestled against one another, right on the sidewalk. It took me a couple trips to admit to myself that these were actual garage doors of houses. That houses would be hidden behind something so rough. And so dense. So different from our lovely Quadra 106.
Like what we can appreciate the things that at first sight do not appear to be worth it.


 

Language Learning

Some friends, when learning about our relocation to Brazil, told me that learning portuguese would be the easiest thing.  And I guess, since our arrival, it feels there is hope. I understand a few words here and there already. And I can read.
Certainly, Mandarin, or rather our Mandarin efforts - 4 years of immersion, of which one full year on a twenty-hours a week regime of lessons - got us the understand the level of seriousness required to learn a language well. Specifically as both me and Paul would not even feel close to mastering that one unfortunately. So in comparison, the mere fact that we landed in this place with the ability to read signs, menus and other notices make us feel already ahead of the game. What a relief!
On Tuesday, I got a call. My new language teacher,  thankfully provided by my husband' work, could start a class right away! What a great lady! For over one hour and half, she drilled my head with all sorts of new things, and in the end, I was able to conclude that Portuguese is going to be fun to learn.
But wait, I have to go now. I have an assignment to complete!

A Better Introduction to the City

I have been here for a few weeks and have not really given you much about this strange city. In fact, Brasilia is a very special city that deserves to be discussed in more details.
The city is a total experiment, a pure product of two great minds, the architect Oscar Niemeyer and the urban planner Lucio Costa. At time of the creation of the new state of Brazil, in 1956, the creation of a completely new capital felt necessary to the first president of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitchek de Oliveira. Wanting to avoid the mess of Rio, to create a city that would be the representation of the energy and the capacity of the young new nation, he proposed a design competition. Over the next four years, in an incredible attempt to complete his vision before the end of his mandate, the capital arose in the middle of the stampa, more than a thousand kilometers inland.
Laid out in the shape of an airplane or a bird, the city plan divides the city in various parts. Along the main axis are found the Ministries, and in its wings, the housing. These wings are composed of quadras (or neighborhoods), which are in fact a repetition of similar buildings raised off the ground, separated by small commercial streets.

This is a sketch from Costa (found here)
In Brasilia, streets do not really have a name, but the neighborhood has a number, and a building, a letter or a number.  The city was meant to have no need for lights or stop signs, as if round-abouts and highways were sufficient. There is no intersection, or street corner. And in most occasions, it is not possible to turn left.
Yuri Gargarin would have said upon landing in Brasilia: "I feel as if I stepped on the surface of another planet".
The city is also an architecture laboratory experimenting with Le Corbusier's principles, with modern lines, brise-soleils, large canopies, raw concrete and raised volumes off the gound.
In other words, this is an utopian city. A city built from ideals and a vision, a vision that maybe today appears to be outdated or even inadequate for our times and our lifestyles. Yet it was a real visionary experiment. I would suggest you read here or there for more insights. And I will post more later.

Vamos a fazenda

When we learned we were going to move to Brasilia, I was determined to find something as nice and useful as the Beijing Café. The only thing I could find from a distance was Internations, which is a sort of Facebook for expatriates, by invitation. As I was already a member, I joined the Brasilia group, and was shortly invited to join to a country side "Fazenda" a few days after our arrival. You bet that I jumped on the occasion!
So on this Sunday, after having coordinated who pick us up, we got up early and packed our things. We then waited for another Internations member to come pick us up. We learned something about Brazilian culture right there, while waiting for more than 45 minutes. Eventually we drove us following our newly found friend, to meet another group of people.
About 50 km out of town, we arrived to a large hilly area, covered with bushes and greenery, no constructions in sight. A few km later, after riding on a dusty road, we arrived to a gate of Fazenda Tobiquinhia, the farm Tobiquinhia. After paying a small gate fee, we drove in to a more built area. A few structures on a landscaped area, a main building sheltering the food buffet and the bar, a playground next to what looked like an home-made concrete pool and matching fountain, a old bus transformed into a pavilion, some sheds for the horses, a few hammocks set between tall palm trees: it is more of a weekend low-key resort than a farm.
Escaping to the countryside is wonderful. Yet Brasilia, with its particular layout, and so much space between each building, is not an oppressive city, unlike other large capitals. Yet, the feeling of getting out in the country side is just wonderful, giving me the impression of lightness and liberty. There at the Fazenda, we finally met our new Internations friends, expats as well as Brazilians. We ate and chatted while the kids splashed themselves in the pool or explored the grounds. And later we set out for a small horse ride, making the kids happy. And our bums sore!

The big day is Today

School is finally starting today!! Enfin!
After a long summer of changes and wandering, after a couple of weeks of house hunting, exploration and acclimation to our new environment, the next big new thing was to get everyone in their own schedule.
We chose to register the kids to the Lycée Français François Mittérand, aka the French School, for various reasons. The main one was to limit the changes for both kids, by placing them together in the same structure, and by continuing with the same curriculum and language Noam had in Beijing at the Lycée there. Despite some irritants in Beijing, mainly linked to the personality or attitude of certain people in the administration, we, as parents, were quite happy to see the pedagogical approach followed by the French system. The approach, while starting really early with young kids, is gradually introducing them to notions of writing, spelling, mathematics and other life and social skills that makes them love school.
So a few days after our arrival, we went to the school to introduce ourselves to the administration and get the kids to foresee the place where they would spend a large portion of their week. We were very warmly welcomed by the secretary, it was a very pleasant introduction. During that time, the kids explored the little playground next to their classrooms and were excited about the idea of starting soon in the same school.
Frequented by 300 students of all grades, the structure in Brasilia is very small by comparison to Beijing where there were 400 pupils only in maternelle. This situation is explained by the size of the city (1/8 of Beijing), and the Brazilian capital being mainly an administrative centre (rather than an industrial or commercial one) with an expatriate crowd mainly composed of corps diplomatic, and very few international private businesses.
The school facilities are somewhat outdated. For kids Noam and Emmanuel's age, it might not be a problem to have outdated computer or chemistry labs or inadequate sport facilities. But from our first glance, older kids might need something more elaborate. And the administration knows it. Similarly to Beijing, the Brasilia institution is also in the process of building new facilities, in the suburb of Lago Sul, conveniently where we are looking for a house.
So today, the four of us drove to the school, in the education sector of the city, and walked in, holding the hands of our little one. They were excited, yet anxious a bit. Dropping both kids in their respective classes went relatively smoothly, even if Emmanuel had initially imagined I would spend the morning with him and consequently shed some tears.
They were ecstatic when I picked them up at twelve thirty. I was just unable to catch them together on photo to immortalize that day!

Brazilian equipment

Who says Brazil often think about the infamous Havaianas, the Hawaiians, in portuguese. We also felt we needed to get the right attire to fit in the crowd, to get the right moves on the streets, and to be simply more adequately equipped for the weather.  So after carefully examining the various styles and designs, debating on the value of Angry Bird over McQueen, or on the color combination of a model versus another one, two little pairs were carefully selected. We are now set!!

I remember viewing a documentary last year - probably something on Thalassa on TV5 - where the Havaianas factory in Campina Gande was visited. It was quite impressive. For now, the ones found in the store are fun, but I was expecting a little more extravagance or innovation. But again, I suspect I was not in the best place to see all special models. (we were in Walmart, yes I confess).
Tongs. Thinking and writing about them makes me also wonder. Here at the shoe repair guy, you can buy the loose straps, a way to lengthen the life of your favorite plastic sandals. Yet, with about 5 pairs a second coming out of the plant, 105 million a year, I can only wonder...
I remember walking on the petite côte of Senegal, south of Dakar, south of Joal-Fadiouth, on a beach between Palmarin and Djifer. The place was wonderful, deserted, almost a perfect landscape. Except for all the tongs lying on the sand, brought by the tides. The entire beach was covered by broken plastic footwear unloaded by the rough sea at every tide.  It was incredibly surprising and unexpected, yet powerful and evocative of the damage we are causing the environment with our lifestyle. It was landscape I cannot forget. Yet it did not prevent me to buy my kids a pair. 
I am wondering if some places on the Brazilian coast there is also an old sandal cemetery...

Tim, Vivo and I, part 2

One of the reasons I was in Conjunco National was the (imperative) need of a wifi key, to enable browsing from our temporary apartment until we settled. For this, with the same methods previously used, my options were already analyzed - essentially Vivo vs Tim. Unlike last time, we headed to TIM (which name, I am learning now, stands for Telecom Italia Mobile). The kids, specially Emmanuel, have fixated on the company name for two reasons: firstly because of its adds, displayed and plastered everywhere, displaying blue men "communicating"; secondly because we say, with the portuguese accent, chim, rather than tim, and that's fun.

Ipods were pulled out (refer to previous post). While we were waiting, a very elegant man, in his sixties, approached me and addressed me in French, and proceeded to hold a very pleasant conversation. A few minutes later, the manager of the store took his time to help me, as with my lack of knowledge of the Portuguese language I need "special service". He provided me with a trial chip to install in my Chinese wifi key, after having set it up for me. I walked out of the store with the chip - unsure whether it was really free, or just going to work temporarily (the later which I eventually came to confirm). It only occurred to me later that in two occasions in the same store two men flirted with me - despite me mentioning my husband's name or them seeing my kids. I guess after 4 years in China, I forgot what flirting was!
Welcome to Latin America, me!

Shopping

Day two of "back to work" schedule, some more practical things needed to be done, so my two little crew members and I headed to the mall near Paul's office, Cunjunto National.

Source: Papagaio.com.
Getting to the mall was less than the adventure of the previous day. On this picture you can see how the mall is a large billboard surrounded by highways. Maybe this will help my readers understand what one is faced with when trying to move around in this city (of 2 millions souls - one eighth of Beijing's).
Conjuncto National is very large mall with more than 300 stores that is placed right in the center of the city. It holds a number of well known brands (C&A, Zara, others) and a number of local ones.
The Brazilian protectionism politics have allowed, or supported rather, the development of local brands of clothing, shoes and appliances, among other things. So walking in these malls is a little more of a discovery, differently from many other places of the world where only the same common brands are again and again represented, whether in Beijing, Paris or Dubai.
As for a mall, it is not too bad, with very large aisles that open to a large "balcony" along the entire length of the back of the building. The mall has no doors (yep!) and when walking in these aisles a fresh breeze flow around. For a Canadian like me, it is pretty cool.
Along with the errants needed, I made sure entertainment was possible for my team.

A trip to the National Museum, part 2

In fact once we got out of the car, it got better.
The building, a white igloo standing in the dust, has a long ramp leading to its entrance, and another one coming out of its sides and circling a portion of it.
The kids loved splashing themselves in the reflective pool, and running on the ramps. The exhibition was well worth the effort.


There were a number of drawings from Roberto Burle Marx. He was a Brazilian landscape architect and a painter, whose designs made him famous over the world. He would have introduced modern landscape architecture to Brazil. The exhibition presented various of his sketches.
The other artist displayed, Oswaldo Guyasamin, was having a number of very impressive and dark paintings. Ecuadorian, he started exhibiting his work at a young age, and was recognized by his peers quickly as the best South American painter in 1957. Of native heritage, he was affected by the struggle of his people, and spent his life representing issues such as political oppression, racism, poverty and class divisions in several places in South America. He also admired the Cuban Revolution and Castro. The exhibition had several large paintings, a film and a number of documents, which all made me realize there is so much to learn about the history of this part of the world.

A trip to the National Museum

So after a long summer of jet-setting - between Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Beijing, Paris and Baden, someone had to return back to work. That is why we moved to Brasilia, right? Well, for Pauli's work. So fini, cabo, our full time four-heads-(free)-wheeling adventures, we have now to get back to (or rather develop, I should say) a more "normal" mode/lifestyle.
So Monday was our first day of Mommy and me (and me), and Mommy was really desperate to fill the time with meaningful and fun activities - specially after spending so much time in logistical errants since our arrival in Brasilia.
Therefore, I took the map, looked at it briefly, took the little local Agenda (a cultural leaflet listing exhibitions, events, shows), saw a nice image for a possibly nice exhibition to a rather strange building: the National Museum of Brasilia.
Maybe I have a cultural attraction to the building already (I am Canadian after all): shaped like a white igloo, sitting on one side of the "mall". In this area, there are two main avenues called Axio Monumental, along which a number of important buildings are laid. The stretch of grass in between the two direction of the Axio is a large open area, intended to give a bit more monumentality to all that is laid along the Axio. It is now a large and dry expanse of grass because of the dry season, leaving it a little dusty and sad. Despite that, number of buildings, like the Museum, have the architectural strength to impress the new comers.
So I set from our place, Asa Sul 106, and tried to make it to the Museum. It took me several attempts (and several km on and off the various highways). First a couple attempts to get on the Axio, from the L2 (what an original road name, don't you think?!). Then when finally on the Axio, I realized that I could not enter the parking from there. I had to keep going along the Axio and do a loop to come back up along it.  While able to admire the magnificent work of Neimeyer and others, yet I was not able to take the  on the Axio again (on the , and when I could, I could not find a way to get to the parking. I turned in front of the Museum - only a bus stop cut out from the esplanade. Yet I could see the parking. I eventually had to go around a few very large city blocks, drive through all of their interconnected parking lots, to eventually emerge on the opposite side of the Museum. I admit that in fear of driving a little further and been thrown out again on the road, I ended up parking a little further than necessary. In the end, we parked exactly 45 minutes after our departure time. The distance from our place is less than 5 km, but I ended up driving was more than 20.
Admittedly, the cynical ones will say that I have no sense of orientation. But I assure you that I have been driving myself in Beijing, in India, and in several African capitals, and I have always been able to figure it out. Here, it is really different.

Playgrounds

We drove the kids to a playground at the foot of the JK bridge, a magnificent engineering construction stretching over the lake Paranoa. As we are standing there, no having anything else to do but watch the kids climb on and off the structures, I let me mind wander.

It is always a bit strange to be in a new strange place. The only thing that we can do is to compare it to where we have been before. And Brasilia, as a strange place, is making us find strange comparisons references...

We arrived here in August, in the middle of winter. Winter is not really what a Canadian thinks when at noon it is 24 degrees! The nights are slightly fresh, we need a few covers, but probably would feel the same in august when camping in Quebec...

The whole playground sits in a large sandpit of red sand. The red dust flies around and covers a bit the car and the structures, as it is a bit windy.  It reminds me of West Africa.

The city road network is strangely design (no worries, I will write more about this very soon). With its loops and large expanses of green between different part of the city, it reminds me of some places in Virginia, south of DC.  However I am sure friends who lived there might disagree. I am not sure why my mind makes that connection, but it does.

The sky is perfectly blue, large, very large. This is absolutely the opposite of Beijing sky, white, heavy, and polluted. The blue is profound and it is amazing to see how on the pictures it is even deeper. It reminds me of some old photographs taken of an area near where I am from, L'Isle Verte, on the St-Laurence River. There, when standing in the flood planes, the sky feels also impressive, as if having a personality of its own. These flood planes where the site of my final year project, during my architectural studies at McGill. And the presence of a similar sky here in Brasilia probably makes me feel closer to home, in a very strange way.

The playground structures are made out of logs. Nothing of the modern structures found in Beijing and most of the large Chinese cities. And nothing following the safety standards of the ones we found in DC, or elsewhere in the US.  Actually it reminds me of some of the structures we found in the summer camps I went to, near my hometown (in St-Louis du Ha! Ha!). Same old stuff, from the 70s. Except that it is much older now.

Which makes me feel I need to watch the smaller one closer, as he might get his foot stuck between two old planks on that small bridge (that has no railing)...

Some raw impressions

This new city, described by others as idyllic, and imagined as the ultimate example of urban planning (at the time) might appear differently to a new comer like me. Or maybe Brasilia is so uniquely strange that it takes time to adjust to it. Here are some of my first impressions of the city, after 4 days or so:

The city essentially feels like a highway with people living around it. All the neighborhoods look similar and feel similar, it is very disconcerting. I had the impression to pass by a same commercial area several times, yet it was never the case. Everything in divided in sectors, for living, for the banks, for going out, for schools, for shopping, for art diffusion. The area with individual houses, Lago Sul (South Lake) is prettier, at some point the road passes along a marsh, while still in the actual city limits; there is this feeling of being in the wild for a few minutes. Pretty.

The housing market itself is crazy, housing is not what you would expect. Because the city has been created from scratch four decades ago, and since it was a complete masterplan (which by the way did not really include room for real expansion), most things were built in the same years, and consequently, most things that we have been visiting are showing similar signs of age. Then there is the question of size. Lots are large in the area (as we would prefer living in a house we will end up renting in this area).  So with large and expensive lots, most owners have decided to make an investment comparable in terms of property, and most houses are extremely large.  And today, looking at the area near the city center where the kids school is located, I realized that the comparaison to regular city houses (which are mostly row houses), their size is tremendously larger.

It is a suburban life even where we live now, near the center, to get to the grocery store is not really possible except for a few small errands, but going to the doctor, to the sport center, to see a show, all need a car. Maybe without the car I can go the church around the corner, and get my dry cleaning done. It is such a strange change from Beijing, where we did not really need to car for all our daily essentials.

Here is a small plan to give you an idea of its shape. Thank you for dilettante 31 for the map. More about the city itself in a few posts.

Circus time

After a week of house hunting, and very little activities for our two very active boys, we started exploring the city for something fun to do with them. Luckily for them, the Circus Tihany is in town.
The kids were excited, as they have become circus experts  this summer. Indeed, during our holiday in Bretagne (France) we took them to a local circus, the Circus Zavatta (sorry I can't find much about them, there are 17 circus named Zavatta in France)...  Dubbed as a "traditional circus", it tours the villages of the region during the summer. Its crew of a dozen artists and as many sad animals presented a rather disappointing humble performance to a public of a few dozen. Have a look for yourself.

Indeed, at (almost) 3 and 5, my kids are a discerning audience, as they have been treated to many visits to the Chaoyang Theatre Acrobatic show, next door to our Beijing place. Check the link to a few photos of their show to give you an idea of the impression this can leave on their fresh minds.
Fortunately, here in Brasilia, The Circus Tihany did not disappoint. In front of an audience of more than 500, with acrobatics, clowning, magic, dance and music, the show was well orchestrated, with a real Las Vegas shebang. 

There was the required trapezes, juggling and some people been catapulted in the air. Clowns were funny - at least. A couple of artists walked on a rope - they were so at ease that it looked as if there was a trick. Lots of girls showing lots of legs while dancing. Along with the usual rabbit, hen and flowers, a motorcycle disappeared, then a car, then an helicopter appeared, while a pretty lady got transformed into a man. A flock of human-parrots flying up and down the big top. And some rumba, samba, salsa topped it all up.
Some small boys were really happy!

The cost of living (the high life!?)

So yes, coming back to the cost of things here. What a shock, specially coming from China. When told about how expensive some items are here, I imagined Africa-expensive, where some of the local things are really cheap, and then maybe a 20 to 40% increase from the actual price in Europe or America. Here, we are more talking about a 100 to 500% increase of cost, depending on the item.
Imagine taking a mortgage for your shoes!!! Seriously, I actually saw more than a pair here where you can borrow on a yearly plan.
Also seen: a superman costume for 50R$ (worth USD 10 or 12 at Walmart in the US); a simple couscous for 29R$ (maybe worth USD 3 in the US); the infamous running shoes for 999.99R$ (maybe for 100 or 150 in the US); a typical Matel toy car for 30R$ (maybe going for 5 to 7 in the US), the DVD of the movie Rio for 80R$,  a can opener - the camping type, the type that is really small, hard to manage and holds in the hand - for 25R$... The list is longer.
The good thing is that these high prices are for a good cause - taxation, where hopefully the money goes back to the people. (we can talk about the corruption another time/post). And it is a good way it encourage the consumption of the "made in Brazil" things, encouraging the local economy (because most commonly used things have a cheaper version. But that is limited to things Brasilian actually like using (unlike balsamic vinegar or wasabi sauce). The other good thing is the limitation of consumption to the essential and therefore the limitation of waste and pollution.  And always a good chance to ask ourselves if we really need a fourth pairs of trainers.
The bad thing is that certain things might be unavoidable once we settle down in our new place, and I am afraid of the bill (and the fact that the least expensive is of really poor quality).  I could not allow myself or indulge myself in some of the usual "luxuries" I have in the past. Not that I ever imagined couscous being a luxury actually. But there are things that are not going to be part of our budget here.
It also means that our visitors will be carrying special requests for us, and that our suitcases will be filled with important and precious goods every time we travel out of the country. Watch me import couscous and balsamic vinegar and maple sirup!!!

For info the real is currently value at about R$ 2 for USD 1 - so make the math. 

Necessities

One of the other really important thing to do when arriving in a new land is to spot the grocery store. So we did walk out of our flat, and headed out.
 
After walking the small strip behind our place we found, a little further, after a park-like green space and another small commercial street, a Comper, a large supermarket.
As a place where most people go, a grocery store can be an interesting place were to start learning about a new culture.
So here are a few notes I took while doing my first basic grocery shopping:
- you can get tires and tooth brushes in the same aisle
- little vegetable variety - no more 50 different mushrooms kinds like in China
- but cucumbers have variety - they come either as french, english or very small and very prickly
- cheese can be green
- coliflowers purple
- watch for prices; same brand different smell cost 3 times more
- sugar appears as a food group of its own here
- milk does not come fresh, only in boxes (yes it is true - at Comper)
- proscuitto will never get in our cart, at 25 dollars for 5 slices
- large meat section. need to learn portuguese to buy the right cuts.





As a complement to our shopping the boys found a surveillance video camera where they could unleash some of their wild energies and entertain themselves.
 

Tim, Vivo and I, part 1

I will relate here my first experiences with what is known by many as "the best Brazilian communication provider": Vivo.

In the middle of our house hunting, we made a pause to get ourself a cellphone line. After a brief and non-scientific survey around us and online, we determined that Vivo would be our best bet. People mentioned quality of service, network capacity, etc.
We went to a Vivo store in a large mall in the suburb of Lago Sul. We had to take a ticket, and sat down.  Ipods were pulled out (refer to previous post).

Wanting our kids to stay quiet, ipods were pulled out while we could get some service. I have to admit resorting to this kind of "tool" too often since our arrival. The continuous house visits in this first week,  and these administrative tasks at the office, all these moments of waiting require entertainment. But those little devices are also very addictive, creating a boomerang effect that is rather unpleasant, with whining, aggressiveness and selective deftness.
We waited for about twenty minutes before being served by a young pleasant english-speaking lad. For some unknown reason, the process of opening our accounts was lengthy.  Which package, which cell phone, which extras took some time. Then he offered we choose our phone numbers from a few options. And things got slower, as a bug in the terminal started to delay things. He suggested we take the kids to eat while he completed the transaction.
Upon returning from our meal, he confirmed all was good, our lines would be opened in about one hour. Here are the papers, thank you. Three hours. Threeeeeee Hours!
One hour later, I do not yet have a signal, and Paul tries to call anyway. Someone else answers. He proceeds to call his own number, and there again, someone else answer. We have been given numbers that are already in service.
It then takes me another separate trip to the store, and another to fix the situation, and get real numbers.
If this is the most best better of all Brazilian telecommunication companies, I am rather afraid by what is to come...

The hunt is open

About 15 hours after our landing, we headed out to find the perfect place to spend our next three or four years.

We have been informed this is going to be intense. We heard of colleagues who visited more than 30 houses to find the right one. We heard of another one who had the typical bank lease rejected by two different house owners, unsuccessfully, and is still looking. We tried to come prepared a bit, we had a look at it from a distance, and we knew about the style issue - hacienda a go go. We arrived, with our our two jet-lagged kids, some pencils and a coloring book, ipods and snacks, and a camera to help our memory. We thought we were ready.



Yet, we realized quickly that one hard thing was going to find a house that fits our needs. In fact we only need three bedrooms, a dining and living area, a kitchen, simply. By this I mean, do we need a beautiful wine cellar/cave? 5 bathrooms? A gym room (well, maybe for some yoga??)? Yes we want to keep the pool, for sure. About a outdoor kitchen, fully equipped? Maybe. A triple car garage? Not sure. And a sauna? Sure it is nice, but not essential. About 2 rooms for the staff? Oh! we need to house our staff? And about a stock room? And a walk-in closet the size of my kids bedroom? And a library room? And a TV room? and a his and her pool side bathroom?? And a living room larger than a bowling room? You get the idea: the houses here are big. Really BIG.

And the other hard part is to find something we like. You see, even if I do not want to let my "work" interfere with regular life, as an architect, I have trouble closing my eyes when I do house visits. Luckily my husband share a good eye also. How to ignore the bad layouts - dark rooms or areas that are just not usable? Or the badly unplanned transformation of a room into something strange or odd? Or the bad detailing of a building? Or the brilliant haciendation of a modern house, with tiles and shutters all over?? Yes, my eye catches that, it is hard to ignore. I also have trouble with details that shows are easily datable - specially the hacienda meets the 80s era. So that was the harder part.





We logged 10 houses in our first 4 days.

The Simpsons are in Brasilia

On our first morning in the city, during our quest for groceries, we walked by a restaurant called "The Simpsons", in reference to the infamous cartoon characters. In spite of any other choices - the street we were walking on specializes in fabrics - we walked in with our hungry children. Expecting the worst of junk food galore, we were pleasantly surprised to find a buffet of fresh foods, and some barbecued meat. Similarly to other buffet here, everything is weighted at the cash, which is great when eating out with small ones. We pay for what we eat. It is not China cheap, but really reasonable.
The Simpsons will later become a landmark for our family, as we will drive by it every day, on our way back from school.
We also learned later that the amazing buffet is not available at night, and that the whole neighborhood comes by to have a drink and a bit, customers filling the place, and spilling on the sidewalk and grazed area on the side of the restaurant. A very popular hangout.

Landing in a strange city

"Brasilia is not Brazil." I have been told many times, both by people who are from Brasilia and by expats. 

What did we expect? In fact, we were so unprepared, that we did not really expect anything. It was more like jumping in cold water.

So here is where our landing took place:



This is obviously - for me the architect - a bit difficult not to comment. But I will make an effort to spare you some of my rants (and keep them for a nice long post later). You can see some picture of the interiors here.
The building sits in a neighborhood called Asa Sul 106 - next to Asa Sul 105 and 305 and 306 (check here for a map - turn on the satellite view to get a better idea).  Each are filled with similar buildings, about 6 story high, raised on stilts, one bland or blank facade, the other one with large windows facing away from the parking lots.  Each neighborhood is spread out in a green expanse, and separated by a large strip of grass (a little yellow now because of the dry winter).
To get in our neighborhood we need to take a highway or a commercial strip (both behind our building). There is no way to get to 302 or 307 without going on these roads - maybe by walking in between buildings, but yet, it is not that conveniently organized. The 200s and 400s lie beyond the highway, under which one must drive. Each of these little neighborhoods have there access via some small commercial strips, the closest thing to a walkable cityscape found anywhere else in the world, and here limited to only about 200 meters long each.

The beginning of a new adventure

Recently, my youngest son has been asking me: "Mommy why are we in Brazil? Daddy'w work brought us here, my love." In fact it is a much deeper question, meriting more than this answer. It is our love of adventure, our desire to meet the other, our wish to make a difference. I will certainly be able to tell you more in a few posts.
Now how did this expatriation started? How did we get here?
For us our Brazilian adventure started recently. In fact, the readers of my previous blog would know that we were in a limbo for a few months, "on the way out of Beijing" yet unaware of our new destination. Then the news fell on us: Brasilia. No time to prepare, the movers were there 4 days later. Oh, yes, we did get just enough time to buy some garden furniture, but that was about it. Then we waved away goodbyes to our dear friends in China and took off for a few weeks on holidays; Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Bretagne and Paris. Quickly, Brazil was awaiting us.

We got here a few days ago, landing with honors, carrying aboard our plane the Olympic flag for the next Olympiads. A brigade of journalists and officials waved at us from the tarmac, our arrival was grand and promising!
Welcome to Brazil, my kids!