Testing out the New Camera

While walking I am taking along my new camera. I purchased a Canon G15, following the recommendation of our friend Adi, who is a professional photographer in Tel Aviv. I could not imagine taking the big Nikon and its big lens along. It would be too heavy, too cumbersome to carry around in a hike. I like to take photos, but I would be afraid to actually come back with some damaged equipment.
So now that my pretty cute and light G15 as arrived, I am playing and testing it around. What better time to do than than during my morning walks? The light is great, adding a glowing yellow tone to everything.

I guess it is not mine

Here in Brazil, there are things I cannot hold.  Time is a commodity that is elastic, ever-expanding and without limits. It is really hard to imagine something like this when we are outside Brazil. Even for us who lived in places supposedly "less hectic " or more "laid back" such as Africa. That, combined to a real love for useless administrative procedures and paperwork, you are well served.
What does it means in practical terms?

• It means that a person who tells you that he will come at your place (to fix something, to deliver something) might show up 3 hours late. Or 2 days later. Even 3 weeks later. Yes it happened to me. 
• It means that if you call to inquire about their delay, people tell you they are coming, and still never show up.
• It means that, at the grocery, in the Express line, you are bound to take longer than the other lines. I mean, other normal lines in other countries. If there would be such things as cashier speed competitions.
• It means that the cashier might stop in the middle of your transaction to discuss holidays or other important issues with her supervisor.
• It means that while you wait at the cashier of the hyper/super/normal market you can make friends with your fellow consumers waiting with you.
• It means that if you stand in line at the cashier, the person in front of you might as well go back to her car pick up her wallet she forgot while the cashier (and you) patiently keep waiting for her to return to complete the transaction.
• It means that the person in front of you in line might not become your friend after all.
• It means that if you go take an appointment to the dentist, and need to see the hygienist, the secretary will offer you two different times on two different days, with no understanding of what you are trying to ask for when you say you want to see them at the same time - meaning the same day.
• It means that if you ask your staff to do something, it might get done, but certainly not right away.
• It means that if you buy something and you need to return it, you might have to go through a loop of a few counters, papers and wait before being able to retrieve your money. If.
• It means that if buy things that need to be picked up in the store room, you are bound to wait for a few minutes. And that if the person at the counter is also the one fetching things for you, you are bound for an even longer wait.
• It means that when it is a national holiday it is a really bad occasion to do what all Brazilian are doing, whether it is going to the beach, take the plane or rent a car. The later two specially as they involve waiting in line.
• It means that if you go to a show, you might see it the next day. I swear, it happened to us last nigth! (see below).
• It means that if you imagine completing a number of errants in the morning, you are bound for failure, either because they are out of the specifics (how can a city be out of red onions?), because you wait at the cash (read above), or because you can't find parking (always). Combine the three in various order of importance and multiply by the number of errants = FAIL.
• It means banks only open at 11 and close at 4. And that after 3 there are a number of transactions that cannot be done anymore. 
• It means that if you go to the bank you might half of their opening hours to complete all your transactions. (I will write a full post on banking very soon). 
• It means that if you are invited to a party (specially a birthday party) and you arrive 30 minutes late, you might be the first one.
• It means that if you invite people home, if they are Brazilian, they might come with more than one hour late. They might also come with other unannounced friends.
• It means that if you invite expat guests they might come one time, a bit late or very late, and it is impossible to know. The same when you are invited to an expat dinner. How late should we come to not be the firsts ones to arrive?

• It means that you might see the repair guy that you waited for all morning arriving when you are just getting out to fetch the kids from school, and that you can tell him to wait just a few 15-20 minutes. And that when you return 40 minutes later, he is still there waiting for you. That is when I love Brazil.

This is us patiently waiting for Seu Jorge's show to start. The artist, scheduled for 10 PM did not show up until 1:45 AM. By that time we were leaving to release our babysitter.

The Feiria

There are some things that we take for granted. For example, our phones. Aren't they some kind of magic tool, able to tell us where we are, give us indication of where to go, translate, record, memorize, play mind games (or craft), appease the monster next to us, connect us with friends via email, facebook and texts, beyond just the plain phone call?  So when they brake we are in trouble.
Over the last week, my ipad screen broke, Paul's cell phone screen cracked, my own cell phone stop hearing what I said. And my old iphone (a.k.a Emmanuel's own play device) appeared completely dead. So we were in deep trouble.
In China, I was fond of all those geek markets, where I could find free advice and fun technical gizmos for my apple gear. I could bargain my phone repairs and get things done over a bowl of noodle, and it was really not too far from home. These typically were huge, sometimes as much as 4 floors of computer and electronic devices only, plus all sorts of related services.
Here there is the Feiria dos Importados. It used to be known as the Mercado do Paraguay, but maybe because it is flooded with Chinese stuff it was renamed at some point. It is sitting at the extreme south of the Plano Piloto, and from our house, with the proper highway it takes about 20 to 25 min to reach.
The Feiria is a group of small stalls under some gigantic roof. All stalls are grouped in blocs of four back to one another, and a large number of them are grouped in 4 "quadras" or neighborhoods (to take the name from Brasilia city planning). The numbering system of these stall is far from being orderly, A345 sitting next to A215.
And the Feiria here is not only for the computer geek in you. It is a mismatch similar to Beijing's markets: clothing, sport gear, shoes, fishing and pet food, kitchen ware. And repair shops of all kinds, and electronics too. Anything you can imagine in fact. But with no specific order. And with real Brazilian prices.

After unsuccessfully attempting to get my devices serviced in a stall or two, I found him at the end of the maze of stalls, in a tiny booth of probably 2 square meters. I discovered Rogerio. The magician. He is the kind of guy that can fix anything. Anything. The simplest problems - broken screens or stucked buttons - are repaired rather quickly - maybe 20 to 30 minutes. He is also excellent with more complicated things.  My old iphone needed a few fixes that nobody else wanted to do, but upon opening it he just didn't hesitated and explained what needed to be done.

So at first, I took a slip and assumed that the date given would mean work done. Neihg. Nope, Not. The winning combination between "Brazil laidback mode" + "His stall filled with phones waiting to be repaired". When I was back I realized there was at least 3 other men waiting for him to do the work. But I had to rush, and was promised another date. Twice.
In the end, I dragged my kids there and just waited in front of his booth. It was the only way to get the work completed.
In the process, my kids befriended about anyone around Rogerio's stall. I assume that waiting for 4 hours is enough time to meet someone!

By the way, with his little business, the guy is able to support a family of 8 kids...

On our way to Canada

On our way to Canada, we made a little stop in Panama. There the kids rehearsed for our 3 days in New York City. And we were reminded about refined Chinese pleasures.

No Beijing. Panama.

In New York City.
Completing the cycle of celebrations of Hanukkah with our friends Boaz and Stacey and their kids. Lights. Hope. Friendship.
Swinging on an installation of Ann Hamilton, in the Park Avenue Armory, on one of the 42 large wood-plank swings, "The Event of a Thread". Their movements agitates an immense curtain in the middle of the even larger space. Child memories. Happiness. Flow.
Walking among the crowds of Fifth Avenue. Meeting some old Beijing friends near the Rockefeller Center and its huge Canadian tree. Sitting in a Tom Ford booth to get my make up done by an old friend. Street excitation. Anticipation. Wealth of experiences. Experiences of wealth.
Touring a night market. Eating in an art installation. Discovering the crowded new "in" areas of the city at night. More urban bliss.
Yes. I need more of that. We will be back.
Back on a plane now, to Canada.

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.


 

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...

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.

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.

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.