So, I'm leaving for Alaska this afternoon for a ten day camping trip with my family. I'll be visiting Austin after the 4th of July and would love to see everyone when I'm there...

I've noticed recently that I sometimes make simple mistakes when I write in Engish. I switch words with the same pronunciation, but different spellings, for example "scene" and "seen" or "do" and "due". I make obvious gramatical mistakes that are not typos, for example "I've been to the USA last year". What's strange is that these are all mistakes that non-native speakers make when learning English. Although It's been three years since I lived in the USA, I still read and write a lot of English--more than I read or write Portuguese or Japanese. When I re-read what I've written, I usually notice my mistakes, but it's strange that I'm making them at all.

Stupid things you hear at the airport: 'the plane is departing 45 minutes late, but you'll still arrive on time' and ' boarding will begin in 25 minutes' repeated every 5 minutes for half an hour.

When foreigners plan on taking a trip to Brazil they probably think of beaches, Rio de Janeiro's Carnival and the Amazon jungle. For Brazilians, the most popular holiday destination is also the beach. The highways are jammed on every holiday weekend with families heading to the coast.

The Amazon, on the other hand, is not a popular destination for locals. Part of the reason is probably cost and distance. The Amazon is a long plane flight from where most people live and the only way to see the jungle is on an expensive packaged tour. The most popular guide book here for Brazilians describes the jungle hotels in the Amazon as over-priced and for foreign tourists. More Brazilians probably visit Europe than the Amazon, because the cost is not much more.

Brazil was a land of immigrants and there are sizable populations of Germans, Italians, Polish, Ukranians and Japanese especially in the south. Dotted throughout the country are cities founded by these immigrants that have become tourist attractions. For example, there is a German town south of us that has some Bavarian-style buildings, German restaurants, breweries and a famous Oktoberfest festival. For those of you from Texas, you might compare it to Fredricksburg.

These "European towns" are quite popular with the locals here. Perhaps it's because they are something of a novelty being in the middle of a tropical country, but I also think that it's because Brazilians often value imported European things more highly than those from their own country. The Amazon is an undeveloped and primitive place and perhaps even a little embarrassing. Because of this, decades of government policy attempted to modernize and develop the area. Only recently has the idea of environmental protection become popular. For this same reason, some Brazilians dislike the famous Carnival in Rio because they think it portrays their country as an uneducated and "primitive".

Anyway, my recommendation for the foreign tourist is not to bother visiting these "European towns". Although they are mildly amusing, they are rarely worth going out of your way to see. If you want to see Europe, go to Europe. If you come to Brazil, go to the beaches and Carnival and the Amazon jungle, even if the locals don't.

I don't know why I haven't written an updated in a long time. Anywhere, here is where I will be for the next few months:

May 20-June 11 Rome, Italy
June 17-June 24 Albany, Oregon
June 24-July 4, Alaska
July 4-July 14, Austin, Texas
Aug 3-Sep 4, Japan

If you happen to be in any one of these places at these times, let me know. :)

Last year I took a Japanese language class on Saturday mornings. My goals were: (1) learn Japanese (2) make some friends. After the class finished, I couldn't say that I had really succeeded at either goal. The teacher was nice, but not very effective and had developed a technique to stretch out the smallest amount of material to fill the longest amount of time. The other students in the class were friendly, but I never really "clicked" with any of them.

The same class class started again last week and the same teacher has been leaving me messages to remind me to enroll. I'm in a bit of a dilemma about what to do. I don't have any reason to believe the class will be any better than last time and I think it will be mostly the same students. I'm sure that if I spend four hours every weekend studying on my own I'll learn more Japanese than if I went to class. On the other hand, it's not like I'm really that busy, the class isn't that expensive and maybe there will be more interesting students. Also, will I really study Japanese on my own without a class....

One of the first things most foreigners notice about Japan the first time that they visit is that everything is small and feels cramped. The roads are narrow, the cars are small, the houses are cramped, public transportation never has enough leg room, and even the Japanese themselves are short. Yuka, just got back from Japan, after being away for three years and her first comment to me was: "everything in Japan is so small!" I guess that's what living abroad does to you...

I just had my haircut by a transvestite. I'm still experimenting with the local barber shops to find a place that I like. The last one I went was fine, but a little expensive so I thought I'd try to find a new place. The haircut was good and cheaper then the last place, but I have to admit I felt a little uncomfortable.

So I had a maid come to the apartment today because I wanted to get it clean before Yuka comes back from Japan next week. I'd never had a maid before and I have to admit that I felt a little guilty not to be doing the cleaning myself, but everyone here has one and they're very cheap.

She was here from 9:00-19:00 and she cleaned everything! She did all the laundry, mopped and swept the floors, cleaned all the bathrooms, did all the dishes, took out the trash, dusted, cleaned all the countertops, washed the windows, and a bunch of other things I probably forgot. I felt guilty paying her only $25, but that's actually a little higher than the going rate here...

In Brazil it's very common to buy a car through a system called "consórcio" instead of getting a loan. It works like this: an organization (usually a bank) organizes a group of people who want to buy a car. If the car costs $20,000, the bank might organize 200 people who then agree to pay $100 each month. Every month the bank collects the $20,000 (200 people * $100) it receives and buys a car. The car is then raffled off to one of the 200 people. This continues until all 200 people have gotten a car. If you're lucky you might get a car in the first month (you still have to pay until then end of course), but if you're unlucky you might wait a long time.

The consórcio system is popular, because it's apparently cheaper and easier than getting a loan (interest rates here are outrageous). Personally, I wouldn't like the uncertainty on not knowing when I'm getting the car, but I think most people enter the system when they already have a car, and decide they will need a new one in a couple of years.

I discovered this system after hearing on the news that you can now pay for plastic surgery with consórcio. Imagine the excitement of waiting every month to find out if you're going to get a new pair of boobs!