Adventures of a Gringa in Rio

gossip

Naturally, when I was coming home without my camera, I stumbled through the novela set and all of the stars were doing a fight scene between two women. I watched one of the takes with a huge smile on my face because there is nothing more ridiculous than a fake cat fight in the middle of the street. The fugly Frankenstein male star was there too, even freakier-looking in real life than on TV.

So I came back here and grabbed my camera and went back through the set on my way to the grocery store. I got terrible pictures and all the stars had disappeared when I got back, though I did almost literally run into a famous Globo actor whose name I don't know but he is fat, in his 50s, has curly hair and almond-shaped eyes but isn't Asian. Anybody? I also passed the director, who was flipping out and screaming that he couldn't film but the sun was going down soon and he had scenes to finish.

At the supermarket, I encountered a new thing: the tomatao. Literally "big tomato," it is an enormous, frighteningly chunky tomato. I was going to buy one but they looked kind of gross. Also, on the way home I got a picture of Hortifruti's latest fake movie poster campaign. I love all of them, but this one is very cute too:

End of the week gossip

• One of the key sources in the Spitzer scandal was a Brazilian prostitute who's been in jail in the US since 2006. She used to work for the same ring as the prostitute in question and gave the authorities information. She is going to be deported to Brazil shortly. While in NY, she made around $2million as a prostitute, but after legal fees and getting arrested she has about a quarter of that to take home with her.
• This is what I call AWKWARD. My boss told everyone not to talk about certain things in front of the gossipy oil company secretary, and yesterday I was making small talk with a teacher I hadn't met before, and he started talking about one of the things we're not supposed to talk about. Then I went to teach and then I saw him as I was leaving the office. So later I emailed my boss asking if she'd told everyone about the rule. She called me an hour or so later, saying she only told the newer people and flipped out and then I felt bad and like a tattletale. Just after she'd called, I walked out of the lunch place where I was eating, and guess who was there eating ON HIS CELL PHONE as I left? The same poor English teacher. Oh god, so awkward.
• In other office gossip, remember the new American teacher I was iffy about? Yeah I can't possibly not like him -- he is one of the nicest people on the PLANET. Anyway, the other day we were talking about if Brazilians are smug that the American economy is slowly crashing and burning, since he said his Brazilian friends had seemed to be. I haven't noticed this, but the New Zealander who lives in my building did say something along the lines of being a little smug about it. The media has been smug during part of the week where the newspaper featured headlines like BRAZILIAN BANKS NOW WORTH MORE THAN AMERICAN ONES except when you looked at the actual list that wasn't quite the case. Then yesterday the main headline was something like "Brazilian economists worried about global recession." Yeah, duh.
• Remember the note we got in our mailbox about throwing fruit debris? Eliseu isn't so good at gossip, so I don't have the whole story but yesterday he woke up to a huge argument between a lady on the 1st floor and someone on the 3rd floor, and she was screaming, "YOU'RE THE ONE THROWING TRASH ONTO MY TERRACE! I KNEW IT WAS YOU!! SAFADO!" etc etc. Sadly I wasn't here to eavesdrop.
• Last night we went out with three American guys from the hostel. One of their moms was born where I grew up and went to school where I danced many a ballet performance. But of course.
• So we went to a club last night in Ipanema, a brand-new place on Barao da Torre. You pay a cover and it is open BEER all night. But since I was with my p-i-m-p boyfriend who's bunda all the club people kiss when he brings tourists, we got in free. In the end, I was glad, because the so-called beer was more like watery hops. The club wasn't big but very hip with an upstairs with huge windows overlooking a plaza. They were playing such good hip-hop until it came time to play the requisite techno trash and then, as we say, perdeu a graca, and we left shortly after. It was really fun though! I need to get out more.
• Other than the perk of getting into clubs, I cannot describe how much I hate Eli's job. More on that later.