Adventures of a Gringa in Rio

cold but not really

OK Cariocas, it's chilly, but it is definitely not cold. I saw all sorts of winter coats and boots today and I gotta say...you guys don't even know real cold. On the other hand, I was talking to another American teacher today who thinks the weather right now is balmy, so I suppose I've gotten a little too used to the heat, since I had on a sweatshirt today.

I taught my ballet class today and it went incredibly well. It is a zillion times easier to teach a small group of serious students than a big group of mixed students. It's a huge pleasure, is what it is. I could teach them all day long, I love them so. And they are so good and learning so fast.

I also saw Leandro the homeless kid today. He was running to catch the bonde and I almost didn't recognize him because he's grown out his hair to a small Afro puff, and he had on a Flamengo jersey. He also had a very mischievous glint in his eye and was carrying around what appeared to be half of a doll stroller. He jumped onto the streetcar with another homeless kid before I had the chance to say hi. It makes me happy just to see him though, to see he is OK and that someone seems to be sort of taking care of him.

rouca

Today the first thing I saw when I walked out of my apartment was a dog wearing a neck tie. And I wasn't imagining it. It looked a lot like the guy below.

Later, I walked into the telenovela set, filming again on our street. As it turns out, they've picked our street to be the home of the two competing beauty clinics, where the stars of the show work. To give you some perspective, it makes me feel like I live on the street where Ugly Betty lives. Aka it makes me feel really cool. I'm lame. I know.

I managed to teach English and ballet today with just a wisp of a voice. Everyone kept saying, "Esta rouca!" but at first I thought they were telling me I was flushed and I got all confused (it took me two tries to spell rouca right, too). I think I have laryngitis. A guy in Centro came up to me and handed me a pamphlet, trying to get me to donate blood to help dengue victims. All I had to do was open my mouth and he practically ran away in fear. I kind of sound like the Cryptkeeper.

I had ok turnout today at the ballet, and the girls were great today. I love how fast kids learn. They make me so proud, which is so gratifying when I drag myself out of bed to teach when I feel like a big heap of compost. I wish I had the means to work there full time. Anyone want to give me a grant? Haha. In my dreams...

my monday

I only had one English class today, and when I left the apartment Eliseu had a fever again, after being miraculously cured for the day yesterday. After the class I went to my favorite veggie lunch place, where I noticed the ceiling for the first time, where they have a chandelier hanging five feet from a disco ball. Hot. I then killed time for two hours, which involved a lot of VEJA, and then I took the bonde to Santa Teresa, which I shared with half tourists, half Cariocas, and three women monks with a digital camera.

When I got to the dance school, I felt that almost-going-to-pull-my-hair-out feeling, when the assistant claimed they "lost" my email to the director that requests information to get them funding and that my class time changed and oh the director is still on vacation. Later, I heard the same assistant gossiping with a student that some of the girls were bullying another girl because she lived in a different favela run by a rival faction. Oyvey.

Luckily, though, my class had better turnout today (ha, ballet pun) and it went very, very, very well. I think they are all kind of terrified by me but at least they respect me and that is a start. I left feeling much better about everything in general.

On the way home I saw not one but two novelas shooting, one in Centro and the other on my street again. There were zillions of people on the shoot on my street, and a huge freaking ball which looked like a white Japanese lantern blown up to the size of a small hot air balloon. I was too tired to oogle.

ballet update

So you may have noticed I took down the ChipIn box. Nobody was donating anyway, but if it was because you don't trust me to actually give them the money, now BST has their own donation mechanism, which you can do with any credit card, available here.

Yesterday I had my class, and this time only two kids showed up: the girl who wasn't invited, and another teenager. The class went well, but I'm starting to get frustrated, humiliated, and fed up with how things are going. I don't know why the kids aren't showing up, because they're some of the ones I know who like me and like taking my class, but the obnoxious assistant and the director have been MIA for the past two weeks, so it's a mystery.

Also yesterday, when I walked into the studio after the hip hop class, about half of the girls were weeping, apparently because the hiphop/drama teacher is leaving (but not for like seven months? I was like wtf?), and all the kids were really upset. I think if this professional class doesn't work out, I might as well volunteer to do something else, like teach English or creative movement, so I can get more kids involved.

I'm not going to quit, of course, but I'm highly discouraged, not just by the organization, but by the whole NGO concept here. I can see why NGOs die out so quickly and why so many of them pimp themselves out to get more funding to increase the quality of the organization.

Things getting me down

• The bonde that took an hour to come yesterday in Santa Teresa
• The fact that only three kids showed up for my new "professional" class yesterday, one of which I hadn't approved
• The fact that the meddling assistant put in kids I didn't approve for my new class
• Having to pick and choose kids for the special class in the first place
• The extreme lack of selection at Hortifruti today. Is nothing in season?
• A lackluster lunch
• Being broke
• the yucky weather
• dengue
• the novela filming down the street, where people are getting paid exorbitant amounts of money to make cheesy comments and be pretty while people starve just yards away
• having to leave Rio so soon
• RIP my laptop cable. Thank god for Eli's friend's laptop (and cable) we're babysitting or I might be having a nervous breakdown right now.

Solution? I found "Enchanted," since the real DVD finally came out and is the original version, not just dubbed in Portuguese. It will help at least a little, I hope.

Dancing & Dengue

These are the tourists I refuse to help:
Creepy old American guy: "How much is the streetcar?"
Youngish American wife: "I don't know."
COAG: "I think it's R$6.60."
YAW: "Let me go check."
She walks over to the sign for the bonde, which is written clearly in Portuguese AND English:
BONDE FARE: $0.60
YAW: "Oh honey, I don't know. It says POINT six reais."
COAG: "Oh, six reais. Ok."

Oh.my.god.

Anyway.
Today I apparently had my last two regular ballet classes at BST, since the director told me they finally got some funding and then casually mentioned the paid ballet teacher has agreed to come back now and I am no longer needed.

So this is obviously great news that they now have some funding to work with, but it's kind of unfair that us volunteers that stepped up to the plate and cleared our schedules and did what we do best when they were in need are suddenly, well, un-needed. (and frankly, the paid teacher, though liked by the kids, kind of sucks).

Luckily, the director has allowed me to start a professional-level class with the most promising kids, so I picked them out today (feeling horribly guilty about having to do that) and told them from now on we have a once a week class.

So hello we are in the midst of a serious dengue outbreak. The director told me that tons of the kids are sick (my morning class was half empty) and that some of the teachers are sick too. It's in the headlines every single day, and more and more cases of hemorrhagic dengue keep sprouting up and incidentally, killing people. Needless to say I'm freaked out. Today I tried to buy bug repellent in a nice pharmacy in Botafogo and I was informed they were SOLD OUT OF REPELLENT. In the same day the new shipment came in.

Also, in my first class this morning, a little eight-year-old girl turned to her friend and goes, "We're having quite an epidemic, aren't we?" And when I was calling roll and all of the absent people, one of the older girls, for some reason, kept going, "Oh, she died." Hello not funny at all.

newfound respect for teachers

I think I've become a full-blown insomniac.

In other news, kids are insane. And I had two ballet classes today and I am completely exhausted. The first class was awful and I got so mad that I stormed outside to get one of the directors to threaten the kids, not knowing the top director was there, who stormed back in and hollered at them. Too bad it was the last minute of class. OY vey. These kids. Are so. Out of control. I can't believe people do this for a living. My second class was a lot better except the stereo system was annoying and they for some reason took away the CDs and only made copies of a few of them so it was a bit frustrating.

In Brazilian news, Lula launched an anti-poverty program for $6 billion to help Brazil's neediest with providing jobs and infrastructure where they are most lacking. The problem with these programs is that they create short-term jobs and sometimes the money never appears to start the public work leaving half-finished roads and people once again without jobs. We'll see how this goes.

And this is pretty ridiculous. British supermodel Naomi Campbell is recovering from surgery in...Brazil. Sao Paulo to be exact. Now, I don't want to get all tropicalist on you all but the number one reason any supermodel would enter a Brazilian hospital would be for plastic surgery. Sao Paulo's hospitals are excellent, but come on! Flying all the way out to Brazil for "removing a small cyst?" Give me a freakin break. Someone's getting some work done.

And for another great story, see today's entry from Portuguese Blog.

sheer exhaustion

Today I had 3 English classes scheduled but inevitably (and thankfully), my afternoon one was canceled. So I taught an 8am and a 12pm class and found out two of my students want to change their schedules, meaning I'm going to have to go in to the office early on both Monday and Friday with no other classes the rest of the day which is really annoying because I am already spending a ton of money on transportation as it is.

Anyway, then I taught a ballet class at 10am and one at 2pm. The 10am one was almost all new students who were terrified and that was just great because they were very well-behaved and enthusiastic. They're uber-beginners though, so I had to give a very very simplified class. My 2pm class was an hour and a half and it just put me over the edge of wanting to pass out as soon as I got on the bus back to Centro. The afternoon class is huge but full of the most of advanced kids so that class will be a lot of fun to teach. They were pretty well-behaved today, considering the usual pandemonium, though I did get some major attitude from one of the older girls, but that's not news.

Also, I brought one of my consulting clients to class with me to shoot photos (she is a pro), and met a girl who's volunteering here for two months and got her set up at the ballet because she speaks no Portuguese and none of the staff speaks English. It seems I've become the defacto volunteer coordinator, which I had already expressed interest in, but the director has been hugely flaky lately so I'm just sort of going to do it.

I'm really excited about getting back into teaching kids, because I love it and it's so much more rewarding than my paid teaching job. I know I got lucky today with the behavior factor, but I'm slowly learning how to deal with the out-of-control kids.

Today when I was walking to work I saw a working class guy walk over to a homeless woman, sitting a bit off the sidewalk on the grass, with her back to the pedestrians. I've seen her before, and I'm pretty sure she has some mental problems, maybe even just from living on the street so long. She's of an indeterminate age and very dark skin, with raggedy clothes and matted hair.

She wasn't even begging; she was just sitting quietly, ignoring the passersby. But the guy went up to her and silently gave her a R$10 bill. She looked at the money, incredulous, and a huge smile spread across her face. She kissed the bill and waved it happily at the man, babbling "Obrigada! Obrigada!" as the man quickly walked away with a small grin. The woman stared at the money again in disbelief. R$10 is worth about US$6, which will buy you a humble but decent lunch and a drink, which this woman isn't guaranteed even once a day. It's rare little things like this that give me hope for Rio.

update from the NGO world

Hey, I have a new page, called the Seven Wonders of Rio! Check it out here.

Also, I NEED to read this book. This is what I'm always trying to tell you all!

Today went like so.

I heard my alarm go off, and I got really confused. It's SATURDAY, obviously, why is my alarm on? Then slowly my mind came into focus, realizing it was in fact Friday and I had a meeting despite a few measly hours of sleep. I somehow made my way out without putting my shirt on backwards or putting on two different shoes, and was lucid enough to remember I was going to Santa Teresa but completely, utterly forgot I was supposed to meet my Canadian friends on the metro platform and hopped right on to the train. One minute later, I panicked and started texting one of them, only to find out 20 minutes later that my text messages haven't been working for 24 hours. I am so INCREdibly fed up with Vivo that I'm considering switching to a different service. I added R$16 worth of minutes and magically, my text messages started working again, even though I had still had a little credit left. Anyway, I met my friends at the bonde stop and we took the streetcar up to Santa Teresa for the staff meeting.

We got there a half hour late (probably actually 15 minutes, judging by the swing of things there), and sat there for another two hours before each slipping out.

Frankly, the news isn't good.

Like I said, they've totally run out of money. Where the original bit went, I don't know, but it's gone. So the director sat everyone down and said that they have had to "fire" all the paid employees and they are now all working for no money. When they eventually got around to asking the main ballet teacher if she'd work for free, she gave a very jumbly answer that basically meant "no." The little help they get from the government is negligible, and they are applying for every grant under the sun (though the director says when she has to write a lot she tends to throw up, but considering the situation, it's gonna happen).

Here are some other parts of the puzzle that are making life frustrating. First, the director found out that someone at the Copacabana Rotary Club had been using the ballet's name to raise money....for herself. The director has no idea who the person is and no one will respond to her at the Rotary Club.  Next,  someone asked her about applying for a PETROBRAS grant, since it is chock full o'money. She told us that though Petrobras always includes BST on the list of the top 600 Brazilian NGOs eligible for grants, in order to actually get money you have to have political connections and/or actively support the PT (Worker's Party). She said she is completely against that and would rather be broke than have to deal with that. Then, to boot, she said a local politician had approached her and offered to get her funding--but only if he kept 15% of the profits. She said she'd rather close the SCHOOL than do that, and that despite a recent proliferation of NGOs, Brazil's social problems continue to persist due to these kinds of issues. I agree. Oh, Brazil. Que lio.

But the worst thing of all is that the director got a death threat from a drug trafficker in one of Santa Teresa's favelas, who called her house and threatened to kill her, I think, if she ever went into his favela again (I was obviously sort of asleep this morning and just missed the "why" part of the story. It was something along those lines). Unfortunately, this type of stuff happens here. Thankfully, the NGO has moved out of the favela into a much better part of the city where such things are less likely to happen, but occasionally do.

After a lot of discussion we finally put the schedule together, and I'm going to be teaching two classes a week, but it's really important now since I had been teaching an extra ballet class, and now I'm going to be teaching one of the 2 ballet classes the kids get per week.

Again, if any of my readers is interested in helping the BST in any way, shape or form, please let me know.

Ballet of Santa Teresa Update: We need help

Today I had a meeting with the director of the ballet org. She was flipping out because her son's school informed her that despite the fact that she'd paid for the semester, they didn't have room for her son. Here in Brazil, even for public school people line up and wait and fight to get their kids into school. Imagine for private ones.

Anyway, the news wasn't good. They have no money. Literally not enough to pay their few paid teachers. They're in big trouble. We're going to apply for some grants I found, and I'm going to help her translate everything. We're also working on other things, like organizing a volunteer coordinator (me and my Canadian friend), starting a "professional" class for the advanced dancers, and some other things. They're in big trouble though, since their main ballet teacher is paid and probably won't work for free. They need funding, and fast.

The good news is, they are going to be in the Children's Parade at the Sambodromo, where they have the major famous Carnaval parade. It is on the 1st this year and YOURS TRULY is going to parade with them! I am so ridiculously excited it's not even funny. Speaking of Carnaval, I got a list today of some of the blocos they have in the next two weeks. They are groups of musicians and dancers that have parades in the streets of Rio during Carnaval, and it's a free party. Awesome. I can't wait. And the Metro is going to be open for 3 days straight without closing!

So, again I ask of you, dear readers, family, and friends. Please donate to the Ballet, payable by PayPal or check. We really need the help.

my plea to you

This is my plea to you, family, friends, and readers.

Donate to my fund for the Ballet of Santa Teresa organization in Rio to bring a much happier New Year to my kids. For my loved ones, since I can unfortunately not come home for the holidays, a donation to BST would be a great gift!

Your support will help fund:

• renovations to the studio and building
• new barres and a safer floor
• new dance clothes and costumes
• a new stereo (that works without smacking it repeatedly) and dance CDs
• games and recreational activities (there are currently about 2 falling apart board games in the cabinets)
• books, notebooks, and art supplies
• snacks for the kids
• literacy classes for moms

and much more!

Donations accepted through Paypal (Click on my ChipIn on the right side of the blog) and by check. Please contact me if you are interested in donating! Every person that donates will get a personal thank-you from BST's director!

Please help bring more smiles to Rio in 2008!

Photos by J. La Pointe

Things you should see

Here is a link to my friend Jann's photos she took of my ballerinas, chosen from a huge amount she took. Check them out here!

Thanks to my mom for sending me this Times story about how the US government has been focusing so much time on controlling travel and trade with Cuba that it has gone and neglected such things such as NATIONAL SECURITY and TERRORISM and Osama bin Laden, for that matter. This, we already knew. Props to the Government Accountability Office for once actually being accountable. Click here for the story.

For all of you interested in, or definitely going to travel to Rio, this is a nice little list of things to do in Rio and some random links if you're interested in spas and whatnot. Click here.

And the commercial that makes me cry. It shows prices of airfare from different cities, and at the end says: "Spending Christmas together: priceless."

 

Ballet School Winter Show day

Today was the BST's winter show, held at Eli's college's theater in Ipanema. They originally were going to have it at a huge theater in Leblon, but the parents refused to take their kids, I think because it's in a favela run by a rival drug gang. So they held it at a very nice, albeit very small theater.

Me and my Canadian friend got there early to help out, but there turned out to be not a whole lot to do. At one point we helped them with their costumes but we mostly just shushed them in the teeny tiny dressing room/backstage area. The director had some event today, that I want to assume she couldn't get out of because she arrived 40 minutes late to the show (the parents arrived 20 minutes late, so I guess it's relative), leaving the other staff to run everything, and they were pretty incompetent. But finally everything got going and the show went relatively smoothly.

The kids were ADORABLE, especially the director's son who was the funniest, most charming little guy ever, who played the violin during the music part and played the rabbit in the ballet and was ridiculously cute. The other kids did really well, albeit many of them looked a little lost and totally terrified the whole time. They were all great though and remembered the steps, so it went well.

The show was divided into three sections: chorus and flutes (a little painful), hip-hop (meh), and the ballet which was Alice in Wonderland. The costumes were all homemade but were all beautiful, and only a few saggy tights gave the kids away. The main ballet teacher played big Alice and the best girl in the school played little Alice, and I watched her parents next to me who were absolutely THRILLED to see her (I would be too). The dad, a hippie-like guy wearing yoga beads and snapping pictures the whole time, was such a sweet and proud dad, and the mom dabbed her eyes the whole time. She was timid but beautiful--she has so much potential. The teacher, on the other hand, gave herself a bunch of pointe solos and did some pretty bad choreography (I understand the need to be simple, but there was a whole lot of walking around). I felt bad for her though, because her pointe shoes were so dead that dancing on them was a hazard. She has unpointy feet as it is so it looked like her feet were going to snap in half. Pointe shoes are really expensive here. So are digital cameras, but tons of parents had them. It must be the parcelamento system where you can pay in a zillion payments.

The parents were an interesting bunch. There were a lot of babies and toddlers, and I was pretty grossed out to witness a kid between 2 and 3 years old breastfeeding during the middle of the show. Another kid coughed for the first half of the show, and a lot of babies made a lot of baby noise. But all the parents seemed proud and happy to be there, so that's the important thing.

I was proud of the kids for getting through everything and remembering the choreography, and a few even remembered to smile. I took some pictures before the show and my photog friend shot during the show. I'll load my pix, and the pix my photog friend took of our dance class, tomorrow.

Working backwards...today I went to a vegetarian restaurant in Centro. It's totally non-descript with very delicious and healthy food, including fresh guava, and no soda. I went up to the second floor and sat in front of one of the huge Victorian windows overlooking the trees, making me forget I was in Centro, or in Rio.

Last night on Fantastico, the Sunday news program, there was a whole lot of criticizing of leftish leaders, which made me realize Globo has a pretty right wing agenda. Not as bad as Fox News, but still. They did a cartoon making fun of Evo Morales, a skit pretending Chavez was trying to take over Brazil, and a special on 3 Cuban refugees in Brazil and the Brothers to the Rescue group in Miami. It was crack on Cuba night. Which was weird because today in Flamengo I saw a huge Cuban flag and couldn't figure out what it was there for or what was behind the wall. Anyway, there's a lot wrong with Cuba but there's a lot wrong with interviewing Brothers to the Rescue and Castro's exile daughter and not getting an opposing opinion. They're the most ideological of Miami Cubans, and the views they express seem to be meant to shape the viewer's opinion. Perhaps Globo wants Brazilians to appreciate their lives and country more?

And lastly.
My mom and I once got into an argument about how different accents in England represent different socioeconomic groups and that you can tell how rich or poor a person is by their accent, a la My Fair Lady. She won. This by the way is true for Brazilian Portuguese, especially Carioca Portuguese.

But Eliseu has a different socioeconomic theory. His theory is the Bikini Bottom Theory. Yesterday I commented that about 90% of the women at the beach had less than 70% of their butts covered by bathing suits. He claims that the smaller the bikini bottom, the lower the social class. The women who wear thongs, he says, are the poorest, the prostitutes, or the extremely vain, but mostly the former. The more of the butt that is covered, the richer the girl. I noticed a girl with an American-style bikini bottom playing beach ping pong with a clone of Kaka. He said she was probably rich. The typical smallish bikini bottom that you will find in 95% of stores in Rio that sell bikinis is the middle ground, for the middle class and people with means. But a full bikini bottom, which is nearly impossible to find in stores here, means you probably bought the bikini in another country, and are therefore well off.

I'm welcome to any interpretations of this theory!

brazilian meetings: a true test of a new yorker's patience

Let me work backwards.

Today I had to teach class at 12, and then went up to Santa Teresa for the end-of-the-year teacher's meeting at the NGO. Let me say that I was a complete utter bundle of nerves when I walked out of the meeting and couldn't figure out why, and I am still kind of jittery. Why?

The meeting was scheduled for 1pm. I got there at 1:30. The meeting started a little before 2, and much to my happy surprise, it was a lunch meeting (a DELICIOUS lunch meeting--apparently the cook lady is pretty amazing--whole grain rice and some delicious mystery meat and amazing beans...mmm). So that meant we ate first and made chitchat. For about an hour and a half. There's this Belgian girl living here who's worked there for awhile and speaks adorably French-accented, but really good Portuguese. She's basically a nomad and has lived all over the world, which I admire/envy. Anyway she's here now and she was telling all these crazy stories about Africa which she seems to know a lot about and how the Belgians (she claims) are responsible for many of Africa's modern conflicts. It was all very fascinating but I was like ohmygod is this meeting ever going to start?

So, finally the director was like, "So, I want each of you to tell me the good and the bad things about this year so we can work on stuff for next year." Belgian girl, who'd just spoken almost uninterrupted for maybe 45 minutes, took the liberty to start, speaking another century (also interesting and valid, but omg), and then claimed she had to leave and peaced. And so this cycle commenced. Another teacher, smartly so, didn't even get a chance to speak and left. Finally I interjected "MAY I PLEASE PLEASE SPEAK?!?" So I told them my two main ideas: a volunteer coordinator and a pre-professional class by audition only. I tried to explain about the "lack" of effective communication tactfully, but as expected the superawesome receptionist was like WELLYOUKNOW that one time there was a battle in the favela, that's why no one came. I bit my tongue to tell her that she had actually never told me that in any event. But thankfully the director recognized there is a huge need to communicate with the volunteers and keep them in the loop, so that should definitely go through. And she liked the idea of the pre-professional class since she's hoping to get some of the kids into professional schools next year. Afterwards, me and my Canadian friend presented our updates and ideas for the next year, which she liked. And then they gave us presents (so sweet), these really cute black bags with the ballet's logo on it. :) I got there at 1:30 (late). I left after 4:30.

AH.

Another thing we did during the meeting, no rather, they did, was gossip about some of the students. There are some with some absolutely serious problems, and if I understood correctly, one girl sometimes...goes to the bathroom in her pants (not pee), but maybe she just meant she gets in trouble. "Cagar-se" can be both. Some of the kids they talked about I didn't know but some of them I definitely do. The director is an expert in what goes on in these kids lives, and how terrible some of the parents are. One of the kids lives with her mom and stepdad, who refuses to talk to the girl. One girl's dad is in fact, a major drug trafficker, and the girl apparently cried every day when her mom sent her to live with the dad for awhile (she is since back with her mom). There are kids who disappear for weeks and months at a time from the ballet. There are parents who refuse to come to any events at the school "unless there will be alcohol." Parents skip performances for pagode parties. Parents pick their kids up drunk. There are kids with no self-esteem. There are kids who have no family. The favela where most of the kids come from is the most violent in Santa Teresa, and sometimes they have to hide out and can't come to class because of shoot-outs. Basically, there are kids with every problem under the sun. But as the director correctly reminded us, that's why we exist, and it's the most difficult children who need us the most.

 

It's still raining, in case you care.

Last night Eli brought this English couple over who are honestly one of the coolest couples I've met in awhile--just super gente boa. Apparently, weirdly, the guy worked at a summer camp in Maine for two summers where two of my friends from high school went every year as kids (they didn't cross paths). Anyway they were super sweet and we hung out and drank caipirinhas, and then went to the hostel, where two Italian guests made a GINORMOUS and pretty good Italian dinner which we gobbled up with sangria. MMmm. New guests include two extremely irritating American girls, some incredibly funny Irish dudes from "Limerick," and a bunch of new British people.

I have never met so many English people in my life in a single place, except for London. It really is strange how many people from Great Britain make it to Brazil.

And, in other hostel gossip, apparently the French model from New York, who lately has taken to working out and lounging around shirtless and extremely smelly, and then sulking in corners when no one gave a crap, has fled the hostel. Yes, fled. He got into an argument with the staff about how much he owed, and Eliseu told him if he didn't pay what he owed he'd be forced to call the cops. And so the French guy disappeared. And now poor Eli called the cops, every hostel in town, the bus station, the airport...unfortunately, this is a big, disorganized city and the guy could easily make it out of here with no problem. This is the part where i hold my tongue about the French.

Anyway--next post incoming about my museum fun yesterday.

My photog friend sent me two of the shots she took this week. Here is one of them.