Life Outside the US

I have been in Brazil almost 4 months straight now. If you have never been away from home for a long time, it can be a fun experience—or grueling, but that mostly depends on one's attitude toward life. It's long enough to get homesick, and get over being homesick.

I suppose that my readers could think from reading the following, that I am complaining. Maybe that would be a correct assumption on some days, but not today. I like being here, I just want to express what its like to be here. Since I cannot share someone else's perspective, I must rely on my own.

The first few weeks I was here, I had a very strange experience: I would be sitting in one room, and hear English being spoken in another room--whether it was the TV, or people conversing. I only had to get up a couple of times and go check it out before I figured out that my brain was playing tricks with what my ears were telling it.

The hot weather here has persisted for approximately a month and-a-half. Temperatures have been 100-104 F most days. My body has gotten used to the heat, and now I shiver when its anywhere below 85 F. It should cool off a bit and start raining after Christmas.

Stuff I miss:
Yep, I miss stuff still. Things like peanut butter sandwiches, my guitars (I have one here, but I miss my good guitars...), mom's chocolate chip cookies, driving, driving my own vehicle, crosswalks at intersections, developed sidewalks...

Those are kind of the small day-to-day things. Bigger things are family, friends, being able to go do things completely for oneself (language barrier), peace and quiet.

Peace and quiet. Yes, that has been the one that I have missed most recently. There are no laws governing the noise that comes out of vehicles here (more accurately, if there are, they are not well-enforced). So the (very frequent-at-all-times-of-the-day) passing of a motorcycle can be extremely loud. There are also vehicles equipped with massive sound systems that rove the neighborhood frequently broadcasting adverts for grocery stores. If that's not enough, there is a gym across the street from the house that tends to pump out a pretty decent amount of volume from its sound system.

Those things would not be a problem in the States, as I could just walk over an shut a window (well, most of the year it would already be closed, actually). Here one would suffocate doing that. And at night, there is the constant hum of the fan, which, if turned off inhibits the ability to sleep.

I have figured out that I like to hear the sounds of silence. I covet every moment I notice that its quiet. It could just be where I live in the city too. I have been to other houses where it seemed quieter at the moment I was there.

I was remembering the other day, that the first night I got home, when I went home last time, I was shocked by the amount of quiet. I am looking forward to the feeling again.

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