Chicken On The Bus

Another bus story this week. After my last class on Saturday, we were on the bus ride home, and a guy came and sat down right next to me. Pretty normal. Well, except that he had a chicken with him. It wasn't something you would find in a grocery store, either. It was very much alive, securely wrapped in a couple of plastic grocery bags. Its head was sticking out, but that was it.
I could not help thinking, “That would not fly in Portland...” Okay. Lame jokes aside, I really don't think that having a live animal on a vehicle of public transport would be considered appropriate in most cities in the US.
I also wondered about what animal rights activists would have said about the plastic bags, and about why the chicken was so calm during the ride (it just sat there on the floor).
Sometimes Brazil can be deceptively similar to the US, and sometimes its so different that one wonders if the planet has changed. Of course, the lines are the fuzziest in relation to people. The way things look (at least here in Teresina) is a pretty big clue that its not Kansas (or any other state in the US).
I was hoping that I would already be able to share some good news with you about whether, or not we get an apartment. Appearently, though, I am in Brazil: They said to call back later. Maybe we will have something to be very thankful for on Thursday.
What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions? I'll share mine in a day, or two.

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Apartment?

In the last post, I mentioned that we are looking for a place of our own. “The plan” has gone through several revisions since a month, or two ago, but we think we have settled now.

Buying the house would have proved a stress, to say the least, on our finances. Once we did the math on that, we decided to look elsewhere. One of the ideas that kind of got this whole thing going was that there are some new apartments going in that are small enough to be affordable for us.



This is an image from Google Earth of the area. The top of your screen is due North. Incidentally, this is only about two kilometers away from the camp where we met. :D

So, to sum up what is happening here: We are not sure of anything yet. We are in the process of applying for the loan, and might know about that sometime this week. In the next month they are planning to have a drawing to see who gets to choose their apartment first (the construction is nearly done on the complex, unlike in this photo).

We visited, and had a look around on Sunday afternoon, and were impressed. They aren't big apartments, but they seem pretty nice for the price we would be paying. Some of the build quality is not the greatest, either, but it would be our apartment. So reasonable renovations are possible.

My camera is broken, or I would post pictures. If this turns into reality, thought, I will see if I can borrow a camera and post some pictures.