Day 7

Went to the mall with the Todd's after they went to church (me- not so much - too many episodes of Breaking Bad to catch up on. I'm watching it with Portuguese subtitles so I can convince myself it's productive.) Had a really great lunch - we thought the restaurant was really expensive but turns out we unknowingly ordered enough food for 4 more people. Lesson learned - can always order more, can't send too much back :/

Shopped in the Wally World attached to the mall... I guess I thought Wal-mart would be the same no matter where you are. I was incorrect. They didn't have half the stuff I was looking for, that ours definitely would have. Bummer. I think I like the Extra supermacado better than Wal-mart. I was going to go back out there this afternoon to pick up a little vacuum (the broom doesn't cut it with my hair on white porcelain tile floor), but I got a choice spot in the parking garage of doom and couldn't bring myself to abandon it so quickly.

I've got this thingy on my car that works all the auto tolls on the Dutra and apparently it lets you in and out of the shopping center where Wally World is. I didn't realize this when I entered the parking lot, so I took a ticket when pulling in instead of letting the thingy do its work. However the thingy didn't work when I left I guess because I didn't activate it on the way in. So, I had to re-park, go back in Wal-mart, and pay R$5 so that I would be able to go out again. Why don't they have it so you can pay by credit card at the booth? Brazilians aren't concerned with convenience, for real. This is a clue into many things... efficiency is not high priority in general.

I studied Google Maps for a while this morning and have a little bit of a better feel for the roads around me, at least enough to recognize a few when I'm driving. This town seems big because there are lots of apartments and shopping centers, but geographically it's tiny. I think you can get from one side to the other in less than 10 minutes if you know how to navigate well (which I don't).

So my lovely sister asked me what's so different about the traffic - here are a few things:

- Insane non-traffic-law-abiding motorcyclists everywhere; you can't do anything without making sure there's not one about to fly around you from anywhere

-Minimal respect for pedestrians - make that none. If you're going to cross the street you'd better hustle, crosswalk or no

-Bus lanes - have to stay out of the lanes with solid blue lines, those are just for buses. Can cross through if you need to, but can't drive in them

-No turn on red

- Lanes are a mere suggestion; this applies to both staying in yours and properly using turn lanes

-Stop signs are treated by EVERYONE as a yield; this is confusing because they also have yield signs

Back to the grind tomorrow - lots of work ahead of me this week! Send me any happy thoughts you can muster up please, it's going to be challenging!

Don't be messing with my air freshener... it's a mean mo fo!