Brazil vs. Argentina vs. USA

So I've been here in Rio for a couple weeks now and I'm starting to learn a little about the culture, and to observe some of the differences between living in Brazil, Argentina, and the United States. Now some of these observations may be unique to Rio and not the norm for the whole country but I'll still share with you what I've observed.

The first, and probably most disheartening thing I realized was that there is no siesta in Brazil. The days of three hour naps that I have had grown to love and cherish are now taken away from me; I almost cried.

Second, there are no casinos in Brazil. Like none. My friend told me they've been outlawed since like 1980. Another part of me died.

Third topic of concern: food. I easily could have lead with this observation, but if you've read my other posts, you already know that food is number one on my list. And food in Rio is EXPENSIVE! My wallet will definitely suffer :(. However, the portions are HUGE! My stomach will definitely benefit :). In other countries, when they say, "Portion for two", I laugh because usually that can barely feed me. Here in Brazil, when they say, "Portion for two" they should say, "Portion for a small village". It's impressive. My first night that I ate out alone I had to bow my head in shame after I could barely finish half of the food I ordered, and this was after I hadbragged to the waiter about how much I could eat. Ooo one other thing. There are a lot of buffets here in Rio. Yes! However, you have to pay by the kilo...this was my reaction when I figured that out. Here. I mean, it makes sense here, you should pay for the amount of food you eat. I just had gotten so accustomed to beating the system in the United States that paying extra is just so painful. (I know that if they ever implemented this policy in the US, people would riot!)

On to driving. I thought people in Argentina drove badly... I have to do one of two things when I'm in a taxi: Look out the side window at the beautiful scenery or sleep. If I look straight ahead and watch how crazy the taxi driver is driving or at how badly the people are driving around him I get nauseous. There is no regard for lane lines, pedestrians, traffic lights at night, pedestrians (cant stress that enough), or just any kind of patience whatsoever.

Name pronunciation. My name has been pronounced a thousand million billion different ways and it does not bother me at all as long as it's close enough that I know that you're talking to me. In Argentina my name was pronounced Shay-ron May-gin-see. Here so far I've gotten Jeromy Mayo-niece. Eh. Still better than Menendez (for my friends since middle school).

A big personal adjustment for me is adjusting to living in a big city. Im from a relatively small U.S. city, and every city I've played in so far has ranged from VERY small (shout out to Río Tercero) to about a medium-sized city in Corrientes. Río is huge and inhabits almost seven million people! With that comes the fact that everyone moves at a fast pace, traffic, unlimited things to do, noise, and of course unbelievably brave pigeons that think they run the place. One day I was eating lunch and a pigeon had the audacity to run over my foot, stop, and then look at me like it was my fault. Unbelievable.

Let's see what else? Ah yes, both the language barrier and me sticking out like a sore thumb. My Portuguese is improving every day. I'm no longer scared to speak it; I just state that I'm American and I don't speak Portuguese well, then I continue you on speaking.

• That reminds me of something else interesting about Brazil, the racial diversity. People assume I'm Brazilian until I open my mouth. You really can't tell tourists from Brazilians until they speak; which means I only stick out because of my height haha. Again, this might be unique to Rio, but I feel like it is more diverse here than in the USA.

Back to the language. I'm still not sure what people are saying to me when they comment on my height. I can understand when they ask if I play basketball and when they ask how tall I am. After that, I'm not sure. I just smile and nod until they are finished. I have heard every comment there is to make about being tall so I'm sure nothing that they say is original haha.

• Best comment I have ever heard about being tall. I was in high school and I was lifting weights at a gym. I had just finished a set of squats and I turned around and a guy walked up to me, looked me right in the eye and said, "My friend would beat the !@#$ out of you in a limbo contest." Then he walked away like nothing had happened. I'm pretty sure they are not saying anything like that, but soon I will know.

PDAs (Public Displays of Affection). I had noticed that in Argentina couples were more affectionate towards each other than in the United States. Brazil is on a different level. First of all, holding hands is a must. I have yet to see a couple walking together and not hold hands. And they don't let go either; if someone walks between them, they lift their hands over the persons head, they don't let go. But the biggest thing is the kissing. I have seen numerous people have full make out sessions in restaurants, in the middle of the street, in the grocery store, basically everywhere. I have no witty comment to say here, just making an observation.

Lastly, I'll return to a food. Unlike Argentina, I can eat anything I want here at any hour of the day without being strange. In Argentina I used to eat chicken at 5 or 6 before practice and people thought that was the weirdest thing ever. In Brazil I can eat my chicken in peace :)

Pictures to make you jealous that you're not here/give you incentive to come visit!

When

Will

You

Visit?

The First Few Days in Rio

Day 1: I finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro! And I got my bags!! (For those of you who know my history that's a big deal) Our manager picked me up and drove me to the hotel I will be staying at until my apartment is ready. Rio is an unbelievably beautiful city! I promise to post random pictures of the city from time to time.

Now on to the obvious problem, language -- I learned Spanish while I was in Argentina and had gotten pretty comfortable with it. I knew Portuguese was similar to Spanish but I still bought some Portuguese tapes and started studying away. By the time I arrived, I felt pretty confident with my Portuguese. I felt that with the Portuguese I was studying and the Spanish I already knew, I would be able to communicate a little. Wrong. Instead I felt the same way I did my first year in Argentina, like fish out of water. And the feeling this time was actually worse because I was so confident and then fell so hard. Le Sigh.

Anyways, I was ok because my agent was with me and he spoke English. We walked along the beach Copacabana and I stopped and took a few pictures.

Lunch on the lake

Chillin with the pope on the beach

After a short nap I went to a random restaurant and had the best steak I've ever had in my life. Afterwards I checked out the night life for a little bit; I'll just say I'll have as much fun in Brazil as I did in Argentina.

Day 2: Nothing. It was Sunday and I was dead tired.

Day 3: I knew today would be a long day. I woke up at 6 am to take a physical (The dreaded treadmill for the people who know what that test is), then had lunch with team officials. Later that day, there was a press conference with the two foreign players including myself. It was my first press conference that I was asked questions and got a chance to respond as a professional and you know what, it was about time; people need to know what I think haha. (That was a joke, I'm not that arrogant).

We'll be like Dwight Howard and Steve Nash should have been.

Now this was an interesting press conference because my first language is English, my teammate's is Spanish and everyone else's is Portuguese. It was a trilingual press conference. Questions were asked in Portuguese (some of which I understood. Go me!); and the answers were given in English, Spanish, or Portuguese depending on who was asked. Needless to say after the press conference I had a headache!

After an aspirin, I hung out at the mall and toured the city a little bit more and then I went to sleep. Tuesday was to be my first day of practice!

The whole team is not here yet because numerous players are playing for the national team. Therefore I practiced with the under 22 team. Towards the end of the practice, the coach came up to me and said that since it was my first practice my teammates were going to beat me up. I thought to myself, "Hmm all of these guys are younger than me and this is not my first year of professional basketball." I said to the coach, "Ok. That's fine. But I will fight back." I then put up my fists and smiled. After the practice, he said to them (in Portuguese), "Well this is Jerome's first practice, you all know what to do." I didn't understand what he said when he said it but I could tell by all the scared faces around me that he had told them it was time to beat me up. I raised my fists and gestured to them to bring it on. And of course, I smiled. There was only one brave soul who hesitantly slapped me on the wrist. Kudos to him haha.

I mean, can you really blame them?

Appetite Over All

I have a few other blog posts in the making, but something just happened that I want to write about now.

It was about 10:30 pm and I went to eat at a restaurant I've eaten at most often since coming to Brazil. The restaurant was relatively empty today, and I had ordered some chicken and rice; there was nothing out of the ordinary. I started to see a few people running in one direction, not enough to cause an alarm, but enough to start to draw other people's attention. More people started to come, and then a couple of cops that were on motorcycles stopped to see what was going on. This is when things started to get interesting.

I saw a guy running with a flag. I have no idea what it said because I was too far away. But whatever it said, the cops didn't like it because they took the flag and broke it into pieces. At that point I thought the incident was over because it had seemed like the cops had driven off. However, even more people started to gather, and then they started chanting at the cops. Even more cops came. I kept eating.

People started looking to see what was going on all around the area. Many people started to run into the crowd with their cameras held high and recording. Some of the cameras were expensive, professional cameras which made me think that this little riot was planned. I heard a few popping sounds. I continued eating. After a few more popping sounds the army or SWAT team arrived. All of sudden people started running away! Then...

BOOM. A flash bang goes off. This got me out of my seat haha. BOOM. Another one goes off. A bunch of people ran into the restaurant and I also got up and ran inside. After a few moments passed and the worst seemed to be over, I went outside, grabbed my food, and brought it into the restaurant to keep eating. People lingered in and around the restaurant for some time to make sure everything had calmed down. Some had their noses covered; I guess there was a bad smell. That didn't bother me, I just kept on eating.

Nothing. And I mean nothing was going to get between my food and me!

There was a guy who had been close to the flash bang that came in the restaurant and he was pretty shaken up. I also saw some people running by who had their faces covered with masks and clothing; I assume they were part of the incident. All in all I was not overly alarmed (Minus the BOOM). I also could not ask and didn't fully understand what had happened. (Working on that Portuguese I promise) I just stuck to my general rules when dealing with sudden large gatherings of people.

1. NEVER run towards the big crowd. That puts you in the line of fire.
2. Know what is going on. Though you don't want to run towards the crowd knowing how dangerous the situation could become is important. (Helps when you are tall, you can see everything from a safe distance)
3. When other people start running, you start running. They're obviously running for a reason, you should follow suit.
4. Leave when it is clear that everything has calmed down.

If my Mondays are like this I can't wait to see what happens on a weekend!

A New Overseas Adventure

Well, after a two-year hiatus I have decided to return to blogging; at least on a temporary basis. The primary reason for my newfound desire to blog is that I am heading to a new country which means a new culture, a new language, and hopefully many new exciting adventures. Brazil here I come!

About three weeks before I was scheduled to leave the US, my agent sent me an email with a list of documents I needed to get together to apply for  a visa to enter Brazil.

Side note: I feel like I should give a short update on what happened the past two years in Argentina. I had two more great years in Argentina with the past year ending in three championships!

Back to the Visa: When I saw the list of things I needed, I put my face in my palm and thought to myself, "Getting this visa is going to be a nightmare." Oh how correct I was. The first problem was that I was in Charlottesville working out (Go Hoos Go!) and not in Louisiana. Luckily I had my passport and other necessary documents with me, so I mailed everything from New York (spontaneous road trip) to the Visa Agency who would go to the Consulate on my behalf. And now I will list all of the problems that I had...

• Before I do list the problems I had, let me say this. A lot friends have told me that they would like to visit me. Great! But be warned, you must have a Visa to enter Brazil and my advice to all of you is to get your Visa at least two weeks before you plan on coming. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!!!

Problem #1: I bought and sent two money orders--one made out to the Consulate and one to the Visa Agency. I bought them at a pharmacy in New York on a Friday evening because it was my only option and mailed them to the agency. But alas, I did not read the fine print! The Consulate only accepts money orders from USPS. Le sigh. So I had to send the money to the agency for them to buy a USPS money order on my behalf.

Problem #2: When the agency submit my documents to the Consulate everything was fine...except they rejected my passport. One reason was because there weren't any blank pages, and the second because it had some water damage.

Water damage story: I had my passport in a bag in my apartment in Argentina in a closet safe and sound...at least I thought. It was a December morning I was scheduled to leave Argentina to come home for Christmas break, I retrieved my passport from the closet, and I was shocked to realize that my passport was wet! I almost had a heart attack. Luckily I was able to leave and reenter the country. Here is a video that shows why my passport got wet. 

Literally 30 seconds later...

Having received the bad news about the visa, I immediately bought a ticket back to Louisiana from DC. The day was Tuesday, July 23rd and the team wanted me in Brazil on August 1st. (Funny story I showed up at the wrong airport in DC and didn't have enough time to go to the other one. Luckily I was able to cancel that ticket and buy another one for the same price in time to catch the flight at that airport. Thank you Kayak.) I had to drive to New Orleans (about and hour and a half away) on Thursday to apply for my expedited passport and then back again on Friday to pick it up so I could send it express to the agency. I assumed that the representative would go to the Consulate on Tuesday because it only opened Tuesdays and Thursdays. WRONG AGAIN!

Problem #3: The agency received my passport, but didn't go to the Consulate on Tuesday because they had mislaid the money for the money order. Le sigh. After some detective work, I called the agency and the check was found! Problem solved...except that the visa application could not be submitted until Thursday, and if approved, could not be retrieved before the following Tuesday. I would then receive my passport on Wednesday and the earliest I could leave would be Thursday the 8th. Le sigh.

The application as approved! Finally! I was ready to leave on Friday. Bags were packed (70 lbs. instead of 50 and two free bags. Best thing ever!), made it to the airport, flew to Atlanta, aaaaaand the flight was delayed two hours. I just laughed. Compared to what I went through to get the visa a late flight was no big deal haha. I can only imagine what adventures lay ahead in Brazil!