The First Week in Recife (pronounced Hecefe) Brazil

This is my first attempt at "blogging" the Brazilian adventures. I will begin adding more once I figure out how to work this site.

I arrived Saturday Oct 13th at 4:00 in the afternoon. Flights all went well (as well as a 26 hour journey can be). Saturday to Monday were all a blur as lack of sleep and language confusion keep my brain spinning. Today is much better and I'm getting into the routine now.

This is a Brazlian sunrise at 5:30 am. Recife is near the equator and it is amazing how fast it gets light, and how fast it gets dark when the sun sets.

The other photos of are the apartment and city scape. You can find all my posted photos here: http://www.flickr.com/gp/14172071@N02/6i9XCD

So far the weather here has been perfect; about 78f daily. I've not had a chance to explore much yet as I'm working the first two weeks here.

The apartment I've rented is perfect. A nice flat on the 13th story of a modern building. While not directly on the water front, its walking distance to everything needed; including a Brazilian Wal-Mart. And speaking of shopping, given the exchange rate a person would believe things are cheaper here than the US, not true. When calculating the exchage rate, prices are on par with the US, and in some cases food is more expensive.

Speaking of food, many of you know I rarely cook. There are NO restaurants around so I'm forced to cook. Went food shopping last night and it was a 3 hour experince trying to figure things out and of course I used the opportunity to continue to hone my language skills.

Work has been keeping me busy so the days are consumed and haven't gotten out much yet. This weekend will be an adveture. I'm getting a rapid grip on the language. Between the Rosetta stone computer course, a phrase book and taking diligent notes I can get at least 1 word in 50 now. Hopefully in another week I'll be up to 2 words in 20 for comprhension.

The city noises here are unbelievable. at 5:30 am the city is stone quiet. By 6:15 it completely alive. Brazilians are loud in everthing they do. They honk horns insessantly, play music loudly, yell loudly, and my favorite noise of all is the gas salesman. The majority of buildings (the older ones) do not have gas plummed in so many of the people still use propane like cylinders. There is a guy driving around in a truck selling gas. He has a 360 degree loud speaker on the top of the truck and drives up and down every street announcing gas for sale. I can set my clock to him at 6:25am every day. You can hear him coming many blocks away at lasts for 2 hours because he travels every street with loud speaker constantly going.

I'll keep this going as I work it into my daily routine.