Loneliness of the late night long distance drunk
So Fred and Estêvão arrived last night, in fact I saw Estêvão arrive while I was in the lobby with Sergio and a Caipirinha.
We met at breakfast then walked to the laboratory this morning. The weather was nice and bright and it's not as menacing as Aline (the cute receptionist) made out. Either it's a lot worse after dark or they're overly protective; still the ability to talk yourself out of trouble is a powerful defense that I don't have here. I don't think that it's worse than Moscow however and I walked around there at 2am… although not deliberately according to my recollection.
The lab we are working is pretty small, and pretty full of racks, so there really isn't room for all three of us and the numerous other staff that seem to be working in here, or pop in and out.
The doors are also locked and we don't have access so we have to rely on other people to let us in or accompany people to the door so that they can go to the toilet. What's worse is that the door makes a really annoying high-pitched beep as soon as it is opened and doesn't stop until it is closed and has locked itself. It is also damped so you can't close it quickly. I don't understand why there isn't a time delay so that it only starts beeping if it's been open for longer, for instance, than it normally takes to go through it.
We went to a shopping centre between the lab and the hotel for lunch; we went to the food court. Brazil has quite a few chains it seems, there is Habib's, which seems to be everywhere and does Mediterranean or Arab food, Giraffes, which I can't figure out what they sell, as well as a couple of the usual suspects from America. we went to a 'more authentic' place. Only after we'd ordered, sat down and waited for our number to come up on the LED display, did someone remind me that I was flouting death or illness by eating salad.
One of the features that has struck me about the architecture here is that there are a lot of curves, arcs and cylinders or sections of cylinders. In the case of the hotel with it's horizontally laid, quarter cylinder glass ceilings, there's a clear inspiration from the botanical gardens. On the other hand there are cylindrical towers, the bus stops are horizontally mounted cylinders and curves of some kind comprise part of many of the buildings.
After we finished work we went back to the hotel and then took an excessively convoluted taxi ride to a place that eventually turned out to be closed. After 20 minutes of driving I saw the hotel again, that's how convoluted it was.
We finally found a Japanese place, (not that places weren't open, just ones that we knew about), but I was convinced that my hotel key had fallen out of my wallet as I emerged from the taxi, but I couldn't see it.
We had sashimi and teppenyaki and while the food was excellent, the notable experience for me was drinking the local Sake out of, well, wooden boxes. The cups were wooden, about a finger-length (8cm?) square and about half as deep and served on a saucer. The Sake was then poured into the cup until it overflowed, which made drinking out of a square vessel even more of a challenge. Apparently the spilled Sake was for luck or for the gods or something, which was quite fortunate as Sake ended up going everywhere; it is quite hard to drink out of a square container.
Also the Sake was served slightly chilled, but what was perhaps, surprising, was that it was more than good enough to be served like this. In fact I'd like to get a bottle of it as much as I'd like a bottle of Cachaça.
Fred had beer, a dark beer called Xingu that tasted quite a lot like one of the Trappist beers. Yes, the Brazilians seem to have adopted the best of all worlds; German beer and fine cosmopolitan food.
Anyway we headed back to the hotel where I was just asking to have my key replaced, when I found it again.
One of the endearing things about this hotel is that all the staff call me "Mr David"; it's very cute and reminds me of Vietnam.
One of the difficult aspects of this trip is the negative time difference. When I am away on business I usually like to 'phone people before going to bed or chat over the internet, just to stave off the isolation, but the problem with Brazil is that everyone in Europe should be in bed by the time these urges kick in. This means that I feel a bit lonely. Unheimlich, I guess.
We met at breakfast then walked to the laboratory this morning. The weather was nice and bright and it's not as menacing as Aline (the cute receptionist) made out. Either it's a lot worse after dark or they're overly protective; still the ability to talk yourself out of trouble is a powerful defense that I don't have here. I don't think that it's worse than Moscow however and I walked around there at 2am… although not deliberately according to my recollection.
The lab we are working is pretty small, and pretty full of racks, so there really isn't room for all three of us and the numerous other staff that seem to be working in here, or pop in and out.
The doors are also locked and we don't have access so we have to rely on other people to let us in or accompany people to the door so that they can go to the toilet. What's worse is that the door makes a really annoying high-pitched beep as soon as it is opened and doesn't stop until it is closed and has locked itself. It is also damped so you can't close it quickly. I don't understand why there isn't a time delay so that it only starts beeping if it's been open for longer, for instance, than it normally takes to go through it.
We went to a shopping centre between the lab and the hotel for lunch; we went to the food court. Brazil has quite a few chains it seems, there is Habib's, which seems to be everywhere and does Mediterranean or Arab food, Giraffes, which I can't figure out what they sell, as well as a couple of the usual suspects from America. we went to a 'more authentic' place. Only after we'd ordered, sat down and waited for our number to come up on the LED display, did someone remind me that I was flouting death or illness by eating salad.
One of the features that has struck me about the architecture here is that there are a lot of curves, arcs and cylinders or sections of cylinders. In the case of the hotel with it's horizontally laid, quarter cylinder glass ceilings, there's a clear inspiration from the botanical gardens. On the other hand there are cylindrical towers, the bus stops are horizontally mounted cylinders and curves of some kind comprise part of many of the buildings.
After we finished work we went back to the hotel and then took an excessively convoluted taxi ride to a place that eventually turned out to be closed. After 20 minutes of driving I saw the hotel again, that's how convoluted it was.
We finally found a Japanese place, (not that places weren't open, just ones that we knew about), but I was convinced that my hotel key had fallen out of my wallet as I emerged from the taxi, but I couldn't see it.
We had sashimi and teppenyaki and while the food was excellent, the notable experience for me was drinking the local Sake out of, well, wooden boxes. The cups were wooden, about a finger-length (8cm?) square and about half as deep and served on a saucer. The Sake was then poured into the cup until it overflowed, which made drinking out of a square vessel even more of a challenge. Apparently the spilled Sake was for luck or for the gods or something, which was quite fortunate as Sake ended up going everywhere; it is quite hard to drink out of a square container.
Also the Sake was served slightly chilled, but what was perhaps, surprising, was that it was more than good enough to be served like this. In fact I'd like to get a bottle of it as much as I'd like a bottle of Cachaça.
Fred had beer, a dark beer called Xingu that tasted quite a lot like one of the Trappist beers. Yes, the Brazilians seem to have adopted the best of all worlds; German beer and fine cosmopolitan food.
Anyway we headed back to the hotel where I was just asking to have my key replaced, when I found it again.
One of the endearing things about this hotel is that all the staff call me "Mr David"; it's very cute and reminds me of Vietnam.
One of the difficult aspects of this trip is the negative time difference. When I am away on business I usually like to 'phone people before going to bed or chat over the internet, just to stave off the isolation, but the problem with Brazil is that everyone in Europe should be in bed by the time these urges kick in. This means that I feel a bit lonely. Unheimlich, I guess.