My Trip to the Big City!

As I already mentioned I am living in a small town, so for groceries and other things I need to go to the nearest city. Some of the teachers took me with them to the city of Anapolis which is about 30-40 minutes away from the school. There are a few buses that go from the school to the city so most people drive themselves or carpool.

During the drive, I had another spectacular view of the landscape. Again on both sides of the road, there were miles of pristine forestry spread over valleys and hills. One thing that really caught my attention as we drove to Anapolis was the fact that most of the cows I saw were white. I am used to seeing brown or black cows but I don’t think in all my life I have seen so many white cows. In each herd, that we passed I saw several white, full white not spotted, cows. I know this observation may seem strange but I was just surprised me and I had to share.

The drive to Anapolis was so serene and peaceful, which was a contrast of the city of Anapolis. From a distance I could see the city as we drove towards it, we could see the city spread out for miles and as we approached the city the air got different. The air unfortunately in the city is polluted with car emissions. There are many older model vehicles which still use diesel gas which gives off a lot of car exhaust.

Anapolis although a very small city in comparison to the larger cities of Sao Paolo or Rio de Janeiro, is a rather busy city. There were a lot of those small cars going at very high speeds. There also very large commuter buses which seen to be competing with the smaller cars for speed. The roads were also filled with tonnes of people. There are many street vendors selling a wide variety of items, from food, to clothes, to bootleg dvd's, to car accessories almost anything you could ever want. My favorite food vendors are those who sell coconut water. I was able to get ice cold coconut water. The vendors, pack a freezer full of coconuts. When you buy one they cut the top give you a straw and you drink to your heart's content. Unfortunately the vendors don't open the coconut for you to eat the jelly. The water was just fine though. The coconut water vendors also sell sugar cane juice. They have this machine where they insert the cane and it extract the juice. I didn't try it because to me that seems like liquid sugar. Some of the teachers like the juice though. Maybe next time I'll try it.

In all aspects this city was a busy. The parking situation in the city was also another shock. There is a serious parking situation; it is difficult to find parking spots. There are also a lot of private parking garages or areas which are a little costly. It reminded me of New York City and LA. I guess having a small is another incentive for such a problem.

Since I mentioned, the whole situation about cars, I must mention another thing about cars that I have noticed. Okay, I am not a car fanatic but I am observant and I have had a lot of experience buying cars. Okay, so I noticed that most of the cars in Anapolis and in the town where I live are American brands, there are a lot of Fords and Chevrolets. I was expecting to see a lot probably more Japanese or European cars. As a result of this observation, I wanted to know why? My superior told me that even though these cars are American brands they are actually made here in Brazil. That was just another piece of information that I thought would share.

Moving on to my trip….

The first issue of business for me in the city was to change dollars to $R (reales), the Brazilian currency. The teachers I went with told me that $US had been steadily gaining value against the $R so I would be getting a good exchange rate. That seem like good news to me, but in my mind I couldn’t understand why $US was increasing in value, given that the American economy is going through a recession. But what do I know? I am not an economist. Outside of the bank the best place to change $US is at a tourist office. Our first stop was therefore a tourist office. The first one we went said they were not buying $US that day. We went to probably five other offices and received the same response.

We then decided to try the bank. Surely the bank would be able to change my dollars. I was thinking I didn’t have a lot of dollars to change and it a bank, so they would do. I was dead wrong! The bank did not want to accept dollars either. This was obviously a problem. I had to get $R because didn’t have any and I need to buy some stuff and no one wanted to accept US$. I know there had to be another way to get $R. Fortunately, I had my bank card from the US. I went to the ATM and withdrew money from my bank account in $R. The bank back in the US will work out the exchange rate for the amount I withdrew and also charge a fee for using a another bank's ATM. That to me was a small price to pay get some $R.

I guess you must be wondering why, the bank and the tourist offices were refusing to accept dollars. The reason, as I understand it, go back to the fact that the American economy is very uncertain now. Even though the American economy is experiencing a recession, in Brazil the dollar is gaining value. It cost more to buy $US and there is no certainty whether these bills will retain their value in a few days, weeks, or months. On the side of caution, people are deciding not to buy dollars. That is obviously a problem for people like me who only have $US. But, thanks to God, He never leaves His children stranded. My advice to anyone going to travel, get foreign exchange before you leave the US for wherever you are going or have an ATM which you be able to use in a foreign country.

The rest of my time in Anapolis was trouble free. I went to the post office, the supermarket. The differences between these place here in Brazil and in the US are probably ease and variety. For example, the USPS is easy and very user friendly. You can get all you need without even talking to anyone, but there are signs or machines telling all you need to know. For services at the post office here, you need to talk to someone because it is not laid out for the consumer. This was a little daunting for me because the words in Spanish for many things are different and no where close to the words in Portuguese. Also the time it takes for letter to get to its destination is up in the air. I guess it get there when it gets there. FUN!

The supermarket was fun! I went around exploring the different aisles and off course comparing the prices of food in my head. There are a lot of different and let's say interesting foods. Overall though, food is by far cheaper in Brazil, but there is not much variety when it comes to certain things. For example there is only one type of soy milk which has a sort of different/weird taste and there is no vanilla soy milk. I am a person who loves cereal and it seriously it took me a good while to decide what to get. There was basically, only varieties of corn flakes, fruit loops, oat meal and granola. I'm missing some of my favorite cereals now but I will adjust because it is all a part of the experience.

One thing I love about the supermarket here is the variety of breads. It not just the regular sandwich bread white or wheat, it like mini french bread with several different types of fillings. Also, depending on the time you go to the supermarket you can get it straight from the oven. Yummy! Anyways, I am staying away from the bread. But just had to let you know they are yummy.

During my exploring of Anapolis, I also saw some familiar fast food restaurants like Subway and MacDonald’s. I even had the opportunity to eat at Subways. When I went in and was looking at the menu board, I felt like I was in Subways back in the US. Everything was the same. They had all the same types of bread, sandwiches, salads, condiments, even napkins but in Portuguese. If someone told me they lifted a store from the US and transplanted here I could believe. I must say though there were three differences I noticed: the trays, the prices and the drinks.

Folks I hope you enjoyed reading. Please feel free to leave comments. I would love to hear from you and feel free to email me at gaelin18@yahoo.com or graceannlindsay@gmail.com.