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- Jan 28, 2009
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(post 2/2)
One of my room mates Ryan has a great quote about learning Portuguese- "A little bit goes a long way" and he is 100% correct. It is amazing how learning a couple new words a day really opens up the ability to communicate. I walk around the house and the grocery store saying random words trying to remember them. I know people look at me like I'm crazy...and they're right LoL. Another bit of advice - Buy a dictionary it really helps. I resort to carrying it around with me when I go on trips and it can really save you in a tight situation. The good part that most people dont realize is that not only does it have a English to Portugues section...but it has a Portuguese to English section so the locals can communicate back. This has saved me a couple of times.
The weather has started to cool off here and I'm very thankful. Although I am still the only person that leaves a pool of sweat doing the warm ups. I'm not particularly winded at the end of the warmups but typically it's so damn hot that I feel like I'm going to melt. I have this fear that one day they are going to look over at where I was standing and it's going to be my gi on the floor surrounded by a puddle of water. It'll look something like the scene from The Wizard of Oz when the witch melts. I'm so happy to walk around at 20 degrees in shorts and a Tshirt. All the locals shake their head and call me crazy...and thier right! LoL. I'm dreading the summer coming back.
On a negative note there is some bad news. When planning my trip to come to Brazil the exchange rate was 2.4:1 and now it has fallen dramitically to 1.9:1 and it appears to be going lower. This is going to create some difficulties for me if it goes to much lower. It's like watching 20% of my money disappear and...well it's stressing me out. Other than my stint in Iraq with the military I've never left the country and this would be my first adventure to another continent. I'm a good planner but I overlooked this simple variable. My suggestion is that you account for this when planning. It's not really a big deal if you're coming for a month or 6 weeks, but when trying to plan for 6 months this HAS TO BE something that you think about. My suggestion would be to pay for your rent as soon as you get here and aknowlege it's a place that you want to stay. For me this may mean that I have to cut my trip down by a month...perhaps two which is NOT what I want considering I'm having the time of my life and really improving my BJJ game. For now I'll just cut back on my alloted spending per day.
Other than that little bit of news life is great, the scenery is awesome, the training is great and I'm making a life experience. I really hope that you guys make the decision to come down to Brazil and if you need ANY questions answered please feel free to ask. I've been doing my best to keep up with the thread and answer questions and personal messages. I check the thread daily and I promise to keep the posts coming as long as people keep reading them.
Later guys
The Gerbil
One of my room mates Ryan has a great quote about learning Portuguese- "A little bit goes a long way" and he is 100% correct. It is amazing how learning a couple new words a day really opens up the ability to communicate. I walk around the house and the grocery store saying random words trying to remember them. I know people look at me like I'm crazy...and they're right LoL. Another bit of advice - Buy a dictionary it really helps. I resort to carrying it around with me when I go on trips and it can really save you in a tight situation. The good part that most people dont realize is that not only does it have a English to Portugues section...but it has a Portuguese to English section so the locals can communicate back. This has saved me a couple of times.
The weather has started to cool off here and I'm very thankful. Although I am still the only person that leaves a pool of sweat doing the warm ups. I'm not particularly winded at the end of the warmups but typically it's so damn hot that I feel like I'm going to melt. I have this fear that one day they are going to look over at where I was standing and it's going to be my gi on the floor surrounded by a puddle of water. It'll look something like the scene from The Wizard of Oz when the witch melts. I'm so happy to walk around at 20 degrees in shorts and a Tshirt. All the locals shake their head and call me crazy...and thier right! LoL. I'm dreading the summer coming back.
On a negative note there is some bad news. When planning my trip to come to Brazil the exchange rate was 2.4:1 and now it has fallen dramitically to 1.9:1 and it appears to be going lower. This is going to create some difficulties for me if it goes to much lower. It's like watching 20% of my money disappear and...well it's stressing me out. Other than my stint in Iraq with the military I've never left the country and this would be my first adventure to another continent. I'm a good planner but I overlooked this simple variable. My suggestion is that you account for this when planning. It's not really a big deal if you're coming for a month or 6 weeks, but when trying to plan for 6 months this HAS TO BE something that you think about. My suggestion would be to pay for your rent as soon as you get here and aknowlege it's a place that you want to stay. For me this may mean that I have to cut my trip down by a month...perhaps two which is NOT what I want considering I'm having the time of my life and really improving my BJJ game. For now I'll just cut back on my alloted spending per day.
Other than that little bit of news life is great, the scenery is awesome, the training is great and I'm making a life experience. I really hope that you guys make the decision to come down to Brazil and if you need ANY questions answered please feel free to ask. I've been doing my best to keep up with the thread and answer questions and personal messages. I check the thread daily and I promise to keep the posts coming as long as people keep reading them.
Later guys
The Gerbil
