First weekend in Salvador!

It's been quite the eventful first weekend! Here are the highlights:

Friday (Sexta-feira):
Sergio was out of the office so I spent the day hanging out with the Leptospirosis group at Fiocruz. It was someone's birthday so I got free cake! Free cake=new friends! I finally met Federico, Brooke's friend who found me my apartment. He was really nice, offered to help if I needed anything, etc.

After work I got my internet installed! I'm happy to report I have working, reliable internet! YAY! The installation process, however, was a little iffy.... The installation guys strung the ethernet cable through my bathroom window, drilled a hole through the wall between the bathroom and the hallway (pictured below) and then used a hot glue gun to secure the ethernet cable along the wall! Hopefully this is standard practice and the landlord doesn't get annoyed when I move out!
The hole in the wall and some of the hot glued ethernet cable

Saturday (sabado):
I decided to spend Saturday exploring some of Barra (my neighborhood). I walked along the ocean, bought a coconut and took some pictures. I would have gone to the beach, swam in the ocean, etc but I don't have any sunscreen and my pale skin would have burnt to a crisp! I did, however, find a mall called Shopping Barra! I bought a new doormat (strange purchase, I know) that says "welcome" in Portuguese and has some shamrocks! My Irish side loved it AND it was on sale. It will definitely be coming back to the US with me.
My doormat!

A view of Salvador from the Farol da Barra (the lighthouse of Barra)
My coconut!
Self portrait (it was very windy!)

Saturday night I went bowling and out for some Chinese food with two girls from the lab, Iukary and Bete, and some of their friends. Bowling in Salvador is EXACTLY the same as it is in the US! The lanes even said "Brunswick" and I wore some lovely bowling shoes! I was quite proud of my Portuguese speaking skills. I was able to carry conversations and didn't need too many words defined for me! Everyone was really patient, which helped a lot. I have a long way to go, but I think I'm getting better!

Sunday (domingo)
I spent more time exploring today. I invested in some SFP 50 sunscreen and am planning on spending some quality time in the ocean next weekend! In not so fun news, I was robbed by a kid who looked younger than the hs freshman I used to teach! It was 2pm and I was walking along the very crowded sidewalk next to the beach when all of the sudden this kid runs up from behind me and rips my silver necklace off my neck! Admittedly I had been told not to wear jewelry but I thought wearing a little silver necklace during the day would be okay...bad call. Being the genius that I am decided to chase the kid to get my necklace back. Amazingly after about 20 feet of chasing he stopped and gave me my necklace back! He ran away and about 10 seconds later a few cops came over and started arresting the kid's friend. I told them that I didn't want to press charges (at least I think that's what I said) since I had my necklace back and made sure they knew the kid they had wasn't the one who robbed me. Lesson learned: don't wear jewelry. Also, how sad is it that kids spend their Sundays robbing people instead of playing on the beach and being kids?

Other than the necklace incident, it's been a lovely weekend! I'm very excited to get started on my project this coming week!

Antigen update: on Thursday the customs people agreed to put the antigen in the refrigerator (phew!). All of the visa paperwork has been submitted and now we're waiting for approval. I am so grateful for all of the work Sergio has done to get my antigen back! Hopefully I'll have some good news this week!

Ate logo!

First days in Salvador

It´s been an interesting day and a half so far in Salvador. Here are the highlights:

My Arrival

My flight got into Salvador at 6am. I slept on the plane, my bags arrived safely and I thought things were going great until I got to customs... I had packed lab supplies that are essential to my project in two separate bags. A box of heparin tubes was well hidden in my suitcase but the other container was a cooler with antigen that apparently wasn't well hidden in a duffel bag. Customs found the cooler with the antigen! I thought I´d be fine since I had a letter from Dr. Riley explaining that they were a donation for a lab in Brazil. Turns out the antigen needs its own visa! This was tricky to understand since no one spoke English and all of the customs agents were wearing masks because of H1N1... Fortunately Sergio, the doctor who runs that lab I´ll be working in, came to pick me up from the airport and found me in the Ministry of Health office try to get my antigen. Even though I had an official person from Fiocruz with me, customs still wouldn't hand over the antigen...I did, however, get a lovely flier on H1N1. Sergio has been trying to get the antigen from customs ever since...he´s at the airport right now, hopefully with a box of ice-cold antigen. Fingers crossed.

Here's a picture of the H1N1 flier I got when arriving in Salvador (also pictured is my TB giant microbe courtesy of Rachel)

My Apartment

Since I don´t know anyone else in Brazil, I´m renting a one bedroom apt for the summer. A friend of a friend in Brazil was nice enough to find me the apartment and set things up with the landlord! I´ll post pictures soon (when I get internet in my apt), but here are some fun facts: I´m on the 8th floor of a big high rise, less than a block from the beach. The apartment is great but the kitchen is very small and has a big tank of propane attached to the stove...I haven't tried to use it because I'm scared I'll blow up the building...

My living room
The little kitchen (propane tank not pictured)
My bedroom
The view from my living room window
My ocean views! (Seen when I stick my head out the window and look right)

People

I was pretty sure before I left for Brazil that I'd struggle understanding spoken Portuguese...turns out I was right! I've said the phrases "what?" "I don´t know" and "I´m learning" about a million times so far. Not too many people speak English... In the long run this will be a good thing but it'll be an interesting first couple of weeks. Everyone has been really nice and patient. I went out to lunch today with two girls from the lab. They've invited me to go out bowling with them this weekend. It took a while for me to realize they were talking about bowling. Someone had to describe it to me first before I had any idea what they were asking me to do on Saturday! Iukary (one of the girls from the lab) said she´d call to pick me up...2 problems, one I am a mess when I try to talk on the phone in Portuguese and two she needs directions to my building and I only know the name of my street...I´ll have to work on both of those things!

Sergio is the head of the lab I'll be working with at Fiocruz. He's been ridiculously great! He's done everything from work on freeing my anitgen to drive me to and from Fiocruz to taking me to get a SIM card for my phone!

Aside from my antigen/customs problems, life in Salvador is going great! Hope life in the US is treating everyone well! Tchau!

My first blog EVER!

Welcome to my blog! I´m not going to lie, I never thought I´d be a blogger yet here I am. There are lots of people I´d like to keep in touch with and since I´m notoriously bad at staying in touch, I figured this would be the easiest way! For anyone who doesn´t know, I´m spending my summer in Salvador, Brazil doing TB research. I plan on using this blog as a way to send out mass updates on my adventures in Brazil (hence the blog name Meghan´s adventures in Brazil) and the inevitable random situations I find myself in. Happy reading! Tchau!