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!