my first week as an estagiaria

My second week in Rio started off as every week should: relaxing on the beach most of the day. We are committed to seeing as many of Rio's famous beaches as we can while we're here, so that was the first of many Sundays we expect to spend that way. When it started getting cold, we packed it up and went to check out the craft market that happens every Sunday in a square near my apartment. Usually those types of things don't really interest me, but this one is different. The array of clothing, art, accessories, crafts, souvenirs and food will keep me coming back as many Sundays as I can.

Monday marked the beginning of our internships in Rio; we are now "estagiarias", the Portuguese word for "interns". It also exposed us to one of Rio's least favorable factors: the traffic. Living all 22 years of my life in Los Angeles, I thought I had built up a pretty good tolerance to traffic annoyance. But then I came to Rio. The difference is that in LA, we have wide streets and freeways; we have options. Such is not the case in Rio. It's mostly tiny cobblestone two lane streets or alleys. One day it might take 20 minutes to get to work; the next, it could take an hour. This reality has turned not-super-punctual me into an always-ready-early type (shocking, I know). At least the drive in Rio is usually a pretty one.

I'm working for a leading PR firm in Brazil, which has offices in Rio and Sao Paulo. They have the Brazilian Olympic Committee and the Rio 2016 Games as their clients, as well as Coca Cola Brasil, which, as a major sponsor, is heavily involved with the Games and the events leading up to them. The office is located in Jardim Botânico, a beautiful but busy residential neighborhood named for Rio's famous botanical gardens, situated under the open-armed gaze of Christ the Redeemer. The gardens are less than a 10 minute walk from my office, so I'm looking forward to checking them out on my lunch break one of these days.

I'm still getting used to the way they lunch in Brazil. Working through lunch or having lunch at your desk (my go-to at home) is simply not an option. Most go out for a huge meal every single day, and it seems like salads for lunch (another go-to at home) aren't really a thing here. If you didn't have meat or fish, vegetables, rice with beans and farofa, you didn't really have a Brazilian lunch. It sounds like a lot, until you realize that all most people will have for breakfast is coffee and all they'll have for dinner is, like, an apple.

We took work off on Wednesday to have a fun day with Brazilian beauracrats. We had to go back to the international airport, about half an hour outside the city, to register with the Federal Police. The Federal Police are apparently the keepers of records and registration when it comes to immigration. Five hours and one power outage later, we were all finger printed, documented and ready to get out of there.

Our patience was rewarded with something I found especially exciting. Just a few blocks from my apartment, there's a Delirium Cafe. It's a smaller version of the infamous behemoth that is the original Delirium Cafe in Brussels, Belgium. It was one of the best bars I visited in my five months in Europe, and its house brew is definitely one of the best I've ever had. Naturally, I was delighted to find this little piece of Brussels in Rio. The burgers and beers more than compensated for the Brazilian bureaucracy we endured that day.

I was surprised by how quickly my first week of work flew by, even without a ton of substantive work to do because the Games are still a while away (in a Brazilian mindset, at least). There's so much to learn, observe, translate, and try to decipher in Portuguese. Being in a work environment where the primary language is not English is more of a challenge than I anticipated, but it gets a little easier every day.

With the weekend came the chance to continue checking items off our Must-Do Rio list. We started on Saturday morning at Sugarloaf Mountain, where aerial cable cars zip you up to two observation decks. While taking in the view from the lower of the two, I decided that Brazil is the most beautiful place I've ever been (with Jyväskylä, Finland coming in second). It really is encouraging to see that one of the biggest cities in the world popped up in a coastal rainforest but has kept so much of that natural beauty intact. The top of Sugarloaf affords a view of Christ the Redeemer, white sand beaches, azure ocean and emerald forest. I don't think I've ever spent so long staring at one view.

One really bad lunch (last time we ever eat at a tourist spot) and two cable car rides later, we were en route to our next destination. The Selarón Stairs, or Escadaria Selarón in Portuguese, are a long, wide staircase that takes the place of what would otherwise be a steep cobblestone hill. The attraction here is that the whole ascending alley is decorated in an expansive tile mosaic. The main motif is red and white, with splashes of green and yellow as a nod to Brazil's flag. But as is so often the case, the real interest here lies in the details. Intricately decorated individual tiles pay tribute to everywhere from American states to European cities, everything from Coca Cola to Guinness, and everyone from Princess Di to Pope John Paul II and Michael Jackson to the Three Stooges. This is one of the most classic places to get an "I'm in Rio!" photo, but the most fun part about it was examining hundereds of unique tiles, many of which reminded me instantly of a certain friend or family member.

Dinner that night was at Boteco Belmonte, a trendy tapas-type place right off my nearest Metrô stop. We didn't really look too much into it before we decided to eat there, but the "it looks hip so it must be good" logic proved right as usual. Even before our caipirinhas were brought to the table, we were greeted by a waiter carrying a big platter of mini pot pies. "Frango, carne, queijo e camarao" he told us, pointing to chicken, beef, cheese and shrimp-stuffed puff pastries. I took him up on his tableside offer and was not disappointed. The rest of the meal was composed mostly of these unique "passed tapas": "beef jerky surprise" (skewered steak roasted with onions and peppers), feijoada (traditional Brazilian stew) in dumpling form, and kibe e coxinha (popular Brazilian street foods). We hardly even looked at a menu yet were completely stuffed and totally happy at the end of that meal.

Check out the gallery for photos of the views and the stairs (not of the food, my bad), and thanks for reading! GS

theSkimm: Rio traffic > LA traffic; I'm basically working in a lush tropical forest; it's requisite to eat too much for lunch here; Brazilian beauracracy and airport electricity are equally poor; there's a Delirium on my street; the views from Sugarloaf are postcard material; Escadaria Selarón is art you can climb; if a Brazilian waiter brings a tray of somethings to your table, eat them.