The Good Life ...with some definite annoyances!

...so the relaxing vacation in Rio continues with many new adventures. I´ll let the captions of the pictures describes the recent stories out in Rio. Instead, in true Burrito Day format, I´ll take this opportunity to describe some several annoyances with Rio, and South America in general.

1) NAPKINS! These people have to be kidding me with the quality of their napkins. In Chad´s words, they wouldn´t be useful on a small chipmunk! Rather than made of some generous, liquid-absorbing cloth, they are essentially a flimsy, non-absoribing, plastic substitute not suitable for 2nd century life. Even better, the napkins often disintegrate in your hands, whereby you are required to use several other pathetic napkins to pick off the remains of the previous napkin. UNBELIEVABLE ANNOYING! I´ll move on as my temperature is already rising.

2) Customer Service -- For the most part, customer service in Brazil is absolutely atrocious. The friends that I have made in Brazil try to explain to me that it is the Brazilian way -- relax and be happy! Bullshit, I say -- serve your customer and your business will take off! A few examples:
a. There are many quality corner juice shops around Ipanema, and I am in the process of trying each of the ~40 juices that they usually have to offer. These are standing room only, and the juice is usually enjoyed right there at the counter, and so it can sometimes get crowded. However, early in my Rio adventures, I walked up to one juice stand that was completely empty with customers, and had 4 employees standing behind the counter. To test my theory, I decided not to say anything explicitly, but rather try to make eye contact with any of the four absent-minded employees to clearly show that I was ready to order. To my absolute surprise, none of them even acknowledged my existence. The gentlemen right in front of me was instead having a hissy fit with his hand towel as he banged it against the floor for no apparent reason. The other employees decided that this was social time. After about 5 minutes, I finally spoke up and was able to get somebody to help me, although the lady acted as if it was more of a burden than her pleasure to take my money. It goes without saying, I will never attend that store again.
b. Receiving the check! There is obviously a huge philosophy difference in the way South America (especially Brazil) and America serve the checks after a meal if finished. As you already know in America, they serve the check during the meal or directly after the plates are cleared for what I now understand to be 2 good reasons: 1) they can turn over the table more quickly, and 2) the customer does not need to haplessly wait around -- i.e. EFFICIENCY! South American waitresses on the other hand are more than willing to let you sit at your table for as long as you wish until you are forced to have the pointless exchange of asking for the check. Mind you, most of these restaurants have few diners, and the waitors have plenty of free time. At one restaurant that Chad and I attended, we had to ask for the check 4 times from 4 different waitors. HELLO! Do you people not want my money? Do I even exist? I´m tempted to walk out without paying, but I´ve yet to succumb to this urge.

3) Portugese! Everywhere I have gone in South America, I have been able to speak the language. My spanish has improved immensely. However Portugese is a whole other BEAST! People told me before I came down that if I speak spanish people will understand me (this is about 50/50), but I will not be able to understand them (this is 100%). Even worse, when you do speak Spanish they tend to give you attitude because there is some type of tension there between the Brazilinas and the rest of South America. I´ve resorted to making only friends who speak Spanish or English. Potugese is obnoxious! ...and even when I do learn a few lines, they can rarely understand me.

4) Cell phones. Simply, you can´t call a cell phone from a land line. ..only from another cell phone. And you have to buy a separate card with credits in order to make a call. And let´s say that buy 50 credits -- well, you can only use 25 of those credits to call other Vivo (or Claro) phones. Could it be more confusing? ...or blood boiling? This is in addition to all of the other annoyances with cell phones - intermittent coverage; random dropouts ; poor reception. I´ve boiled over!

5) 99% of the people have attitude. Get over yourself! I spend my day trying to find the 1% :-)

6) Everything is closed on Sunday! It´s a ghost-town ...except for the beach.

There a few great things about Rio. Quickly -- 1) the bus system; 2) the corner cafes that quickly serve you large, cheap amounts of ready-made food; the never-ending nightlife!

That´s all for now.