We need MORE Brazilian DUers

[Blue_Tires]

Honestly.

Because I know by now that CommiePinkoDirtbag and DutchDemocrat have grown weary of my constant questioning about how I can leave the U.S. and move to their fine nation.

btw--Brazil WILL win the 06 World Cup, but even the non-Brazilians out there knew that!

[Orsino]

1. How many more, exactly? n/t

[Blue_Tires]

2. lol...how much more bandwidth does the site have?

[mzteris]

4. um - a Brazilian?

:rofl:

edit: spell

[SongOfTheRayne]

10. HAHAHAHAHA

[Jade Fox]

3. I need more Brazilian music....

Got any suggestions?

[Blue_Tires]

13. this is a good resource that i know of:

http://www.brazzil.com/

[Crazy Dave]

5. I totally agree

[Blue_Tires]

14. brilliant

i don't know why i'm freezing here while i could be there!

[joneschick]

6. I been to Brazil, does that count at all?

the museums are all closed on Mondays in Sao Paulo. Amazing Japanese restaurants though. Igausu Falls, lovely, lovely.

[Blue_Tires]

18. how did you like it?

would you go back?

[peacebuzzard]

7. AQUI! The protest rallies in Rio is very hard work.....

samba on.



pssst...where is the ice cream man?

[Squeech]

8. Me too

I've already bought my condo in Vitoria, Espiritu Santo, a block and a half from the beach.

[Blue_Tires]

9. wow....

can i crash at your place for the rest of my natural life?!?

[libodem]

11. Can I come live with you?

Please:) I do windows and am a vicious laundry sorter. I don't mix whites with the colors. Pick me. I'm quiting my day job and packing.

[Squeech]

12. Gosh, thanks

but I believe that the one thing you can always find in Brazil is somebody to do your laundry. It's the traditional employment for the women that live in the favelas (hillside shantytowns). Typical apartments have a special laundry room, essentially an extra bathroom with a special sink, the front of which is serrated like a washboard, and larger apartments have an extra bedroom (maid's quarters) right next to that laundry room.

This may be changing as Brazil's getting more of a middle class. There are satellite dishes in the favelas nowadays. And there are now laundromats in residential neighborhoods, at least some of them.

Our condo BTW is tiny, not even 200 square feet. There's a bedroom in which a standard double bed barely leaves you room to walk around, a bathroom with a stall shower (a tub wouldn't fit), and the rest of it is a living/dining area with a kitchenette alcove. The special laundry sink is at the innermost end of the kitchenette. It's a great place for a college kid (and I've met UFES students living in the building) or starter home for newlyweds (which is what's likely to happen to it next, as Mrs. Squeech's ex's niece is planning to get married this year, and we told her they could live there while saving up for their own place), but it would pose real difficulties to unrelated people who weren't already intimate.

[Blue_Tires]

15. i meant to ask:

are you native born or did you emigrate? if so, how hard was it?

[Squeech]

16. Not yet

I was born in Boston (where I still live) and carry an American passport. Brazil is just a hobby, verging on an obsession. It's where I expect to retire to, or my bolthole in case I need to escape. I don't speak Portuguese yet, but my comprehension is almost good enough to read the newspaper and follow road directions.

Before me, Mrs. Squeech was married to a Brazilian. He's still a friend, and sometimes we double date with him and his sweetie. And we've kind of adopted his family-- the woman who might live in our condo after she gets married is his sister's daughter, and when we go to Brazil we hang out with that family. They live in Vitoria, the capital city of Espiritu Santo, the state next up the coast from Rio de Janeiro (which is both a state and the capital city of that state). Vitoria is fairly wealthy-- not only is it the only practical port from which to ship out the agricultural and mineral wealth of Minas Gerais (big state in the interior), but they've also recently struck oil offshore. (Our little apartment is now worth maybe twice what we bought it for in the '90s, because the oil companies have hired a bunch of people and they've been bidding up housing prices.)

We've also got a friend in the equatorial state of Pernambuco. He came to America on a student visa, and overstayed by about a decade, and when the INS caught up with him he was toast: they deported him and he can never return. He lives in Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, and teaches English for a living, but it's not a good living. Pernambuco is quite poor-- there are homeless kids sniffing glue on the street corner, and significant numbers of the storefronts in Lenildo's neighborhood don't sell anything but lottery tickets. (When people think their only way out of poverty is to hit the lottery, social mobility is not doing well. Same thing applies in the USA too, of course.) So we bought another condo in Recife for Lenildo to live in (it cost less than a car!), and when we visit Recife we stay with him.

Housing aside, the cost of living in Vitoria seems to be roughly a third of what it is in America. Recife is even cheaper, and there are actually some things about Recife that make it even more desirable-- a way cool art scene, and greater access to delectable tropical fruits. On the other hand, Recife suffers from dengue fever every year... But I wouldn't advise either place if you don't speak Portuguese; only Rio is really equipped to take care of monolingual English speakers, and they make you pay for the privilege.

Was that what you wanted to know?

[Blue_Tires]

19. thanks

i haven't been yet, but it has been an obsession of mine for 5-6 years now...I'm also looking to make a possible escape there, especially if the climate here becomes more fascist....

awhile ago another poster posted his new home in Brazil (he said land can go for as little as $1000 per acre in some places!)

any suggestions on how to find work there?

[Blue_Tires]

17. ttt one time

and where is CPD, anyways?!?!