Recife - Thurs Jun 19

Must be on Brasilia time. Awoke at 6:15 am to realize it was only 5:15 am back home.

Must learn to convert C to F and vice-versa in my head...okay, done.

Now to learn Portuguese...

Fighting the tendency to superimpose my predispositions on new surroundings.

Must. Learn. To. Helax.

We spent the day orienting to our environment. We're in no rush.

Muito obrigado to Nina, our guardian angel, for all her help, and to Vanessa for entertaining our teens in more ways than one.

I blogged all morning while family tried to catch up on sleep.

Kids went to beach, while Michele and I checked out shopping. Eventually met friends and their families on beach. There are more vendors on the beach than at a Mets game, with all assortment of food and drink. I'll blog about that some other time.

After a long walk and a long preceding 48 hours, we helaxed back at home, watching Luis Suárez send England packing.

Eventually visited with a new but good friend, Raphael, who helped us learn more Portuguese and directed us how to get to the subway (metro) easily.

Bigger than the language barrier are a million small cultural differences.

A short but sure to get much longer list:

• Winter is in June/July

• Teens and twenty-somethings enjoy hanging out with their moms and grandmas at the beach.

• "Shopping" is a noun, not a gerund. It means "mall" and while similar to US malls, seems much more of a destination. I think there are four metro stops with "shopping" in the name.

• There are no separate "up" and "down" buttons on our elevator. The only button has an "up" arrow. We eventually gave up summoning the elevator and took the stairs instead.

• There are many restaurants in which your purchases are added to a smart card or tag of some sort. You pay at the end (the caxia reads the card and knows what to charge).

• We couldn't figure out how to open the milk carton and resorted to scissors.

• Sometimes, you can't open a deadbolt from the inside without a key (i.e., we could use our apartment to imprison unsuspecting locals).

• There is an electric switch near the shower to turn on the hot water.

•  I'm not sure if that is a bidet. 

• "Sunga" means "banana hammock"

Tomorrow Arena Pernambuco!