This is Karin, some dude, and Leslie. They are the Brazilian sisters that I met in Cuernavaca ten years ago. I probably won't see Leslie again until her wedding on the 19th. She is busy getting ready to domesticate herself.
So the first and second days I was here in Brazil, I didn't wake up till 1-ish. Neither days did I feel the need to leave Karin's apartment. She was at school working during the days, and I had her whole apartment to make leisurely breakfast and coffee. There is plenty of floor space to draw, and for my markers and pencils to roll all over her wood floors. She lives on the 12th floor of an 18 or so story building, so I have a pretty fantastic view from just about any window I choose to look from.
The first two days of my trip could be seen as my cultural study pertaining to Brazilian cosmetic aesthetics. This first study will be split up into two parts over two days.
Wednesday, Aug. 26th
I stayed in till Karin gets out of work. We go out to her gym. We just swam laps for a while. Before I got into the pool, the instructor who was training Karin for her laps gave me a queer glance. He didn't understand why I was swimming in my bathing suit. Apparently, even at the gym pool, men are suppose to wear their Man Panties. I have since been told that I will have to buy my own suit of only inches of spandex if I want to hit the beach without glances of curiosity and disgust. I told myself that I don't have to conform to the cultural standards. Who knows? Maybe I will be strutting the junk huggers in no time?
I got out of the pool before Karin, I showered, and I waited in the cafe for her to finish her laps. Next to the cafe was an enclosed room, like a quadrupled racket ball room, where a group of women were trying to follow the fluid motions of their male instructor. Their arms flowed left and right like a line of loose clothes in the wind, while their hips thrust at an imaginary lover or perhaps they were making love to their own images in the mirror. It was a cross between belly dancing and pole dancing. The glass walls of this studio opened up to the cafe on one side and the gym's weight room on another side. Everyone was watching from every angle. The need to be seen was as apparent as it is in the US, but it is more accepted here and celebrated at that. This study of improving the physic had come to a close, and we went out and drank beers at a couple different bars in Sao Paulo.
Men watch women, women ignore men. Waiters bring beers before you can finish the one you're working on. They rest a coaster down for each beer in some places to count up the beers when it is time to count up the damage done. Other places have cards that every person gets: a punch card or one that swipes like a credit card. The punch cards have to be watched. I nearly got over charged for an expensive beer that I never drank. And they really like about half a glass of head on their beers down here. The draft has one spout for beer and another for foam. They do this intentionally, for several reasons I can assume. I won't go into that, as you can decide for yourself.
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