I think I found the washing machine of the future. Hear me out. It washes and semi dries your clothes in like two hours. You set it, you put in the detergent and everything in. You put it to the cycle; it’s maybe two hours. When you come, it’s finished, they’re pretty dry. There’s this washing machine here. I’ve never really experienced a washing machine like this before where it washes and basically dries your clothes and all you do is kind of like hang it out to let it finish air drying. This takes two hours or so after you take it out of the machine. It’s one of the conveniences that I’ve never had. Looking at this I’m like, ooh… they living out here!
This Airbnb is nice. And I also saw that it had like a califacion. Same like how when I was in the loft I was trying to find it. So everywhere I go now I’m like where’s the califacion? Where the hell is the califacion?
I got to take a walk yesterday, it was just interesting seeing how cool the neighborhood was because it was a Friday. There was like a market going on. I got to walk through the market, see the different things that they were selling. What are people buying on their daily lives? They buy their yams. They got fresh meat. I took this walk with somebody that I met online. Another part of being a nomad is getting to meet people and getting to explore the city with them, exploring how they see things. Yesterday was nothing short of a wonderful experience seeing how other people see things the way that where they or how they perceive the city in terms of what they see is wonderful things, wonderful activities for them and something that you may appreciate—that they may not appreciate because that’s something that you’ve had before or something that you’ve never had. Even this washing machine, I’ve never had a washing machine like that. It seems like futuristic technology to me but to them, it’s like oh a lot of people have washing machines like that.
That’s like the normal and standard because that’s the kind of climate they live in so it makes sense to have a washing machine like that. When you live in New York, or places like that, it makes sense to have a washing machine that doesn’t do all of that because it’s never gonna dry. You need a dryer that’s gonna do more so it makes sense to focus on the pair versus just one. It’s really quite an interesting shift of things to shift to a European way of seeing things or a different way of seeing things and what you’re used to.
I got also introduced to farofa, is it? It’s this banana treat. I forgot what he told me it was but what happens is that you take banana, you grate it, then you grind it, and it’s then it becomes like a powdery thing. I ordered like one of the standard meals, and it came as like a little powder sprinkled over and there were some french fries there, there was some steak, there was some chimichurri sauce, it was a cool little meal. It was a vibe, it was a bop. It was really cool because then after that he took on a walk to Copacabana Beach.
He introduced me to the different street vendors there. On the street, where you’re on Copacabana Beach, all lined out along there you can find people selling caipirinhas. Now, if you go to Brazil, and you’re in Rio and you do not get the caipirinha, I do not know what you’re doing.
This will give you your life. I had, I might have had three or four of them the time that we walked on the beach talking about the different things. It was a little bit difficult at first because a lot of the stuff that we may be talking about had to be translated because his English isn’t really that great. But even having these opportunities to be able to communicate and to be able to effectively get an opinion of somebody of their city and seeing it through their eyes, it’s a wonderful experience.
Then later on last night he took me to a nice little club. I danced my little butt off, and it was cool being able to see or experience Brazilian pop. Brazilian pop, it’s a lot of cool things. It’s cool. You definitely have to experience it in a club and when the DJ is, you know, the audience feeling and the DJ is feeling himself too, then he starts to mix it, mix it, mix it. You see him slowly go into it.
It was a freaking vibe. I am so tired, but I had to get up this morning and write something because I want to talk about some of the feelings and just make sure I get things out there before I forget and before that the time has passed. So, alright journal, there you go.
-Tall Black Nomad