The List

(click on photo to enlarge)

Visit Corcovado on a clear day so I can actually see the view.

Visit Sugar Loaf and not have terribly low blood sugar at sunset (like last year)

Eat my weight in steak from Porcão

Drink an ice cold cerveja while relaxing on the beach…turned into drink from a coconut!

Wear a speedo in public

Go to a buffet style pizza place where the flavor possibilities are endless

Explore São Paulo

Go to a football match. Vamos Fluminense!

Go to a bar in Tijuca (where I live)

Buy the national football team jersey

Explore nightlife (i.e. rage at a club)

Watch a Brazilian movie and try to understand what they’re saying

Rio Zoo!

Eat my morango (strawberry) cookies

Watch an American movie with Portuguese subtitles

Find my chili-flavored peanuts

Get white girl wasted off of caipirinhas

Eat at a second churrascaria and compare it to Porcão

Botanical Gardens!

Eat a pastel (something like an empanada)

Eat acarajé (I don’t need to know what it’s made of. I just know I like it)

Go to bars in other areas to see other parts of the city

Find the fried cheese on a stick (queijo)

Take a picture of the Northern Lights for my grandmother

Go to a souvenir shop and buy tacky Brazil stuff for people (or myself)

Visit Floresta da Tijuca

Take pictures of the Jesus statue from different spots in the city because you can see Him EVERYWHERE (He’s the pink one…)

Eat at Bob’s Burgers!

Take a bus around the city

Order something in a store or restaurant and be confused for a Brazilian

Obtain forks/spoons from Spoleto (an Italian restaurant chain)

Listen to Brazilian music, live or otherwise. I did both.

Take pictures of the different murals/graffiti all over the city

Have a semi-fluent conversation in Portuguese (not ordering anything)

Take the metro

Play tennis on a clay court (close, but not quite)

Drink disgusting amounts of Guaraná (cherry-ish soda)

Buy Assalto ao Banco Central (awesome movie) on DVD

Go on a random side trip to another city or town

Buy something from [I Heart] Zona Sul (supermarket)

Eat at an American fast food chain

Go to a museum (one I haven’t visited before)

Buy an American (comic) book in Portuguese and understand it!

Read my book in Shopping Tijuca

Try the skirt steak from Outback Steakhouse

Try a Brazilian dessert

Street fair. Go to one.

Drink in the streets at Lapa

Get a haircut from a Brazilian barber

Have fun, be happy, and enjoy myself no matter what.