By Popular Demand

I am at the beginning of a two month trip to Rio de Janeiro, and many people asked if I was keeping a blog. When I said no, the responses ranged from surprise to disappointment. Thanks to your encouragement and interest, I’ve decided to give it a go. Thanks! I appreciate it.

I am here to study in a three week course on Human Rights and Media offered through my University, The New School, in New York City. I had an amazing course on Photography and Human Rights with the professor of this program, Peter Lucas. Now, I am here two weeks early in the hopes to get to know the city and pick up some Portuguese. We’ll see how far I get.

I arrived on Tuesday and have had a mellow week catching up with contacts, finding an apartment, and looking for a Portuguese tutor. I am realizing that my ambitions with Portuguese are a little unrealistic. I am fluent in Spanish, and I am picking up the pronunciation differences quickly enough, but two weeks will only get me so far. I guess the only option is to have fun with it and not worry!

Look how cute my apartment is!

The day after I arrived, I looked at five apartments from four people. The one that Dieine of Copa Apartments showed me was by far the nicest and I decided it was worth the extra pocket change. Many places had bug problems, no light, or were jacking up their prices for the Pan American games in July. This place had tons of light, just a few ants, and the same price for both months, so here I am.

The next day, Thursday, I met up with Wayne, and acquaintance from New York who happens to be in Rio. I found out he was in Rio to by chance through a photographer’s networking webpage. Check out his blog. He is also a photographer and has some fun stuff to say about his month here so far.

We went to a Quilombinho concert put on by Crescer e Vivir, an organization that works with street kids in the surrounding favela communities to teach family values and promote local cultural practices. The shows are held every Thursday evening under the tent used to teach the kids circus arts.

See more of my photos of the show.