Moving my European life to Brazil

It has been little more than one month since I have arrived to Brazil. More in particular, Porto Alegre in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Reason for moving: Brazilian Hubbie, we had to move here for diverse unavoidable reasons.

Gosh... Adaptation is the key of this new entry. And I thought it would be easier for me, having already travelled to different places, lived abroad for 3 years, living with a Brazilian, my husband, for another 2 years, visiting Brazil often, and finally speaking portuguese natively. It was and it is still hard.

The shock for me is still big. There are things I can't understand or don't make sense at all for me. Everybody knows how public transportation is horrible - and guys, I will be just another one adding to this statement, that they're in fact bad. There are some selective buses you can catch, more expensive, that your employer normally does not cover on transportation tickets, but unfortunately it doesn't go everywhere in just one sit... so most of the times I don't consider them useful. Probably you will have to get in at least 2 to cross the city - the same with the normal buses (which go crowded and over limit). But at least I have to praise on how cheap taxis are. I can say that it's the same price range as in Budapest, and good thing you can catch them in the street, no problem, and go anywhere you want - Some places in the world you can't do that otherwise taxidriver will overcharge you. I guess they're pretty controlled around here, and on a consumer perspective, I feel happy, safer and love to make them as my way of transportation. SO, first thing you do when you arrive here: Start saving money to either buy a car, van, motorbike, something that will give you easy locomotion.

Poverty here is big, robberies % I guess too - But everybody says this is one of the best and safest states - and I appreciate that. I am living in Cidade Baixa, and I guess it's a not such bad neighbourhood for you to live in. You can walk pretty much everywhere, nice pubs and restaurants, near the city park, near shopping malls, many buses go around here to everywhere... Overall it's good. Bad thing is how noisy has been lately.. I was told it was not so crazy in the streets at night compared with right now.. maybe the city center is slowly migrating to Cidade Baixa. So this means a lot of bad things are migrating to Cidade Baixa. Couple of weeks ago I saw - heard two gunshots - no casualties thank god, in my street, right under my window. Well I can say it was my first eye witness of a gunshot EVER - This was a bad thing. But an interesting fact over here, is that I do a lot of things for the first time. Seems like you are suprised everyday, something has to happen all the time to change your life, your day.. it's kind of exciting for an adventurous person, for me it's interesting sometimes... some days I get really irritated on how can it be like this. So ocasionally I have some fellow tramps or beggars living next to us, or randomly spread through the streets. No problem so far with these guys... I guess the problematic thieves are easily identified if you are aware of life around you in the streets. So basic things for me now is selecting what I'm taking with me in my purse; try not to take my galaxy out in the middle of the street, only if I see it's OK; try not to use so many real jewelries  if I am walking long ranges or something; I guess I'm more alert to my surroundings too - maybe as much as when I'm in the metro in Paris, but now constantly.

Then what I dislike, is how people fight corruption and badness with badness, anger and destruction - Guys this is not how you win a revolution. The Love you take is equal to the love you make. Sometimes I feel Brazil is only a step to reach hard terrorism. I can imagine how angry a man can become to the point of exploding himself in the middle of parliament.  Corruption is everywhere, lack of inspection too - till the lady who prepares food at home and distributes it, with no authorization or receipt, till the big guys with the President in Brasilia. I also got to know how voting is compulsory here... That does not make any sense at all in a country with the lowest rates of literacy. I can imagine that if voting is not compulsory most of people voting will be the medium and high class, who have skills for assessing a candidate for whatever role or responsibility. I guess that guys like Tiririca would reduce rapidly. But in the end, so many lobbies, and bad selfish people, that I guess all of this will take maybe more than 50 years to fight. I still have met a lot of people that think that here is the best place in the world to be. It is sometimes, it is not many other times. I'm still trying to balance my scale.

I will finish this post with price - quality of things in Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul. The best on this state: incredibly tasty and price friendly meat, the best in the world probably; juicy, healthy cheap tropical fruit - even the pears here taste better; manicure, pedicure, beauty salon, for me the cheapest and best worldwide might be here; petrol price - compared with Europe; I love taxis here; people are friendly, smile at you randomly, this sometimes makes my day; Bars, restaurants, everywhere you go for fun or pleasure, the service will be great!!
 Then you decide you want to buy a perfum, a nice french perfum, if you are willing to pay double price, that's Ok. Then Clothing... for example Zara,  my cheap childhood dressing brand, here is for medium high class, where you pay at least 100 EUR on a simple short polyester dress. But not only Zara, pretty much everywhere you are going to pay a lot for low quality things. Even Ikea bed linens - there's no IKEA in Brazil unfortunately - are better than some of the most expensive stores over here. This will happen on a daily basis, unless you are buying a cow leather carpet or leather boots - which are cheaper than in Europe for sure.
So many things in brazilian stores are made in China, and the things that are made in Brazil, maybe 60% of them, look like if they were made in China. I believe that these textile industries in Brazil have a bigger capacity of doing something better than competing with China in low quality assets. Even the textiles' patterns are ugly. Gotta say though, that shoes here are beautiful and with a very good quality, that made me a little happier! Summarizing, high taxes on imports, that everybody knows right? Guess it's part of my adaptation. But even drinking my favourite beer, a tasty Guiness, goes as a medium high class choice, which sometimes I cannot afford.
Buying a Flat here, a nice new flat in a new nighbourhood is as expensive as buying a nice flat in Lisbon with view to the ocean. Technology is expensive, random car brands are expensive, unless they were manufactured in Brazil, but is it ok paying 20K EUR for a Honda? That can be a price of a second hand Mercedes in Europe. Anyway, I will keep writing about life here. I am sure my idea of things will change gradually and it will be nice to remember how I thought when I arrived here. I am sure I will start liking it little by little, since there are many good things here too. The problem is that too many times the bad things overcome.

Finalizing, there are many job offers for almost every field of work. The important thing is that you arrive with your paperwork ready to work, especially if you are coming to a state that is not Sao Paulo or Rio - but anyways everything is possible. I guess that in both Sao Paulo and Rio, it's faster to find a job and an employer more willing to legalize you than in other states.  Then keep your eyes wide open, because the same job position can have three different salaries, exactly in the same city, with the same working hours. I am sure this happens in many other places, but the difference here can vary from 350 EUR until 1000 EUR for example.