(Post 3/3)
Someone had asked about the women and if they are better looking in Brazil in general and the simple answer to this question is yes. I have put alot of thought into this answer and why it s this way and I have a couple of reasons that I personally think lead to the women being, in general, better looking.
First off let me set the record straight by saying that women in every country are beautiful and peoples tastes change depending on what is appealing to them. What I find attractive is a physically fit (not obese) woman with a wonderful smile. By these standards Brazil is loaded with beautiful women (of course here are other things that I find attractive/appealing).
The problem with America is 2/3s of the population is overweight with 1/3 being obese. I'm not going to say there are no fat people here because that would be a lie, but there the percentage of people that are overweight here is significantly lower than the numbers of America with a couple of factors being included. The first and most important fact is money. People here just dont have as much "disposable income" as people in America. When it comes down to food and the ability to buy it the equation becomes a little more clear. Let's face it, Americans like their fast food and their deserts. Down here the fast food is expensive and the deserts are a treat that you spend your extra money on down here. When you dont have extra money you're not going to skip on the necessary things you need to live for an ice creme bar...does that make sense?
Another thing that money limits is the ability for people to have cars. Cars are very expensive here even for the middle class. So many people walk, ride their bikes or take the bus. This results in people having to get exercise to commute to one place or another. Think about it, even if you want to go to the movies you have to walk down the street, get on the bus and then get some exercise. If people had to walk down the street in America to turn on their TV then I'm sure that the ratings on most of these TV shows would be much lower.
The last economic factor that helps people stay in shape is the high cost of electronics. Wether we are talking about a television, a popular gaming system or a computer these things are expensive and most people cant afford them. Nevermind the ongoing cost of the electricity, cable, the games for the system and the interet cost. What this does is encourage people to find entertainment outside their homes which here, often leads to the beach. Another place to exercise and enjoy life wihtout sitting on your ass.
The beautiful smile is also very abunant here in Brazil becuase the dental system here is cheap by comparasion to American terms. I do not exactly know why both the dentristry and orthodontics here are so advanced but I'm not going to complain. I am happy seeing people with nice white teeth and straight in a row. This pobably stems from an accident I had when I was a 6 years old and another child hit me in the mouth with an oar (a paddle to a boat)and broke my front tooth. Although i have spent many thousands of dollars it is still broken and it leaves me mildy self conscience.
I guess that is a short look at how people here could be more "beautiful". That is if you link beauty with healthy. Personally, there is nothing more attractive than someone who takes care of their body, has a great smile, sexual and passionate. All of these things are in abundance here in Brazil (or Rio becuase that is the only place I have been).
Gisele took me to a local art museum which was a nice change in pace. I enjoy seeing art and was ready to experience some more Brazilian culture. The very first thing that struck me as odd was the fact that it was free to go see this art. It was weird to me that you didnt have to pay for a ticket but made sense the more that I thought about it. If we didnt charge for people to go see the works of art made by our fellow countrymen then perhaps we would go more frequently. This might in fact lead to more interest in arts and maybe...just maybe...some education for our people about the arts. In addition we may build some senese of pride as a people and replace that filthy sense of entitlement. I know guys I'm on a little bit of a soapbox today, I'm sorry about that bu since my return from Iraq I have very little compassion for my fellow countrymen. I hate to say this, but for the most part my fellow Americans make me sick.
Anyway I digress. The art was pretty good and we spent the whole afternoon walking between the different buildings and talking about the art. The first building contained an artist named Bonfanti. The whole building was devoted to his life work which contained many different pieces. As a whole they were "creepy" with his main focus being on sexual violence. Not exactly the type of place that you want to go with a date. We took our time inspecting the first 3 rooms and then breezed through the other 5 or 6. It was mildy depressing and didnt leave me happy. After asking one of the secuirty guards how he could work there all day without being depressed he explained to me that the artist would often come to the gallery and that the man was actually very nice. I guess that is a good justification but if I had to look at that art day in and day out I might take a long walk off a short pier if you know what I mean. They didnt allow any pictures at the museum but I did take one picture at the entrance next to the poster with his name on it. You migt be able to get an idea of what his art was like from it.
Afte we left there we proceeded to another gallery that had mostly photographs and as all of my friends know I enjoy taking pictures. Again they didnt allow pictures in the studio but I did happen to get two different pictures of other glass art. Remarkably I thought one of them looked like a giant sperm so I thought it would be funny to stand in front of it and do my best impression of trying to get out of the way. I think it could have come out better but I still think it's funny.
The final picture that I took is of the emergency box on the second floor. I'm not sure why I found it so funny but I have never seen anything like this back in the states. Every red box that I've seen includes a fire extinguisher. This one however includes a crowbar, a rope, a hammer and some other odd objects. I'm sure it could be useful if the bottom floor caught on fire, or you had a child trapped in a wooden crate....or many other possible weird scenerios but it just seemed like a swiss army knife of emergency boxes.
That pretty much brings me to a close for today and it's been a great week. I know that my posts are getting a little further apart but I will do my absolute best to make sure you guys dont go more than week without hearing from me. If I can swing the content AND time to write more I will for sure.
I'm still wanting more tattoo ideas so keep them coming.
Jeremy
