Duck and I have discovered many things here about which we have had a 180-degree role reversal. One of these is my sudden and near-total directional challenge in our neighborhood (just our neighborhood, and really just leaving our house – I can usually get home just fine). I have no idea why this is, except that it’s something about the orientation of googlemaps? Like, when I look at googlemaps on my computer, it is oriented with south below, but our house faces south so north is behind us when we walk out the door…? I don’t really know. It’s weird and a bit jarring. When we walk out, I have to remind myself that I am facing the university and south, and that the majority of the neighborhood is behind me, aka north. Here’s hoping I get it sorted out soon!
One of the things I find most freeing about being here is that “learning experiences” (not mistakes!) are inexpensive. I order relatively freely off menus, recognizing maybe 1-2 words in a dish, and expect to figure out the rest. If it turns out I don’t like it, I can always order something else! (Fulbright gives a “settling in bonus” which I use as a cushion for most of these things, but even without it I’m not concerned.) Yesterday, Duck and I hit a downtown lunch buffet for $3.50 each. Bus rides are $1.10. We’ve seen pão de queijo for 25 cents (usually more like 75 cents or a dollar), and got ice cream bars for 75 cents (I got a kiwi flavored ice cream bar that was not bad!). At those prices, and with our wide-open schedules these days, I can take more risks than I might normally feel comfortable doing. 
I am also finding a lot of comfort in the Whatsapp group created by one of my fellow Fulbrighters. We’ve talked about everything from navigating getting CPF numbers and Federal Police registrations to linguistic faux pas; funny exchanges we’ve had with strangers to good tv shows to watch for improving our Portuguese; dealing with spam calls (yep, here too – I got 15 calls my first day with a Brazilian sim card) to where to spend Carnival. Everyone is so nice and supportive! Anytime I had a question while navigating a situation, I asked on Whatsapp and someone almost always responded almost immediately. Many in our cohort have lived in Brazil for some amount of time before and have worked through these same issues. I especially liked the advice to watch American tv shows dubbed into Portuguese with English subtitles, then again with Portuguese dubbing and Portuguese subtitles, and finally with no subtitles, to get the hang of things. I tried starting with Gilmore Girls but they talk way too fast, so I switched to Friends. (Someone else recommended The Good Place but we’re just watching it for the first time and a lot of it is so philosophical – maybe someday! We are loving it though.)
Tonight, after our first Portuguese tutoring session (at a school literally behind our house! so convenient) and hanging out with Marilia and her partner, we are hoping to get downtown to the synagogue (yes, singular – apparently there’s a Chabad, not to mention SO many Messianic Jewish places – but only one that feels like possibly a good fit; I’m not used to having only one option!). We still need to hear back from the synagogue as they don’t post their address or service times on the internet, and when I got in touch they asked me to send our passport pages, CPF numbers, and where we go to synagogue in the US. Going to synagogue in Guatemala prepared me for this level of security; I wish it were unreasonable but unfortunately I do understand their need for caution. Anyway, we’re waiting to hear back on that, so fingers crossed!
Horntoes in Brazil 