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Feliz Natal e Boas Festas!!!!

Why am I wishing everybody Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in Portuguese, you might ask? Because, your favorite Famous Author in the Making is in warm, tropical, delightful Rio de Janeiro! The Mr. and I landed on Christmas day, and will be here a whole month. Ahhh...sun, beaches, family, friends, good food aaaaand...good travel writing! That's right people, you will get to see and virtually experience everything that I am experiencing until January 22. I've never done travel writing before, and I can't think of a better city to start than in the land that brought us Bossa Nova and Samba.

So a little bit of orientation, first. I think the best way to approach this is as a travel diary. Hence, each blog title will begin with "Corina Carioca" and have a subtitle pertaining to whatever subject matter I happen to discuss. Here's a fun fact: Carioca is the name people native to the city of Rio de Janeiro call themselves. Since I am married to a Carioca, and I like the aliteration it has with my name, I think this title suits nicely.

Here's a blog post you'll be getting sometime tonight/tomorrow morning: my Futbol experience in THE Maracana Stadium! It's complete with crazed Flamengo Fanatics chanting, and even a riot. But for our first post I'll just ease us in, and I think I'll start with driving.

In the US, we like to rank the best and worst of everything. New Yorkers are the worst drivers. No, Boston! Pal, have you driven in L.A.? The debates can go on forever. But until you have ridden in a taxi cab in Rio, none of the above mentioned cities can hold a candle to it. Remember that line in Pirates of the Caribbean, where Captain Barbosa tells Elizabeth that the Pirate Code is more of a guideline than anything else? Well, the same holds true down here for driving lanes, intersection lights, sidewalks...And yet, there is order to the chaos. 

If you want to drive down here, I don't recommend it. But if you must, remember one thing: throw all of the DMV rules out the window. Just go with the flow (A very Carioca mentality in all aspects of life. ) Maybe that's why there's no such thing as road rage here.