Falando, vendo, tirando

The month of June has been primarily devoted to language study. As Dave wrote a couple weeks ago, group and individual Portuguese classes at Bridge-Linguatec in downtown Rio de Janeiro take up most of our day. By today we´ve logged over a hundred hours of batendo o papo com os professores (shootin´ the breeze with professors). We´ve gone solo on the metrô (subway), bus, taxi, and sidewalk. Our initial comfort zone, which almost wasn´t big enough to exist, has expanded considerably (maybe I had a bigger problem with street anxiety than David did). Thank God we´ve had no problems so far.

Besides classes, we spent time last week with the Matoses in home, in church, and out and about. We got to meet Ingrid´s fiance Estevão a week ago. I can´t wait to get pictures from when the couple took us to the Pedro de Arpoador, a look-out rock on the beach of Ipanema.

The next day, Saturday, we went to Barra Shopping, the largest mall in Latin America. In front stands a replica Statue of Liberty, and let´s just say a picture is worth a thousand words:



Now. I have more news. But I´ve been summoned to eat. Até já!