Juiz de Fora, JF

Hi All,

I enjoyed Juiz de Fora Yesterday. The first bus from the central bus terminal in Rio was at 0600. In order to save the great cost of a taxi from the hostel to the bus terminal, I thought I would just take the last city bus of the night from the hostel. Arriving at the bus stop at 0030 (Iwas told the last bus would pass at 0100) and waiting for more than an hour, no bus ever came to take me to the central bus terminal. Again, instead of taking a taxi, I walked to the street parallel to the beach where I hailed a passanger van. These passanger vans hold about 15 people and go to various parts of the city, one tripo for R$2.20 (half in US$). A bus to any point costs R$2.35.

My adventure begins, not knowing where to get off. I have been around the city, by bus and walking, enough to recognize the names of many of it's suburbs. There are three locations which still confuse me by name as these are Centro, Central, and Centre each being a different location in Rio. Having a choice between these three and a maximum of 4 hours to get to the bus terminal with 30 minutes to spare, I decided on the van to Central.

Along with the driver of the van, there is another employee who takes the fare. This extra employee stands in the narrow entry to the van next to the open window. The extra's other job is to holler out the window the names of the various main suburbs in route yelling almost constantly Lapa, Botafogo, Flamengo, Gloria, Central to all curb side people who may look like they are waiting for a taxi, bus, or van. The only time when she is not yelling is when she is taking money from the passangers.

The driver will stop anywhere in route, all you have to do is whistle, hit the roof of the van or simply say stop here and the driver immediately pulls over. I got on the van, paid my R$2.20 and upon settling in to try and recognize which suburbs we were passing through. I asked the extra two simple words I had learned in Portuguese, Onde Rodoviaria, Where central bus terminal (every city seems to have one and its called Rodoviaria) pronounced on-gee hodo-vee-are-eea with a stressed accent on the first i. She spoke to me for a few seconds in rapid portuguese maybe thinking I spoke the language fluently. I nodded like I understood and said muito bom (very good).

After driving around in the early morning hours for more than 30 minutes seeing many locations I didn't recognize with a few glimpses of areas I did mainly proceeding in the general direction of where I wanted to go, the driver dropped off the next to the last passenger. A good sign that the van is nearing the end of its route upon which it will turn around and repeat the trip in the other direction, the extra will continuing yelling in a rapid voice Central, Gloria, Flamengo, Botafogo, Lapa, Copacabana, Impanema.....

Being the last passanger, the extra again began talking to me in Portuguese of which I understood nothing, but what did she know. When she finished, I asked, fala inglis (do you speak english). Not a word. I said Muito bom agian as we both laughed and they dropped my off a few blocks later, obviously their last stop. Here they turned around and continued where we had come from.

Wondering what I was going to do next, I walked a 360 degree circle in one spot, scanning as far as I could see. Two blocks in one direction, I saw a mass concentration of people and a few city busses. What came to be a main city bus terminal. This is what the extra had been telling me, "we'll drop you off near a bus stop where you can get a bus to Rodoviaria". I walked the two blocks and waited for about 30 minutes until a bus with the word Rodoviaria written in big letters on the windshield. Paying the R$2.35, I was there lass than 15 minutes later.

I arrived at the central bus terminal at about 0315 with my bus not leaving until 0600. I slept lightly in the terminal chairs not wanting to sleep soundly. I had no alarm clock to wake me for departure. I slept almost the whole bus trip to Juiz de Fora, 180 Km roughly 108 miles in 3.5 hours.

My advisor in JF had given me bus numbers which would get me to UFJF. I first had to take a bus from Rodoviaria to Centro and then find a bus to UFJF. At 0930 and going from sea level and 75 degrees to over 3000 feet elevation and 50 degrees in the winter wearing shorts, short sleeve shirt and sandels, I was shivering. I'm glad I had brought one pair of pants with me but was sad as I had left them in Rio. I will be able to use them in JF when I move here the first week of August.

I checked in with the international office at UFJF (University Federal de Juiz de Fora). As my appointment with the Policia Federal (to register as the final part of my student visa application process of which I detest because this step of the process costs nearly US$100) wasn't until 1500, I had time also to meet my advisor with the Civil Engineering department. After organizing some classes I might be able to take in August, she offered to take me to lunch. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time as I still had to stop by any bank to pay the R$190 in fees to the Policia Federal with just enough time to go register with them back in Centro.

Yesterday, through email, the International office had asked me if I wanted an excort to the Policia Federal in JF. The People here in Brazil are so nice. I was so extatic from the international office's offer. I met my escort at 1400 after paying the bill at a bank on UFJF's campus.

JF is similar in terrain to Robbbinsville, where everything is up and steeply. The city, the size of about Greensboro, is definetly in the mountains, the main city center being in the narrow river valley bottom. Before arriving here, not knowing the terrain, I had considered renting a bicycle for the four months I will be spending in JF. This isn't a practical option for me. The university sits on top of a mountain high above the city center (its highly likely I will be living in Centro). The roads are steep and twisty, crowded with pedestrians, cars and busses.

My escort and I arrived at the Policia Fedaral with minutes to spare taking a bus back to centro then walking about a mile. Along the way, I found out he spoke no English. We didn't talk much. My escort and the officer at the Policia Federal talked for about 20 minutes as I sat there listening intently understanding about every 10th word, mainly a word in Spanish. My visit resulted in me not finalizing the last step in my visa application process. My documents clearly state I must register in JF. But the policia tell me I must register in Rio. Not showing my discontent, I was pissed but got over it soon enough.

I had to go back to UFJF to see my Engineering advisor before leaving the Rodoviaria in JF at 1900 for Rio. This was my second trip walking through the UFJF campus and the Engineering department. I could've takan a free campus bus but I had time and wanted to see the campus.

The western half of the school I walked through from the center where the bus dropped me off to the Engineering department passes through three other educational disciplines. Each discipline had its narrow long strip of land cut into the mountain side similar to terraces with the Engineering department being at the pinnacle of the mountain. Between each terrace were long steep steps containing switchbacks to get from one level to the next. My first walk through was over the much longer road to the top but this time I meandered through and between the buildings of each terrace in order to find stairs leading from behind the buildings up to the next terrace. By the time I reached the top, I was sweating profusely as the temperature had reached a sweltering 65 degrees in the middle of winter.

I met with my advisor to obtain paper copies of class descriptions to give to my advisor in NC for credit evaluation. UFJF's websight is under construction. My advisor, Roberta (who speaks enough English), said the websight for the current classes has been down and the only thing available was a hard copy of the class descriptions. I must translate these, 11 pages in all to English before forwarding them to NC. I'm trying to find someone knowledgeable enough of computers who can show me who to convert .pdf files to .doc or .docx files so I can paste these descriptions into an internet translator.

To my surprise, Roberta had found me an escort to follow me back to Rodoviaria. After introductions, Roberta followed us to the school cafeteria to buy Rafael (as the R is pronounced with a gutteral H his name is pronounced Ha-fael) and I supper. The cafeteria was very simple with only lunch and supper served. Supper last night consisted of all you can eat, serve yourself beans and rice, stewed cabbage, one, and only one serving of diced sauteed chicken (scooped by a server), a very small salad bar with green leaf lettuce, sliced tomatoes and whole fresh fruit. A self serve drink bar of juices and water. That's it. All for R$1.50 each meal. Roughly US$0.75. What a bargain.

Oblivious to time as I had an escort to the bus terminal we ate and talked. Rafael was not just a random student found by Roberta. Rafael (who speaks much better English than I do Portuguese) is excited to be on his way to North Carolina State University in two weeks to study Industrail Engineering for a semester. We had lots to talk about. I, mainly practicing my Portuguese and Rafael asking me about Raleigh (How's the night life, Are there a lot of attractions there, How much is a Big Mac, in JF US$5.00), he is looking forward to seeing a Walmart for the first time. He introduced me to his girlfriend whispering to me I better take care of her making sure she stays faithful to him while he is gone.

Not knowig the time, just after eating he gets up and says we must rush for Rodoviaria as it is getting late and we have to take two busses through Centro. I arrive at the bus terminal with 10 minutes to spare taking a taxi from centro as I never would have arrived on time had I taken the bus.

The next thing I remember from getting on the bus in JF was waking to an empty bus at Rodoviaria in Rio. I don't think the bus had been there for long. Being sleepy and disoriented, I had to ask upon getting off the bus where I was, Que este cidade, What city is this (insert question mark here as the question mark key doesn't work on this computer, it spits out a colon) Taking one bus from Rodoviaria in Rio, I arrived at the hostel at 2330 very tired and ready for bed.

Today I slept until 0930. Needing more cash, I ventured out for an ATM for the first time. Something I should've done sooner. Trying three banks and using two different debit cards from two different banks in the US many times, I was finally able to withdraw a maximum of R$600 for the day. I'm going to have to reach SECU (State Employees Credit Union) to see what the problem is as My BB&T debit card worked. I needed R$900 to pay tuition at UFRJ (University Federal de Rio De Janeiro). Afterwhich I went to UFRJ to register, obtain documents for the Policia Federal in Rio, and inquire about Portuguese class starting Monday.

Everything went smoothly with the Policia Federal in Rio. The final step in my student visa application process is complete. I waited in line, in a chair, the only one in the student line for an hour and a half. The next number to be called was 416 as the digital counter read 415. Sitting in the chair in a crowded room amongst at least 50 people doing other things with the passport department, a blaring TV, I fell asleep. The officer, who checked me in, checked all my documents, had me to fill out the student visa application, took fingerprinnts of all ten fingers (twice) on the front and back of the application, woke me an hour and a half later to tell me its my turn. Fifteen minutes later I was on my way back to the hostel, leaving the airport as the sun was setting at 1715.

Chewy