You're not from around here...

Porto Alegre is hardly a hive of tourist attractions and sightseers. As a result it is rare to see anyone who is not a Brazilian. Even the tourist office staff do not speak English and everyone seems quite surprised to see me. There is a lack of English here beyond anything I saw in Europe, where it seems to be a fairly common method for neighbouring countries to communicate, even if it is native to neither. There is one television channel here which is entirely American shows, dubbed into Spanish and then subtitled with Portuguese.

For the most part this is a Modern developed city. Of course most modern developed cities do not use horse drawn carts as garbage trucks. Shopping centres look more like exhibition halls. It makes a lot of sense to have modular stalls for the shops, so now I am just surprised I have not seen this anywhere else. There is a large port here, though it is hard to tell which piles of rust are still in service.

Soccer is THE sport. You play it, you watch it, you talk about it. There are two local teams, one red one blue. On days where there is a significant game the entire city looks like a big CTF match.

Down the south here is the cowboy or 'gaúcho' area. The local cuisine is a BBQ style restaurant. You get a plate and waiters walk around with all types of meat on sticks and carve off whatever you want. This is often accompanied by dancing shows. Waiters are numerous and attentive, though little emphasis is made on presentation. I ordered from a picture of an Alfredo dish at one place, though I was not expecting bare pasta with herbs and cheese in separate containers for me to apply myself.

At the end of the week I fly out of here. Presently I am holding on to getting this job over with.