Notes from the South

As you might have guessed by the complete absence of posts I am crazy busy these days in Brazil.  So many bureaucratic tasks, language classes and regular work to do leaves me with little time and even less energy to blog.  Besides I have little time to keep up with events either here or back home.  Instead what I have been able to do mostly is to experience with a mix of awe and befuddledness the byzantine bureaucratic maze I have to navigate.  I am very close to the finish line, I am happy to report.

In the past few months, in order to pull of a short sabbatical stay in Brazil I have had to procure documents a varied as a criminal background check, proof of health insurance, my birth certificate (many times), have had to go to the consulate in San Francisco, the post office, a notary office many times, the Receita Federal (IRS) and the Federal Police, and I have even had to be fingerprinted and photographed.  But I have now done it all and have left only to open a bank account once I can provide some DNA (joke).

Hopefully now I'll have a little time to enjoy São Paulo.  And maybe some more blogging.

Sunset over São Paulo, taken from the bar atop the Edificio Italia