The Blog - The Archive

A short blog about Rio...

I don't have a lot of time this morning, as I'm going to go meet up with a new friend (Shari Breen, for those in the astro circle) and take in some of the sights. Or maybe just walk the beach, we haven't decided and neither have any portuguese.

The first thing you notice about Brazil is the smell. A lot of the cars don't seem to have any muffler, or maybe there's something about the fuel they use, but the road is full of smoke and even in the rain (for I've not seen the sun since circling over the airport) does not do much to help. It's not so bad here in Copacabana, I suspect the sea breezes do much to help with that.

The second thing you notice are the Favelas, which I'd heard about but not quite understood until that moment when I saw just how poor those people really are. I'm told that as part of the Olympic bid the authorities are going to try and fix things up, but I'm not sure I trust them not to bulldoze the homes of millions of people in terrible poverty. A number of youth hostels are having a combined party tonight to raise money to redevelop one of the favelas, I might go (if not I'll send a donation with one of the girls who works here). It seems a small drop in a bucket of "this can never be fixed", but who knows, maybe it can. We have to hope.

The third thing I noticed was that Brazilian drivers are even more scary than Sydney Taxis, and that they do the same thing with regards to ignoring lanes. I'm reasonably certain that this craziness is the reason why most of the streets are one way. In an hour of exploring on foot, however, I nearly died only once, so I'm counting that as a good thing.

Anyway, that'll do for now. I'm here, I'm having an okay time, and once I adapt to the climate and the timezone I'm sure it will be even better. I do miss you all.

Labels: holiday, rio de janeiro, trip09

Hola from Montevideo...

About to jump on another flight (oh dear god can we stop soon please?), but I thought I'd see if this wifi really was free and post quickly to give you all my love.

Labels: montevideo, Oh help I dont speak spanish or portuguese, south america, trip09

*yawns*...

Yes, I know it's only 2pm on Wednesday. But it's the second time this Wednesday I've hit 2pm, and I'm not feeling up to blogging in detail. In the meantime, have some photos.

Labels: international date line ftwtf, santiago, trip09

About to run away...

So I thought I'd get off my busy butt and take the time to blog, to tell you all what's going on and make a vague promise to post lots while I'm away (that never ends well, but here we are once more). I'm about to disappear overseas for several months, hooray hooray!

First up, I'm going to Brazil (Rio de Janeiro in particular) for the IAU General Assembly. There's a few days in advance where I'll be crashed in a youth hostel, hopefully catching up on sleep, but also maybe engaging in some Portuguese lessons and a few tours of the city and surrounds. My conference runs from the 3rd to the 14th of August, and I'm flying out on the 15th.

At which point I'm going to Cambridge. As in the university. As in, SQUEE! I'll be attending a workshop at the Isaac Newton Institute from the 16th to 22nd of August, staying at Wolfson Court.

After that I'm staying on at the Institute as a student/affiliated participant of the Dynamics of Discs and Planets Programme, save for two weeks (5th - 20th September-ish) when I'm going to London for some sightseeing. I don't have my accommodation sorted yet, but I'm hoping it'll be organised by tomorrow.

And then on the 17th of October I head back to Heathrow to fly home. *snores* So I'll likely be busy (I want to get several chapters of my thesis and a paper written), and I'll be exhausted, but I'll hopefully be able to get online enough to keep this place in a better state of update than I've managed so far this year.

The short version, for anyone who couldn't be bothered reading:

• 29/7/09 - QF321 Sydney to Santiago
• 30/7/09 - PU402 Santiago to Montevideo
• 30/7/09 - PU222 Montevideo to Rio de Janeiro
• 15/8/09 - JJ8084 Rio de Janeiro to London
• 17/10/09 - BA15 London to Sydney

And just randomly for sticking with me so far, a link I've been hanging on to forever: The Cute Cat Theory of the Internet.

Labels: Brazil, Cats, conferences, holiday, itinerary, Newton Institute, the internet is for porn, trip09

Why hello there, silent blog...

The good news is that the IAU has decided that I really am a student and thus qualify to attend their awesome conference at the discount rate. Sadly, I'm not awesome enough to be allowed a vote on any matters of planet defining importance.

Labels: astronomy, conferences, science