It's all coming together...

My apartment is looking pretty spiffy these days!  After living here for a year, the school will paint your walls if you want, and boy did I want!  I picked some bright colors (for accent walls only), and hung up the lantern I bought in Liberdade.  After a weekend trip to Embu with the gang, I also invested in a lovely hammock chair (which I will enjoy much more when the weather is warm again).  The school installed the hook, and also hung up a few pieces of art I had bought last year, and here are the results: 

Main Living Area - now with a green wall!

Main Living Area - see the lantern by the door?

New hammock chair

Dining Area

Main bedroom - now with a blue wall!

brazil is random #4

why is brazil so obsessed with plastic bags?  for a country that hasn't yet figured out how to put the metal teeth on saran wrap boxes, they sure do love giving you way more plastic grocery sacks than is ever necessary.  fortunately, i use my green reuseable sack as much as possible.  and sure, i use the plastic ones in my little wastebaskets in bathrooms and such, but i have so many built up in 8 months of living here.  they don't give you the choice of paper or plastic in the stores here - paper bags are nowhere to be found.  i could go to the store and buy 12 items and they might use 8 different bags.  i kid you not.