Brazil has avacados like a guacamole-maker’s wet dream, but they don’t know what a tortilla chips is. How can a country not have tortilla chips? I’m going to have to serve my guacamole on fried dough! What kind of messed-up third world country have I gotten myself into?

That said, I’m really enjoying Porto Alegre. This is a city where same-sex making-out on the dance floor outnumbers hetero even the straight clubs.

There’s a bar I’ve gone to a couple times that absolutely oozes alternativity. People relax on home-made chairs over hot discussions of art and politics. In the back are three cluttered artists lofts, and against one wall is a table of books for sale by one of those artists. If I can place two closely related aspects in opposition, the people there are funky instead of beautiful. People that comfortable with unconventionality talk and move and carry themselves differently. Not since Cambridge have I been in a place so casually different.

Edit: Turns out today is also the Porto Alegre Parade Gay! After Belém, Rio, and a near-miss in another city, I really think Brazilian cities have a gay pride parade every two weeks. I love them, and it’s good to be counted… but this city needs another gay-pride supporter like Obama needs electoral votes. I think I’ll wait until it passes in front of my apartment, in a couple hours.