Episode 14: Milton Gets Better

I Skype Milton to talk about his recovery and tell a couple of amusing anecdotes about Simone's sister. This is clearly not our best episode, and if your main reason for listening is to learn about Brazil, you'll probably want to skip this one. Next week we get back into the swing of things with the first installment of a three-part (at least) series about race in Brazil.

Links:

• Gastritis -- Wikipedia
• Discovery of Bacterial Causes -- Wikipedia
• Duas Caras -- Milton's favorite telenovela
• Duas Caras Opening Credits -- YouTube

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Comments

[Zebulon]

Hopefully, Milton, you are feeling a lot better now. Having an endoscopy is so bad that it could be preferable just to stay ill!

In lieu of a bunch of grapes to aid your recovery, here are some funny signs from around the world. Nothing specifically Brazilian, but durians do get a look in, in picture 2:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=2552855&&offset=0&&sectionName=TravelTravelImages

[Kinsey]

Zebulon,

Thank you. I'll pass the link on to Milton. He likes stuff like that.

[Bishop^]

Although you started talking about "Focus!" during the talk about homes and mortgages, that might be an interesting discussion -- the differences in home purchasing and financing in Brazil vs the US.

For example - while in the US most apartment buildings are owned by a single person or company that rents out individual apartments, I'm told that in Brazil the "condo style" is much more popular, where the individual apartments are owned by different people.

Also, I hear that the idea of a small down payment followed by thirty years of financing is MUCH less common in Brazil, where high down payments and short loan terms are the norm. True?

[Kinsey]

Bishop^,

True. The economy here just doesn't have the long-term stability of the US. Due to several inflation spikes over the years, the money required to buy an impressive mansion thirty years ago would today be worth a tiny fraction of a centavo. Still there is a tremendous housing bubble in Brazil. I'm waiting for it to explode before buying a house or apartment.

Condos are very popular here. Everyone talks about buying an apartment rather than renting one. This is probably due in part to the perception that houses are not safe places to live.