I'm Not Really Unemployed, Am I?

Today Raj went to I. for his first real day of work and to take care of some administrative things. I tagged along to take advantage of the internet and to get some exercise. The walk up to I. takes about 40 minutes from the apartment, but part of the walk is through Rio's botanical gardens. Along the way we saw a turtle pond, with 7 or 8 turtles swimming about or sunning themselves. They were interesting, with rusty-metallic shells and a couple of red stripes along their heads and necks. One looked so perfect that we thought it was a statue until we saw it move its head a bit. At one point in the garden, one can clearly see the statue of Christ for which Rio is so famous, framed by palm trees. It appears quite far away, but apparently it's a doable hike that we might try one of these days. In the evening, the statue is lit up and is quite striking against the dusk sky.

The walk up to I. is quite a trek that involves a lot of sweating and generally feeling disgusting. I was dripping for a good ten minutes after arrival, despite wearing a tank top and drinking cold water. I had been planning on growing my hair out, but the heat makes my high school lengths seem attractive. Raj will be in good shape by the time his fellowship is over.

I had planned to leave after using the internet, but that ended up taking longer than expected, so then I just waited for Raj. I got to spend some time with his new officemate, V., an interesting fellow from France who is quite friendly and talkative despite being a bit awkward. Upon first seeing him, he spent a good two or three minutes insisting that H., Raj's acquaintance from Berkeley and professor with whom he will be working at I., has an American accent. This despite the fact that H. is Brazilian. V. then insisted that H. had a more American accent than either Raj or me.

The Portuguese knowledge is increasing, albeit slowly. I spent a decent portion of today reading my Teach Yourself Portuguese book, and tomorrow we'll attend our first language class. (Free, two days a week at I. Quite convenient, although I don't know if I'll be able to continue after I start work.)

It's funny going along with Raj as he settles into his new professional life at I. I am always introduced, but as I am neither a wife nor a mathematician, perhaps people are not quite sure exactly who I am when they first meet me. I'm constantly afraid of the looming "So what do you do?", at which point I will have to admit that I actually currently do very little. There is the bachelors in mathematics from Berkeley, of course, but I think in a certain sense that makes it worse - being as these are all mathematicians, there is then the feeling that we should have something to talk about, although in reality a bachelors and a postgraduate degree in math are worlds apart. Had I majored in something completely different, there is at least the possibility of asking generic questions due to their unfamiliarity with the subject, but alas, such meaningless small talk is impossible in this situation. I am contemplating creating a fictional career and/or talent for myself, i.e. that I am a writer, and then I can act very mysterious and pretend that all of my observations are actually for work purposes, that is, to reproduce the situations later in the great stories I produce. Of course, I do reproduce them here, but this is hardly a livelihood. In any case, I will meet with C. next week and hopefully my two(or six)-month professional life will be sorted out then.