Numa, numa van

[[This'll be a short one since it's adapted from my final report/'project' for Intro to Brazil. Pardon the pretentiously academic tone and enjoy my in-line metacommentary! Also, extra points if you caught the O-Zone reference.]]

Regardless of how many times I’ve taken busses, subways, or trains, I find myself almost completely incapable of shaking my inborn Californian mistrust of public transportation [[An hour-long bus ride and walk EVERY DAY of school for two and a half years means, quite simply, I FUCKING HATE THE BUS--for the most part, if I'm in no rush and it's not crowded, it can be alright]]. So when the bus I had been planning on taking to PUC on my second day in Rio never showed up, I was relatively—and, I think, understandably—shaken [[I almost cried]]. As time continued to pass with no bus in sight, I desperately sought an alternative [[I started to freak the fuck out]]. It was then that I saw the van. I don’t think I’d ever really noticed the vans before; I assumed, rather, that they were back-alley operations that probably jacked up their prices, took advantage of tourists, and were generally unsafe [[I couldn't tell if people were getting in them of their own free will or if they were being kidnapped]]. That image was shattered within the first few seconds. The man leaning out the window shouting, “Leblon, Gávea, PUC!” at random crowds on the street, hoping to gain a few more passengers, was actually quite helpful. I ended up getting to class in less time and at less cost than if I had ridden a bus. [[What really ended my anti-van prejudice was talking to an American student who'd been in Brazil for 8 months who said to me, "Yeah, they seem really sketch but they're a lot cheaper than the bus." Cheaper? She said the magic word.]]