Santa Teresa & Lapa

In our preparations for our honeymoon, we researched sights we would want to go see. We read about them and watched videos about it. One of the places that we were especially excited to go see was Santa Teresa and Lapa. We heard that Santa Teresa was an artistic community filled with shops and cafe's. We were supposed to be able to take a trolley "bondinho" from the city center to this community.

Our first clue should have been that the trolley wasn't running anymore. Apparantly there was an accident that killed 7 people and also led to the bondinho's demise. So, we unknowingly had a taxi drive us up to Santa Teresa where we (naively) thought we'd wander down through the neighborhoods until we reached the Arcos da Lapa and the Escalera de Selaron.

I think the taxi driver thought we were nuts when we asked him to drop us off in the middle of nowhere. Little did he know that our map told us that we should have been in the middle of quite the happening place! It was drizzly that morning, so I thought by the looks of things that maybe we would have to work a little harder to find what we were looking for. It MUST have just been hiding!

We started walking. I saw this amazing shop. It looked like it was selling mostly fruit, but it had this amazing blue and white tiled store front. I HAD to take a picture... that is, until the lady inside the shop started yelling/screaming at me to put the camera away. No pictures. We were also being followed by a transvestite-type person trying to sell me "hand-made" jewelry. I was nervous. It also seemed like she was following us. Double nervous. But he/she was the closest thing we saw to a "shop" in the area.

We started wandering down the street looking for shops and the famous Escalera. The place was mostly a dump, most likely went downhill after the trolley stopped bringing the tourists up. However, there were some cool looking buildings I would have liked to take pictures of. I actually had to wait around about 5 minutes until the coast was clear to snap this photo.



The point at which we took this picture, was the last "decent" memory I have of this place. We were not far from the Arcos de Lapa and the Escalera, but we had to walk a little further. We started down... we weren't sure which way to go. We turned the corner and decided that if we wanted to keep ANYTHING we had with us, we needed to turn around immediately and go back the other way. Because around the corner, we saw a street that had a reasonable number of threatening-looking people and there was NO WAY we could blend in... especially with my "yellow" hair (what the Brazilians referred to blonde hair). It even made Dave nervous. We turned around and I started praying for a bus, a taxi, whatever... I didn't care, I just wanted out of there!

About 10 minutes later a bus came by and we stopped it and hopped on. Everyone on board staring at us like we were crazy... and that we definitely weren't from there! Less than 5 minutes on the bus we were at the Arcos. I refused to go back to the area looking for the Escalera and we continued on to the Metropolitan Cathedral & Bell Tower.

Arcos da Lapa


Metropolitan Cathedral


Bell Tower


This ultimately led us to meet our "tour guide" and taxi driver Luiz. He was absolutely amazing. So amazing, that I have to save that for next time... But here's a sneak preview- he brought us to the Escalera de Selaron that I was too nervous to go back searching for.

Views from the Roof-top: Rio de Janiero, Part 1

Our first day of our honeymoon in Rio was after a long day of traveling and immediately following the wedding marathon! We left at 4am the morning after our wedding and drove from San Diego to LAX for our 13 hour flight to Brazil. If I were to do that over again, I would have left a day in-between to round everything up and soak in the first day of being married off of an airplane, but, as they say, "live and learn"! Regardless, the first day in Rio was wonderful. We arrived around 3am in the city, slept till about 10 and enjoyed the beach that was immediately in front of our hotel and the views from the roof-top pool and bar. We were completely lazy. We wandered a bit around the beach areas of Leblon and Impanema, but nothing too crazy. We grabbed dinner along the street. Dave ordered what he thought was going to be a soup and hamburger but turned out to be orange juice and a hamburger! That was pretty funny! We had no idea what we were ordering! But I'll say this, they have the BEST juices in Brazil. Sooo good & super fresh! We had fun trying the different varieties!

You can barely make out the Corcodova on that mountain behind us. At night it was all lit-up and pretty cool.


This is the view of Impanema Beach from our hotel roof.


We were wandering down by the beach at sunset and grabbed this shot. The sun set on the "Twin Brothers" mountain. The first day was one of the few days we got a sunset because it was cloudy and rainy for most of our time there. We actually thought that was Sugarloaf mountain and we would look there to see if it was a good day to visit Sugarloaf. We were shocked when we found out that wasn't the famous mountain! Typical tourists!


View of Twin Brothers mountains and Leblon Beach at night. Beautiful huh?!? We made it a habit to bring a bottle of wine with us to the roof-top at night to watch the scenery and relax. You can see the lights on the side of the mountain, and that is a very large favela. We drove by it on our way back from our jungle tour (more on that later) and it's very sad. Very low income housing area with over 12,000 people living there. If you think the gap between the rich & poor is bad in the US, go to Brazil where it is much worse. Less than a 5 minute drive from this favela is the Leblon beach where condo's sell for between 2-10 million Real's (the Brazilian currency). That is $1.14-5.7 million US dollars. Crazy!


Oh the beauty...

Our Wedding Day

I really want to blog about our honeymoon, but I feel like I should write a little something about our wedding before I do that!

We were married on the most perfect day in October. It was a beautiful and sunny day with a perfect sunset. Everything about our day was perfect. I know that probably everyone thinks that about their wedding day, but ours really was. In fact, the whole first day of our honeymoon, we couldn't stop talking about how perfect everything was. Now, did it all go off without a hitch? No. The pedestals for the tall centerpieces were up-side down, the aisle runner wasn't long enough, the aqua blue linens that were used were much brighter than the ones that I picked, nobody waved the cute ribbon wands I spent so much time making and there was a mix-up with one of the groomsmen and the appropriate tie he was supposed to wear. But honestly, just little stuff and I'd still use the word "perfect" to describe our day. Why? Because everything else was amazing. The sun was shining, the flowers were gorgeous, people were smiling at the ceremony and dancing at the reception. We had such a perfect day with the people we love!

I am anxiously awaiting photos from our photographer, but here are a few I snagged off Facebook that others posted!

Corcovado

The first day we saw the Corcovado or "Cristo Redentor" (Christ the Redeemer) was on the cloudiest day. We only had about one minute of time to get a clear picture of the 80 year-old statue on the list of the 7 Wonders of the World. Today, we took the most amazing helicopter tour from Sugarloaf Mountain and had an amazing view from above. It literally takes your breath away. Such an amazing sight...

In the moment of clearness


These two are from a helicopter above the Christo

Michelle Hartman, Ph.D.

I've been completely MIA from my blog recently and once I explain it, you'll understand! I have been BUSY!! In 6 weeks time, I went to San Diego to finalize wedding details, went back to Massachusetts to finish writing my PhD without electricity (thank you Irene) and complete my defense (sucessfully!), finish my last experiment to get my paper published, drive down to Maryland, apply for our VISA's to go to Brazil for our honeymoon and catch up on sleep. Even more than that, I am getting married in 18 days! Yikes!! That being said, I am sooo excited for our upcoming wedding! Very happy that I am officially Dr. Hartman! And really really really looking forward to a week in Rio de Janiero to relax and celebrate with my love not only for our new marriage but also to celebrate both of our recent graduations! What a year... That being said, I can FINALLY share some graduation photos since I've FINALLY finished my PhD!!! :)

Wedding Registry/Hotel/Info

Hi Everyone!

We've been getting emails about our gift registry and also hotel information for the wedding weekend.

You can find all of this information (and more) on our wedding website:
http://lanes2be.weddingwindow.com

But, to sum it up, we are registered at:

Williams & Sonoma
Macy's
Crate & Barrel
Bed Bath & Beyond

We have rooms booked at the Empress Hotel in La Jolla (a short 2 minute walk from the reception venue). To get a booking discount, tell them you are booking for the Hartman-Lane wedding & the discount is applied when you check out.

Thanks a lot all!

Big Move!

We are buying boxes today, so I guess that means it's really happening. We are moving to DC! Yup, that's right. Dave got a job at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Producer Price Index department. (Don't ask, I don't know!) He starts his new job August 15th so we're packing up and moving him down to our new apartment on August 9th. We're sad to leave Boston, but excited for what's to come.

As of now, Dave will be alone with Ginny until I am finished with my dissertation. I'm defending on September 7th and will help him get moved in and then come back to Worcester to wrap stuff up. I don't have a job lined up yet, but have applied for several jobs. I've been in contact with a scientist at NIH to be a post-doc, and it looks promising. I've also applied for some private-sector and government (non-post doc jobs) and hope to hear from some of those as well.

Our new residence will be in Rockville, MD in the adorable town center, complete with cute shops and restaurants. We'll be about a 3 minute walk to the metro and... wait for it... we don't have to pay for a parking spot!! (That was HUGE when we came down to look for an apartment).

So stay tuned and wish us luck!