Hamburgers and phone adventures

I recently bought a Brazilian SIM card so I could make calls to my host family and other friends in Brazil. The first step was unlocking my Verizon phone so it would work with the new chip. After this, I tried making a call with the chip in my phone. I was greeted by a phone recording speaking Portuguese so naturally I understood nothing. I handed the phone off to my host parents and they spoke to an operator and explained I had to call back in 24 hours and enter a CPF number. It's after 9pm now and we called yesterday around 9. Today my host dad spoke to another operator and from what I can tell had to give her his life story. She asked how long he lived in Rio, his address, I think his birthdate, and then his CPF number. I asked my professor today what a CPF number was and from what I can tell it's sort of like a forever record that banks have access to if you get into debt or something. Sarah, who's been living in Rio for a few months, had explained earlier that to activate a cell phone a Brazilian citizen had to give their CPF number, which she likened to a Social Security Number. She said this was because people in jail would smuggle in cell phones to inmates and they would make calls and plan crimes and whatnot. So now I have to wait two hours and then I can make a call. Hopefully this works!

Over the weekend I watched the Brazil game at Copacabana beach with Sarah and cheered along with everyone at Brazil's lovely goals. During halftime we were on the hunt for churros and of course because we were looking for some, couldn't find any. At the beach there are tons of vendors on the sidewalk and even more with coolers on their shoulders weaving through the crowd watching the game, selling their wares. I saw tiny pies, cotton candy, soda, bottled water, chips, gum, dresses, and jewelry pass by me for sale. But sadly no churro vendors were walking around the beach. Instead we got boiled corn covered in butter which was very tasty. We also ran into Ramin on our halftime churro search and he was sipping on some agua de coco so I will have to try one too. Holding a coconut with a straw sticking out of it is pretty quintessential beach so that definitely needs to happen. When Kaká was sent off everyone on the beach gasped/cried out and I may have shed a tear. After the game we ate at a place called Giraffas, or Giraffes, that had some very tasty looking hamburgers pictured on the wall. Seeing the hamburgers and fries on the menu made me think it was a fast food type restaurant but in addition they sold actual dinner food, like a chicken fillet with a side of rice and beans, or a steak. Also it was not fast. We waited about 10 minutes behind two people just to order. I think one of the registers was broken or something. When we did finally order the woman told us it would be a 10 minute wait. It didn't take that long and the burgers and fries were worth it. Sarah said it took so long because they made everything when you ordered it, which I guess is kind of nice, but I think they were taking too long peeling potatoes for fries.

On the way back to the metro we were walking along when suddenly Sarah yelled "Churros!" and pointed to her left. I screamed "Churros!" and we both dug in our wallets for reales to buy the tasty fried sugary dough sticks filled with warm caramel or dulce de leche sauce. I tried the dulce de leche and it was delicious although I can't decide if I like it more than the chocolate, both flavors are delicious in their own right.