Media

Media

By Bobby Neal Winters

At the hotel I stayed at in Rio, when the waiter came to fill up my cup with coffee, he knew I was a foreigner and would always ask, "Media?"  (pronounced meh-jee-a) in order to determine whether I wanted it half full with the other half milk.  This is because Brazilian coffee is strong.

I now approach "media" of my time in South America.  I will be home one week from tomorrow and this makes today effectively half-time.  There are some tentative plans, but there is no big half-time show in the works.  I would like to ride on the Sao Paulo subway, which I hear is clean and safe.  I'd like to kick around aimlessly. buying small items with the idea of improving my Portuguese.  Most of all, I need to rest a little bit because the second half is coming up as I leave for Asuncion in the morning.

Plans are (men make plans and God laughs) that I will meet the rest of the PSU-Paraguay contingent at the Sao Paulo airport tomorrow and we share the same flight to Asuncion.  We then will be together in Asuncion and I can show them the ropes, as it were. I always like to take the group to Shopping del Sol to get pineapple juice and chipa cuartro queso.  It is a great way to get calibrated.  Maybe we will dine at Bolsi? 

In any case, today I will recuperate and ready myself for the second half.