Brazilians are very welcoming and seemed very happy overall. I spent two months in Rio in 2008 and as a New Yorker, I'm used to walking everywhere. I would walk from Baixo Gavea to Leme and back daily by myself and they would tell me how crazy I was, I didn't speak Portuguese, so I carried post it notes and a pen.

I also went to a Flamengo match and stood in the Raça section by myself because none of the Brazilians I knew would go with me, which earned me the nickname gringo loco. They didn't believe me until I showed them video of me there. I love the food, especially Pao de queijo, I love Caetano, Tim Maia, Os Mutantes. That being said, it did feel like borderline anarchy there, I was hanging with a famous Brazilian rapper, who's name is eluding me right now, anyway, I had to relieve myself badly and you can go to jail in NYC for relieving yourself in public. He said to me "Man, here, you can do whatever you want!" Ha, he wasn't wrong.