I arrived for a six month contract nine years ago
Posted as came_for_six_months
- Looking for
- somebody local, because I am finally admitting that I live here
- Experience
- Twelve years, both directions, most of it in another language.
- Around
- the south zone, Rio de Janeiro
The contract was six months. That was nine years ago. I have a flat, a bank account, a dentist and a set of friends who make fun of my accent, and I still describe myself to people at home as being here temporarily.
Thirty five, south zone, switch, twelve years in this, though the first three were somewhere much colder and considerably more organised about it.
What I have finally accepted is that everybody I have been involved with here has been another foreigner, which happened by accident at first and then by habit. It is easier. Nobody has to explain anything and everybody assumes a leaving date. It has also meant that after nine years I have never had anything here that lasted more than a year.
So I would like to meet somebody who is from here and staying here. I speak the language properly now. I will get things wrong socially and I would rather be told than have people be polite about it. What I want is a long, even switch dynamic. I lead about half the time. Protocol and structure interest me a great deal, pain very little. I live alone near the water and I can host.
Not looking for anybody who wants to practise their English on me. Not looking for a person who is here for a season, because that is the pattern I am trying to break. Not looking to be anybody's foreign experience.