Rio de Janeiro

A new person joined our dorm this evening. Her name is Nafir (spl???) from Israel & she´s just completed her army duty there. She is traveling solo & arrived in Rio today after 4 hectic days of flying & lay-overs including Los Angeles, Houston, New York, Sao Paulo & Rio. I told her I was from California. She said she didn´t like Los Angeles very much & was surprised to discover that many people there didn´t have passports, nor had ever been outside of the county. She said in Israel, a high school graduate is required to join the army - 2 years for young women, 3 years for young men. After completion of army duty, she said, a person is expected to travel for 3 months to 2 years before returning to civilian life to enter college, or to gain employment.

This afternoon, i saw a guy jogging along Copacabana beach balancing a full liter plastic bottle of Coca-Cola on his head!