So it's December 1st and I have just more or less finished closing the accounting for November. What can I say, the numbers seem funny when I think about closing the daily reports for Bar & Cigar in Oslo. But then again, in a country where the minimum wage is less than 600BRL (250EUR/1.935NOK/10.250RUB), I guess we manage ok.
I have realised one of these days, that it's fascinating in a way, how fast I got used to a life without a mobile phone! In a place like Jeri, mobile phone is practically superfluous. Arrangements are made face to face and mobiles are mostly only used for pressing matters. Which is a bit of a waste for my new iPhone4 that I got right before coming here, but hey, I use the HDR Pro application a lot!
This week we are having a lot of young Europeans which is great. It's cool to see people meeting in the breakfast area, hooking up and doing things together. I love talking to people, we get to meet many interesting types. The flip-side is of course, when people go out together to have fun somewhere else, you stay behind the reception. But having worked many years in the bar, I guess I'm used to it.
In order to improve our occupancy rates, we started going to jardineira to hunt for tourists who come without a reservation. It's not too many of them, but the competition is not all too fierce, as the majority of the time, we are the only ones who can manage multiple foreign languages. Most of the time we come back empty-handed, but at least we get to chat with people! Today I met a lovely Swedish couple and followed them to their hotel as they had booked with our neighbours. But yesterday for the first time we managed to pick up two Swiss tourists! We were very happy. Besides the people who come in from the street (we are quite lucky to have a very good location, so it happens quite often), this is the best way for us to get tourists, as otherwise we would pay 10 to 12% commission.
Today is also the first day that I turned my cooking skills into reals and centavos! We had an idea to make a dish of a day for a long time, but never got around to do it. Now we have some Austrian guests, who are on a tight budget. Yesterday they commented on a nice smell coming from the kitchen when I was making the dinner. I grabbed a chance and offered to make dinner for them for 8BRL (3,3EUR/26NOK/137RUB) a person, which is more or less a standard price of a "prato feito" here - a basic dinner consisting of rice, beans and chicken/fish/meat. They gladly agreed. So today I made a green vegetarian curry with onions, carrots, green peppers and squash. I guess I missed the target slightly in terms of the quantity as I have never really cooked that kind of a meal for six people (the three tourists, me, Marina and Dady), so just in case I made too much, but everyone liked it, so tomorrow I'm cooking the "prato do dia" (dish of the day) again!
Here is a picture of the leftovers. Unfortunately I was at the "posto de saude" - medical center and Marina got to serve the first paid dinner I've made so far. Anyhow, I went to the medical center to get a reference to a specialist. The doctor we have here has been in the village for a week only. He is probably no more than 25, but is very sweet and speaks flawless English, which is not all too common here. He seemed very fascinated by the fact of me coming from Moscow, and he said that the world owes a lot to Russians, saving it from the Nazis being one of the things. I was quite happy to hear that, as I had many Europeans laughing in my face when I expressed the same point of view.
I got my references and a prescription for a medicine against some parasites, which apparently is supposed to be taken every six months by everyone living in the region. I was rather surprised to discover that I didn't have to pay for the medicine and for the visit, just as I won't have to pay for seeing a specialist. Brazilian public health system! Here I should probably also mention that even though I have a Brazilian CPF (cadastro de pessoas fisicas - people register) number, officially I'm still here on a tourist visa. Amazing! When I left the young doctor, he told me that should anyone I ever meet doubt the results of the WWII, I should refer them to him.
so we are half way through the rainy season now. people say, it is the driest rainy season in years. indeed, we are a bit disappointed with the amount and frequency of rain. believe it or not, the sun and the heat do start getting tiresome at some point! every day we hope for some rain and every day it's sunny and hot. so far it rained maybe every 3rd-5th day and the longest it rained was 15 minutes at a time. it seams though that for the nature it is quite a lot of ready, and everything is green. the serrote hills are green and the desert around the village turned green. it makes me nostalgic as I think of summer in Europe. the landscape is even more beautiful than before now!
meanwhile, our team has expanded with yet another female member - it is Zhuzha. her mother is a Doberman and the father is supposedly pit-bull. well, we doubt the latter, although it seems as her character is the one of a pitt-bull. Zhuzha is a very active puppy and it is pretty much impossible to take a picture of her sitting still. however, it appears that she learns fast, as I already managed to teach her to sit. and she is not even 2 months old yet!
since we are not super busy these days, we've been using this opportunity to do some maintenance. amongst other things it includes polishing up the look of the hotel - adding the numbers to the rooms (after some clients managed to mixed up the rooms and walk in on the neighbours in the middle of the night), painting more things red, making a new storage for the gas container and taking care of the garden.
so we are half way through the rainy season now. people say, it is the driest rainy season in years. indeed, we are a bit disappointed with the amount and frequency of rain. believe it or not, the sun and the heat do start getting tiresome at some point! every day we hope for some rain and every day it's sunny and hot. so far it rained maybe every 3rd-5th day and the longest it rained was 15 minutes at a time. it seams though that for the nature it is quite a lot of ready, and everything is green. the serrote hills are green and the desert around the village turned green. it makes me nostalgic as I think of summer in Europe. the landscape is even more beautiful than before now!
since we are not super busy these days, we've been using this opportunity to do some maintenance. amongst other things it includes polishing up the look of the hotel - adding the numbers to the rooms (after some clients managed to mixed up the rooms and walk in on the neighbours in the middle of the night), painting more things red, making a new storage for the gas container and taking care of the garden.
