No Wind

The past two days have been slightly cloudy which translates into no wind. Given that this whole town is based around kitesurfing there is almost nothing to do when it isn`t windy. The first no-wind day reminded me of an exchange between Jerry and Elaine had on Seinfeld:

Jerry: What did you do last night?
Elaine: Nothing.
Jerry: Nothing? You must have done something?
Elaine: No. I did nothing. I just sat and starred.

That`s what I did for the first no-wind day. I sat on the beach and stared at the ocean waiting for the little ripples to turn into whitecaps but nothing happened. At the end of the day I felt completely useless.



The next day the weather was exactly the same so I took the 30 minute bus ride into Fortaleza with a nice couple I met to do some shopping. I was on a mission to buy some laptop-sized speakers so I could play music in my room off of my Ipod. I spent the entire day going in and out of electronics stores trying to explain to the Portuguese speaking sales people what I was searching for. Finally, after three hours and about thirty stores, I found a pair tucked away in an office supply store. They looked perfect and they were cheap so I bought them. On the way out of the store the sales women, who only spoke Portuguese, kept pointing at a power bar next to her computer and kept showing me how to plug them in. I wasn`t sure what she was talking about but she seemed a little crazy so I smiled and walked out of the store. When I got back to the Pousada (guesthouse) I excitedly plugged the speakers in and started cranking music (Wolf Parade`s I am a runner for those of you who are music fans).

After about thirty seconds of music bliss, the speakers started smoking and stopped working. They were really hot and the whole room smelled like burning wires and plastic. After a lot of swearing and cursing, Rob, an English guy who is staying at the same place, figured out that the speakers are made for 110v and the plugs here in Brazil are 220v. The women at the store was trying to tell me that I needed to plug the speakers into a voltage transformer.

I need to learn Portuguese.