Something's happened

Something has happened. I can not exactly say what or why but maybe it takes at least a week to see and live what is around you in a new environment. What has happened is that people all of a sudden see me and I am feeling a part of the city in another way. My friend has all the time been going on about the sensuality of Rio, how people interact, flirt and socialise in a very warm, loving and sensual way. I was pretty sceptic to say the least. Ok, I have seem him interact with people that way, but hey he has been here before and he knows people. And the fact that I felt invisible and that no one flirted with me, whereas he got all the attention, I at least partly blamed on the fact that we mostly mingle in the gay areas of Ipanema. But then today something happened. All of a sudden people see me and give me appreciative smiles and comments and are very flirtatious.

Today I went for a short shopping round. I put on a dress that I like, but actually never have used. It is simply too tight, too short, too everything, but I thought it might work here. It obviously did. I got a lot of positive attention. So this is the carioca-style!
One of the things I wanted to buy was a bikini. There are lots of them, but that also means difficult to choose and some are also very expensive, which might make sense if you live in a country where you can use it more or less every day of the year, less so in Sweden. Anyway I found one shop with a big selection to reasonable prices. I started browsing on my own but quite soon a young salesman came up to me; introduces himself as Bauer (don’t know why most Brazilian men I talk to have German names), asks for my name and starts talking. He does not know many words in English, but those he knows he uses well. He is just so cute and so charming. He starts showing me what bikinis he thought I would look good in and really takes a close look at me to find out what size I need. I know it is his job, but the way he looked at me made me blush, goddammit!

When I find one I like he takes out another, more or less the same but in more bluish/greenish colours. I tell him I like the first one better as its colour are “happier”. He agrees but then tells me that the blue one will look very good with my eyes and smiles his most charming smile. Man! You just sold a bikini! When I had decided for myself he asked me if I wanted to buy something for my husband. It was just so charming and nice, nothing pushy and sleazy about it. I smiled to myself and walked out with two bikinis and had spent far much more that I had planned to. Bikinis that I most probably never will use anywhere outside Brazil! But it felt good.
Then it continued that way the rest of the day, in the juice bar, in the street at the beach. Something’s happened.