The new system is called Bus Rapid Transit, or something like that (the name provoked ire with some Brazilians who wondered why their own language wasn’t good enough to use in the title).  It has yet to be determined if the new system–which goes into full effect tomorrow, actually improves transit time for buses, however.  As far as I’ve been able to tell, it seems to take a little longer, if anything, to get downtown.  This is largely because the buses now actually stop instead of just cruising by waving pedestrians three lanes over.  Which hints at the real motivation for the new system: by transporting more passengers with each bus, the city can maintain fewer buses in the fleet.

Another change (which is certain to cause confusion among Brazilians) is that the bus stops have now changed.  There used to be two sets of alternating stops; half the buses would stop on one block, half on the next.  This leapfrogging continued all the way to Princess Isabel.  Now there are three sets of alternating stops.  I have been told by Rio Onibus that signs are planned for each stop, informing passengers whether where they are standing is where they indeed need to stand to catch their bus.  But the signs are not up yet. This means, as of tomorrow, lots of people will be standing right where they’ve always stood and watching their bus drive right by them.  Which is not so unusual.  What is unusual is that the bus will now be in the lane right next to them as it passes them by.

Fortunately for you, you’ve come to the right place, and we have a handy, downloadable map that shows you which buses service which stops on both N.S. Copacabana and Barata Ribeiro.

New Copacabana Bus Stops PDF

If you’ve never been on a bus in Rio before, it’s nearly as fun as Space Mountain.

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/tastefulliving/the-worlds-happiest-cities-508202/

That said, one of the drawbacks of learning a second language–one that few people seem to mention–is that your knowledge of your first language can, apparently, deteriorate.

I used to be an awesome speller.  I would look at other people’s writing and misspelled words would jump out at me.  Now, I swear, I find myself misspelling atrociously (took me 3 tries to get that one) in English.

Portuguese does not use very many double letters.  No “tt” no “ll.”  Very little “ss” or “rr.”  The spelling rules are completely different.  So when writing in English, I often find myself either not using double consonants where I should or trying too hard and putting them in when I shouldn’t.

So while misspellings are still a peeve of mine, I actually have less idea of when I’m spelling correctly.  It’s disconcerting.

I guess I could be relieved that all the horrible spelling on the internet doesn’t jump out at me the way it once did.

Let us know what you think!