{"product_id":"9781483683751","title":"Brazil","description":"I decided to write this book because I enjoyed my time in Brazil so much that I wanted to share it with others.\u003cbr\u003eWhen I finished my tour in the Office of the Chief of Naval Personnel, I wanted to get out of the rat race in DC. I requested an assignment as a defense attaché.\u003cbr\u003eMy detailer gave me three choices for an attaché assignment. They were Yugoslavia, Chile, or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.\u003cbr\u003eI was not interested in Yugoslavia, but Chile interested me until I found out two American teenagers had been doused with gasoline and set on fire in Chile during a demonstration. I chose Rio as my first choice.\u003cbr\u003ePrior to going to Brazil, I received a year of Brazilian language class in Washington, DC. My family was living in a home next to my wife ™s mother ™s home in Battle Lake, Minnesota, which is a small town in Northern Minnesota.\u003cbr\u003eI lived in Bachelor Officers ™ Quarters (BOQ) in US Naval Activity Anacostia, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC.\u003cbr\u003eThe BOQ was on the Columbia River, so I decided to try my hand at fishing for catfish. When I caught my first catfish, I filled it and fried it. I tasted awful, so I stopped fishing for catfish.\u003cbr\u003eThe Officer ™s Club next to the BOQ had a band every Wednesday night that imitated the Blues Brothers. I had to go early to get a seat at the bar to watch the show. The club was always full for the show. A great time was had by all.\u003cbr\u003eOne of my teachers, named Marissa, at the Portuguese language school had red hair and did not look like a Brazilian like the other teachers.\u003cbr\u003eI asked her about it, and she told me she was from a small town in Southern Brazil that was settled in by Germans after the Second World War.\u003cbr\u003eThe language instruction included a one-on-one session every day. I was able to request Marissa. She was very patient with me, and I learned to speak Portuguese fairly well.\u003cbr\u003eOnce a week, the students and teachers would bring a dish from their native country.\u003cbr\u003eI decided to make bruschetta, a dish of toast with tomatoes and olive oil, which I had learned to make when we were living in Italy.\u003cbr\u003eWhen I made the toast in the BOQ, I made some smoke, which set off the fire alarm.\u003cbr\u003eWe had to evacuate the building until the firemen had arrived by a fire truck to check out the cause of the alarm going off. I did not tell anyone that I caused it making toast.\u003cbr\u003eOne the weekends I worked for a local company that took children and teenagers skiing.\u003cbr\u003eWe rode from Washington, DC, to a variety of mountains in West Virginia.\u003cbr\u003eI enjoyed skiing with older, better skiers as they did not need a lot of instruction.\u003cbr\u003eI also skied a lot with a CIA agent who had taught the Greek army to ski. He skied on long skis in the Austrian style. I bought some long skis like his, and to this day, they are the only skis I am comfortable with.\u003cbr\u003eSkiing every weekend got me in great shape. I lost a lot of weight, getting down to 180 pounds, which is what I weighed when I graduated from high school.\u003cbr\u003eIn order to get around DC, I bought a 1963 Fiat convertible, which was literally falling apart.\u003cbr\u003eI used the garage on the US Naval Activity Anacostia to repair the various wrong things with the car.\u003cbr\u003eI welded a sheet of aluminum to the floor of the car, which had a large hole in it. I also had to repair both front and back bumpers.\u003cbr\u003eThe Fiat did not have a heater, so one snowy winter day, I tried to drive it back to Anacostia from language school. I got so cold that I finally drove off the main road in Alexandria, Virginia, toward the Metro Station.\u003cbr\u003eI drove as far as I could and parked the car alongside the street in a snowbank. I walked to the Metro and took it back to Anacostia. \u003cbr\u003eAfter language school, I attended an attaché training at the Defense Intelligence Institute on the US Air Force base next to the Naval Activity. \u003cbr\u003eAfter I completed language training, I attended defense attaché at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). \u003cbr\u003eThe DIA is the central producer and manager of foreign military intelligence for the United States.\u003cbr\u003eAs one","brand":"Xlibris US","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47176673591536,"sku":"9781483683751","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781483683751_p0.jpg?v=1763631692","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781483683751","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}