Last week we took a family vacation in Rio de Janeiro! We went to visit friends who had lived just up the street from us here for the past eight years but moved back to Rio (where they are from) a few months ago. I was excited because it was my first time in the southern hemisphere, my first time in South America, and my first BRIC country visit (Brazil, Russia, India, China – planning to visit all of them over the next couple of years). The most notable impressions from Rio were the palpable...