Under My Umbrella--ella--ella

For the first month that I was here I found myself thinking a lot about buses...the wrong bus, the right bus, the fastest bus, the cheapest bus.... my whole life pretty much revolved around buses. That was my only form of transportation, and because I am an English tutor and have different jobs all over the city, I found myself on a bus or waiting for a bus most of my day. Luckily things could be worse... and really I didn't mind the time at the bus stops, sitting watching people... and now that I am trying to live like a Brasilian it doesn't even feel like a waste of time... because we really should just slow down and sit every once in a while. So now I have been here five months, and I pretty much have a handle on the buses. I know a lot of the bus drivers and the money collectors, I know which buses are better, but also which one's will get me there if I am tired of waiting. All is good with the buses.
So my new problem....umbrellas. We are now in summer here in Brasil (I know, technically summer doesn't begin until December 21st, but they don't seem to know that and everyone has been calling this summer since sometime in November)...and summer means rain...lots and lots of rain. So...at this point I probably spend as much time under my umbrella as I do at the bus stops. I didn't bring an umbrella with me, figuring that they could be too expensive and that I would just buy one here. The first one lasted about 3 weeks...then I was walking around with a half umbrella as the wires broke. I still dealt with the half umbrella for quite a while, but then ofter one heavy rain storm I decided that I'd had enough. So I bought a new one....and durning it's firt use....which was a heavy rain....I noticed that I was starting to get wet...on my head....drip...drip...drip....the umbrella leaks!!! How is that even possible. It kept the majority of the rain off, so I decided to deal with it....and then a week later one of the flaps came un hinged. I had never really studied umbrellas so closely, but there really are a lot of weak points on an umbrella and I think I am going to start carrying around a needle and thread...just for emergency repairs.