How do you like Brasil?

People ask me all the time how I like Brasilia. It's not much of an answer. I like it. I like it a lot. The air is clean, the weather is perfect, and we have a lovely apartment. In fact, the air is clear, sweet, clean, and refreshing-- nothing like the smog we lived through in Shenyang. The weather is always about 80 degrees, perfect for shorts or long pants, and the seasons (all both of them) are either clear-without-a-cloud-in-the-sky (dry season) or with-a-refreshing-afternoon-rainstorm (wet season). Our apartment is big enough that we have a sewing room and a guest bedroom, but small enough that I can keep it clean on my own. I love watching the trees outside our windows blowing in the breezes, looking so ALIVE.
So in a nutshell, I like Brazil a lot.
But if you read carefully between the lines, you'll notice I don't get out much.
We take taxis a couple times a week. If we go to the Embassy, it's about R$20 each way (or 10 bucks), and if we go across the lake to visit friends, it's more like R$50 each way (or 25 bucks). It's cheaper than Washington DC cabs, but still expensive enough to keep us from going everywhere all the time. (Unlike Shenyang, where you could practically go anywhere within the city for under $7.) But most days we just stay home.
There's a subway line, but it's a long walk to the station, and it doesn't go to the embassy or across the lake to Lago Sul, which are the two places we go most often. So... no metro.
They recommend we don't take the public buses because they're dangerous. I'm not sure if it's the driving (definitely dangerous-- to the other cars on the road!) or if you're more likely to get robbed on the bus, or what. But we follow that guideline.
I'm a little tired of taking my kids with me every time I go to the doctor. True, I could ask someone to babysit them for me, but the one time I did that, it meant she drove 20 minutes to pick up my kids, then drove 20 more minutes back to her house, then repeated that again to drop them off. The other option would be for me to take them in a cab, which would add about US$100 to the Dr. appointment tab. And insurance doesn't reimburse it, I'm pretty sure. So I just take everyone with me. But it will be awesome to not to, because....
A couple days ago... we got our car!! (Penny's imaginary pet dragon, Toothless, came too.) This opens up a world of possibilities. We went to the baby playgroup the next morning, and then in the afternoon we went to ballet class without mooching a ride home afterwards. I can go to Zumba class this week! I can go to the big-kids' playgroup! I could set up a play-date for the kids! I can get out, go places, and make friends!!
I'm kind of excited.
Brasilia's a great city, but it's made for driving. But our vehicles take FOREVER to get here. We got here January 15, and lo and behold, 5 1/2 months later, here comes our car! But we're grateful it's finally here, and we're going to probably go a little nuts driving here and there, going out every day to everything we can think of. It will be awesome!