Hi everybody!
Here are some more photos for you: http://usfca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035799&l=29595&id=7103173
I haven't written in awhile and I have a lot to say but I'm tired/sick/should be packing for my travels tomorrow, so I'm going to be succinct.
On Wednesday night I went to my first futebol game, and it was really intense. In Belo Horizonte, there are two soccer teams, Cruzeiro and Atletico (also known as Galo). They are big time rivals, and if you are a fan of one and you are in the section of the other team, you will for sure get beat up. The game we went to was Atletico vs. some random team from the northeast, and we all had to pretend to be Atletico fans (even though a lot of the group was not) so that we would leave the stadium with all of our internal organs intact, because only Atletico fans were there. We sat/stood in the middle of the really enthusiastic section, and it was a lot of fun to hear all the songs and cheers everyone knew. My favorite song involved repeating "Galoucura" several times, which is a play on Galo, the mascot, and loucura, which means craziness. I thought it was clever. Anyway, we were all safe and happy and I'm definitely going to more games.
Now I'm going to bed/pack, but just to let you all know, I'm traveling to Arraial d'Ajuda, Bahia, from this Monday until next Tuesday, so I don't know how connected to the world I'll be. At any rate, stay tuned for pretty beach pictures!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
More Ouro Preto, Serra do Cipó, and the Polícia Federal
First of all, here are the Serra do Cipó photos:
http://usfca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035312&l=5f333&id=7103173
Now then. Sorry I didn't write any more about Ouro Preto, I was in a weird mood on Saturday and not in the right frame of mind to reflect. Anyway, Ouro Preto was really neat, and the history of the city was a big change from the mish-mash of old, new, fancy, and cheap that is Belo Horizonte. As you can see from my photos, all the streets were cobblestone, there were a ton of churches, and the roofs were red. I didn't love it as much as I maybe should have because we spent the morning walking around with a guide, and saw three churches, each more ornate than the last. I have a really big problem with gold-encrusted houses of worship, it seems sacrilegious to me, both because of the part in the bible where god gets pissed off because the people are worshiping a golden calf (I don't see how a golden saint is much different), and because I feel like that gold could have been used to help people instead of to coat the walls and ceiling. The carvings were really pretty, and all the ceilings had beautiful detailed paintings, but I could never worship in a place that visually busy and show-offy. I'm sorry if any of you are Catholic and I've offended you, but I'm just sharing my feelings and the reason that I haven't fallen head over heels for Ouro Preto.
On a happier note, we had a delicious, if overpriced, lunch, and spent the afternoon on our own, exploring and shopping. I bought some postcards, which I may or may not send, and had a good time looking around.
Sunday I went to Serra do Cipó with Barbara (my roommate, from Gonzaga, in case you haven't read the beginning of the blog), Leslie (also from Gonzaga), Neils (from Holland, who's in our class), Bea (who's Brazilian and spent a semester at Gonzaga), and Fernando (who's Brazilian and is going to Gonzaga in August). I was planning on showering Sunday morning (I went out Saturday night with Mariana, her boyfriend Leon, and their friend Julia, and got back around midnight), but Bea called at 8AM and said she'd be there to get me in half an hour. Since I had to eat breakfast and pack a bag for the day, I decided I didn't have time to shower, and rushed through my morning routine so I wouldn't be late. I was ready to go at 8:35, and promptly at 9:30 Bea called and told me she was outside my building. It turned out OK that I didn't shower though, because I ended up getting dirty at the park and showered later on. So, after she picked me up (Fernando was already with her) we went to get Barbara and Leslie, who had both spent the night at Leslie's house. We got there around 10, and then had to go pick up Neils, which was another 30 minutes away. Once we got Neils, Bea said, "OK, so everyone has everything? Sunscreen, towels, swimsuits?" None of us except for Fernando had any of that. Luckily, we hadn't left Neils' place yet, so he went and got his swimming things, and then we went back to Leslie's place, and then Barbara really wanted to swim so we went all the way back down to our apartment. At noon, we finally left Belo Horizonte for reals, and arrived at Serra do Cipó around 1:45.
The first thing we did when we got there was eat lunch, since we were all hungry. The place we went was little and simple, but it was the best food I've eaten yet. I don't remember what it was called, but if any of you ever end up at Serra do Cipó, let me know and I'll tell you how to get there, it was amazing. They only had one thing on the menu, which was a family style traditional meal, and that included regular beans, and feijão tropeiro, which is beans with a whole bunch of stuff in them, and carrots, and rice, and tomatoes, and beef, and chicken, and french fries, and couve (which is collard greens), and soda (which I promptly spilled on Fernando's lap) and it was all delicious and amazing. The best part was the price - R$10 each, which comes out to a whopping U$5! Oh man, do I love food prices in Brazil. Except in tourist traps, but this was not one.
After lunch we drove a little more and finally got to where we were going, which was Bridal Veil Falls. It was really beautiful (be sure to look at my pictures), and also REALLY freezing water. After swimming and sunning and climbing around for a while, we walked back to where the car was and checked out a volleyball and played that for a little while (we were all really horrible, with the possible exception of the boys). Once we all had nice red forearms, we returned the ball and Bea and Fernando taught us how to play Truco (or Troco, I'm not sure how it's spelled), which is a card game that's apparently very popular at UFMG. It was sort of complicated, but I think I get the gist of it, and it was a lot of fun.
We left the park around 6, and Bea took us all back to our respective apartments/dorms (in Neils' case), I showered and went to bed. I really loved the park and the people and I can't wait to go back.
OK, now for the saga that is the Polícia Federal. For those of you who have not traveled to Brazil recently (which is most of you, probably), one of the stipulations of the student visa is that you have to check in with the Federal Police within 30 days of entering the country. That doesn't sound so bad, right? Check in? We were all expecting to go in, introduce ourselves, maybe get an extra stamp in the passport, and be on our merry way. WRONG! Luckily Barbara and the other Gonzagans went a couple of weeks ago, and found out what we had to have. Checking in with the Federal Police involves two 3x4cm photos, copies of all the used pages of your passport, your original visa application (that's been stamped at the consulate in the U.S., of course), some forms you have to print off the Federal Police website, and R$200 cold hard cash.
Today Lourdes, Neils, and I ditched afternoon class to go to the police station (which is outside of town a little ways, in the complete opposite direction of the university, by the way). We took the 5102 bus from the university, and then the 4113 bus from the Mercado Central, and then walked up a big hill, and then another, and then we were there. Lourdes had already paid, so Neils (who had been there once before but hadn't had cash) showed her where to wait (and I tagged along, just for kicks) and then he and I went and got in the paying line. While I was getting out my money and the forms I'd printed off the internet, I realized that the funny feeling of forgetting something that had been bugging me all day was not unfounded. I had forgotten my original visa application in my closet. I paid my money (I was already in line, anyway), and then started the journey back to my closet for the form. Oh, and did I mention that by this time it was 2:46 and the police station closes at 4? Yeah.
The thing about buses here is that they don't alway have the same route both directions, and this was the case with good old 4113. Luckily, Barbara had written me out detailed directions about how to get back to our apartment from the station. The first leg of the journey was a lovely stroll of about 3/4 of a mile along a highway (which was all downhill and had a sidewalk, luckily). I powerwalked that in about 10 minutes, and found the bus stop I needed without a problem. My guardian angel/the fates/karma was looking out for me, because the correct bus came just as I reached the stop. I hopped on, and watched street signs out the window and traced the route with my finger on my now pretty tattered map of BH. I got a little antsy with the "I'd like to get off the bus" button and ended up getting off a stop too early, but I found the apartment anyway.
By this time it was 3:22, and I had decided that the only way I was going to be able to get back on time was to take a cab (that, and I didn't know how to get back on the bus from my place, the bus I'd taken makes a huge ring around the city, in one direction only). Cabs come quickly in Brazil (which I LOVE, by the way - not like being told by a San Francisco cab company that someone will come for you in 20 minutes, now could you please go wait for them in the rain?), so I had planned to call the cab as soon as I got in the house, grab the paper from my closet, and go wait downstairs. However, when I arrived, Elsy, the old slightly deaf one, was talking on the phone. I found my paper, emptied my bag of the things I didn't need, and then went to see how the phone was doing. She was chatting away with a friend, asking how the kids and the husband were and making plans for the weekend. I interjected and asked her could I please use the phone real quick because I needed a cab and was in a terrible hurry, and she told me sure, just a second, and proceeded to talk. For 4 more minutes. Which is quite a few when every one counts. Finally, she got off the phone, I called the cab, and 3 minutes later, it was there. A quick aside: why is that, when I call them, cabs can find the apartment no problem, but when I'm in them, I have to give the drivers directions here? Just wondering.
Anyway, there was some traffic by this time, but the cab pulled up to the Polícia Federal at 3:52. I literally ran up the walkway, up the stairs, and through the hallway to the international relations section (boy was I glad I'd followed Neils to show Lourdes where to go!). There was no one waiting, and an unoccupied employee, so he took my papers and did some stamping and some gluing and some form filling-out, directed me down the hall and up the stairs to the fingerprint-taking office, where I was fingerprinted, and then I turned in my forms to him and he said what I'd been waiting for: "Tudo bem. Isto é tudo, obrigado!" (All right. That's it, thanks!). As I walked away from the counter, I breathed a real live sigh of relief, and I didn't even mean to, it was a completely involuntary reaction.
On the walk back down the hill, I passed a bakery, and bought myself mandioca chips, a tube of cookies (which I haven't tried yet) and an ice cream bar to celebrate. I'm really glad that's over with, and now all I have to worry about is finding a place to live for the next 5 months (which will happen at my meeting with Maria Helena, our professor liaison, on Wednesday).
Don't forget to look at my Serra do Cipó photos, and I'll blog to you later!
http://usfca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035312&l=5f333&id=7103173
Now then. Sorry I didn't write any more about Ouro Preto, I was in a weird mood on Saturday and not in the right frame of mind to reflect. Anyway, Ouro Preto was really neat, and the history of the city was a big change from the mish-mash of old, new, fancy, and cheap that is Belo Horizonte. As you can see from my photos, all the streets were cobblestone, there were a ton of churches, and the roofs were red. I didn't love it as much as I maybe should have because we spent the morning walking around with a guide, and saw three churches, each more ornate than the last. I have a really big problem with gold-encrusted houses of worship, it seems sacrilegious to me, both because of the part in the bible where god gets pissed off because the people are worshiping a golden calf (I don't see how a golden saint is much different), and because I feel like that gold could have been used to help people instead of to coat the walls and ceiling. The carvings were really pretty, and all the ceilings had beautiful detailed paintings, but I could never worship in a place that visually busy and show-offy. I'm sorry if any of you are Catholic and I've offended you, but I'm just sharing my feelings and the reason that I haven't fallen head over heels for Ouro Preto.
On a happier note, we had a delicious, if overpriced, lunch, and spent the afternoon on our own, exploring and shopping. I bought some postcards, which I may or may not send, and had a good time looking around.
Sunday I went to Serra do Cipó with Barbara (my roommate, from Gonzaga, in case you haven't read the beginning of the blog), Leslie (also from Gonzaga), Neils (from Holland, who's in our class), Bea (who's Brazilian and spent a semester at Gonzaga), and Fernando (who's Brazilian and is going to Gonzaga in August). I was planning on showering Sunday morning (I went out Saturday night with Mariana, her boyfriend Leon, and their friend Julia, and got back around midnight), but Bea called at 8AM and said she'd be there to get me in half an hour. Since I had to eat breakfast and pack a bag for the day, I decided I didn't have time to shower, and rushed through my morning routine so I wouldn't be late. I was ready to go at 8:35, and promptly at 9:30 Bea called and told me she was outside my building. It turned out OK that I didn't shower though, because I ended up getting dirty at the park and showered later on. So, after she picked me up (Fernando was already with her) we went to get Barbara and Leslie, who had both spent the night at Leslie's house. We got there around 10, and then had to go pick up Neils, which was another 30 minutes away. Once we got Neils, Bea said, "OK, so everyone has everything? Sunscreen, towels, swimsuits?" None of us except for Fernando had any of that. Luckily, we hadn't left Neils' place yet, so he went and got his swimming things, and then we went back to Leslie's place, and then Barbara really wanted to swim so we went all the way back down to our apartment. At noon, we finally left Belo Horizonte for reals, and arrived at Serra do Cipó around 1:45.
The first thing we did when we got there was eat lunch, since we were all hungry. The place we went was little and simple, but it was the best food I've eaten yet. I don't remember what it was called, but if any of you ever end up at Serra do Cipó, let me know and I'll tell you how to get there, it was amazing. They only had one thing on the menu, which was a family style traditional meal, and that included regular beans, and feijão tropeiro, which is beans with a whole bunch of stuff in them, and carrots, and rice, and tomatoes, and beef, and chicken, and french fries, and couve (which is collard greens), and soda (which I promptly spilled on Fernando's lap) and it was all delicious and amazing. The best part was the price - R$10 each, which comes out to a whopping U$5! Oh man, do I love food prices in Brazil. Except in tourist traps, but this was not one.
After lunch we drove a little more and finally got to where we were going, which was Bridal Veil Falls. It was really beautiful (be sure to look at my pictures), and also REALLY freezing water. After swimming and sunning and climbing around for a while, we walked back to where the car was and checked out a volleyball and played that for a little while (we were all really horrible, with the possible exception of the boys). Once we all had nice red forearms, we returned the ball and Bea and Fernando taught us how to play Truco (or Troco, I'm not sure how it's spelled), which is a card game that's apparently very popular at UFMG. It was sort of complicated, but I think I get the gist of it, and it was a lot of fun.
We left the park around 6, and Bea took us all back to our respective apartments/dorms (in Neils' case), I showered and went to bed. I really loved the park and the people and I can't wait to go back.
OK, now for the saga that is the Polícia Federal. For those of you who have not traveled to Brazil recently (which is most of you, probably), one of the stipulations of the student visa is that you have to check in with the Federal Police within 30 days of entering the country. That doesn't sound so bad, right? Check in? We were all expecting to go in, introduce ourselves, maybe get an extra stamp in the passport, and be on our merry way. WRONG! Luckily Barbara and the other Gonzagans went a couple of weeks ago, and found out what we had to have. Checking in with the Federal Police involves two 3x4cm photos, copies of all the used pages of your passport, your original visa application (that's been stamped at the consulate in the U.S., of course), some forms you have to print off the Federal Police website, and R$200 cold hard cash.
Today Lourdes, Neils, and I ditched afternoon class to go to the police station (which is outside of town a little ways, in the complete opposite direction of the university, by the way). We took the 5102 bus from the university, and then the 4113 bus from the Mercado Central, and then walked up a big hill, and then another, and then we were there. Lourdes had already paid, so Neils (who had been there once before but hadn't had cash) showed her where to wait (and I tagged along, just for kicks) and then he and I went and got in the paying line. While I was getting out my money and the forms I'd printed off the internet, I realized that the funny feeling of forgetting something that had been bugging me all day was not unfounded. I had forgotten my original visa application in my closet. I paid my money (I was already in line, anyway), and then started the journey back to my closet for the form. Oh, and did I mention that by this time it was 2:46 and the police station closes at 4? Yeah.
The thing about buses here is that they don't alway have the same route both directions, and this was the case with good old 4113. Luckily, Barbara had written me out detailed directions about how to get back to our apartment from the station. The first leg of the journey was a lovely stroll of about 3/4 of a mile along a highway (which was all downhill and had a sidewalk, luckily). I powerwalked that in about 10 minutes, and found the bus stop I needed without a problem. My guardian angel/the fates/karma was looking out for me, because the correct bus came just as I reached the stop. I hopped on, and watched street signs out the window and traced the route with my finger on my now pretty tattered map of BH. I got a little antsy with the "I'd like to get off the bus" button and ended up getting off a stop too early, but I found the apartment anyway.
By this time it was 3:22, and I had decided that the only way I was going to be able to get back on time was to take a cab (that, and I didn't know how to get back on the bus from my place, the bus I'd taken makes a huge ring around the city, in one direction only). Cabs come quickly in Brazil (which I LOVE, by the way - not like being told by a San Francisco cab company that someone will come for you in 20 minutes, now could you please go wait for them in the rain?), so I had planned to call the cab as soon as I got in the house, grab the paper from my closet, and go wait downstairs. However, when I arrived, Elsy, the old slightly deaf one, was talking on the phone. I found my paper, emptied my bag of the things I didn't need, and then went to see how the phone was doing. She was chatting away with a friend, asking how the kids and the husband were and making plans for the weekend. I interjected and asked her could I please use the phone real quick because I needed a cab and was in a terrible hurry, and she told me sure, just a second, and proceeded to talk. For 4 more minutes. Which is quite a few when every one counts. Finally, she got off the phone, I called the cab, and 3 minutes later, it was there. A quick aside: why is that, when I call them, cabs can find the apartment no problem, but when I'm in them, I have to give the drivers directions here? Just wondering.
Anyway, there was some traffic by this time, but the cab pulled up to the Polícia Federal at 3:52. I literally ran up the walkway, up the stairs, and through the hallway to the international relations section (boy was I glad I'd followed Neils to show Lourdes where to go!). There was no one waiting, and an unoccupied employee, so he took my papers and did some stamping and some gluing and some form filling-out, directed me down the hall and up the stairs to the fingerprint-taking office, where I was fingerprinted, and then I turned in my forms to him and he said what I'd been waiting for: "Tudo bem. Isto é tudo, obrigado!" (All right. That's it, thanks!). As I walked away from the counter, I breathed a real live sigh of relief, and I didn't even mean to, it was a completely involuntary reaction.
On the walk back down the hill, I passed a bakery, and bought myself mandioca chips, a tube of cookies (which I haven't tried yet) and an ice cream bar to celebrate. I'm really glad that's over with, and now all I have to worry about is finding a place to live for the next 5 months (which will happen at my meeting with Maria Helena, our professor liaison, on Wednesday).
Don't forget to look at my Serra do Cipó photos, and I'll blog to you later!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Ouro Preto photos
Here's the link for my photos from Ouro Preto, which I'll write about a little later on, after I eat breakfast. But for now, here are the pictures for you:
http://usfca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035186&l=5ead3&id=7103173
http://usfca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2035186&l=5ead3&id=7103173
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
harry potter and ditching class
So, I have a confession to make. Brazil is turning me into sort of a bad student. Well, not bad, maybe, but worse than before. I say that because, out of the three days we've had this week, I've only attended the afternoon portion of school once. On Monday most of the Florida kids were still in Rio, and the six of us who were at school and were in the advanced class decided to go to the Mercado Central instead of class in the afternoon. It was a lot of fun, and a very productive trip too - I bought some blue honey packets, some earrings that don't actually look good on me after all so someone is getting them for a present, and 4 balls of yarn. Barbara and Lourdes and I also found another bus that takes us like 2 blocks from Eni's apartment. This came in handy today and it will again tomorrow because walking ten blocks in the dark isn't fun, and we can take our regular bus and get off at the same stop, but then instead of walking take the other bus, which comes right to the stop for the other bus, so it's safe and convenient.
Yesterday we all went to the afternoon class, and discussed coffee for 3 hours. Since the afternoon class is all levels together, it's probably hard for the people who don't know Portuguese very well, and it's excruciatingly boring for those of us who don't need the preterite explained with great detail and 12 example verbs. I did a lot of doodling, and my paper about the history of coffee in Brazil looks really nice, but I feel like going to the market was a lot better use of my time.
Today, sort of on a whim, Lourdes and Barbara and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie instead of going to afternoon class. I liked it a lot, and I learned some things about Brazilian culture and the moviegoing experience that I wouldn't have gotten had I gone to class. First of all, all of the theatres that I've heard of are located in shopping malls. Second, they're more open than American theatres, and therefore easier to regulate. What I mean by that is that there aren't front doors - you can walk right in and wander around the lobby and the concession stand all you want. Ticket stubs are taken at the entrance to each individual theatre, so it's pretty much impossible to sneak in - there are employees checking tickets at every door for every movie. Another difference is that the staff apparently aren't required to be nice - the woman that Lourdes and I bought our tickets from was really mean and was yelling at us because we didn't understand her. I understand being frustrated with foreigners, but usually people who are working try to be accomodating and helpful. I felt really dumb and frustrated after that, but then the excitement of Harry Potter took over and I got over it. We had some time to kill before the movie, so we walked around the mall a little, and then decided to go get in line. This was a really good choice, because we were the second group in line, and half an hour after we started waiting, the line was all the way out into the mall. The wait was long and uneventful, but I got my homework and some knitting done. Another difference between Brazilian and American movie theatres is that here, you're allowed to bring in whatever you want. The people who ended up sitting in front of us in the theatre had some delicious looking cookies that they were dipping in chocolate frosting and an huge party size bag of Ruffles. Lourdes went to the grocery store in the mall and bought cookies for herself, saltines for Barbara, and a banana for me, all of which we carried into the theatre in plain view. I like this a lot better than trying to find the biggest purse I own to conceal snacks when I go to the movies in the U.S.
Once we got into the theatre, it was pretty similar to what I'm used to in the U.S. - the seats were blue and cushy, it was stadium-style, and the walls had odd geometric shapes in primary colors. I was really surprised by the previews though - they were on a DVD, and there was nothing at all on the screen until everyone had entered the theatre. Then the operator clicked the play button, we watched the previews, and he took out the disc and changed to the Harry Potter film reels. I was kind of excited for ads and movie trivia in Portuguese, but, alas, that doesn't seem to be something they do here. I liked the movie a lot, and the Portuguese subtitles weren't too distracting. Afterwards everyone exited through a door at the front of the theatre - I've seen those exits in the U.S., but hardly anyone uses them. Here, that's how you get out. Our show was probably sold out, or close to it, and on the way out there were people waiting for the next screening, and a couple of them were dressed up. One of them had a pink inner tube around his waist and was dancing, I'm not totally sure why. All in all, I don't feel guilty at all about ditching class - the afternoon is scheduled as a time to learn about Brazilian culture, and I feel like I did that pretty well.
Yesterday we all went to the afternoon class, and discussed coffee for 3 hours. Since the afternoon class is all levels together, it's probably hard for the people who don't know Portuguese very well, and it's excruciatingly boring for those of us who don't need the preterite explained with great detail and 12 example verbs. I did a lot of doodling, and my paper about the history of coffee in Brazil looks really nice, but I feel like going to the market was a lot better use of my time.
Today, sort of on a whim, Lourdes and Barbara and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie instead of going to afternoon class. I liked it a lot, and I learned some things about Brazilian culture and the moviegoing experience that I wouldn't have gotten had I gone to class. First of all, all of the theatres that I've heard of are located in shopping malls. Second, they're more open than American theatres, and therefore easier to regulate. What I mean by that is that there aren't front doors - you can walk right in and wander around the lobby and the concession stand all you want. Ticket stubs are taken at the entrance to each individual theatre, so it's pretty much impossible to sneak in - there are employees checking tickets at every door for every movie. Another difference is that the staff apparently aren't required to be nice - the woman that Lourdes and I bought our tickets from was really mean and was yelling at us because we didn't understand her. I understand being frustrated with foreigners, but usually people who are working try to be accomodating and helpful. I felt really dumb and frustrated after that, but then the excitement of Harry Potter took over and I got over it. We had some time to kill before the movie, so we walked around the mall a little, and then decided to go get in line. This was a really good choice, because we were the second group in line, and half an hour after we started waiting, the line was all the way out into the mall. The wait was long and uneventful, but I got my homework and some knitting done. Another difference between Brazilian and American movie theatres is that here, you're allowed to bring in whatever you want. The people who ended up sitting in front of us in the theatre had some delicious looking cookies that they were dipping in chocolate frosting and an huge party size bag of Ruffles. Lourdes went to the grocery store in the mall and bought cookies for herself, saltines for Barbara, and a banana for me, all of which we carried into the theatre in plain view. I like this a lot better than trying to find the biggest purse I own to conceal snacks when I go to the movies in the U.S.
Once we got into the theatre, it was pretty similar to what I'm used to in the U.S. - the seats were blue and cushy, it was stadium-style, and the walls had odd geometric shapes in primary colors. I was really surprised by the previews though - they were on a DVD, and there was nothing at all on the screen until everyone had entered the theatre. Then the operator clicked the play button, we watched the previews, and he took out the disc and changed to the Harry Potter film reels. I was kind of excited for ads and movie trivia in Portuguese, but, alas, that doesn't seem to be something they do here. I liked the movie a lot, and the Portuguese subtitles weren't too distracting. Afterwards everyone exited through a door at the front of the theatre - I've seen those exits in the U.S., but hardly anyone uses them. Here, that's how you get out. Our show was probably sold out, or close to it, and on the way out there were people waiting for the next screening, and a couple of them were dressed up. One of them had a pink inner tube around his waist and was dancing, I'm not totally sure why. All in all, I don't feel guilty at all about ditching class - the afternoon is scheduled as a time to learn about Brazilian culture, and I feel like I did that pretty well.
good morning!
well hello again - sorry i haven't written in a while, i've been busy walking all around belo horizonte. i've found myself walking here even more than i walk in san francisco, which is i think because i don't know the bus system yet and i don't really know my way around on foot either. last weekend, leslie stayed with us friday, saturday, and sunday nights, and lourdes slept over on saturday. we spent most of the weekend walking to savassi and back (about 10 blocks from our apartment), to the sunday market and back (about 15 blocks, not including weaving back and forth through all the stalls), and trying to find dinner (on sunday night barbara and leslie and i took a lovely stroll around the neighborhood for 25 minutes or so, trying to find a restaurant that we thought was going to be open, but when we finally found it, it turned out to be closed). furthermore, barbara and i walk 8 blocks every morning and 10 blocks every afternoon to and from our bus stop. i don't mind it, i was just noticing that it's sort of a change for me.
books here don't have prices printed on the covers, and the words on the spine are written bottom to top (when the book is standing up on a shelf) and not top to bottom like american books. just an interesting difference i've noticed.
we've gotten a new teacher for the grammar class, denis, and he's a lot more engaging than vanessa, the other teacher, was, but i still don't feel like i'm really learning that much. one thing i did learn is that to have "dor de cotovelos" (hurt elbows) means to be heartbroken.
tomorrow we're going to ouro preto, which i'm really excited about, and i'll write about that and post pictures sometime soon. also, my skype is working great, so if anyone wants to call me, let me know and i'll tell you how that goes. if you have a cell phone, the call is free, and if you don't, you'll get charged long distance to san jose (unless you're already there, of course).
books here don't have prices printed on the covers, and the words on the spine are written bottom to top (when the book is standing up on a shelf) and not top to bottom like american books. just an interesting difference i've noticed.
we've gotten a new teacher for the grammar class, denis, and he's a lot more engaging than vanessa, the other teacher, was, but i still don't feel like i'm really learning that much. one thing i did learn is that to have "dor de cotovelos" (hurt elbows) means to be heartbroken.
tomorrow we're going to ouro preto, which i'm really excited about, and i'll write about that and post pictures sometime soon. also, my skype is working great, so if anyone wants to call me, let me know and i'll tell you how that goes. if you have a cell phone, the call is free, and if you don't, you'll get charged long distance to san jose (unless you're already there, of course).
Saturday, July 7, 2007
We got wireless!
Hooray! I don't have a ton of time to write right now, but hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly now. Here are the pictures from Vale Verde:
http://usfca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034721&l=024ae&id=7103173
Enjoy!
http://usfca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034721&l=024ae&id=7103173
Enjoy!
Friday, July 6, 2007
Well hello again! I haven't written anything in awhile because I've been pretty busy, and yesterday Barbara and I got back to Eni's apartment and computer tower was gone. At first we thought she might have been robbed, but it turns out that a tech guy had taken it to do some repairs. It doesn't seem any different to me now, but I guess it's working better. The tech guy is also going to set up a wireless network tomorrow morning, so after that I should be blogging and posting photos more frequently.
Since I've written last, I've had a lot of Portuguese classes, which have been, as a whole, not challenging and actually pretty excrutiating. Phonetics in the morning would be ok, except for that what we're expected to learn can't really be taught. Consonants and nasalized vowels I understand, those have rules and I can memorize them, but we're also supposed to recognize open and closed vowels, which there aren't rules for, the professor just says we have to listen to Brazilians and figure it out. Today we were tested on them, and the teacher refused to read the words slowly, so we just had to guess and try to imagine in our head how the words should be properly pronounced. It was really frustrating, to say the least.
The Portuguese language class is dumb because all we do is go over the really easy homework and read really long texts out loud to each other. Today we were all suppposed to give a 5-10 minute presentation about a different Brazilian state (I did Pernambuco), which could have been a good assigment except for that there are 15 of us in the class, and after listening to that many people haltingly describe the climate and food of Rio Grande do Sul or Goias (or whatever), I was ready to jump into the Amazon. Our professor is really nice, but she doesn't know how to teach an engaging class. Part of the problem could also be that, even though I'm in the advanced class, there are people at all different levels, so I understand that it's probably hard to teach so that a majority of the people are comfortable.
In the afternoon we have culture class, which is my favorite part of the day because we sit in a huge auditorium and look at slides and discuss them. I like it because the people I'm sitting near and I can talk to each other and make jokes and the professor doesn't notice because the room is so big and the lights are off so we can see the slides. By that point in the day, we're all so tired of sitting in class that we get a little slap happy, and almost anything seems hilarious. We were looking at pictures and trying to guess what time period they represented, and there was one of a kid carrying a big sack of flour with a thought bubble of someone sitting in a classroom raising their hand. It was obviously representing the time before public schooling, but Lourdes said to me, "He wishes he knew the answer?" and I laughed almost until the slide was changed. It wasn't really that funny, now that I look back on it, but it just struck me as hilarious because I was so bored. So, the moral of the story is, I'll be glad when real classes start.
The good thing about the language class is that I'm meeting a lot of really great people, and we go on fun field trips. On Wednesday we went to Vale Verde in Betim. It's an ecological reserve/cachaça distillery, which is as odd of a mix as it sounds. First we looked at all the birds (there were a ton of them), and there was one cage that was classroom size, and we got to go in it and feed little parrots what looked like Jello shots. That was my favorite part of the trip, and I have a lot of cute pictures. After the birds, we saw the two horses and the llama that live there, and then we went to the cachaça museum, which was over 1,000 bottles of cachaça on bookshelves on all four walls of a really big room. After that, we saw how it was made and walked through the aging area. Later on, we had lunch at the restaurant there, which was pretty good, although it was the most expensive meal I've eaten yet, at 18 reais ($9). After lunch the people I was sitting with and I decided to go walk around the park, but the rest of the class stayed at the restaurant and sampled cachaça for the next hour or so. We were supposed to do an activity, but most of the class wasn't up for it, so that didn't happen. I've got to go, but I'll try to write more tomorrow!
Since I've written last, I've had a lot of Portuguese classes, which have been, as a whole, not challenging and actually pretty excrutiating. Phonetics in the morning would be ok, except for that what we're expected to learn can't really be taught. Consonants and nasalized vowels I understand, those have rules and I can memorize them, but we're also supposed to recognize open and closed vowels, which there aren't rules for, the professor just says we have to listen to Brazilians and figure it out. Today we were tested on them, and the teacher refused to read the words slowly, so we just had to guess and try to imagine in our head how the words should be properly pronounced. It was really frustrating, to say the least.
The Portuguese language class is dumb because all we do is go over the really easy homework and read really long texts out loud to each other. Today we were all suppposed to give a 5-10 minute presentation about a different Brazilian state (I did Pernambuco), which could have been a good assigment except for that there are 15 of us in the class, and after listening to that many people haltingly describe the climate and food of Rio Grande do Sul or Goias (or whatever), I was ready to jump into the Amazon. Our professor is really nice, but she doesn't know how to teach an engaging class. Part of the problem could also be that, even though I'm in the advanced class, there are people at all different levels, so I understand that it's probably hard to teach so that a majority of the people are comfortable.
In the afternoon we have culture class, which is my favorite part of the day because we sit in a huge auditorium and look at slides and discuss them. I like it because the people I'm sitting near and I can talk to each other and make jokes and the professor doesn't notice because the room is so big and the lights are off so we can see the slides. By that point in the day, we're all so tired of sitting in class that we get a little slap happy, and almost anything seems hilarious. We were looking at pictures and trying to guess what time period they represented, and there was one of a kid carrying a big sack of flour with a thought bubble of someone sitting in a classroom raising their hand. It was obviously representing the time before public schooling, but Lourdes said to me, "He wishes he knew the answer?" and I laughed almost until the slide was changed. It wasn't really that funny, now that I look back on it, but it just struck me as hilarious because I was so bored. So, the moral of the story is, I'll be glad when real classes start.
The good thing about the language class is that I'm meeting a lot of really great people, and we go on fun field trips. On Wednesday we went to Vale Verde in Betim. It's an ecological reserve/cachaça distillery, which is as odd of a mix as it sounds. First we looked at all the birds (there were a ton of them), and there was one cage that was classroom size, and we got to go in it and feed little parrots what looked like Jello shots. That was my favorite part of the trip, and I have a lot of cute pictures. After the birds, we saw the two horses and the llama that live there, and then we went to the cachaça museum, which was over 1,000 bottles of cachaça on bookshelves on all four walls of a really big room. After that, we saw how it was made and walked through the aging area. Later on, we had lunch at the restaurant there, which was pretty good, although it was the most expensive meal I've eaten yet, at 18 reais ($9). After lunch the people I was sitting with and I decided to go walk around the park, but the rest of the class stayed at the restaurant and sampled cachaça for the next hour or so. We were supposed to do an activity, but most of the class wasn't up for it, so that didn't happen. I've got to go, but I'll try to write more tomorrow!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Photos
Hi everybody!
For those of you who are not on Facebook, I'll be posting links to my photo albums in the blog for your enjoyment. If you read my Guatemala blog and am wondering why I'm not putting picture in here directly, it's because on Facebook you can see them bigger, and it saves me time to not have to upload them two different places. So feel free to click on the link and see what I've been up to!
http://usfca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034345&l=dcf16&id=7103173
For those of you who are not on Facebook, I'll be posting links to my photo albums in the blog for your enjoyment. If you read my Guatemala blog and am wondering why I'm not putting picture in here directly, it's because on Facebook you can see them bigger, and it saves me time to not have to upload them two different places. So feel free to click on the link and see what I've been up to!
http://usfca.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2034345&l=dcf16&id=7103173
Monday, July 2, 2007
Hooray!
Hooray! I found wireless at UFMG, so now you can read the 18 pages I've written. I'm not kidding, it's really 18 pages. So grab a snack, get comfy, and enjoy!
Saturday
When I finally got to Belo Horizonte and found my baggage, I found Mariana and her boyfriend/fiance (they’re both wearing rings on their left hands, but aren’t married, so I’m not sure exactly what their official status is) and they drove me to Mariana’s house, where I spent the night. When we got there, about 3 AM, Mariana’s mom woke up and insisted on serving food and chatting a little. We had guaraná, which is some sort of carbonated juice drink, cheese and crackers, and pão de queijo, “bread of cheese,” which was really good - they’re tiny little rolls, about the size of a dollar coin, that have cheese mixed in with the dough and are a distinctly Brazilian food, originating in Minas Gerais. I went to bed about 4:15, woke up around 10, showered, had breakfast (grilled cheese), and then Mariana and I went for a drive.
Sunday
Mariana took me to the Parque de Mangabeiras, which is a park sort of up on one of the mountains surrounding Belo. First we went to the Praça do Papa (Plaza of the Pope) which she said was built when he came to visit Belo, and he gave mass there. There was an amazing view of the city, but unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me. I’ll go back and take pictures later though. After that we drove a little more and got to the park. It was really beautiful and green and there were a ton of trees that I’d never seen before. We went into a little visitor’s center and I got a map of Belo and some information about the park, and then we went on a stroll along one of the trails. There were two different kinds of birds I’ve never seen - one of them looked like a small wild turkey, but it was all black except for some red on its throat and red eyes, and there was another one that was about the size of a pigeon and was yellow on its head, blue on its midsection and wings, and gree on its tail and back end (I think - I’m not exactly sure about which colors were where, but that’s the general idea). There were also regular old pigeons, which I also saw in Guatemala - they seem to be an international bird. The most exciting thing about the park, however, where the monkeys. There were probably six or eight of them in this little tree, and a kid was feeding them peanuts. They were small, no bigger than a textbook, and had adorable little faces. I’d never seen wild monkeys before, and it really made me feel like I was in Brazil. After that, we went back to Mariana’s house and had lunch, which is the big meal of the day, and then Mariana took me to Eni’s house, where I’ll be staying.
Eni lives in a really pretty apartment in a nice middle class neighborhood, and also happens to live in the building next to Mariana’s aunt. The apartment is spacious and has a lot of art, and from what I can gather there are four bedrooms, a kitchen, a laundry room, and a living room. Eni is probably in her late 50’s or early 60’s, and her older sister Elsy lives here too. Both are widows, and Eni is diabetic (so I guess I won’t be giving her the box of See’s I brought as a thanks-for-taking-me-in gift). They both seem nice, and Elsy knits so we talked about that some. I’m sharing a room with another exchange student, Barbara, who goes to Gonzaga. She’s nice and seems like she’ll be a good roommate, but I would prefer not to share a room the whole time I’m here, and I think she feels the same, so after the month of Portuguese class is up, I have a feeling one or both of us will be moving out.
Sunday
Last night Eni made us something, I don’t remember what it was called, but it was hot and involved granulated peanuts, shredded coconut, milk and something that I think had something to do with kernels of corn and may have been called carangeiro (although that could also be the word for crab, which it certainly was not). It was sweet and we ate it with a spoon and it was really good.
This morning we ate bread, cheese, and papaya for breakfast. I’d never had papaya before, and I liked it a lot. Eni doesn’t refrigerate her cheese, which I think is a little odd, but I’ve been eating it and haven’t gotten a terrible disease yet, so I guess it’s ok. The tap water here isn’t good to drink, but Eni and Mariana both had the same ceramic filter system, which apparently takes out whatever’s bad in the water. They fill the jug with tap water, it drips through a ceramic filter thing, and then come out a spout and the bottom. I’m really happy about this because it means I won’t have to buy as much bottled water, which, as you all know if you’ve heard my spiel, is the devil.
Eni has three kids, all of them grown and married, and this morning Barbara and I met one of her daughters her two kids. I hope we get to spend some more time with them, so I can unload the stickers I brought.
Now for some cultural differences - no one that I’ve seen here so far is terribly overweight. Some people are bigger than others, of course, but Americans are definitely chubbier, on average. Also, all the young women seem to wear high heels, all the time. Mariana wore heels when she took me to the park, which involved a lot of walking up and down hills on cobblestones, and all the young women at the airport were wearing them too. Odd. On the flight from São Paulo to Belo Horizonte, which was like an hour long, we were served hot dogs and drinks and there was an informational video playing the whole time, on speakers everyone could hear, about points of interest in Brazil, peppered with ads for the airline. In the US we’re lucky to get a bag of peanuts on a flight that short, and the TV sound is always through headphone ports.
When driving, people don’t usually stop at red lights, unless there’s another car coming, because of the possibility of being robbed. All the street signs have little pictures next to the names of the places they describe - some trees and a bench for plazas, a cross for hospitals, and an incline and a question mark for the Rua Amendoim (Peanut Street), which Mariana took me to. It’s right by the Praça do Papa, and it looks like it’s going uphill, but when she put the car in neutral it rolled downhill. The picture was pretty descriptive, I’d say. The traffic lights have black blinders around them, just like in the US, but there’s no bottom - they’re shaped like a horseshoe, I guess to keep birds from nesting there.
I haven’t had much problem understanding people and making myself understood - understanding what people are saying over loudspeakers, on the phone, or on TV is a little tricky, but face to face I feel like I’m comprehending about 86% of what is said to me. Mariana’s mom and Eni were both surprised to learn that this was my first time in Brazil because my Portuguese was so good, so the two hour language classes, four days a week for two semesters, looks like it has paid off. I still have to ask for clarification sometimes, and there are words I don’t know, but Eni has been taking me around the house teaching me the words for pillow and pillowcase (which I’ve forgotten) and sugarbowl and spoon, and anything else she can find. Let’s just hope that my professors speak slowly and clearly.
I’ve been noticing people using some of the slang we talked about in class - Leon said that my water bottle, with all the rubber bracelets on it, was “bacana” (cool) and Mariana told Eni on the phone “tudo joia” (ok, that sounds good, etc.). Mariana was also explaining to me that people use “tren” (literally, train, like choo-choo) as a generic noun, like we might use “thingy,” and that a lot of people will say “why” (probably not spelled like that) at the end of sentences, but that it doesn’t mean anything, it’s like Canadians saying “eh.”
After we had breakfast this morning, Beatriz, who picked up Barbara from the airport and was an exchange student at Gonzaga, took us around. First we went to a mall to find an ATM (the fifth one I tried finally decided to give me some money), and we had lunch there too. The place we ate was a buffet where you pay for food by the kilo - you fill your plate and then they put it on a scale and tell you how much it costs. It wasn’t too hard to find vegetarian stuff - they had rice, and beans that didn’t have any obvious chunks of dead animal, and some pasta with pesto, and mashed potatoes, and carrots, and tomatoes. Everything was good except the potatoes, which didn’t have any flavor at all. They were bright yellow, so I thought they might have butter or something in them, but it was like eating nothing.
After that we got gelato, which was good, and then Barbara and I both bought magazines, in Portuguese, to practice reading. The one I got is for pre-teens, it looks kind of like Teen Beat or Bop (are those still around?) but it had a picture of Harry Potter on the front so I was hoping it would have some information about when the book and movie are coming out in Brazil, and it was cheap, 4 reais, which is around $2.
After the mall we went to the Parque Municipal, which was a lot of fun. There was a lake with some ducks, and a playground, and an amusement park with a ferris wheel and some other kiddie rides, and someone giving rides on donkeys, and a lot of trees and people, and a lake with boats that you could rent, which we did. I ended up rowing our boat, because I got in last and it was the only seat left, but I didn’t mind and it wasn’t too hard after I got the physics of it figured out. We rowed all around the lake, and only hit another boat two or three times, and everyone was very good-natured about it. We also saw some people doing capoiera, which was fun to watch, and there was a guy singing religious songs in English nearby, which struck me as a little odd. After that Beatriz took us back to Eni’s house, because she had to study. It was a really fun day, and I’m excited to meet the other students tomorrow and explore the university a little. Beatriz told me that in the literature building, there are a lot of people who are vegetarian, so I should eat at that cafeteria for the best selection, which I’m excited about.
Monday
Well, now I’m going to talk about the first day of classes, because the internet at my house is horrible and doesn’t work, it would be less frustrating if she didn’t have it at all. Every time I try to load any website, the whole thing freezes, Skype doesn’t work, and I got fed up and was playing solitaire and when I tried to quit it that froze the computer too. She’s running Windows 98 and dialup internet, so maybe I’m just going too fast for it, I don’t know, but it’s really frustrating so I hope someday soon I can find reliable internet somewhere and post this, it’s getting really long.
This morning I got up at 6:30, showered, had breakfast, and then Leon came and met Barbara and Caleb (another American, from Chico State, who’s in the same language class and lives in the next building over and looks like the middle Hanson brother, but taller) and I and showed us how to get to the university from where we’re living. We left at 7:30 AM, had to be there at 9, and arrived only a little early - the bus stop is a 20 minute walk from our apartment, and once the bus comes, it’s a half hour ride, and then another 5 minute walk to our building. It’s doable, and Barbara has a really good sense of direction and I have a map, so hopefully we’ll be able to find our way tomorrow - Leon has an early class, so he can’t escort us again.
Our class today consisted of some welcoming remarks, a written test to see whether we’d place into the basic or intermediate class, two hours for lunch, and in the afternoon we watched some episodes of a show called “Retratos Falados” (Spoken Portraits, literally), which was interesting but hard to understand because they talked really fast. The premise of the show is that people send in accounts of true stories, and if the hostess picks their story, she interveiws them on camera and also acts out the story herself, and the pieces are spliced together. Some of it was funny, although it was mostly very physical humor, which I’m not as in to. After we watched some of it, we discussed it a little, got clarification, and then wrote a synopsis of each of the stories and wrote our own story. The point of the activity was to see how well we spoke Portuguese, orally, and to see how well we understood the video and each other.
It was good to see Lourdes, who, for those of you who don’t know, is the other USF student in the program. We’ve never been terribly close, but I was surprised at how nice it was to see a familiar face. She likes her family a lot and has had a really good time so far, so that’s good.
Something I think is really funny is that Leon has the habit of saying stuff like, “There are three things you should know about the bus, which are the following:” and then he goes on to list them. I’m not sure if that’s really how he talks of if he’s speaking more formally because he thinks we’ll understand him better, but it’s just funny. My lunch today, which I ate in one of the cafeterias on campus, consisted of an assortment of fruits and veggies, some rice, some pasta, half a hard boiled egg, a drink, and cost a grand total of around $3. I really like the prices here.
Another thing I really like is the pronunciation of English words in Portguese. For example, one of the girls from Florida International University (there are 12 or 13 of them in the Portuguese class) was talking about how her family really likes the Red Hot Chilli Peppers - with Brazilian pronunciation, the Hedgee Hotchee Shilly Peppers. Lourdes’ family asked her if she like what sound like hockey - she replied that she wasn’t a big sports fan, but that sure, she liked it ok - and then they explained to her that they meant the music, you know, hockey ee holie? Rock and roll? Lourdes was also telling me that she was at a restaurant and saw on the menu an X Burger, but couldn’t remember how to pronounce the letter X in Portuguese, so she just pointed. The waitress replied, in Portuguese of course, “You’d like a Shees Burger?” and sure enough, a cheese burger it was.
English is a really big influence here - a lot of the stores have names in English, like a shoe store we passed in the mall that was called “Authentic Feet” and something called the “Hot (pronounced hotchee, of course) Zone (zonie).” There was a clothing store called Zoomp, which doesn’t mean anything in any language that I know of, but I thought it was funny. Leon was telling us that most of the students and professors at UFMG will speak English to us if we need them to, but that outside the university it’s not as common for people to speak it. It seems odd, then, that there are stores and food items with English names. That’s neoliberalism and cultural imperialism for you, I guess.
Tuesday
For those of you who read my Guatemala blog, remember how I was missing San Francisco busses? Same thing here, but for a different reason. Here, the busses seem fairly safe and we haven’t been stopped by the military, but there are no bus maps - such a thing doesn’t exist, according to Leo. It’s not very user friendly - if you end up 25 blocks from where you’d rather be, unless you already know which bus goes where there’s no way to tell where any of them are going to go. Luckily, I know which bus I take to school, and so far that’s all I’ve needed to do. Also, the busses here give change, which is really cool, although each ride costs two reais (about a dollar) and they make two real bills, so I haven’t had occasion to receive change. The busses are color coded somehow, the UFMG bus is blue, but some are red and some are green and some are yellow. The green ones, according to Leon, go the same place as the subway - nowhere to nowhere. A green bus passed us when we were walking yesterday, and he remarked that he didn’t know there was anyone on it, it wouldn’t take them anywhere important. There are also a TON of busses on the road - there can be as many as 6 of them in the same block. I’m really glad I don’t drive here - I would have a heart attack trying not to get squished by a bus.
This morning I found the internet at UFMG, but I hope there’s somewhere else that offers it - this was a room full of printers and copy machines, and on the outside were two computers, with the monitors behind closed windows and the keyboards and mice on the windowsill. Also, there were long lines for both computers, and the person behind me was definitely reading over my shoulder, so all I did was check my email very quickly, and reply to a couple of people who were asking about my blog. We passed an internet cafe on our way home, but Barbara didn’t want to go in because it looked a little sketchy and cost money. Tomorrow I’m going to find the international student services office, which I’m pretty sure is in the building where I have class, and ask them where to find free, reliable internet that I can use for more than 5 minutes. This whole fiasco is really frustrating, and I hope I find some sort of actual computer lab soon.
On a happier note, Eni has a maid who comes every weekday, Luzia, and she’s really nice, and a good cook too. She lives in Sabará, which is about an hour by bus from Belo Horizonte, and her accent is a little bit difficult and she talks really fast, but she’s very patient about listening to us and trying to decipher what we’re saying. Eni told her I was a vegetarian, so she’s been cooking meatless soups for dinner, which is really nice of her, and she’s going to do our laundry every Thursday for 10 reais a week (about $5) which I think is a good price for saving me the trouble of finding some sort of laundromat or something or washing everything by hand myself.
This morning we had phonetics class, which is going to teach us how to have good pronunciation, and then split up into basic and intermediate groups - Barbara, Lourdes and I all got in to intermediate. Both of the professors, for phonetics and for language, seem really nice and are both very engaging and funny. The phonetics teacher is doing the class in English, because everyone is at different levels of Portuguese and she wants everyone to understand what’s going on, and her accent in English is one of her own invention - it’s a little bit British, a little bit Brazilian, and a little bit odd. Interesting to listen to, though.
This afternoon we took a field trip to the Central Market, which is this huge building with 400 stalls which sell everything, including herbs, pots and pans, fruit, beer, puppies and peacocks, just to name a few. Lourdes and I spent most of the time looking for an ATM that would give her money, since she hadn’t found one yet and had been borrowing money from her family members - we finally found one, after visiting two other banks. After that we walked back to the market and did a little perusing. Our language professor found us and asked if we’d seen the section with animals - we said that we hadn’t, and she said to follow her, it was worth seeing. There was a whole section of the market selling every kind of small animal you could think of - fish, guinea pigs, puppies, kittens, parakeets, finches, ducklings, full grown ducks, chickens, roosters, fancy chickens, turkeys, doves, pigeons, peacocks - and we didn’t even look at all the different stalls. I felt really bad for the puppies and kittens, they didn’t look very happy in their wire cages in the middle of a bustling market, but Lourdes and I petted them through the bars and wished we could take all of them home and cuddle them. The professor assured us that people do buy pets at the market, so there was a good chance they would find good homes, and I asked her if the guinea pigs were for eating or keeping as pets, and she checked with the salesperson who said that Chileans eat guinea pig but Brazilians don’t, which made me feel a little better about their fate. I wonder if the animals stay there all night, or if they are transported there every day? I don’t know which would be worse. The conditions were certainly not as bad as factory farms, there were only one or two chickens per cage instead of 6, but it still didn’t seem very nice to me.
Last night I watched Pretty Woman, and it was really nice to have that little taste of home, familiarity, and American language and culture. I’m looking forward to moving in with a family with parents and kids, I think having more, and younger, people around will be nice. In the evenings, it seems like Elsy sits in her room by herself and Eni watches TV. Barbara and I have been passing the time reading, talking, or, in my case, watching movies, but I’d like it better if there were a wider variety of interesting people and/or pets around. Or internet that worked, either way.
Friday
Well, now Barbara (with the help of Eni’s son in law) has gotten Skype off the computer here, so the internet works just fine and it doesn’t crash anymore - however, the computer has no USB port, so I’m going to have to wait to post this until Monday, when I’m back at UFMG and can finally use the wireless there (I brought my laptop to school yesterday, but no one knew the password, so it did me no good).
Wednesday we all went to the Museum of Arts and Jobs, which was in a really pretty building. It had displays of stuff that related to different jobs that people had done in Minas Gerais over the years - there was a section on leatherwork, a section on fruit selling, a section on energy production, a section on cooking, etc. It was neat for what it was, but I’m definitely more of an art museum girl - looking at old rusty tractors doesn’t really float my boat. I did like the section about knitting and crocheting, there were some really pretty examples of stuff, and a really creepy diorama of a headless mannequin using a spindle (which made me wonder whether or not they tell the story of Sleeping Beauty here - not that she was creepy and headless, but she did prick her finger on a spindle, and this was the first time I’d seen one in real life).
The thing about our field trips is that they’re really unorganized - we’re told one time and place to meet when we’re on the bus, and by the end of the excursion it’s changed. This was kind of a problem on Wednesday because Barbara and I wanted to walk from the museum to our apartment (about 15 blocks) and we’d planned to meet up at 4:30 in front of the museum, when the whole class was supposed to meet. She and some of the other girls from Gonzaga got done with the museum and decided to go find something to drink, and Lourdes wanted to buy a calling card, so we went our separate ways (me with Lourdes) and everything would have been fine except in our absence the plan changed to meeting at 4:00. Luckily, Lourdes and I got back to the museum as the group was taking a group photo, but then the professors tried to herd us on the bus. I explained that Barbara and I were going to walk home, but that she probably wouldn’t come back until 4:30 so I wasn’t going to get on the bus and go somewhere else, and that the girls with her might want to take the bus back to school. Long story short, the bus left, one of the professors stayed behind with me to make sure that Barbara showed up, and she and the others did, about 10 minutes later. As I’d thought, the others did need to take the bus back to the university, so the professor called the bus and had it come back for them, and Barbara and I walked. That whole headache could have been avoided by one of two things - everyone having cell phones, or the group having a consistent plan. Grr. We got back to the apartment just fine at the end of it all, and on the way I bought some earrings for the equivalent of 25 cents that are round, about a quarter inch in diameter, and have a picture of some random guy. No one I’ve asked knows who he is, so he’s not a movie star or singer or anything - just some guy. The whole concept cracked me up, and for 25 cents I just couldn’t leave them in the store.
Today Lourdes and I took an unintentional walking tour of Belo Horizonte after classes got out at 12:30. She wanted to go back to the Mercado Central, since when we went on the field trip we didn’t get a chance to look around since we were bank hopping, but she hadn’t brought any money or her camera with her, so we went to her house first. We decided to walk, which seemed like a good idea, but it ended up taking us about an hour and a half to get to her house, get her stuff, chat with her mom, accidently let her little dog out (luckily he doesn’t go far before stopping to smell stuff), and get back to university to take the bus in my direction. I also realized that I didn’t have much money with me, so we tried to go to my apartment - however, this was my first time trying to get from the bus stop home without Barbara, and I took us on a six block detour in the wrong direction. We finally arrived, after leaving class at 12:30, at my apartment at 3:00. We went in, I had a handful of almonds (we still hadn’t eaten lunch), we unsuccessfully got directions to the bus stop that would take us the the market, and in the end Elsy walked us the bus stop and gave the driver the what-for about making sure that we got to the market and knew where to get off. We arrive about 4:30, ate lunch, and walked around a little. We took some pictures, and I bought a string of strawberry flavored honey packets that a bunch of people were selling and I thought were really pretty (I took a photo of them for you guys).
I think Luzia might be illiterate - when I was asking her for directions to the bus stop, I pulled out my map and asked her to show me on the map where I was supposed to go, but she called Elsy over to show me. Either that or she’s just really bad with maps. Also, I gave her the box of See’s candy last night - she was telling me that she’s a single mom and has three kids, two of which live at home and one of those is mentally disabled and so can’t work. Working for Eni is her only job, and I don’t imagine she makes very much, so I thought that some chocolates would probably be a welcome treat, and she’s been really nice to us and she does really funny impressions of Eni and Elsy. She was really happy about them, so that’s good.
This morning in Portuguese class, we had to go out and interview somebody - we had certain questions to ask, and half an hour to do it. I was really nervous, as a rule I don’t like approaching strangers, especially not in a language I don’t know all that well, but I finally settled on a guy who was sitting by himself in an office. He was really nice and was good about repeating things and going slow, so it turned out to be a good experience, but it was uncomfortable to approach someone and strike up a conversation. I guess it builds character, though.
I found a restaurant by the morning bus stop that says “vegetariana” on the front, so I’m going to make a point of eating there sometime soon and thanking them for recognizing that dead flesh is not everyone’s idea of a good time. Today in the market in the meat section, which we accidently wandered into, there was an entire pig hanging by it’s neck, it was really gross. Sorry to be so graphic, but it’s true. There were also entire cow feet, hoof and fur and all, that were being sold as decorations or good luck charms or something. Yuck. I miss the US, where being vegetarian is culturally acceptable and when you mention tofu, people don’t respond “oh yeah, isn’t that a kind of cheese?” I’m definitely learning not to take stuff like vegetarian options and fast, reliable internet for granted.
Sunday
Yesterday Barbara and Eni and I took a walking tour of our neighborhood and the one next to it, Savassi, which is the fancy part of town. We had lunch at a really cute cafe/bookstore/bar that had an outside eating area and live music. The music was one guy playing his guitar and singing, and Eni thought it would be lovely for him to play “Girl from Ipanema” for us. She went up to request it, but he was in the middle of a song so she stood about 6 inches from him and kind of swayed to music until he finished, at which point she requested the song. After he was done, she insisted that we go up and introduce ourselves and thank him, which we did, with the whole cafe looking on. It was really awkward, but I was comforted by the fact that I was in a foreign country where I didn’t know hardly anyone and where they didn’t know me.
Saturday afternoon we all napped, which I hardly ever do, but I’ve been really tired here - I think it’s a combination of being in a new place and operating in a foreign language almost all day - it’s a lot to think about all at once. Saturday night we went out to a bar with live samba music, which was a lot of fun. Lourdes came over to our apartment first, because she didn’t want to travel by herself in the dark, and we played poker and Uno while we were waiting for Beatrice to come pick us up. A lot of the other students from our class were there, and we were out until about 2. Lourdes and Maggie from Gonzaga slept over, because they both live by the university, which, as you know, isn’t really anywhere near where we’re living, or the samba place. We pushed Barbara’s and my bed together, and all slept perpendicular to the way you’re supposed to sleep (so that no one would fall in the crack between the beds). As you might imagine, I didn’t sleep too much, but overall it was a fun night. The music was good and it was fun to go out with everyone (including our phonetics professor, who was enjoying herself quite a lot).
Sunday morning we all woke up around 9, because Cristine, one of the Brazilian students who’ll be going to USF in the fall, was coming to pick us up to go the Sunday market at 10. We shopped around at the market for a little while (I bought a purse and two pairs of earrings) and then went to the Praça do Papa and Mirante again, both of which I’d visited with Mariana, but this time I had my camera and Barbara hadn’t been there yet. After that we went to eat at one of Crisitine’s favorite restaurants, called Bolão (Big Cake, I think), which is open 24 hours and serves really good pasta. It was good, and we had a really good time getting to know Cristine - she’s very friendly and patient about speaking slowly when we needed her to.
Sunday night we went to a forró, which was pretty fun except the dance you do to forró is a partner thing, and it seemed like there weren’t any unattatched dancing partners there. The music was good and the venue was really cute, and there were a ton of people, but Barbara and I only knew Ignes, who’s a teacher’s aid in our phonetics class, and didn’t dance with anyone. I think it would have been more fun if we’d known more people and had gone with a bigger, mixed gender group. It was still neat to experience that part of Brazilian culture, though.
Taxi drivers here don’t know where they’re going. In San Francisco I know they have to take a test before they get their permit, demonstrating that they know the quickest way around the city, but that apparently is not the case here. Both times I’ve had occasion to take a taxi back to Eni’s apartment, I’ve had to give the driver directions, which is hard because I don’t really know where I’m going either and the whole reason I’m in the cab is that it’s dark, so the street signs are really hard to read too.
Saturday
When I finally got to Belo Horizonte and found my baggage, I found Mariana and her boyfriend/fiance (they’re both wearing rings on their left hands, but aren’t married, so I’m not sure exactly what their official status is) and they drove me to Mariana’s house, where I spent the night. When we got there, about 3 AM, Mariana’s mom woke up and insisted on serving food and chatting a little. We had guaraná, which is some sort of carbonated juice drink, cheese and crackers, and pão de queijo, “bread of cheese,” which was really good - they’re tiny little rolls, about the size of a dollar coin, that have cheese mixed in with the dough and are a distinctly Brazilian food, originating in Minas Gerais. I went to bed about 4:15, woke up around 10, showered, had breakfast (grilled cheese), and then Mariana and I went for a drive.
Sunday
Mariana took me to the Parque de Mangabeiras, which is a park sort of up on one of the mountains surrounding Belo. First we went to the Praça do Papa (Plaza of the Pope) which she said was built when he came to visit Belo, and he gave mass there. There was an amazing view of the city, but unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me. I’ll go back and take pictures later though. After that we drove a little more and got to the park. It was really beautiful and green and there were a ton of trees that I’d never seen before. We went into a little visitor’s center and I got a map of Belo and some information about the park, and then we went on a stroll along one of the trails. There were two different kinds of birds I’ve never seen - one of them looked like a small wild turkey, but it was all black except for some red on its throat and red eyes, and there was another one that was about the size of a pigeon and was yellow on its head, blue on its midsection and wings, and gree on its tail and back end (I think - I’m not exactly sure about which colors were where, but that’s the general idea). There were also regular old pigeons, which I also saw in Guatemala - they seem to be an international bird. The most exciting thing about the park, however, where the monkeys. There were probably six or eight of them in this little tree, and a kid was feeding them peanuts. They were small, no bigger than a textbook, and had adorable little faces. I’d never seen wild monkeys before, and it really made me feel like I was in Brazil. After that, we went back to Mariana’s house and had lunch, which is the big meal of the day, and then Mariana took me to Eni’s house, where I’ll be staying.
Eni lives in a really pretty apartment in a nice middle class neighborhood, and also happens to live in the building next to Mariana’s aunt. The apartment is spacious and has a lot of art, and from what I can gather there are four bedrooms, a kitchen, a laundry room, and a living room. Eni is probably in her late 50’s or early 60’s, and her older sister Elsy lives here too. Both are widows, and Eni is diabetic (so I guess I won’t be giving her the box of See’s I brought as a thanks-for-taking-me-in gift). They both seem nice, and Elsy knits so we talked about that some. I’m sharing a room with another exchange student, Barbara, who goes to Gonzaga. She’s nice and seems like she’ll be a good roommate, but I would prefer not to share a room the whole time I’m here, and I think she feels the same, so after the month of Portuguese class is up, I have a feeling one or both of us will be moving out.
Sunday
Last night Eni made us something, I don’t remember what it was called, but it was hot and involved granulated peanuts, shredded coconut, milk and something that I think had something to do with kernels of corn and may have been called carangeiro (although that could also be the word for crab, which it certainly was not). It was sweet and we ate it with a spoon and it was really good.
This morning we ate bread, cheese, and papaya for breakfast. I’d never had papaya before, and I liked it a lot. Eni doesn’t refrigerate her cheese, which I think is a little odd, but I’ve been eating it and haven’t gotten a terrible disease yet, so I guess it’s ok. The tap water here isn’t good to drink, but Eni and Mariana both had the same ceramic filter system, which apparently takes out whatever’s bad in the water. They fill the jug with tap water, it drips through a ceramic filter thing, and then come out a spout and the bottom. I’m really happy about this because it means I won’t have to buy as much bottled water, which, as you all know if you’ve heard my spiel, is the devil.
Eni has three kids, all of them grown and married, and this morning Barbara and I met one of her daughters her two kids. I hope we get to spend some more time with them, so I can unload the stickers I brought.
Now for some cultural differences - no one that I’ve seen here so far is terribly overweight. Some people are bigger than others, of course, but Americans are definitely chubbier, on average. Also, all the young women seem to wear high heels, all the time. Mariana wore heels when she took me to the park, which involved a lot of walking up and down hills on cobblestones, and all the young women at the airport were wearing them too. Odd. On the flight from São Paulo to Belo Horizonte, which was like an hour long, we were served hot dogs and drinks and there was an informational video playing the whole time, on speakers everyone could hear, about points of interest in Brazil, peppered with ads for the airline. In the US we’re lucky to get a bag of peanuts on a flight that short, and the TV sound is always through headphone ports.
When driving, people don’t usually stop at red lights, unless there’s another car coming, because of the possibility of being robbed. All the street signs have little pictures next to the names of the places they describe - some trees and a bench for plazas, a cross for hospitals, and an incline and a question mark for the Rua Amendoim (Peanut Street), which Mariana took me to. It’s right by the Praça do Papa, and it looks like it’s going uphill, but when she put the car in neutral it rolled downhill. The picture was pretty descriptive, I’d say. The traffic lights have black blinders around them, just like in the US, but there’s no bottom - they’re shaped like a horseshoe, I guess to keep birds from nesting there.
I haven’t had much problem understanding people and making myself understood - understanding what people are saying over loudspeakers, on the phone, or on TV is a little tricky, but face to face I feel like I’m comprehending about 86% of what is said to me. Mariana’s mom and Eni were both surprised to learn that this was my first time in Brazil because my Portuguese was so good, so the two hour language classes, four days a week for two semesters, looks like it has paid off. I still have to ask for clarification sometimes, and there are words I don’t know, but Eni has been taking me around the house teaching me the words for pillow and pillowcase (which I’ve forgotten) and sugarbowl and spoon, and anything else she can find. Let’s just hope that my professors speak slowly and clearly.
I’ve been noticing people using some of the slang we talked about in class - Leon said that my water bottle, with all the rubber bracelets on it, was “bacana” (cool) and Mariana told Eni on the phone “tudo joia” (ok, that sounds good, etc.). Mariana was also explaining to me that people use “tren” (literally, train, like choo-choo) as a generic noun, like we might use “thingy,” and that a lot of people will say “why” (probably not spelled like that) at the end of sentences, but that it doesn’t mean anything, it’s like Canadians saying “eh.”
After we had breakfast this morning, Beatriz, who picked up Barbara from the airport and was an exchange student at Gonzaga, took us around. First we went to a mall to find an ATM (the fifth one I tried finally decided to give me some money), and we had lunch there too. The place we ate was a buffet where you pay for food by the kilo - you fill your plate and then they put it on a scale and tell you how much it costs. It wasn’t too hard to find vegetarian stuff - they had rice, and beans that didn’t have any obvious chunks of dead animal, and some pasta with pesto, and mashed potatoes, and carrots, and tomatoes. Everything was good except the potatoes, which didn’t have any flavor at all. They were bright yellow, so I thought they might have butter or something in them, but it was like eating nothing.
After that we got gelato, which was good, and then Barbara and I both bought magazines, in Portuguese, to practice reading. The one I got is for pre-teens, it looks kind of like Teen Beat or Bop (are those still around?) but it had a picture of Harry Potter on the front so I was hoping it would have some information about when the book and movie are coming out in Brazil, and it was cheap, 4 reais, which is around $2.
After the mall we went to the Parque Municipal, which was a lot of fun. There was a lake with some ducks, and a playground, and an amusement park with a ferris wheel and some other kiddie rides, and someone giving rides on donkeys, and a lot of trees and people, and a lake with boats that you could rent, which we did. I ended up rowing our boat, because I got in last and it was the only seat left, but I didn’t mind and it wasn’t too hard after I got the physics of it figured out. We rowed all around the lake, and only hit another boat two or three times, and everyone was very good-natured about it. We also saw some people doing capoiera, which was fun to watch, and there was a guy singing religious songs in English nearby, which struck me as a little odd. After that Beatriz took us back to Eni’s house, because she had to study. It was a really fun day, and I’m excited to meet the other students tomorrow and explore the university a little. Beatriz told me that in the literature building, there are a lot of people who are vegetarian, so I should eat at that cafeteria for the best selection, which I’m excited about.
Monday
Well, now I’m going to talk about the first day of classes, because the internet at my house is horrible and doesn’t work, it would be less frustrating if she didn’t have it at all. Every time I try to load any website, the whole thing freezes, Skype doesn’t work, and I got fed up and was playing solitaire and when I tried to quit it that froze the computer too. She’s running Windows 98 and dialup internet, so maybe I’m just going too fast for it, I don’t know, but it’s really frustrating so I hope someday soon I can find reliable internet somewhere and post this, it’s getting really long.
This morning I got up at 6:30, showered, had breakfast, and then Leon came and met Barbara and Caleb (another American, from Chico State, who’s in the same language class and lives in the next building over and looks like the middle Hanson brother, but taller) and I and showed us how to get to the university from where we’re living. We left at 7:30 AM, had to be there at 9, and arrived only a little early - the bus stop is a 20 minute walk from our apartment, and once the bus comes, it’s a half hour ride, and then another 5 minute walk to our building. It’s doable, and Barbara has a really good sense of direction and I have a map, so hopefully we’ll be able to find our way tomorrow - Leon has an early class, so he can’t escort us again.
Our class today consisted of some welcoming remarks, a written test to see whether we’d place into the basic or intermediate class, two hours for lunch, and in the afternoon we watched some episodes of a show called “Retratos Falados” (Spoken Portraits, literally), which was interesting but hard to understand because they talked really fast. The premise of the show is that people send in accounts of true stories, and if the hostess picks their story, she interveiws them on camera and also acts out the story herself, and the pieces are spliced together. Some of it was funny, although it was mostly very physical humor, which I’m not as in to. After we watched some of it, we discussed it a little, got clarification, and then wrote a synopsis of each of the stories and wrote our own story. The point of the activity was to see how well we spoke Portuguese, orally, and to see how well we understood the video and each other.
It was good to see Lourdes, who, for those of you who don’t know, is the other USF student in the program. We’ve never been terribly close, but I was surprised at how nice it was to see a familiar face. She likes her family a lot and has had a really good time so far, so that’s good.
Something I think is really funny is that Leon has the habit of saying stuff like, “There are three things you should know about the bus, which are the following:” and then he goes on to list them. I’m not sure if that’s really how he talks of if he’s speaking more formally because he thinks we’ll understand him better, but it’s just funny. My lunch today, which I ate in one of the cafeterias on campus, consisted of an assortment of fruits and veggies, some rice, some pasta, half a hard boiled egg, a drink, and cost a grand total of around $3. I really like the prices here.
Another thing I really like is the pronunciation of English words in Portguese. For example, one of the girls from Florida International University (there are 12 or 13 of them in the Portuguese class) was talking about how her family really likes the Red Hot Chilli Peppers - with Brazilian pronunciation, the Hedgee Hotchee Shilly Peppers. Lourdes’ family asked her if she like what sound like hockey - she replied that she wasn’t a big sports fan, but that sure, she liked it ok - and then they explained to her that they meant the music, you know, hockey ee holie? Rock and roll? Lourdes was also telling me that she was at a restaurant and saw on the menu an X Burger, but couldn’t remember how to pronounce the letter X in Portuguese, so she just pointed. The waitress replied, in Portuguese of course, “You’d like a Shees Burger?” and sure enough, a cheese burger it was.
English is a really big influence here - a lot of the stores have names in English, like a shoe store we passed in the mall that was called “Authentic Feet” and something called the “Hot (pronounced hotchee, of course) Zone (zonie).” There was a clothing store called Zoomp, which doesn’t mean anything in any language that I know of, but I thought it was funny. Leon was telling us that most of the students and professors at UFMG will speak English to us if we need them to, but that outside the university it’s not as common for people to speak it. It seems odd, then, that there are stores and food items with English names. That’s neoliberalism and cultural imperialism for you, I guess.
Tuesday
For those of you who read my Guatemala blog, remember how I was missing San Francisco busses? Same thing here, but for a different reason. Here, the busses seem fairly safe and we haven’t been stopped by the military, but there are no bus maps - such a thing doesn’t exist, according to Leo. It’s not very user friendly - if you end up 25 blocks from where you’d rather be, unless you already know which bus goes where there’s no way to tell where any of them are going to go. Luckily, I know which bus I take to school, and so far that’s all I’ve needed to do. Also, the busses here give change, which is really cool, although each ride costs two reais (about a dollar) and they make two real bills, so I haven’t had occasion to receive change. The busses are color coded somehow, the UFMG bus is blue, but some are red and some are green and some are yellow. The green ones, according to Leon, go the same place as the subway - nowhere to nowhere. A green bus passed us when we were walking yesterday, and he remarked that he didn’t know there was anyone on it, it wouldn’t take them anywhere important. There are also a TON of busses on the road - there can be as many as 6 of them in the same block. I’m really glad I don’t drive here - I would have a heart attack trying not to get squished by a bus.
This morning I found the internet at UFMG, but I hope there’s somewhere else that offers it - this was a room full of printers and copy machines, and on the outside were two computers, with the monitors behind closed windows and the keyboards and mice on the windowsill. Also, there were long lines for both computers, and the person behind me was definitely reading over my shoulder, so all I did was check my email very quickly, and reply to a couple of people who were asking about my blog. We passed an internet cafe on our way home, but Barbara didn’t want to go in because it looked a little sketchy and cost money. Tomorrow I’m going to find the international student services office, which I’m pretty sure is in the building where I have class, and ask them where to find free, reliable internet that I can use for more than 5 minutes. This whole fiasco is really frustrating, and I hope I find some sort of actual computer lab soon.
On a happier note, Eni has a maid who comes every weekday, Luzia, and she’s really nice, and a good cook too. She lives in Sabará, which is about an hour by bus from Belo Horizonte, and her accent is a little bit difficult and she talks really fast, but she’s very patient about listening to us and trying to decipher what we’re saying. Eni told her I was a vegetarian, so she’s been cooking meatless soups for dinner, which is really nice of her, and she’s going to do our laundry every Thursday for 10 reais a week (about $5) which I think is a good price for saving me the trouble of finding some sort of laundromat or something or washing everything by hand myself.
This morning we had phonetics class, which is going to teach us how to have good pronunciation, and then split up into basic and intermediate groups - Barbara, Lourdes and I all got in to intermediate. Both of the professors, for phonetics and for language, seem really nice and are both very engaging and funny. The phonetics teacher is doing the class in English, because everyone is at different levels of Portuguese and she wants everyone to understand what’s going on, and her accent in English is one of her own invention - it’s a little bit British, a little bit Brazilian, and a little bit odd. Interesting to listen to, though.
This afternoon we took a field trip to the Central Market, which is this huge building with 400 stalls which sell everything, including herbs, pots and pans, fruit, beer, puppies and peacocks, just to name a few. Lourdes and I spent most of the time looking for an ATM that would give her money, since she hadn’t found one yet and had been borrowing money from her family members - we finally found one, after visiting two other banks. After that we walked back to the market and did a little perusing. Our language professor found us and asked if we’d seen the section with animals - we said that we hadn’t, and she said to follow her, it was worth seeing. There was a whole section of the market selling every kind of small animal you could think of - fish, guinea pigs, puppies, kittens, parakeets, finches, ducklings, full grown ducks, chickens, roosters, fancy chickens, turkeys, doves, pigeons, peacocks - and we didn’t even look at all the different stalls. I felt really bad for the puppies and kittens, they didn’t look very happy in their wire cages in the middle of a bustling market, but Lourdes and I petted them through the bars and wished we could take all of them home and cuddle them. The professor assured us that people do buy pets at the market, so there was a good chance they would find good homes, and I asked her if the guinea pigs were for eating or keeping as pets, and she checked with the salesperson who said that Chileans eat guinea pig but Brazilians don’t, which made me feel a little better about their fate. I wonder if the animals stay there all night, or if they are transported there every day? I don’t know which would be worse. The conditions were certainly not as bad as factory farms, there were only one or two chickens per cage instead of 6, but it still didn’t seem very nice to me.
Last night I watched Pretty Woman, and it was really nice to have that little taste of home, familiarity, and American language and culture. I’m looking forward to moving in with a family with parents and kids, I think having more, and younger, people around will be nice. In the evenings, it seems like Elsy sits in her room by herself and Eni watches TV. Barbara and I have been passing the time reading, talking, or, in my case, watching movies, but I’d like it better if there were a wider variety of interesting people and/or pets around. Or internet that worked, either way.
Friday
Well, now Barbara (with the help of Eni’s son in law) has gotten Skype off the computer here, so the internet works just fine and it doesn’t crash anymore - however, the computer has no USB port, so I’m going to have to wait to post this until Monday, when I’m back at UFMG and can finally use the wireless there (I brought my laptop to school yesterday, but no one knew the password, so it did me no good).
Wednesday we all went to the Museum of Arts and Jobs, which was in a really pretty building. It had displays of stuff that related to different jobs that people had done in Minas Gerais over the years - there was a section on leatherwork, a section on fruit selling, a section on energy production, a section on cooking, etc. It was neat for what it was, but I’m definitely more of an art museum girl - looking at old rusty tractors doesn’t really float my boat. I did like the section about knitting and crocheting, there were some really pretty examples of stuff, and a really creepy diorama of a headless mannequin using a spindle (which made me wonder whether or not they tell the story of Sleeping Beauty here - not that she was creepy and headless, but she did prick her finger on a spindle, and this was the first time I’d seen one in real life).
The thing about our field trips is that they’re really unorganized - we’re told one time and place to meet when we’re on the bus, and by the end of the excursion it’s changed. This was kind of a problem on Wednesday because Barbara and I wanted to walk from the museum to our apartment (about 15 blocks) and we’d planned to meet up at 4:30 in front of the museum, when the whole class was supposed to meet. She and some of the other girls from Gonzaga got done with the museum and decided to go find something to drink, and Lourdes wanted to buy a calling card, so we went our separate ways (me with Lourdes) and everything would have been fine except in our absence the plan changed to meeting at 4:00. Luckily, Lourdes and I got back to the museum as the group was taking a group photo, but then the professors tried to herd us on the bus. I explained that Barbara and I were going to walk home, but that she probably wouldn’t come back until 4:30 so I wasn’t going to get on the bus and go somewhere else, and that the girls with her might want to take the bus back to school. Long story short, the bus left, one of the professors stayed behind with me to make sure that Barbara showed up, and she and the others did, about 10 minutes later. As I’d thought, the others did need to take the bus back to the university, so the professor called the bus and had it come back for them, and Barbara and I walked. That whole headache could have been avoided by one of two things - everyone having cell phones, or the group having a consistent plan. Grr. We got back to the apartment just fine at the end of it all, and on the way I bought some earrings for the equivalent of 25 cents that are round, about a quarter inch in diameter, and have a picture of some random guy. No one I’ve asked knows who he is, so he’s not a movie star or singer or anything - just some guy. The whole concept cracked me up, and for 25 cents I just couldn’t leave them in the store.
Today Lourdes and I took an unintentional walking tour of Belo Horizonte after classes got out at 12:30. She wanted to go back to the Mercado Central, since when we went on the field trip we didn’t get a chance to look around since we were bank hopping, but she hadn’t brought any money or her camera with her, so we went to her house first. We decided to walk, which seemed like a good idea, but it ended up taking us about an hour and a half to get to her house, get her stuff, chat with her mom, accidently let her little dog out (luckily he doesn’t go far before stopping to smell stuff), and get back to university to take the bus in my direction. I also realized that I didn’t have much money with me, so we tried to go to my apartment - however, this was my first time trying to get from the bus stop home without Barbara, and I took us on a six block detour in the wrong direction. We finally arrived, after leaving class at 12:30, at my apartment at 3:00. We went in, I had a handful of almonds (we still hadn’t eaten lunch), we unsuccessfully got directions to the bus stop that would take us the the market, and in the end Elsy walked us the bus stop and gave the driver the what-for about making sure that we got to the market and knew where to get off. We arrive about 4:30, ate lunch, and walked around a little. We took some pictures, and I bought a string of strawberry flavored honey packets that a bunch of people were selling and I thought were really pretty (I took a photo of them for you guys).
I think Luzia might be illiterate - when I was asking her for directions to the bus stop, I pulled out my map and asked her to show me on the map where I was supposed to go, but she called Elsy over to show me. Either that or she’s just really bad with maps. Also, I gave her the box of See’s candy last night - she was telling me that she’s a single mom and has three kids, two of which live at home and one of those is mentally disabled and so can’t work. Working for Eni is her only job, and I don’t imagine she makes very much, so I thought that some chocolates would probably be a welcome treat, and she’s been really nice to us and she does really funny impressions of Eni and Elsy. She was really happy about them, so that’s good.
This morning in Portuguese class, we had to go out and interview somebody - we had certain questions to ask, and half an hour to do it. I was really nervous, as a rule I don’t like approaching strangers, especially not in a language I don’t know all that well, but I finally settled on a guy who was sitting by himself in an office. He was really nice and was good about repeating things and going slow, so it turned out to be a good experience, but it was uncomfortable to approach someone and strike up a conversation. I guess it builds character, though.
I found a restaurant by the morning bus stop that says “vegetariana” on the front, so I’m going to make a point of eating there sometime soon and thanking them for recognizing that dead flesh is not everyone’s idea of a good time. Today in the market in the meat section, which we accidently wandered into, there was an entire pig hanging by it’s neck, it was really gross. Sorry to be so graphic, but it’s true. There were also entire cow feet, hoof and fur and all, that were being sold as decorations or good luck charms or something. Yuck. I miss the US, where being vegetarian is culturally acceptable and when you mention tofu, people don’t respond “oh yeah, isn’t that a kind of cheese?” I’m definitely learning not to take stuff like vegetarian options and fast, reliable internet for granted.
Sunday
Yesterday Barbara and Eni and I took a walking tour of our neighborhood and the one next to it, Savassi, which is the fancy part of town. We had lunch at a really cute cafe/bookstore/bar that had an outside eating area and live music. The music was one guy playing his guitar and singing, and Eni thought it would be lovely for him to play “Girl from Ipanema” for us. She went up to request it, but he was in the middle of a song so she stood about 6 inches from him and kind of swayed to music until he finished, at which point she requested the song. After he was done, she insisted that we go up and introduce ourselves and thank him, which we did, with the whole cafe looking on. It was really awkward, but I was comforted by the fact that I was in a foreign country where I didn’t know hardly anyone and where they didn’t know me.
Saturday afternoon we all napped, which I hardly ever do, but I’ve been really tired here - I think it’s a combination of being in a new place and operating in a foreign language almost all day - it’s a lot to think about all at once. Saturday night we went out to a bar with live samba music, which was a lot of fun. Lourdes came over to our apartment first, because she didn’t want to travel by herself in the dark, and we played poker and Uno while we were waiting for Beatrice to come pick us up. A lot of the other students from our class were there, and we were out until about 2. Lourdes and Maggie from Gonzaga slept over, because they both live by the university, which, as you know, isn’t really anywhere near where we’re living, or the samba place. We pushed Barbara’s and my bed together, and all slept perpendicular to the way you’re supposed to sleep (so that no one would fall in the crack between the beds). As you might imagine, I didn’t sleep too much, but overall it was a fun night. The music was good and it was fun to go out with everyone (including our phonetics professor, who was enjoying herself quite a lot).
Sunday morning we all woke up around 9, because Cristine, one of the Brazilian students who’ll be going to USF in the fall, was coming to pick us up to go the Sunday market at 10. We shopped around at the market for a little while (I bought a purse and two pairs of earrings) and then went to the Praça do Papa and Mirante again, both of which I’d visited with Mariana, but this time I had my camera and Barbara hadn’t been there yet. After that we went to eat at one of Crisitine’s favorite restaurants, called Bolão (Big Cake, I think), which is open 24 hours and serves really good pasta. It was good, and we had a really good time getting to know Cristine - she’s very friendly and patient about speaking slowly when we needed her to.
Sunday night we went to a forró, which was pretty fun except the dance you do to forró is a partner thing, and it seemed like there weren’t any unattatched dancing partners there. The music was good and the venue was really cute, and there were a ton of people, but Barbara and I only knew Ignes, who’s a teacher’s aid in our phonetics class, and didn’t dance with anyone. I think it would have been more fun if we’d known more people and had gone with a bigger, mixed gender group. It was still neat to experience that part of Brazilian culture, though.
Taxi drivers here don’t know where they’re going. In San Francisco I know they have to take a test before they get their permit, demonstrating that they know the quickest way around the city, but that apparently is not the case here. Both times I’ve had occasion to take a taxi back to Eni’s apartment, I’ve had to give the driver directions, which is hard because I don’t really know where I’m going either and the whole reason I’m in the cab is that it’s dark, so the street signs are really hard to read too.
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