hi everybody.
well, here i am in lovely feira de santana, bahia. the bus ride here, which i was told would be between 15 and 20 hours turned out to be 23. the first 17 were fine, but the last 6 hours were really tough, and now i have to wait here in the bus station until 12:50 to catch another 5-6 hour bus to lençois, where i plan to find a pousada, take a shower, and maybe nap a little. i´m really really tired, so i´m hoping to sleep like a baby who sleeps really well... like ayla? was it her who could take a productive nap in the middle of the living room? i don´t remember. anyway, i hope to sleep on the bus.
i arrived here at 5:30pm, so by the time i´d bought my bus tickets to lençois and dropped off my stuff in the guarda-volumes, it was dark. i tried taking a little walk around town, but the busy part ended pretty quickly and i stuck out like a sore thumb, being the only white person in the vicinity, so i climbed back to the bus station, where i´ve been ever since. i watched a little tv, read a little, and then decided to take advantage of the internet while it was still open (it closes at 11, so i´ll have to find something else to do for almost two hours after that). i considered getting a room and staying here for the night, but i really want to get to the park, and i´m going to have to leave there friday night because they don´t have a bus saturday morning, so i´ll be spending a good part of saturday here in lovely feira de santana, and didn´t want to stay here longer than i had to.
i downloaded skype, but the microphone here doesn´t work, so i called my grandma twice but she couldn´t hear me. then i tried texting my mother´s cell phone from skype, but she can´t respond so i don´t know if that worked or not.
i´m really tired. i think i´ll go try to find some food or something to keep me awake. for four and a half more hours. lovely.
this park better be good. i think it will be, i´m just a little sleep deprived right now.
goodnight and enjoy sleeping in your comfy beds!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Travel Plans
Hello friends!
Just wanted to let you know, those of you who have been checking here daily in hopes of news from me (which is probably no one, but we can pretend), that tonight (sep. 28) I'm going to Chapada da Diamantina, which is a national park in the interior of Bahia, I'm coming back to Belo Horizonte on October 7, I'm going to Buenos Aires October 12-16, and I'm probably going to Barbacena October 19-21 for some sort of English teacher/language thing - I don't know too many details about this one yet, but they want me because I speak American and they're going to pay for everything, so I'm stoked.
I'll try to find some time in there somewhere to post more on here, especially about how all my travels are going, so you all don't get too lonely.
Last night after Portuguese class I went with Marlieke to Bruna's house for dinner. Bruna is another capoeira student, she's Brazilian but she started capoeira at the same time as we did. She's working on her master's in Biology, and she's really friendly. At her house, we met her brother Alan, who's studying to be a judge, and her sister Tatiana, who's in her first year of residency on her way to becoming a doctor. They're a very well educated bunch, and super friendly too. Dinner was really good, it was a spanish tortilla-style thing, I'm not really sure what it had in it but I think it was even vegetarian, and a really good chocolate cake.
After dinner Bruna and Marlieke went to a capoeira academy in Savassi because every Thursday night they have a roda there, and Cris, our teacher, always encourages the people in our class to go. There were a couple of other people from our class there, and Cris, and a lot of really amazing people who study at the academy. There were also 6 or 8 kids, some of whom were not that good, but a couple of them were amazing, way better than I am and they were like 9! One of the really good kids was Cris's nephew, and the two of them "fought" and it was really cute watching them show off for each other. A lot of the kids "fought" each other, and then the mestre, who's the big cheese, "fought" with all the kids, which was funny to watch because he's probably 50, and he's obviously really good at capoeira but it would be hard for anyone to duck low enough to avoid a kick delivered by a 7 year old who's probably two and a half feet tall. After the kids went, the more experienced adults made all the new adults go in, I didn't do very well, but I don't feel too bad about it. After the new adults, the really good people started "fighting," which was really exciting to watch. The music sped up, and I'm not sure how they avoided knocking each other's heads off sometimes, especially since a lot of them were wearing shoes. Some of the really good people started incorporating some contact into their moves, usually in capoeira you don't touch each other, but I guess sometimes people like to give their opponent a playful swat on the head or something. However, two of the guys who were getting sort of touchy with each other started to really fight, and one of them ended up with a bloody nose. The mestre broke them up, which took some doing, and then stopped the music and gave them a lecture about how capoeira does have an element of fighting, but that it's not ok to actually hurt someone, and that both of them showed a lack of respect for him as the mestre when they didn't let go of each other right away when he told them too. He also explained that they guy with the bloodied nose was a visitor, and that the guy who had done the bloodying liked to pick fights with outsiders, but that if you want to fight to injure, don't do it in the roda.
After that, some more people "fought," and then the mestre and some other guy did this really weird REALLY slow version of capoeira, and sometimes they stood up and joined hands and looked like they were doing a traditional Austrian dance or something (Austrian because I just watched the Sound of Music and it sort of reminded me of the party they have). He didn't explain that, and Bruna and Marlieke and I are going to ask Cris today what that was all about.
After the roda was done, the three of us went to Sushi Beer to meet up with Bruna's sister and some of her friends, and I had a little bit of sushi and a glass of pineapple juice with mint, which is officially my new favorite drink. It's so refreshing and unexpected, I love it. The sushi was really good too, I'd like to go back there when I'm hungrier.
Well, I've got to go, it's almost time to leave for capoeira, but I'll let you know how my trip was when I get back!
abraços,
sarah
Just wanted to let you know, those of you who have been checking here daily in hopes of news from me (which is probably no one, but we can pretend), that tonight (sep. 28) I'm going to Chapada da Diamantina, which is a national park in the interior of Bahia, I'm coming back to Belo Horizonte on October 7, I'm going to Buenos Aires October 12-16, and I'm probably going to Barbacena October 19-21 for some sort of English teacher/language thing - I don't know too many details about this one yet, but they want me because I speak American and they're going to pay for everything, so I'm stoked.
I'll try to find some time in there somewhere to post more on here, especially about how all my travels are going, so you all don't get too lonely.
Last night after Portuguese class I went with Marlieke to Bruna's house for dinner. Bruna is another capoeira student, she's Brazilian but she started capoeira at the same time as we did. She's working on her master's in Biology, and she's really friendly. At her house, we met her brother Alan, who's studying to be a judge, and her sister Tatiana, who's in her first year of residency on her way to becoming a doctor. They're a very well educated bunch, and super friendly too. Dinner was really good, it was a spanish tortilla-style thing, I'm not really sure what it had in it but I think it was even vegetarian, and a really good chocolate cake.
After dinner Bruna and Marlieke went to a capoeira academy in Savassi because every Thursday night they have a roda there, and Cris, our teacher, always encourages the people in our class to go. There were a couple of other people from our class there, and Cris, and a lot of really amazing people who study at the academy. There were also 6 or 8 kids, some of whom were not that good, but a couple of them were amazing, way better than I am and they were like 9! One of the really good kids was Cris's nephew, and the two of them "fought" and it was really cute watching them show off for each other. A lot of the kids "fought" each other, and then the mestre, who's the big cheese, "fought" with all the kids, which was funny to watch because he's probably 50, and he's obviously really good at capoeira but it would be hard for anyone to duck low enough to avoid a kick delivered by a 7 year old who's probably two and a half feet tall. After the kids went, the more experienced adults made all the new adults go in, I didn't do very well, but I don't feel too bad about it. After the new adults, the really good people started "fighting," which was really exciting to watch. The music sped up, and I'm not sure how they avoided knocking each other's heads off sometimes, especially since a lot of them were wearing shoes. Some of the really good people started incorporating some contact into their moves, usually in capoeira you don't touch each other, but I guess sometimes people like to give their opponent a playful swat on the head or something. However, two of the guys who were getting sort of touchy with each other started to really fight, and one of them ended up with a bloody nose. The mestre broke them up, which took some doing, and then stopped the music and gave them a lecture about how capoeira does have an element of fighting, but that it's not ok to actually hurt someone, and that both of them showed a lack of respect for him as the mestre when they didn't let go of each other right away when he told them too. He also explained that they guy with the bloodied nose was a visitor, and that the guy who had done the bloodying liked to pick fights with outsiders, but that if you want to fight to injure, don't do it in the roda.
After that, some more people "fought," and then the mestre and some other guy did this really weird REALLY slow version of capoeira, and sometimes they stood up and joined hands and looked like they were doing a traditional Austrian dance or something (Austrian because I just watched the Sound of Music and it sort of reminded me of the party they have). He didn't explain that, and Bruna and Marlieke and I are going to ask Cris today what that was all about.
After the roda was done, the three of us went to Sushi Beer to meet up with Bruna's sister and some of her friends, and I had a little bit of sushi and a glass of pineapple juice with mint, which is officially my new favorite drink. It's so refreshing and unexpected, I love it. The sushi was really good too, I'd like to go back there when I'm hungrier.
Well, I've got to go, it's almost time to leave for capoeira, but I'll let you know how my trip was when I get back!
abraços,
sarah
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Best day ever and futebol and presentation
Hi everyone!
I know it's been forever since I've written, but I've been busy prepping for a presentation I made today in my "Press, History, and Politics in Latin America" class. But now it's done so I can update you guys.
Friday I had my best day since I've been in Brazil - it was just really really great. I slept until 10:15, which was fun, and then I woke up, had yogurt and granola for breakfast, and went to capoeira. Last time we had a roda in capoeira I did a really bad job, but this week I did really well, considering I'm new. I felt good about it and had a lot of fun. We got out a little late, so I missed the 1:32 bus to the other side of campus close to where I live. Usually when that happens I wait for the 1:50 bus, but today I decided to try hitchhiking. Hitchhiking is really common from the entrances to campus, it's safe, and I've never seen anyone wait very long to get picked up. There were a couple of other people looking for a ride, so I went and stood by them and stuck out my thumb. Shortly thereafter, a car pulled over, and I got in, along with two other hitchers. The guy wasn't going exactly where I was going, but he dropped me off by the exact sciences building, which is pretty close. I went in there and bought some açai/orange juice, which was really good, and then continued on my way. Since then I've hitchhiked two other times, and it's really nice to not walk so much. I was nervous to do it before, but being with other people for my first time helped. After that I went back home, showered and had lunch, and then set out to go shopping. There's a bus that runs about 3 blocks from my house that I'd never taken because I didn't know where it went, but I looked it up online and it goes to Bairro Preto, which is where the clothes stores are. I'd been looking for a pair of jeans, so I decided to take myself on a little shopping trip on the close to my house bus. The bus went right where I expected it to, and the second store I went in I found a pair of jeans for 35 reais that I liked that FIT. This is a miracle, because jeans hardly ever fit - they usually gap in the back of the waist, but these fit perfectly. I tried on a couple of shirts but didn't find anything I liked. I was wandering around the neighborhood, being overwhelmed by all the stores, when a really colorful window display caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, I found out that it was AN ENTIRE STORE FULL OF BEADS! It was so pretty! Most of them were cheap and plastic, but they were really bright colors, and I spent quite a bit of time in there just enjoying the view. I didn't buy anything, but I plan to go back there to take pictures and soak up the colors again. Shortly after that store, I found one that was having a yarn sale, so I bought myself some. Then I found this weird mall that was a city block long but only two stores wide and like 5 or 6 stories tall. It kind of made me feel like I was in that double-decker bus that Harry Potter takes that can squeeze really thin to fit in between oncoming traffic - it was the narrowest mall I'd ever seen. It mostly had bead stores and fancy jewelry stores, but there was a bookstore on the second floor that was having a special on the book "O Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, who is officially my favorite Brazilian author because #1 he uses words I know #2 I like the way he writes and #3 he's the only Brazilian author I've actually read. So, I bought jeans, yarn, and a book. I was very pleased with myself. I had a little moment of panic trying to get back home because the return bus stop was on a different street and by then it was dark, but I had my map and my "Ponto a Ponto," which is a little book with some of the bus routes, and I did some sleuthing and found it, finally. When I got home I had dinner and then went to the party at the biology building with Bia, Marlieke, and Kate, who's British and who I don't hang out with that much but she's fun. The band played samba and they were really good and we danced a lot. It was just a really perfect day and I was really happy all weekend because of it. Sometimes it's easy to only focus on what goes wrong, but I try to notice the good stuff too.
Sunday I went to the futebol match between Cruzeiro and Atletico, which was crazy and loud and really fun. Cruzeiro and Atletico are both based in Belo Horizonte, and they're big rivals. People get really into their teams, and the stadium is split in two by big fences and lots of security people to keep the fans from beating each other up. I stayed safe by #1 being a girl (overzealous fans won't hurt women) #2 not wearing the colors of either team #3 sitting on the Cruzeiro side (Cruziero fans are a lot calmer and less violent than Atletico fans) #4 being with a big group which included tall, scary-looking boys and #5 not bringing anything with me I wanted to keep (no camera, only a little money, my phone concealed under my clothes). Like I said when I wrote about the Atletico game I went to last month, I don't really love futebol, but the energy of the fans is really fun, and it's especially high at classicos, as matches between Cruzeiro and Atletico are known. It was a good game, Cruzeiro won 4-3, and afterwards we went out for ice cream and then Niels and Kelib walked me home because they were nervous for my safety. Most of the fans had dispersed by then and I probably would have been fine, but it was nice to have company.
The rest of the weekend and the beginning of this week was devoted to my project. I had to read a chapter from a book, write a summary, and talk about it in front of the class. The reading wasn't too bad, it was in Spanish and it was describing really complicated political alliances, but I think I understood most of it. The writeup was a little tricky because I was trying to quote and synthesize the reading, but I was writing in Portuguese and translating stuff into English in my head, but I got it done. Talking in class today was hard, I was nervous and kept trying to say things I didn't know how to say, but the professor was very helpful, and when I went to turn in my writeup after class she said I'd done a good job speaking and that it seemed like I'd understood the reading. She was nervous because it was complicated and in Spanish, but she said I did just fine. I don't feel like I did that well, but it's her opinion that counts, so that's good.
Today I asked the professor for Brazilian Anthropology how we were going to be evaluated, and she told me that we were going to have a seminar at the end of October and a final paper at the end. The seminar is apparently going to be group presentations, which sounds pretty good to me because the Brazilian students can help me out, and the final paper is going to be comparing a couple of the readings we've done in class, so that doesn't sound too bad. I'm really glad it's not a cumulative final test, because I still have a really hard time paying attention to her the entire class - she's really monotone and her train of thought is sort of hard to follow sometimes. And she has really small hands, which is distracting.
We got our project proposals back in Art and Society in Brazil, and the professor liked the sound of mine, thankfully. I don't think it should be too hard to find information, and it's a topic that interests me, so I'm looking forward to it.
Portuguese is going well, right now we're reviewing the present subjunctive, but we also spend a lot of time on fun stuff, like colloquial expressions, slang, songs, and brazilian culture stuff.
My environmental class is a little odd - we have a new professor every week, but they mostly say the same thing over and over again. It's fun always having someone new, and most of them seem knowledgeable, but I'm a little nervous about the midterm we have in a couple of weeks. I'm going to email the guy whose name is on the syllabus to ask him about it tomorrow.
Want to know something interesting? The week break I have the third week in October has been changed to the first week of October. I already have plane tickets to Buenos Aires for a good chunk of the third week, so I guess I'll be missing class, but now that means I get to plan something for the first week. I think I'm going to try to get a group together to take the train to Vitória, which is a little beach town that I don't think is that special, but the train ride is supposed to be beautiful.
That's all for now, folks, it's midnight and I have class at 7:30AM, but I'll write more later! Until then, keep on keeping on...
I know it's been forever since I've written, but I've been busy prepping for a presentation I made today in my "Press, History, and Politics in Latin America" class. But now it's done so I can update you guys.
Friday I had my best day since I've been in Brazil - it was just really really great. I slept until 10:15, which was fun, and then I woke up, had yogurt and granola for breakfast, and went to capoeira. Last time we had a roda in capoeira I did a really bad job, but this week I did really well, considering I'm new. I felt good about it and had a lot of fun. We got out a little late, so I missed the 1:32 bus to the other side of campus close to where I live. Usually when that happens I wait for the 1:50 bus, but today I decided to try hitchhiking. Hitchhiking is really common from the entrances to campus, it's safe, and I've never seen anyone wait very long to get picked up. There were a couple of other people looking for a ride, so I went and stood by them and stuck out my thumb. Shortly thereafter, a car pulled over, and I got in, along with two other hitchers. The guy wasn't going exactly where I was going, but he dropped me off by the exact sciences building, which is pretty close. I went in there and bought some açai/orange juice, which was really good, and then continued on my way. Since then I've hitchhiked two other times, and it's really nice to not walk so much. I was nervous to do it before, but being with other people for my first time helped. After that I went back home, showered and had lunch, and then set out to go shopping. There's a bus that runs about 3 blocks from my house that I'd never taken because I didn't know where it went, but I looked it up online and it goes to Bairro Preto, which is where the clothes stores are. I'd been looking for a pair of jeans, so I decided to take myself on a little shopping trip on the close to my house bus. The bus went right where I expected it to, and the second store I went in I found a pair of jeans for 35 reais that I liked that FIT. This is a miracle, because jeans hardly ever fit - they usually gap in the back of the waist, but these fit perfectly. I tried on a couple of shirts but didn't find anything I liked. I was wandering around the neighborhood, being overwhelmed by all the stores, when a really colorful window display caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, I found out that it was AN ENTIRE STORE FULL OF BEADS! It was so pretty! Most of them were cheap and plastic, but they were really bright colors, and I spent quite a bit of time in there just enjoying the view. I didn't buy anything, but I plan to go back there to take pictures and soak up the colors again. Shortly after that store, I found one that was having a yarn sale, so I bought myself some. Then I found this weird mall that was a city block long but only two stores wide and like 5 or 6 stories tall. It kind of made me feel like I was in that double-decker bus that Harry Potter takes that can squeeze really thin to fit in between oncoming traffic - it was the narrowest mall I'd ever seen. It mostly had bead stores and fancy jewelry stores, but there was a bookstore on the second floor that was having a special on the book "O Zahir" by Paulo Coelho, who is officially my favorite Brazilian author because #1 he uses words I know #2 I like the way he writes and #3 he's the only Brazilian author I've actually read. So, I bought jeans, yarn, and a book. I was very pleased with myself. I had a little moment of panic trying to get back home because the return bus stop was on a different street and by then it was dark, but I had my map and my "Ponto a Ponto," which is a little book with some of the bus routes, and I did some sleuthing and found it, finally. When I got home I had dinner and then went to the party at the biology building with Bia, Marlieke, and Kate, who's British and who I don't hang out with that much but she's fun. The band played samba and they were really good and we danced a lot. It was just a really perfect day and I was really happy all weekend because of it. Sometimes it's easy to only focus on what goes wrong, but I try to notice the good stuff too.
Sunday I went to the futebol match between Cruzeiro and Atletico, which was crazy and loud and really fun. Cruzeiro and Atletico are both based in Belo Horizonte, and they're big rivals. People get really into their teams, and the stadium is split in two by big fences and lots of security people to keep the fans from beating each other up. I stayed safe by #1 being a girl (overzealous fans won't hurt women) #2 not wearing the colors of either team #3 sitting on the Cruzeiro side (Cruziero fans are a lot calmer and less violent than Atletico fans) #4 being with a big group which included tall, scary-looking boys and #5 not bringing anything with me I wanted to keep (no camera, only a little money, my phone concealed under my clothes). Like I said when I wrote about the Atletico game I went to last month, I don't really love futebol, but the energy of the fans is really fun, and it's especially high at classicos, as matches between Cruzeiro and Atletico are known. It was a good game, Cruzeiro won 4-3, and afterwards we went out for ice cream and then Niels and Kelib walked me home because they were nervous for my safety. Most of the fans had dispersed by then and I probably would have been fine, but it was nice to have company.
The rest of the weekend and the beginning of this week was devoted to my project. I had to read a chapter from a book, write a summary, and talk about it in front of the class. The reading wasn't too bad, it was in Spanish and it was describing really complicated political alliances, but I think I understood most of it. The writeup was a little tricky because I was trying to quote and synthesize the reading, but I was writing in Portuguese and translating stuff into English in my head, but I got it done. Talking in class today was hard, I was nervous and kept trying to say things I didn't know how to say, but the professor was very helpful, and when I went to turn in my writeup after class she said I'd done a good job speaking and that it seemed like I'd understood the reading. She was nervous because it was complicated and in Spanish, but she said I did just fine. I don't feel like I did that well, but it's her opinion that counts, so that's good.
Today I asked the professor for Brazilian Anthropology how we were going to be evaluated, and she told me that we were going to have a seminar at the end of October and a final paper at the end. The seminar is apparently going to be group presentations, which sounds pretty good to me because the Brazilian students can help me out, and the final paper is going to be comparing a couple of the readings we've done in class, so that doesn't sound too bad. I'm really glad it's not a cumulative final test, because I still have a really hard time paying attention to her the entire class - she's really monotone and her train of thought is sort of hard to follow sometimes. And she has really small hands, which is distracting.
We got our project proposals back in Art and Society in Brazil, and the professor liked the sound of mine, thankfully. I don't think it should be too hard to find information, and it's a topic that interests me, so I'm looking forward to it.
Portuguese is going well, right now we're reviewing the present subjunctive, but we also spend a lot of time on fun stuff, like colloquial expressions, slang, songs, and brazilian culture stuff.
My environmental class is a little odd - we have a new professor every week, but they mostly say the same thing over and over again. It's fun always having someone new, and most of them seem knowledgeable, but I'm a little nervous about the midterm we have in a couple of weeks. I'm going to email the guy whose name is on the syllabus to ask him about it tomorrow.
Want to know something interesting? The week break I have the third week in October has been changed to the first week of October. I already have plane tickets to Buenos Aires for a good chunk of the third week, so I guess I'll be missing class, but now that means I get to plan something for the first week. I think I'm going to try to get a group together to take the train to Vitória, which is a little beach town that I don't think is that special, but the train ride is supposed to be beautiful.
That's all for now, folks, it's midnight and I have class at 7:30AM, but I'll write more later! Until then, keep on keeping on...
Monday, September 10, 2007
Weekend of Joy in Niterói
Hi friends!
I never know what to say at the beginning of my blog entries, so I’ll just jump right in. For my Art and Society in Brazil class I have to do a research project, which I think is what my entire grade is based on (yikes!), and the proposal for it is due on Tuesday. I’ve written it and started doing some preliminary research, but it’s hard because, just like we don’t get syllabi, we also don’t get guidelines for the paper. I have no idea how long she wants it to be, how many sources we’re supposed to consult, what sort of format we’re supposed to use - the only guidance we’ve gotten so far is that we’re supposed to write about something that combines, surprisingly enough, art and society in Brazil. I’m going to do something about tropicalia, which was a musical movement in the late 1960’s in Brazil that combined elements of a lot of different cultures and musical styles, and also criticized the military dictatorship that was in power at the time. My thesis is going to be something about the effect that the music had on the popular perception of the government - the professor said that we didn’t have to have anything set in stone yet, just an idea and then she’d help guide us, so I hope she does that.
So, something exciting has happened in capoeira - since the beginning I (along with all the other new people) have been spending the class practicing different kicks and ducks in front of a school desk, which acts as a fake opponent and gives us something to make sure we kick over. Last class, however, Marlieke and I graduated from the desks and were instructed to start practicing with each other! It’s very exciting because every Friday we actually do capoeira, where people take turns going in the middle and “fighting,” and last week I was really horrible when I went in the middle, partially I think because I was trying to do all the stuff I knew, but had only ever done it with a desk. Now that I’ve started practicing with a real person, I’m hoping I’ll be more comfortable on Fridays and do a better job.
Something I still need to practice a lot is cartwheels - they’re a basic capoeira move, and I can’t do them. For now I’m doing really dumb-looking frog-jump things, and it’s embarrassing. I think they’ll be like riding a bike - once I do it successfully the first time I’ll be able to repeat it, but I have to get that first time. I’ve never been very comfortable upside down, but I’m trying.
Tuesday was JoBren’s 21st birthday, so a bunch of us (23, to be exact) went out to dinner to celebrate at TGI Friday’s in Savassi, which is the chique part of Belo Horizonte. When we got there, the waitress greeted us in English, which was odd at first, but it makes sense, I guess. If there were American tourists in Belo who didn’t speak Portuguese, they might flock to familiar American restaurants, so it makes good business sense for the staff to have a grasp of English to make them feel at home. Another odd thing was that on the menu, the names of the foods were in English, like Beef Fajitas and Onion Rings, but the descriptions were in Portuguese. I had a quesadilla, which was really good, and to drink I had an Electric Lemonade, because it was blue and looked pretty in the picture - however, when it came out, it was about the size of a bread bowl like clam chowder comes in! It was the biggest drink I’ve ever had in a restaurant in my life! When I was exclaiming over the size of it, Niels said that he thought all drinks in the US were huge. I told him about the Super Big Gulp at 7-11, which is about half a gallon, I think, but in restaurants the drinks are usually not that big. Something interesting he told me that was that in McDonald’s in Holland, a super-size drink is approximately the size of a medium drink in the US. Not that I was doubting it, but this just goes to show that the US is certainly the land of the big and excessive, at least where portions are concerned (and cars, and houses, and military spending...).
Friday was Brazilian Independence Day, which means that it was a holiday from work and school, but that’s about all it means. Bia explained that no one really celebrates it because Brazilian independence wasn’t something they fought for - the king of Portugal gave the country to his son and said, “OK, now you’re the king and this is an independent country.” It wasn’t a big deal, like it was in the US. Apparently there are demonstrations in some cities, where the military gets all gussied up and marches around, but they’re not that well attended. What this meant for me was that we took a family vacation to Niterói, where all of Claudia’s family is from and where most of them still live.
We were supposed to leave on Thursday at 1PM - Bia was going to work in the morning, come home and eat lunch, and then we were going to go. Zé and Claudia and Carolina had gone to São Paulo on Wednesday because of a business meeting, and Bia and I were going to travel with her uncle, aunt, and a colleague from work (Zé and Claudia jointly own the Castrol in Belo Horizonte, and Bia’s being groomed to take over someday). I went to class in the morning and then came home and didn’t go to capoeira so that we could leave on time (capoeira goes from 12-1:30). In true Brazilian fashion, we left promptly at 3.
The drive to Rio was not great - there was traffic the whole way, it was hot, and Bea and her aunt and I were squished in a backseat that was built to be comfortable for two skinny people. Brazilian highway driving is a real treat - as Valentina, my Korean friend, would say, I felt the terror of death. Just to give you a little taste, we passed several semis on two lane, double yellow line down the middle roads, we passed people around blind curves, and when there wasn’t traffic we went about 130km/h. I don’t know how fast that is in miles per hour, but it felt fast to me. There was a section of road with a lot of rolling hills that were dotted with mounds of something - I asked Bia what they were, and she said they were termite hills. They were huge and numerous and I don’t think I’d like to meet the bugs that built them, especially not in a dark alley.
We got to Tia Dede’s apartment at about 10:30, had some soup, and went to bed. Tia Dede is probably about 80 years old and has lived in her apartment for 50 years. She’s actually technically Claudia’s aunt, but Bia calls her aunt (tia) too. She seemed like a nice person - she smelled a little odd and I practically had to hold onto my plate while I was eating to keep her from clearing it (she noticed that I hadn’t put anything in my cup after having been eating for about 2 minutes and almost had it in the cupboard before Bia stopped her, which I was happy about because I was in fact thirsty). She was a little nit-picky and wouldn’t let me do a thing in the kitchen (I tried to clear my own plate but she would have none of that). She wasn’t my favorite of the aunts, but she was nice and I’m not going to complain about free room and board. Bia slept in an extra bed in Tia Dede’s room, and I slept in the living room on a foam mat thing, which was more comfortable than it sounds. What was not comfortable, however, was the temperature and the bug situation. It was hot hot hot, I took a quick shower and didn’t even mind that I couldn’t figure out how to work the hot water. There were also a lot of mosquitos - I got nine bites that night, and more later on. After I drenched my bed and body with Off and rolled up my pj pant legs and opened the window and repositioned my bed to maximize the breeze, I slept pretty well. I can’t figure out why, but traveling really wears me out - you’d think that sitting down all day would be relaxing, but I’m always tired after a long trip.
Friday I woke up, took another cold shower, had some breakfast, and then Bia and I walked over to Tia Didi’s house to meet up with Helena, the middle sister in Bia’s family who lives in Niterói with Tia Didi and was going to be our driver for the weekend. We went to pick up Raquelzinha, who’s 18 but looks about 13 and is Bia’s cousin (as is pretty much everyone else in Niterói - everywhere we went I met some more of Bia’s cousins). The four of us went first to the Parque da Cidade, which was really pretty. It was pretty much a big hill (I felt the terror of death around the blind curves again), and the view from the top was gorgeous, we could see most of Niterói and quite a bit of Rio too. There were a couple of different people offering hangliding excursions from the top, Helena sort of wanted to go but then decided against it. Getting up high and looking at stuff is one of my favorite things to do (like at Twin Peaks or Telegraph Hill in San Francisco), and Parque da Cidade didn’t disappoint.
After that, we spent the middle of the day at Praia da Piritininga, which was a really nice beach, still in Niterói. For those of you who don’t know (I didn’t) Niterói is on a peninsula across the bay from Rio - it is to Rio what San Francisco is to Berkeley, except in this case the Berkeley is the more famous, big city one. We met up with Raquelzinha’s mom and dad (Bia’s actual aunt and uncle) on the beach, and then Bia and I, who were the only ones in beach wear, went for a walk along the shore. It was so so so pretty, but my camera ran out of batteries so I wasn’t able to take any pictures. There were a lot of people there, probably because it was a nice day and no one had work or school because it was a holiday. The thing about the beaches in Brazil is that all the women, and I mean ALL of them, wear teeny tiny bikinis. There aren’t that many people in actual thong bottoms, but the back of the bottoms look about the same as the fronts - I think you could put your swimsuit on backwards and not even notice. There were a lot of really adorable little kids, and some pretty adorable twenty-somethings playing futebol too.
After the beach, we went back to Tia Dede’s house for lunch, which was good - rice, black beans, broccoli, beets, and green olives which I don’t like but Bia loves. Bia and I both showered, and then Bia took a quick power nap before we headed out to the MAC, or Museu de Arte Contemporáneo. Be sure to look at my pictures, it’s one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen. It looks like a flying saucer/stylized flower, and there’s a really nice view of the beach and Cristo Redentor and Pão de Açucar from it because it’s up on a hill. We decided to take a look around inside (it was only 2 reais for students, and they accepted my USF ID, which I was a little surprised about, but they also accepted the card Bia uses to get into the campus sports center, which is not her student ID, so I guess they weren’t feeling to strict about it. It was one of the smaller museums I’ve been in, but the novelty of the building was cool, and the art was neat too - there was an exhibit from the US about racism and inequality, and a section that I think schoolkids had something to do with, and a section of photography taken in Rio, Havana, and Florence. Apparently in Brazil, at least in this museum, you’re allowed to take pictures of the art, so I did, just for the heck of it. By the time we left there it was dark, but it was only like 7pm and we were in a really nice section of Niterói so walking to Tia Didi’s apartment wasn’t a problem.
We went to her place and not back to Tia Dede’s because apparently every weekend, a different aunt hosts a big family dinner, and whoever’s in town goes. It was really fun, I got to meet some more aunts, and by that time Claudia and Zé and Carolina had arrived from São Paulo, and it was good to see them too. I didn’t realize it until I saw them all again, but I really did miss them, and it felt like reuniting with actual family members. Dinner was simple, hamburgers (or cheese sandwich, in my case), but we had delicious cookies and ice cream afterwards. Hanging out with all of them really made me glad that I chose to live with a family - had I moved into an apartment with other students, there’s no way I would have gotten to travel to Niterói and have family dinner and see the city with a local. I don’t remember everybody’s names, and I probably didn’t understand everything that was said, but it was really nice and I feel like I got to see a part of Brazilian culture that not a lot of tourists do.
Friday night Bia and I slept at Raquelzinha’s house because Friday night we went to a party with her - it could have been fun, except it was really dark and it was all high schoolers (Bia complained that we were there changing diapers), and at midnight they ran out of water, which was what we were all drinking because Raquelzinha doesn’t drink and Bia and I don’t like beer (which they ran out of at 1:30). The music was techno, which I don’t like, and aside from some more cousins we didn’t know anyone there - let’s just say that by the end of the night Bia and I were playing Uno, and that was the highlight of the party.
We woke up sort of late on Saturday and had a leisurely breakfast. I would have preferred to leave earlier, because Saturday was Rio day, but it would have been sort of rude to grab a banana and run. Raquelzinha’s whole house smelled like dog (they have 3), which I really liked - dog smell is comforting and homey to me. One of her dogs (again, look at the pictures) was pretty much the fattest thing I’ve ever seen. It was the height of Jack Russel Terrier, but the girth of a well fed Golden Retriever - it’s nickname was footstool, and rightly so.
After that, we went back to Tia Didi’s apartment to meet up with her, Zé, Claudia, Helena, and Carolina for lunch. We went to a really delicious per kilo place down the street, and looking back on it, I realize that this was the only day since I’ve been in Brazil that I haven’t eaten rice and beans at least once. The food was good, but dessert gave me a little trouble - there was a choice between a plop of caramel stuff or a plop of pumpkin stuff, and I chose the pumpkin. Trouble is, it tasted exactly like pumpkin pie filling, and I immediately got a really strong wave of homesickness. It was delicious, pumpkin pie is my favorite Thanksgiving food (aside from stuffing, and mashed potatoes, and chocolate pie, and green bean casserole, and sweet potato casserole...) but it made me sad. I composed myself though, I don’t think anyone noticed, and then we headed off to Rio.
We went to Cristo Redentor first, which was cool and had another nice view, this time of most of Rio and part of Niterói. I bought some postcards from a little store on the way up that I meant to send, but I don’t think I actually will - they’re really pretty, and I think I’m going to put them on my wall instead. So, for those of you who were wishing for a postcard (mom) it’s not going to happen, at least not yet. I bought postcards in Ouro Preto too, but those are also being used as room decorations. Too bad for you guys.
After Cristo we went to Copacabana to try to find the 10 foreigners who were apparently somewhere on the beach (Niels, Jess, Barbara, Anika, Selina, Tom, Tiffany, JoBren, Jennine, and Lourdes). No one was answering their cell phones, and Copacabana is pretty big, so we didn’t really expect to find them, and decided to just take a little stroll in the sand. We hadn’t gone far when we noticed, like a beacon in the night, a tall blond guy about 50 yards away. Now, had we been in the northern hemisphere, a tall blond guy might not have stood out so much, but amongst all the bronze cariocas (that’s what people from Rio are called) Niels stuck out like a very useful sore thumb. We trotted over and said hello, and then met up with most of the rest of the group, who were a little ways down the beach. We didn’t stay long, it was getting dark and they didn’t have any set plans for the evening, but it was fun to see them for a little while. After that we drove by Ipanema, just so I could see it, took a little tour of the Ipanema neighborhood (super cute!) and then went back to Niterói, this time to Tia Norma’s house for dinner.
The dinner food was the same as at Tia Didi’s house (in fact, some of it may have been the same), but it was good again, and we spent a good three hours after dinner just sitting around talking. One of the topics of discussion was who in the family was fattest, which I thought was kind of odd. I know that some families talk about weight a lot, but mine isn’t one of them. I think I may have made a bit of a faux pax - they were discussing someone who was really fat, and asked my opinion - I asked them to repeat who it was, and they said something about Raquelzinha - I assumed it was the dog, and replied, “Yeah, super fat!” Then they said, “And that dog is big too!” Turns out who they’d consulted me on was, in fact, her father. He is big, but had I known we were talking about him I wouldn’t have been so enthusiastic in my affirmation. Oh well, I guess that’s what I get for pretending to understand when I don’t, exactly. We took a family photo (which is in my photo album, with everyone’s names so you can see how they look), and then headed back to Tia Dede’s apartment for the last night.
I was told that we were going to leave at 9AM on Sunday, so I set my alarm for 9 and figured I’d be fine. Turns out that Bia’s parents are a lot more punctual than she is - Bia knocked on my door at 8:30 and said that her dad had called her and they were awake and having breakfast, and that we should do the same. I had wanted to shower, but there wasn’t time, so we had a hurried breakfast, packed our stuff, and headed out. The ride back was a lot more comfortable - Zé drives an SUV thing, so there was plenty of room in the backseat, even though there were three of us, and he is a lot safer of a driver. We stopped at a German bakery outside of Petrópolis, which is where Zé grew up, and had croquetes, which were really good. We stopped for lunch at Rosalanche, which is the Brazilian equivalent of Casa de Fruta. It’s not as big (there is, unfortunately, no Rosa de Choo-Choo or Rosa de Sweets), but it’s a big rest stop/restaurant/flower nursery/artisanal crafts store that Zé has been stopping at for 25 years, he said. We had a simple lunch (rice and beans re-entered my diet), and then went along our way. I didn’t sleep, I don’t think, but I rested my eyes a lot and was surprised upon opening them to find that we were back in Belo Horizonte.
Looking back on it, Rio was everything and nothing I’d expected. I hadn’t expected bugs or heat, and not all of the city is beautiful beachfront. I think I’d built it up so much in my mind that when I figured out that Rio was actually a city, with graffiti and traffic and elementary schools, it was sort of a let down from the perfect beachy dream I’d been imagining. That said, there was certainly a feeling of magic in actually being at Cristo Redentor, Copacabana, and Ipanema - they’re so famous, and I was actually there. I had a really good time, and I’m glad that my first time there was in a family situation, but I’d really like to go back with a group of friends and stay in Rio so that I can do some nightlife stuff and some shopping and see more of the city - an afternoon wasn’t enough.
I’m also really starting to feel like a part of my host family - not that I didn’t before, but I think traveling together strengthens bonds and makes them more obvious. I look a lot like them - curly hair and glasses - and when Raquelzinha saw me she thought I was Carolina, as did one of the other cousins. I don’t look exactly like any of them, and I have a different body type, but I don’t stick out like Niels on Copacabana. Another thing that really made me feel included was that on the road, I didn’t pay for my own food. It seems petty and shallow to care about something like who pays for lunch, but I felt like just another daughter - Zé paid for all of us, and there was never even a question of me paying for my own. When I go out to eat with my biological family someone else always pays, and that made me feel like part of their family. It was really nice, especially after the pumpkin dessert homesickness.
Okay, cultural difference time! I don’t know if it’s just Bia’s extended family or all of Brazil, but everyone here seems really into “tomando remédios,” or taking medicine. Every house had a medicine cabinet that rivals the prescription section at Long’s, and I have to admit that I brought a lot of medicine with me and we have quite a collection at my house - the difference here, though, is that people actually use what they’ve got. I took some Dramamine and I’ve used my eyedrops a couple of times, but aside from that, I’ve been medicine-free in Brazil. In contrast, everyone here seems to take one pill or another, or some drops of something, almost every day.
Another difference is the shoe in the house situation. Again, I can’t speak for everyone in either the US or Brazil, but in my house in the US no one ever wears shoes, and I’m barefoot whenever I have the opportunity. In my house here, on the other hand, everyone wears shoes all the time, and Claudia told me that she sometimes wears flip-flops in the shower to avoid touching the floor with her bare feet. My ear was hurting last week, and she was convinced that it was because I walked around barefoot. Funny sidenote - the word for barefoot is descalça, and pants are called calças, so I thought she thought I was sick because I walked around without any pants on, which I don’t... luckily, I asked for clarification, and we had a good little chuckle about it.
The chocolate syrup here is translucent. Brown, but translucent. It makes me nervous and I avoid it, if I can.
I don’t leave the house anymore until 7:15 or 9:15 (depending on the day), because even though it takes me half an hour to get to class, which starts at either 7:30 or 9:30, they never ever start on time and today was the first day I arrived after the professor, who got to class about a minute and half before I did.
Yesterday I had my first Brazilian soy burger, and it wasn’t bad! It was a little hard to taste because it was about the size of a McDonald’s hamburger patty, which, last time I checked, were almost nonexistent, but with french bread and ketchup and mustard it went down just fine.
If you find yourself abroad and really want to order something online, you can do it through www.thehungersite.com - I ordered some recycled sari yarn for Claudia from there because she was coveting mine, and it came today! It took about a month, but it arrived, which was a pleasant surprise. I haven’t given it to her yet, she was leaving right as the mail came, but I think she’ll like it.
Até mais!
I never know what to say at the beginning of my blog entries, so I’ll just jump right in. For my Art and Society in Brazil class I have to do a research project, which I think is what my entire grade is based on (yikes!), and the proposal for it is due on Tuesday. I’ve written it and started doing some preliminary research, but it’s hard because, just like we don’t get syllabi, we also don’t get guidelines for the paper. I have no idea how long she wants it to be, how many sources we’re supposed to consult, what sort of format we’re supposed to use - the only guidance we’ve gotten so far is that we’re supposed to write about something that combines, surprisingly enough, art and society in Brazil. I’m going to do something about tropicalia, which was a musical movement in the late 1960’s in Brazil that combined elements of a lot of different cultures and musical styles, and also criticized the military dictatorship that was in power at the time. My thesis is going to be something about the effect that the music had on the popular perception of the government - the professor said that we didn’t have to have anything set in stone yet, just an idea and then she’d help guide us, so I hope she does that.
So, something exciting has happened in capoeira - since the beginning I (along with all the other new people) have been spending the class practicing different kicks and ducks in front of a school desk, which acts as a fake opponent and gives us something to make sure we kick over. Last class, however, Marlieke and I graduated from the desks and were instructed to start practicing with each other! It’s very exciting because every Friday we actually do capoeira, where people take turns going in the middle and “fighting,” and last week I was really horrible when I went in the middle, partially I think because I was trying to do all the stuff I knew, but had only ever done it with a desk. Now that I’ve started practicing with a real person, I’m hoping I’ll be more comfortable on Fridays and do a better job.
Something I still need to practice a lot is cartwheels - they’re a basic capoeira move, and I can’t do them. For now I’m doing really dumb-looking frog-jump things, and it’s embarrassing. I think they’ll be like riding a bike - once I do it successfully the first time I’ll be able to repeat it, but I have to get that first time. I’ve never been very comfortable upside down, but I’m trying.
Tuesday was JoBren’s 21st birthday, so a bunch of us (23, to be exact) went out to dinner to celebrate at TGI Friday’s in Savassi, which is the chique part of Belo Horizonte. When we got there, the waitress greeted us in English, which was odd at first, but it makes sense, I guess. If there were American tourists in Belo who didn’t speak Portuguese, they might flock to familiar American restaurants, so it makes good business sense for the staff to have a grasp of English to make them feel at home. Another odd thing was that on the menu, the names of the foods were in English, like Beef Fajitas and Onion Rings, but the descriptions were in Portuguese. I had a quesadilla, which was really good, and to drink I had an Electric Lemonade, because it was blue and looked pretty in the picture - however, when it came out, it was about the size of a bread bowl like clam chowder comes in! It was the biggest drink I’ve ever had in a restaurant in my life! When I was exclaiming over the size of it, Niels said that he thought all drinks in the US were huge. I told him about the Super Big Gulp at 7-11, which is about half a gallon, I think, but in restaurants the drinks are usually not that big. Something interesting he told me that was that in McDonald’s in Holland, a super-size drink is approximately the size of a medium drink in the US. Not that I was doubting it, but this just goes to show that the US is certainly the land of the big and excessive, at least where portions are concerned (and cars, and houses, and military spending...).
Friday was Brazilian Independence Day, which means that it was a holiday from work and school, but that’s about all it means. Bia explained that no one really celebrates it because Brazilian independence wasn’t something they fought for - the king of Portugal gave the country to his son and said, “OK, now you’re the king and this is an independent country.” It wasn’t a big deal, like it was in the US. Apparently there are demonstrations in some cities, where the military gets all gussied up and marches around, but they’re not that well attended. What this meant for me was that we took a family vacation to Niterói, where all of Claudia’s family is from and where most of them still live.
We were supposed to leave on Thursday at 1PM - Bia was going to work in the morning, come home and eat lunch, and then we were going to go. Zé and Claudia and Carolina had gone to São Paulo on Wednesday because of a business meeting, and Bia and I were going to travel with her uncle, aunt, and a colleague from work (Zé and Claudia jointly own the Castrol in Belo Horizonte, and Bia’s being groomed to take over someday). I went to class in the morning and then came home and didn’t go to capoeira so that we could leave on time (capoeira goes from 12-1:30). In true Brazilian fashion, we left promptly at 3.
The drive to Rio was not great - there was traffic the whole way, it was hot, and Bea and her aunt and I were squished in a backseat that was built to be comfortable for two skinny people. Brazilian highway driving is a real treat - as Valentina, my Korean friend, would say, I felt the terror of death. Just to give you a little taste, we passed several semis on two lane, double yellow line down the middle roads, we passed people around blind curves, and when there wasn’t traffic we went about 130km/h. I don’t know how fast that is in miles per hour, but it felt fast to me. There was a section of road with a lot of rolling hills that were dotted with mounds of something - I asked Bia what they were, and she said they were termite hills. They were huge and numerous and I don’t think I’d like to meet the bugs that built them, especially not in a dark alley.
We got to Tia Dede’s apartment at about 10:30, had some soup, and went to bed. Tia Dede is probably about 80 years old and has lived in her apartment for 50 years. She’s actually technically Claudia’s aunt, but Bia calls her aunt (tia) too. She seemed like a nice person - she smelled a little odd and I practically had to hold onto my plate while I was eating to keep her from clearing it (she noticed that I hadn’t put anything in my cup after having been eating for about 2 minutes and almost had it in the cupboard before Bia stopped her, which I was happy about because I was in fact thirsty). She was a little nit-picky and wouldn’t let me do a thing in the kitchen (I tried to clear my own plate but she would have none of that). She wasn’t my favorite of the aunts, but she was nice and I’m not going to complain about free room and board. Bia slept in an extra bed in Tia Dede’s room, and I slept in the living room on a foam mat thing, which was more comfortable than it sounds. What was not comfortable, however, was the temperature and the bug situation. It was hot hot hot, I took a quick shower and didn’t even mind that I couldn’t figure out how to work the hot water. There were also a lot of mosquitos - I got nine bites that night, and more later on. After I drenched my bed and body with Off and rolled up my pj pant legs and opened the window and repositioned my bed to maximize the breeze, I slept pretty well. I can’t figure out why, but traveling really wears me out - you’d think that sitting down all day would be relaxing, but I’m always tired after a long trip.
Friday I woke up, took another cold shower, had some breakfast, and then Bia and I walked over to Tia Didi’s house to meet up with Helena, the middle sister in Bia’s family who lives in Niterói with Tia Didi and was going to be our driver for the weekend. We went to pick up Raquelzinha, who’s 18 but looks about 13 and is Bia’s cousin (as is pretty much everyone else in Niterói - everywhere we went I met some more of Bia’s cousins). The four of us went first to the Parque da Cidade, which was really pretty. It was pretty much a big hill (I felt the terror of death around the blind curves again), and the view from the top was gorgeous, we could see most of Niterói and quite a bit of Rio too. There were a couple of different people offering hangliding excursions from the top, Helena sort of wanted to go but then decided against it. Getting up high and looking at stuff is one of my favorite things to do (like at Twin Peaks or Telegraph Hill in San Francisco), and Parque da Cidade didn’t disappoint.
After that, we spent the middle of the day at Praia da Piritininga, which was a really nice beach, still in Niterói. For those of you who don’t know (I didn’t) Niterói is on a peninsula across the bay from Rio - it is to Rio what San Francisco is to Berkeley, except in this case the Berkeley is the more famous, big city one. We met up with Raquelzinha’s mom and dad (Bia’s actual aunt and uncle) on the beach, and then Bia and I, who were the only ones in beach wear, went for a walk along the shore. It was so so so pretty, but my camera ran out of batteries so I wasn’t able to take any pictures. There were a lot of people there, probably because it was a nice day and no one had work or school because it was a holiday. The thing about the beaches in Brazil is that all the women, and I mean ALL of them, wear teeny tiny bikinis. There aren’t that many people in actual thong bottoms, but the back of the bottoms look about the same as the fronts - I think you could put your swimsuit on backwards and not even notice. There were a lot of really adorable little kids, and some pretty adorable twenty-somethings playing futebol too.
After the beach, we went back to Tia Dede’s house for lunch, which was good - rice, black beans, broccoli, beets, and green olives which I don’t like but Bia loves. Bia and I both showered, and then Bia took a quick power nap before we headed out to the MAC, or Museu de Arte Contemporáneo. Be sure to look at my pictures, it’s one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen. It looks like a flying saucer/stylized flower, and there’s a really nice view of the beach and Cristo Redentor and Pão de Açucar from it because it’s up on a hill. We decided to take a look around inside (it was only 2 reais for students, and they accepted my USF ID, which I was a little surprised about, but they also accepted the card Bia uses to get into the campus sports center, which is not her student ID, so I guess they weren’t feeling to strict about it. It was one of the smaller museums I’ve been in, but the novelty of the building was cool, and the art was neat too - there was an exhibit from the US about racism and inequality, and a section that I think schoolkids had something to do with, and a section of photography taken in Rio, Havana, and Florence. Apparently in Brazil, at least in this museum, you’re allowed to take pictures of the art, so I did, just for the heck of it. By the time we left there it was dark, but it was only like 7pm and we were in a really nice section of Niterói so walking to Tia Didi’s apartment wasn’t a problem.
We went to her place and not back to Tia Dede’s because apparently every weekend, a different aunt hosts a big family dinner, and whoever’s in town goes. It was really fun, I got to meet some more aunts, and by that time Claudia and Zé and Carolina had arrived from São Paulo, and it was good to see them too. I didn’t realize it until I saw them all again, but I really did miss them, and it felt like reuniting with actual family members. Dinner was simple, hamburgers (or cheese sandwich, in my case), but we had delicious cookies and ice cream afterwards. Hanging out with all of them really made me glad that I chose to live with a family - had I moved into an apartment with other students, there’s no way I would have gotten to travel to Niterói and have family dinner and see the city with a local. I don’t remember everybody’s names, and I probably didn’t understand everything that was said, but it was really nice and I feel like I got to see a part of Brazilian culture that not a lot of tourists do.
Friday night Bia and I slept at Raquelzinha’s house because Friday night we went to a party with her - it could have been fun, except it was really dark and it was all high schoolers (Bia complained that we were there changing diapers), and at midnight they ran out of water, which was what we were all drinking because Raquelzinha doesn’t drink and Bia and I don’t like beer (which they ran out of at 1:30). The music was techno, which I don’t like, and aside from some more cousins we didn’t know anyone there - let’s just say that by the end of the night Bia and I were playing Uno, and that was the highlight of the party.
We woke up sort of late on Saturday and had a leisurely breakfast. I would have preferred to leave earlier, because Saturday was Rio day, but it would have been sort of rude to grab a banana and run. Raquelzinha’s whole house smelled like dog (they have 3), which I really liked - dog smell is comforting and homey to me. One of her dogs (again, look at the pictures) was pretty much the fattest thing I’ve ever seen. It was the height of Jack Russel Terrier, but the girth of a well fed Golden Retriever - it’s nickname was footstool, and rightly so.
After that, we went back to Tia Didi’s apartment to meet up with her, Zé, Claudia, Helena, and Carolina for lunch. We went to a really delicious per kilo place down the street, and looking back on it, I realize that this was the only day since I’ve been in Brazil that I haven’t eaten rice and beans at least once. The food was good, but dessert gave me a little trouble - there was a choice between a plop of caramel stuff or a plop of pumpkin stuff, and I chose the pumpkin. Trouble is, it tasted exactly like pumpkin pie filling, and I immediately got a really strong wave of homesickness. It was delicious, pumpkin pie is my favorite Thanksgiving food (aside from stuffing, and mashed potatoes, and chocolate pie, and green bean casserole, and sweet potato casserole...) but it made me sad. I composed myself though, I don’t think anyone noticed, and then we headed off to Rio.
We went to Cristo Redentor first, which was cool and had another nice view, this time of most of Rio and part of Niterói. I bought some postcards from a little store on the way up that I meant to send, but I don’t think I actually will - they’re really pretty, and I think I’m going to put them on my wall instead. So, for those of you who were wishing for a postcard (mom) it’s not going to happen, at least not yet. I bought postcards in Ouro Preto too, but those are also being used as room decorations. Too bad for you guys.
After Cristo we went to Copacabana to try to find the 10 foreigners who were apparently somewhere on the beach (Niels, Jess, Barbara, Anika, Selina, Tom, Tiffany, JoBren, Jennine, and Lourdes). No one was answering their cell phones, and Copacabana is pretty big, so we didn’t really expect to find them, and decided to just take a little stroll in the sand. We hadn’t gone far when we noticed, like a beacon in the night, a tall blond guy about 50 yards away. Now, had we been in the northern hemisphere, a tall blond guy might not have stood out so much, but amongst all the bronze cariocas (that’s what people from Rio are called) Niels stuck out like a very useful sore thumb. We trotted over and said hello, and then met up with most of the rest of the group, who were a little ways down the beach. We didn’t stay long, it was getting dark and they didn’t have any set plans for the evening, but it was fun to see them for a little while. After that we drove by Ipanema, just so I could see it, took a little tour of the Ipanema neighborhood (super cute!) and then went back to Niterói, this time to Tia Norma’s house for dinner.
The dinner food was the same as at Tia Didi’s house (in fact, some of it may have been the same), but it was good again, and we spent a good three hours after dinner just sitting around talking. One of the topics of discussion was who in the family was fattest, which I thought was kind of odd. I know that some families talk about weight a lot, but mine isn’t one of them. I think I may have made a bit of a faux pax - they were discussing someone who was really fat, and asked my opinion - I asked them to repeat who it was, and they said something about Raquelzinha - I assumed it was the dog, and replied, “Yeah, super fat!” Then they said, “And that dog is big too!” Turns out who they’d consulted me on was, in fact, her father. He is big, but had I known we were talking about him I wouldn’t have been so enthusiastic in my affirmation. Oh well, I guess that’s what I get for pretending to understand when I don’t, exactly. We took a family photo (which is in my photo album, with everyone’s names so you can see how they look), and then headed back to Tia Dede’s apartment for the last night.
I was told that we were going to leave at 9AM on Sunday, so I set my alarm for 9 and figured I’d be fine. Turns out that Bia’s parents are a lot more punctual than she is - Bia knocked on my door at 8:30 and said that her dad had called her and they were awake and having breakfast, and that we should do the same. I had wanted to shower, but there wasn’t time, so we had a hurried breakfast, packed our stuff, and headed out. The ride back was a lot more comfortable - Zé drives an SUV thing, so there was plenty of room in the backseat, even though there were three of us, and he is a lot safer of a driver. We stopped at a German bakery outside of Petrópolis, which is where Zé grew up, and had croquetes, which were really good. We stopped for lunch at Rosalanche, which is the Brazilian equivalent of Casa de Fruta. It’s not as big (there is, unfortunately, no Rosa de Choo-Choo or Rosa de Sweets), but it’s a big rest stop/restaurant/flower nursery/artisanal crafts store that Zé has been stopping at for 25 years, he said. We had a simple lunch (rice and beans re-entered my diet), and then went along our way. I didn’t sleep, I don’t think, but I rested my eyes a lot and was surprised upon opening them to find that we were back in Belo Horizonte.
Looking back on it, Rio was everything and nothing I’d expected. I hadn’t expected bugs or heat, and not all of the city is beautiful beachfront. I think I’d built it up so much in my mind that when I figured out that Rio was actually a city, with graffiti and traffic and elementary schools, it was sort of a let down from the perfect beachy dream I’d been imagining. That said, there was certainly a feeling of magic in actually being at Cristo Redentor, Copacabana, and Ipanema - they’re so famous, and I was actually there. I had a really good time, and I’m glad that my first time there was in a family situation, but I’d really like to go back with a group of friends and stay in Rio so that I can do some nightlife stuff and some shopping and see more of the city - an afternoon wasn’t enough.
I’m also really starting to feel like a part of my host family - not that I didn’t before, but I think traveling together strengthens bonds and makes them more obvious. I look a lot like them - curly hair and glasses - and when Raquelzinha saw me she thought I was Carolina, as did one of the other cousins. I don’t look exactly like any of them, and I have a different body type, but I don’t stick out like Niels on Copacabana. Another thing that really made me feel included was that on the road, I didn’t pay for my own food. It seems petty and shallow to care about something like who pays for lunch, but I felt like just another daughter - Zé paid for all of us, and there was never even a question of me paying for my own. When I go out to eat with my biological family someone else always pays, and that made me feel like part of their family. It was really nice, especially after the pumpkin dessert homesickness.
Okay, cultural difference time! I don’t know if it’s just Bia’s extended family or all of Brazil, but everyone here seems really into “tomando remédios,” or taking medicine. Every house had a medicine cabinet that rivals the prescription section at Long’s, and I have to admit that I brought a lot of medicine with me and we have quite a collection at my house - the difference here, though, is that people actually use what they’ve got. I took some Dramamine and I’ve used my eyedrops a couple of times, but aside from that, I’ve been medicine-free in Brazil. In contrast, everyone here seems to take one pill or another, or some drops of something, almost every day.
Another difference is the shoe in the house situation. Again, I can’t speak for everyone in either the US or Brazil, but in my house in the US no one ever wears shoes, and I’m barefoot whenever I have the opportunity. In my house here, on the other hand, everyone wears shoes all the time, and Claudia told me that she sometimes wears flip-flops in the shower to avoid touching the floor with her bare feet. My ear was hurting last week, and she was convinced that it was because I walked around barefoot. Funny sidenote - the word for barefoot is descalça, and pants are called calças, so I thought she thought I was sick because I walked around without any pants on, which I don’t... luckily, I asked for clarification, and we had a good little chuckle about it.
The chocolate syrup here is translucent. Brown, but translucent. It makes me nervous and I avoid it, if I can.
I don’t leave the house anymore until 7:15 or 9:15 (depending on the day), because even though it takes me half an hour to get to class, which starts at either 7:30 or 9:30, they never ever start on time and today was the first day I arrived after the professor, who got to class about a minute and half before I did.
Yesterday I had my first Brazilian soy burger, and it wasn’t bad! It was a little hard to taste because it was about the size of a McDonald’s hamburger patty, which, last time I checked, were almost nonexistent, but with french bread and ketchup and mustard it went down just fine.
If you find yourself abroad and really want to order something online, you can do it through www.thehungersite.com - I ordered some recycled sari yarn for Claudia from there because she was coveting mine, and it came today! It took about a month, but it arrived, which was a pleasant surprise. I haven’t given it to her yet, she was leaving right as the mail came, but I think she’ll like it.
Até mais!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
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