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...