AHH!!
I just came back from going to a bar with some friends in Porto da Barra to watch the USA-vs.-Brazil futebol (pronounced foo-chee-bol! yay!) game, and... ahh!! I can`t believe we lost!!
My friends and I started searching for bars around 3:45 or so (the game started here at 3:30), but many bars were crowded... so we headed towards the beach, since there`s always bars around there. On the way, we passed by this EMPTY Subway (yes, Subway has infiltrated the streets of Brazil, too, haha!) and the employees inside were watching the futebol game, so we peeked through the window to see the TV screen and.... the US JUST SCORED it`s FIRST GOAL!! We were SO excited, but, I think that the Subway employees realized that we were Americans, were very bitter, and just turned OFF the TV! We kind of joked around, saying that they`d probably keep on the TV if we bought a stupid sandwich, but.. oh well! We moved on...
After disputing which bar would be better (based off of how many fans were there, beer price and TV screen size, haha!) we settled on a pretty good bar that was on/closer to the coast, semi-outside.. nice breeze, good! We had to move the tables a bit to get a good view, and of COURSE, there was a Brazilian whose head was party in the way, but.. hey! That`s the experience of watching futebol in a Brazilian bar, right??
Anyways. Some people got their Skols, Bohemes, meat appetizer with cheese+ yucca (three food groups that are pretty Brazilian, hehe)... and we were all set to watch, what of course but.. the US goalie save some pretty sweet goals (including that one that was CRAZY and basically went inside the goal, but didn`t touch past the goal line, so didn`t end up counting?!? woo hoo!)... and the US score the SECOND GOAAAL!! oh yeah!! We were a bit worried at first about how excited/loud we should be when cheering on the US (afterall, we didn`t want to be the next thing served at a Brazilian barbeque restaurant..) , but, we were fine, haha!
So. Halftime came, and we were pretty confident. Afterall, US-Brazil was 2-0!! YAYA! So, I was pretty happy, decided to order myself a Caipirinha (which was STRONG, btw.. and I`m still feeling it, after 4 hours and muita comida... I`m SO glad I ordered just one!), but.. what was with the US?!?! That was just... AH! The US performance was just... not that elegant looking at all, after half time, and the Brazil team probably finally lost its arrogance, so... let us just keep the bad news to a minimum and say that it was a pretty SAD ENDING, and... We paid our bill RIGHT after the game was over. The waiters knew that we were American, and had been standing by/watching us the whole game, but... as we were leaving, I saw our main waiter kind of smile/smirk at me, so I just kind of waived at him goodbye, accepting the loss.
Anyways. Right now, there are firecrackers going off like BOMBS, AGAIN. These firecrackers just never seem to stop! Pre São João firecrackers last week, for the actual São João festival day, leftovers from São João for a couple days, then firecrackers for the futebol game, TODAY!
The festivities are ENDLESS. Que bom!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Muito Prazer!
Hey y`all~!
Tudo bem? Tudo bom. Well, kind of, haha!
On the eve of São Joao, I went with my `mom,`her friend, and my `sister,`(aka, Lee, from Illinois!) to this restaurant where we had some food while listening to live music (a man with a good voice and guitar skeelz, ooh yeah!), and watching couples dance! One of the songs we heard was a portuguese version of Rihanna`s `Umbrella`song, haha!
Anyways! The night was pretty fun, since these old guys (and I mean, OLD. like.. 70`s or 80`s??) who still had a lot of energy in them, would ask my `mom`s`friend to dance with them, then ask the rest of us to dance with them... so, I danced with 3 of these dudes! haha! My dancing was awful (kind of salsa-y, waltz-y?), and I`m sure I frustrated them a lot with: 1. the fact that I could NOT move at all, 2. I wasn`t really letting them lead... woops!, and 3. I hardly speak/understand any Portuguese! But, anyways, it was a fun night!
The food was good, with some nice seafood infused stuff, but, I think I had an allergic reaction or something.. (NOT because i apparently lack enzymes in my stomach that can`t digest meats! I think that`s not true, btw... ahha!) Because I started breathing a little heavily, getting shivers/feeling cold, and just feeling awful. The next morning, I had a fever/headache and some hives on my knees (why my knees?? i don`t know...?!), but I took some allergy medicine, and they went away in about an hour, so.. yay! So, i think that the culprit was this soup I had with `sururu`, a type of clam... I think when I was eating it, I felt that it really WARMed me up, but.. perhaps it was also my body already reacting, haha?!? Anyways. I`m all better, now, so, all is well.
For actual Sãp Joao... OH MAN. the firecrackers would NOT stop! During the day, I`d be counting to 10 to myself, and sure enough, another firecracker or two would go off and scare the bezeejes (sp, please??) out of me! For breakfast, we had this dish that was (of course) made out of cornmeal, coconut milk, and sugar.. and was I THINK baked or steamed (cakelike), and then sprinkled with some cinnamon (they love cinnamon, here, too, ahha!). twas GOOD.
And on actual São Joao night, we were about to go to Pelourinho, again, to go listen to some music, but.. we figured that there`d already be SO many people there, that it wouldnt be comfortable at all to go. Plus, there`s the danger of being pickpocketed, etc.. so we would basically stuffing money into bras, pockets, taking off jewelry... meh. I already experienced Pelourinho last week, so it was okay that we didn`t go again! So, instead, my `sister`, Lee, was in the mood for pizza, since apparently she hasn`t had much luck with GOOD pizza, here! The main reason being... apparently Brazilians put TONs of cheese on the pizza, but.. no tomato sauce!! So, we ended up going to this `Italian`place that our `mom`said served the BEST pizza in Salvador.. and, true, it was good pizza (we had simple marghuerita pizza and this pizza with sundried tomoatos and arugula?! i`m not much of a fan of the arugula.. ahha!), BUT. It still lacked the tomato-y goodness that we Americans love. Seriously, lovers of Chicago deep-dish pizza BEWARE. Brazilian pizza will SEVERELY dissapoint, ahha! Anyways! What`S funny, though, is, because Brazilian pizza lacks tomato sauce, they instead have KETCHUP as a condiment! So, basically.. last night.. I ate some pizza.. with KETCHUP. YES I DID. And, although it tasted a bit on the sweet side, it actually.. tasted good! :)
So, it wasn`t a TYPICAL Sao Joao, but, it was fun, all the same!
Tudo bem? Tudo bom. Well, kind of, haha!
On the eve of São Joao, I went with my `mom,`her friend, and my `sister,`(aka, Lee, from Illinois!) to this restaurant where we had some food while listening to live music (a man with a good voice and guitar skeelz, ooh yeah!), and watching couples dance! One of the songs we heard was a portuguese version of Rihanna`s `Umbrella`song, haha!
Anyways! The night was pretty fun, since these old guys (and I mean, OLD. like.. 70`s or 80`s??) who still had a lot of energy in them, would ask my `mom`s`friend to dance with them, then ask the rest of us to dance with them... so, I danced with 3 of these dudes! haha! My dancing was awful (kind of salsa-y, waltz-y?), and I`m sure I frustrated them a lot with: 1. the fact that I could NOT move at all, 2. I wasn`t really letting them lead... woops!, and 3. I hardly speak/understand any Portuguese! But, anyways, it was a fun night!
The food was good, with some nice seafood infused stuff, but, I think I had an allergic reaction or something.. (NOT because i apparently lack enzymes in my stomach that can`t digest meats! I think that`s not true, btw... ahha!) Because I started breathing a little heavily, getting shivers/feeling cold, and just feeling awful. The next morning, I had a fever/headache and some hives on my knees (why my knees?? i don`t know...?!), but I took some allergy medicine, and they went away in about an hour, so.. yay! So, i think that the culprit was this soup I had with `sururu`, a type of clam... I think when I was eating it, I felt that it really WARMed me up, but.. perhaps it was also my body already reacting, haha?!? Anyways. I`m all better, now, so, all is well.
For actual Sãp Joao... OH MAN. the firecrackers would NOT stop! During the day, I`d be counting to 10 to myself, and sure enough, another firecracker or two would go off and scare the bezeejes (sp, please??) out of me! For breakfast, we had this dish that was (of course) made out of cornmeal, coconut milk, and sugar.. and was I THINK baked or steamed (cakelike), and then sprinkled with some cinnamon (they love cinnamon, here, too, ahha!). twas GOOD.
And on actual São Joao night, we were about to go to Pelourinho, again, to go listen to some music, but.. we figured that there`d already be SO many people there, that it wouldnt be comfortable at all to go. Plus, there`s the danger of being pickpocketed, etc.. so we would basically stuffing money into bras, pockets, taking off jewelry... meh. I already experienced Pelourinho last week, so it was okay that we didn`t go again! So, instead, my `sister`, Lee, was in the mood for pizza, since apparently she hasn`t had much luck with GOOD pizza, here! The main reason being... apparently Brazilians put TONs of cheese on the pizza, but.. no tomato sauce!! So, we ended up going to this `Italian`place that our `mom`said served the BEST pizza in Salvador.. and, true, it was good pizza (we had simple marghuerita pizza and this pizza with sundried tomoatos and arugula?! i`m not much of a fan of the arugula.. ahha!), BUT. It still lacked the tomato-y goodness that we Americans love. Seriously, lovers of Chicago deep-dish pizza BEWARE. Brazilian pizza will SEVERELY dissapoint, ahha! Anyways! What`S funny, though, is, because Brazilian pizza lacks tomato sauce, they instead have KETCHUP as a condiment! So, basically.. last night.. I ate some pizza.. with KETCHUP. YES I DID. And, although it tasted a bit on the sweet side, it actually.. tasted good! :)
So, it wasn`t a TYPICAL Sao Joao, but, it was fun, all the same!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Minha Filha~!
Yo!
So! All is well!
On Sunday (my second day here), the students of the program got together in the morning for an orientation, and.. everything sounded so exciting! We`re going to take a tour of the city on Friday, potentially take a boat to the nearby islands on Saturday.. and.. yeps! We get the official itinerary (including homework assignments, boo!) on Thursday, since that will be our official first day of class! Why THURSDAY, aka quinta feira? You`ll just have to scroll down... questions will be answered later..
After the orientation, we met up with our host mothers! It was super cute. The program director cut some postcards from Salvador up in two, one half given to us, the other given to our mother.... so when we found them, it was a pretty cute moment, seeing people putting together their postcards, making the postcards complete!
Anyways, my mother is SUPER nice. I forgot that I had put down that I was vegetarian on my application form for the program, so my host mother (Marlene, Marla for short!) can cook vegetarian! yaya! However, I DID tell her that I want to experience Bahian food, and that I`m willing to eat meat, so.. she`s been really good about cooking traditional Bahian food with meat in it from time to time. (she`s not vegetarian, herself, so... all is okay!)
Everyone knows that I`m SUCH a foodie, so.. no surpise that I`m going to talk about it NOW. On the first morning, in the hotel, we had a breakfast similar to American/Western (eggs, sausage, bacon, toust, fruit..), but a couple things I found interesting was that they had boiled bananas (probably plantains), tasting VERY much like a sweet potatoe. I really should find the name for it, but they also had a tapioca pudding type of thing, but it was more liquidy (porridge-y?), but it was SO yummy with its vanilla creaminess, especially with a pinch of cinnamon on top.
My host mother`s food has been REALLY good, too. For my first breakfast, we had some toast, scrambled eggs (but.. they were pretty salty??), coconut yogurt with some granola, a chocolate-banana smoothie (smoothie= `vitamina`), fresh guaranà juice (a type of berry).. and.. yeps! This morning, we had some fresh pineapple juice and mango juice, and also had this thing that apparently not many Brazilians enjoy.. it was basically a cornbread (or, couscous?) made over the stove, with cheese melted on top, which you eat with butter, or pour on some milk and sprinkle sugar on it, and eat it with a steamed banana... oo! Another thing here, the coffee`s been strong, but great! It`s so strong that most people are just expected to drink it with milk, so a coffee pot`s usually prepared.. with heated milk right nearby! I love cafè oles, and order it all the time in the US, but I wish they just had simple coffee and heated milk, like they do here!
For lunch/dinner, we`ve had a Brazilian interpretation of yakisoba (I told her I love yakisoba, and her husband is Japanese-Brazilian, so... she knew what I was talking about.. kind of??haha!), pancakey (almost pupusa-like taste, YES!) things with soy meat, feijoada (a black bean stew with meat in it, goo~d), acarajè (a Baian thing, that`s basically corn bread with dried, seasoned shrimp and spiced lentil pastes (MM! making you hungry?? me TOO.)...
And, of course, at every single meal, we`ve been having dessert... Brazilians sure like SUGAR! I actually had a little bit of a light-headed ness/headache, today.. perhaps because of dehydration, but, I think also because I`m sensitive to too much sugar.. But, anyways! We`ve been having a fair share of sweets! For example, there`s this cake that`s made of cornmeal, which you eat with dulce de leche paste. My host mother`s also prepared a chocolate cake- which, I surprisingly like (most people know that I dislike cake.. a LOT.) , since it is pretty moist, and it`s topped with shavings of real chocolate (not icky frosting). Today for lunch, we also had a chocolate fondue with bananas and grapes, which was.. HA! Heavenly! I LOVE chocolate, so I`m definitely in the right country, ahha!
We live in an apartment (the 13th floor, oh no! haha..) on Sete de Setembre, a pretty major road in Salvador. The school that I`m attending (ACBEU) is just down the street, probably 10 or so minutes away, so I can walk to school, everyday. `There`s a lot of things nearby, such as a Geology Museum (the good ol`memories of being a corepresenative in the Rocks and Minerals competition in Science Olympiad DEF came back to me!), Art museum... and further down the road (a bit of a walk, but.. i need the excercise to burn off all these calories from eating so much!) is the beach, Praia de Forte. There`s a ton of artistic grafiti on the walls down to the beach, so it`s a nice walk. I`d really like to take pictures of it, but, so far I haven`t been too successful since taking my camera out REALLY labels me as a tourist, and local bums just come towards me like a magnet! eek! This definitely is a city where you want to walk with somebody..
What else..? Oh! To answer the question that I posted, before. So, Wednesday is a holiday/festival in Brazil, called São Joao, which I think I`ve already explained, but is basically a festival that celebrates harvest.. farm stuff.. and people EAT a LOT of CORNmeal stuff, go to listen to music, go out, drink, dance~! But, like holidays like Christmas.. people like to party a lot on the EVE of holidays. So, Tuesday is a holiday, too. But, people usually go to visit their relative in the countryside to celebrate the harvest, so.. people need time to travel. Thus, Monday is a holiday, too. So, why not just throw in Saturday and Sunday, too, since it`S the weekened? And also Thursday and Friday, since those are the days that people usually go out with friends, anyway? So, that`s the reason that I don`t have my first day of class until this Thursday.
SO! Basically... it`s a WEEK of celebration. They`ve had concerts every night (like the one I went to on Saturday) at Pelourinho.. people have been lighting fireworks/firecrackers in the streets at random times (they REALLY surprised me at first - they go off even during the DAY, and sound like a car REALLY back-fired/ bomb-like!). So, anyways... tonight, I will go out with my host mother and her friends to join in the festivities!
More to come, muito amor.
So! All is well!
On Sunday (my second day here), the students of the program got together in the morning for an orientation, and.. everything sounded so exciting! We`re going to take a tour of the city on Friday, potentially take a boat to the nearby islands on Saturday.. and.. yeps! We get the official itinerary (including homework assignments, boo!) on Thursday, since that will be our official first day of class! Why THURSDAY, aka quinta feira? You`ll just have to scroll down... questions will be answered later..
After the orientation, we met up with our host mothers! It was super cute. The program director cut some postcards from Salvador up in two, one half given to us, the other given to our mother.... so when we found them, it was a pretty cute moment, seeing people putting together their postcards, making the postcards complete!
Anyways, my mother is SUPER nice. I forgot that I had put down that I was vegetarian on my application form for the program, so my host mother (Marlene, Marla for short!) can cook vegetarian! yaya! However, I DID tell her that I want to experience Bahian food, and that I`m willing to eat meat, so.. she`s been really good about cooking traditional Bahian food with meat in it from time to time. (she`s not vegetarian, herself, so... all is okay!)
Everyone knows that I`m SUCH a foodie, so.. no surpise that I`m going to talk about it NOW. On the first morning, in the hotel, we had a breakfast similar to American/Western (eggs, sausage, bacon, toust, fruit..), but a couple things I found interesting was that they had boiled bananas (probably plantains), tasting VERY much like a sweet potatoe. I really should find the name for it, but they also had a tapioca pudding type of thing, but it was more liquidy (porridge-y?), but it was SO yummy with its vanilla creaminess, especially with a pinch of cinnamon on top.
My host mother`s food has been REALLY good, too. For my first breakfast, we had some toast, scrambled eggs (but.. they were pretty salty??), coconut yogurt with some granola, a chocolate-banana smoothie (smoothie= `vitamina`), fresh guaranà juice (a type of berry).. and.. yeps! This morning, we had some fresh pineapple juice and mango juice, and also had this thing that apparently not many Brazilians enjoy.. it was basically a cornbread (or, couscous?) made over the stove, with cheese melted on top, which you eat with butter, or pour on some milk and sprinkle sugar on it, and eat it with a steamed banana... oo! Another thing here, the coffee`s been strong, but great! It`s so strong that most people are just expected to drink it with milk, so a coffee pot`s usually prepared.. with heated milk right nearby! I love cafè oles, and order it all the time in the US, but I wish they just had simple coffee and heated milk, like they do here!
For lunch/dinner, we`ve had a Brazilian interpretation of yakisoba (I told her I love yakisoba, and her husband is Japanese-Brazilian, so... she knew what I was talking about.. kind of??haha!), pancakey (almost pupusa-like taste, YES!) things with soy meat, feijoada (a black bean stew with meat in it, goo~d), acarajè (a Baian thing, that`s basically corn bread with dried, seasoned shrimp and spiced lentil pastes (MM! making you hungry?? me TOO.)...
And, of course, at every single meal, we`ve been having dessert... Brazilians sure like SUGAR! I actually had a little bit of a light-headed ness/headache, today.. perhaps because of dehydration, but, I think also because I`m sensitive to too much sugar.. But, anyways! We`ve been having a fair share of sweets! For example, there`s this cake that`s made of cornmeal, which you eat with dulce de leche paste. My host mother`s also prepared a chocolate cake- which, I surprisingly like (most people know that I dislike cake.. a LOT.) , since it is pretty moist, and it`s topped with shavings of real chocolate (not icky frosting). Today for lunch, we also had a chocolate fondue with bananas and grapes, which was.. HA! Heavenly! I LOVE chocolate, so I`m definitely in the right country, ahha!
We live in an apartment (the 13th floor, oh no! haha..) on Sete de Setembre, a pretty major road in Salvador. The school that I`m attending (ACBEU) is just down the street, probably 10 or so minutes away, so I can walk to school, everyday. `There`s a lot of things nearby, such as a Geology Museum (the good ol`memories of being a corepresenative in the Rocks and Minerals competition in Science Olympiad DEF came back to me!), Art museum... and further down the road (a bit of a walk, but.. i need the excercise to burn off all these calories from eating so much!) is the beach, Praia de Forte. There`s a ton of artistic grafiti on the walls down to the beach, so it`s a nice walk. I`d really like to take pictures of it, but, so far I haven`t been too successful since taking my camera out REALLY labels me as a tourist, and local bums just come towards me like a magnet! eek! This definitely is a city where you want to walk with somebody..
What else..? Oh! To answer the question that I posted, before. So, Wednesday is a holiday/festival in Brazil, called São Joao, which I think I`ve already explained, but is basically a festival that celebrates harvest.. farm stuff.. and people EAT a LOT of CORNmeal stuff, go to listen to music, go out, drink, dance~! But, like holidays like Christmas.. people like to party a lot on the EVE of holidays. So, Tuesday is a holiday, too. But, people usually go to visit their relative in the countryside to celebrate the harvest, so.. people need time to travel. Thus, Monday is a holiday, too. So, why not just throw in Saturday and Sunday, too, since it`S the weekened? And also Thursday and Friday, since those are the days that people usually go out with friends, anyway? So, that`s the reason that I don`t have my first day of class until this Thursday.
SO! Basically... it`s a WEEK of celebration. They`ve had concerts every night (like the one I went to on Saturday) at Pelourinho.. people have been lighting fireworks/firecrackers in the streets at random times (they REALLY surprised me at first - they go off even during the DAY, and sound like a car REALLY back-fired/ bomb-like!). So, anyways... tonight, I will go out with my host mother and her friends to join in the festivities!
More to come, muito amor.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Gosto muito!
Hey all!
So! After a LONG day of travelling, I finally reached Salvador de Bahia on Saturday morning! There was a bit of trouble, since my LAX--> Miami flight was cancelled, and I was put on the flight that was about 3 hours later.. but I was able to meet some people from my program, so it was nice to be able to talk to them, realize that we were ALL nervous, and I think that the fact that OTHER people were in the same situation made me feel better, and in fact, more excited about the program!
Our flight, however.. got in 10 minutes after our NEXT flight to Salvador was BOARDING! So, we just grabbed our carryons, and RAN to the other gate... to find out that our plane`s departure was going to be delayed because we need to refuel?? so, the pilot told us 15 minutes... which turned into another 15... which turned into another... and then FINaLLY after TWO hours, we left for Salvador!
The flight itself was very nice. I sat near some people in the program (alright, the plane was already small, haha!), but I sat next to this 60-ish guy who was a PROUD Bahian, and was just VERY nice in general. I found out that his parents immigrated to Brazil from Poland, he lost his foot when riding a train, once (a car hit the train??), he moved to Cleveland, Ohio (how random?!) when he was 19 to just get work, married his wife (from Guatemala) after meeting her at a church in Cleveland.. started a machinery/metals business that now makes wheelchairs.. and his children now live in Florida, where he lives, too! So, he was going to Salvador just for a week or so, to visit old friends, but most importantly, for Sao Joao, a VERY important festival that is going on right now! (more about this festival to come, later!)
Anyways.. got to Salvador, got some reais (about 1.95 reais to 1 u.s. dollar) took a taxi-van to the hotel... and it was ONLY 11AM! So... us students, being ambitious, decided to take some adventures..
A group of us wanted to go shopping, so we took this free van (serves hotels in the area) to a REALLY RITZY shopping center, `Salvador Shopping`, to the food court to eat lunch... I had my FIRST meat in 6 months (grilled salmon on salad.. YUMM! I wasn`t feeling too beefy, yet.. haha).. walked around the shopping center.. got some chocolate at the `bomberia`... que bom!
So, some crazy stuff we observed, was...
* Brazilian police are SERIOUS. like.. all decked out, have guns on their belts. camoflage uniforms. helmets. yeah. in the MALL, too! We actually wanted to leave the shopping center to wait outside for the bus to pick us up, but the guards were at the door, told us to WAIT until the bus actually came, and then called us and watched us go to the bus.. I guess it`s better security, but.. still!! we couldn`t exit without permission, almost! ahah..
* Toilets here, are kind of like what I experienced in Shanghai. They`re still Western-style, but you have to throw your toilet paper in a trashbin next to the toilet. yeah.. it get`s smelly, but, they change them often, so.. tis okay.
* Women here, even a little elderly, dress NICE and proud! they just, seem so well kept and youthful!
*YES.. bikinis are tiny. i actually bought one, yesterday, and... hmm.. i`m not quite so sure when i`ll actually wear it. maybe.. only the birds in my backyard will be witness, haah!
* peanut butter is rare, here?
Anyways. that`s not even half of the day.
AFterwards, we returned to the hotel.. rested..
I went to dinner with a few people, going to a local pizzeria. So, I tried some capirinha (lime and.. some alcohol??), someone had Skol (a brazilian beer that`s EVERYWHERE), and the restaurant owner was really nice, and gave us samples of.. jenibabu (sp?) juice (apparently, a fruit in Brazil that`s naturally alcoholic??), tamarind juice + alcohol, limea, and cachaca. I liked the jenibabu the most, and.. the cachaca was KILLER.. it was SOO STRONG! i took just a sip, but, WHOA! even just a sniff of that would knock me out, haah!
afterwards. we took a taxi to one of the areas of Salvador called Pelourinho, which is known to be THE historical area of Salvador, with churches and whatnot. Anyway. For the past week, in celebration (already!) of Sao Joao, they`ve apparently been just partying away in Pelourinho! SO! we arrive at this part of the city, and.. there`s SO many food stands (meat skewers.. various fried things, desserts), TONS of people selling Skol.. and they also had a stage set up with musicians playing! It was kind of funny arriving there, and listening to the music.. then realizing that it was mainly American music, but the lyrics were Portuganized!! Like, we were dancing to jason mraz`s ``i`m yours`, but.. in Portuguese! it was very fun. Then, they started playing some traditional.. or, i think folksy Brazilian music (a thing about Sao Joao, is it`s a harvest-like festival, so.. they apparently eat a LOT of corn foods.. and dress/listen to country/folksy stuff!), so these locals started dancing with us, holding hands in a circle, going left.. right.. into the circle.. then dancing as couples with one hand around the waste and one hand in the other person`s hand.. almost like a shuffle! it was SOO fun! kinda strange, though.. dancing with a stranger.. and getting hugged by strangers, aftewards, haah! it was an experience!
after all that, there was a famous singer (Danielle.. Mercury? someone PLEASE correct me!), who was dressed in REALLY colorful clothing, her background dancers were crazy, too!! But, i guess she`s REALLY famous, since TON`s of people started coming.. until it was just TOO many people! The police were there.. just standing around.. looking all stern.. ANyway! it was just, SO many people, that myfriends and i wanted to leave, but it was SOO crowded that it took us about 20 minutes or so just to PUSH through people to a street clearing.. then grab a taxi to the hotel (10reais for 4 of us, what a deal!).. got there at 11:30 pm!
first thing i did when i got back?
SHOWER. SLEEP. PEACE.
first day in Salvador. complete.
i realize I`ve written a lot.. but there`S still so much more! that was only the FIRST day, and today is my THIRD day in Brazil.. so i will have to write later, or just talk to you guys in person about my second day... and more days to come in salvador!
much love to all. i miss you. but, letting you know that tudo è bom, gosto muito de salvador.
So! After a LONG day of travelling, I finally reached Salvador de Bahia on Saturday morning! There was a bit of trouble, since my LAX--> Miami flight was cancelled, and I was put on the flight that was about 3 hours later.. but I was able to meet some people from my program, so it was nice to be able to talk to them, realize that we were ALL nervous, and I think that the fact that OTHER people were in the same situation made me feel better, and in fact, more excited about the program!
Our flight, however.. got in 10 minutes after our NEXT flight to Salvador was BOARDING! So, we just grabbed our carryons, and RAN to the other gate... to find out that our plane`s departure was going to be delayed because we need to refuel?? so, the pilot told us 15 minutes... which turned into another 15... which turned into another... and then FINaLLY after TWO hours, we left for Salvador!
The flight itself was very nice. I sat near some people in the program (alright, the plane was already small, haha!), but I sat next to this 60-ish guy who was a PROUD Bahian, and was just VERY nice in general. I found out that his parents immigrated to Brazil from Poland, he lost his foot when riding a train, once (a car hit the train??), he moved to Cleveland, Ohio (how random?!) when he was 19 to just get work, married his wife (from Guatemala) after meeting her at a church in Cleveland.. started a machinery/metals business that now makes wheelchairs.. and his children now live in Florida, where he lives, too! So, he was going to Salvador just for a week or so, to visit old friends, but most importantly, for Sao Joao, a VERY important festival that is going on right now! (more about this festival to come, later!)
Anyways.. got to Salvador, got some reais (about 1.95 reais to 1 u.s. dollar) took a taxi-van to the hotel... and it was ONLY 11AM! So... us students, being ambitious, decided to take some adventures..
A group of us wanted to go shopping, so we took this free van (serves hotels in the area) to a REALLY RITZY shopping center, `Salvador Shopping`, to the food court to eat lunch... I had my FIRST meat in 6 months (grilled salmon on salad.. YUMM! I wasn`t feeling too beefy, yet.. haha).. walked around the shopping center.. got some chocolate at the `bomberia`... que bom!
So, some crazy stuff we observed, was...
* Brazilian police are SERIOUS. like.. all decked out, have guns on their belts. camoflage uniforms. helmets. yeah. in the MALL, too! We actually wanted to leave the shopping center to wait outside for the bus to pick us up, but the guards were at the door, told us to WAIT until the bus actually came, and then called us and watched us go to the bus.. I guess it`s better security, but.. still!! we couldn`t exit without permission, almost! ahah..
* Toilets here, are kind of like what I experienced in Shanghai. They`re still Western-style, but you have to throw your toilet paper in a trashbin next to the toilet. yeah.. it get`s smelly, but, they change them often, so.. tis okay.
* Women here, even a little elderly, dress NICE and proud! they just, seem so well kept and youthful!
*YES.. bikinis are tiny. i actually bought one, yesterday, and... hmm.. i`m not quite so sure when i`ll actually wear it. maybe.. only the birds in my backyard will be witness, haah!
* peanut butter is rare, here?
Anyways. that`s not even half of the day.
AFterwards, we returned to the hotel.. rested..
I went to dinner with a few people, going to a local pizzeria. So, I tried some capirinha (lime and.. some alcohol??), someone had Skol (a brazilian beer that`s EVERYWHERE), and the restaurant owner was really nice, and gave us samples of.. jenibabu (sp?) juice (apparently, a fruit in Brazil that`s naturally alcoholic??), tamarind juice + alcohol, limea, and cachaca. I liked the jenibabu the most, and.. the cachaca was KILLER.. it was SOO STRONG! i took just a sip, but, WHOA! even just a sniff of that would knock me out, haah!
afterwards. we took a taxi to one of the areas of Salvador called Pelourinho, which is known to be THE historical area of Salvador, with churches and whatnot. Anyway. For the past week, in celebration (already!) of Sao Joao, they`ve apparently been just partying away in Pelourinho! SO! we arrive at this part of the city, and.. there`s SO many food stands (meat skewers.. various fried things, desserts), TONS of people selling Skol.. and they also had a stage set up with musicians playing! It was kind of funny arriving there, and listening to the music.. then realizing that it was mainly American music, but the lyrics were Portuganized!! Like, we were dancing to jason mraz`s ``i`m yours`, but.. in Portuguese! it was very fun. Then, they started playing some traditional.. or, i think folksy Brazilian music (a thing about Sao Joao, is it`s a harvest-like festival, so.. they apparently eat a LOT of corn foods.. and dress/listen to country/folksy stuff!), so these locals started dancing with us, holding hands in a circle, going left.. right.. into the circle.. then dancing as couples with one hand around the waste and one hand in the other person`s hand.. almost like a shuffle! it was SOO fun! kinda strange, though.. dancing with a stranger.. and getting hugged by strangers, aftewards, haah! it was an experience!
after all that, there was a famous singer (Danielle.. Mercury? someone PLEASE correct me!), who was dressed in REALLY colorful clothing, her background dancers were crazy, too!! But, i guess she`s REALLY famous, since TON`s of people started coming.. until it was just TOO many people! The police were there.. just standing around.. looking all stern.. ANyway! it was just, SO many people, that myfriends and i wanted to leave, but it was SOO crowded that it took us about 20 minutes or so just to PUSH through people to a street clearing.. then grab a taxi to the hotel (10reais for 4 of us, what a deal!).. got there at 11:30 pm!
first thing i did when i got back?
SHOWER. SLEEP. PEACE.
first day in Salvador. complete.
i realize I`ve written a lot.. but there`S still so much more! that was only the FIRST day, and today is my THIRD day in Brazil.. so i will have to write later, or just talk to you guys in person about my second day... and more days to come in salvador!
much love to all. i miss you. but, letting you know that tudo è bom, gosto muito de salvador.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Eu falo um pouco de portugues...
SO!
Less than one week left until I go to Brazil.. starting to get even more nervous! The library finally called me, saying that my requested item was FINALLY ready (after a week!), so.. I raced on over there and... got my package of Brazilian Portuguese conversation CD's! Plopped one into the CD player on the drive back home... and.. WOW. What a difference it makes to actually HEAR the Portuguese pronunciation! There are some things that the alphabet just can't capture, phonetically... hmm.. Anyways. I think these CD's will help me metaphorically NOT completely fall flat on my face on my first day in Brazil.. so... yay!
I found this interesting website (http://www.portugueselanguage.net/portuguese/slang.asp), though, that apparently has Brazilian slang on it.. let's see how bizarre they are!:
- A difficult problem to solve is an "abacaxi" (pineapple)
- A handsome man is a "pão" (bread)
- An attractive woman is an "uva" (grape)
- Nonsense is "abobrinhas" (zucchini)
- A loved one is called "doce-de-coco" (coconut sweet)
- And "torcer o pepino" (twist the cucumber) means to discipline a mischievous child.
- Something or someone that never fails "é batata" (is a potato)
- When you face something hard and complicated to solve you stand with a "batata quente na mão" (hot potato in your hands).
- Unimportant things and people are "café pequeno" (small coffee).
- A very vain and presumptuous person "acha que é o rei da cocada preta" (thinks he is the king of the dark, sweet coconut).
- "Enchemos lingüiça" (we fill up sausages) when we have nothing to write or speak about and write/ speak anything else.
- A handsome man is a "pão" (bread)
- An attractive woman is an "uva" (grape)
- Nonsense is "abobrinhas" (zucchini)
- A loved one is called "doce-de-coco" (coconut sweet)
- And "torcer o pepino" (twist the cucumber) means to discipline a mischievous child.
- Something or someone that never fails "é batata" (is a potato)
- When you face something hard and complicated to solve you stand with a "batata quente na mão" (hot potato in your hands).
- Unimportant things and people are "café pequeno" (small coffee).
- A very vain and presumptuous person "acha que é o rei da cocada preta" (thinks he is the king of the dark, sweet coconut).
- "Enchemos lingüiça" (we fill up sausages) when we have nothing to write or speak about and write/ speak anything else.
Interesting.. very interesting.. WHY are they all FOOD-related?!? I'm already thinking about food ALL the time... how funny that I'm going to a country where apparently that's what THEY'RE thinking about all the time, too! haha...
------
The fact that there's just a little less than a week left for me before I go MEANS... I've got to start packing! YES... I know this sounds ridiculously early and whatnot, BUT... coming from a VERY organized mother, I think I've just inherited the need to keep on top of things almost to an OCD level.... but, I digress!
Weather in Brazil (it'll be "winter," there) should be.. high 70's/low 80's.. HUMID.. probably rainy a lot of the time.. so, I'm thinking Tshirts, rainproof jacket, umbrella... I'm a little bummed that it probably won't really be beachy weather! Which sucks, since I was looking forward to getting some sun, especially since it's been SO gloomy/cold/drizzly at my home in the U.S.! garr...
The leader/professor for the summer Brazil program suggested getting some presents for our home-stay people, just a nice gesture. Tshirts/souvenirs with "LA", "USA" and whatnot are just SO stereotypically touristy and are not very reliable because, even with people you know, you never get the RIGHT size! So, how am I supposed to find the perfect size for people I've never met before?
So, THEN I was thinking stuff like.. cookies from Trader Joe's, chocolate covered candies... OTHER types of cookies that are "American," and whatnot, but... what if they already sell similar things like that in Brazil?! For example, so many brands like CocaCola, Nabisco, Pringles.. and other snack-y stuff have made a global impact, these days, so those types of "American" things may very well be readily available in all Brazilian supermarkets!
So! (I'm noticing that I use "so" a lot of times, by the way... hmmm...) The plan that I finally settled on was to just go to the Japanese supermarket for some red-bean (anko) paste filled mochi's and ricecrackers, since those are p-r-o-b-a-b-l-y more rare in Brazil... oh WELL!
Anyways. I'm tired. It is officially my last weekend in the US. I'm going to get some sleep so I can make the most of it! :)
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Ser, Estar, Ficar...
So... where will I be in Brazil?
For starters, I'll be in Salvador, which.. is the capital of Bahia, one of Brazil's Northeastern states. It was the first colonial capital of Brazil, has the 3rd highest population in Brazil (after Sao Paolo and Rio), and is most known for having a BIG African influence. Apparently, Salvador's popular with European tourist, has beautiful beaches, good seafood... yeps!
Like any city, Salvador seems to have different neighborhoods. According to Wikipedia:
Salvador is divided into a number of distinct neighborhoods, with the most well known districts being Pelourinho, the Historic Centre, Comércio, and Downtown, all located in West Zone.
Barra, with its Farol da Barra, beaches and which is where one of the Carnival circuits begins, Barra is home of the Portuguese Hospital and Spanish Hospital, the neighborhood is located in South Zone.Vitória, a neighborhood with many high rise buildings, is located in South Zone.
Campo Grande, with its Dois de Julho Square and the monument to Bahia's independence, is also located in South Zone, as is Graça, an important residential area.
Ondina, with Salvador's Zoobotanical Garden and the site where the Barra-Ondina Carnival circuit ends, the neighborhood is home of the Spanish Club, is also a neighborhood in the South Zone.
Itaigara, Pituba, Horto Florestal, Caminho das Árvores, Loteamento Aquárius, Brotas, Stiep, Costa Azul, Armação, Jaguaribe and Stella Maris are the wealthiest neighborhoods in the East Zone. Rio Vermelho, a neighborhood with a rich architectural history and numerous restaurants and bars, is located in the South Zone. Itapoã, known throughout Brazil as the home of Vinicius de Moraes and for being the setting of the song "Tarde em Itapoã", is located in East Zone.
The Northwest area of the city in along the Bay of All Saints, also known as Cidade Baixa ("Lower city"), contains the impoverished suburban neighborhoods of Periperi, Paripe, Lobato, Liberdade, Nova Esperança, and Calçada. The neighborhood of Liberdade (Liberty) has the largest proportion of Afro-Brazilians of Salvador and Brazil.[29]
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Eu, tu, ele, ela, você, nós, eles, elas, vocês
Although I have already looked up very BASIC Portuguese things such as counting and conjugating regular verbs in the present tense, I still have a TON of work to do in terms of learning the language of a country that I'm going to be immersed in.. in approximately 2 weeks.
So, this morning, I went to the Central Library and picked up 3 books: a Brazilian Portuguese phrasebook (handy!), Portuguese Verbs and Essentials of Grammar, and 501 (ohh... YES. THE language book that almost everyone owns when they're learning a language) Portuguese Verbs.
So far, the 501 Portuguese Verbs book has been a little intimidating, so... I haven't really looked at that one, yet. But, the Brazilian Portuguese phrasebook seems pretty promising. For example, I've learned:
Desculpe - Sorry/pardon/excuse me
Poderia falar mais desvagar? - Could you speak a little more slowly?
Como é que se chama em português? - What's that called in Portuguese?
Meu nome é - My name is..
Onde fica...? - Where is..?
And, of course, "obrigada, bom dia, boa tarde, boa noite.."
What's been most difficult, so far, is knowing how to pronounce things. For example, the "d's" seem to turn into "j" sounds, sometimes. Also, sometimes words that end in "te" like "noite" sound like "noy-eech."
The other thing that's been difficult is differentiating Portuguese vs. Spanish. There are so many similarities between the languages, yet some subtle changes.. so it's going to be tough knowing when to catch myself.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
So, besides getting Portuguese language assistance, another way that I was productive today was... picking up my Brazilian Travel Visa from the Consulate!! woot woot!
Although I ended up having kind of an amusing experience when I got to the consulate, involving:
Me: (Enter the Room, go to the ticket dispenser for a number)
Security Guard: What are you here for?
Me: Oh! J-just picking up my visa!
Security Guard: What? You're not here to pick ME up?!
Oh... what an amazing job that must be, for the security guard to joke around like that...
ANYWAY. Things went smoothly. Just waited about 5 minutes for the 3 people in front of me to get their visas, went to the window.. handed the guy my application receipt, got my passport with the visa inside within a minute... and.. that was it! :D
Oi! Tudo bem?
Hi! Welcome to my blog! I'll be your guide for the evening.. haha.. and, since this is the first post, I guess I'll give a little intro...
I've always loved to travel. When I was younger, and even now, while I had the goal of becoming a pediatrician or something health-related, I secretly always had a dream of becoming a flight attendant. They just seemed to have it all, you know? The cute uniforms, perfect makeup, ability to speak different languages, some sort of respect/dignity, and above all, you just knew that they had seen the world.
I'm sure, though, that being a flight attendant is a lot of work and, like any job, has it's ups AND downs. Besides, I love the sciences and hope to have a profession in that realm. So, I'll scratch off flight attendant for now + put it on the shelf, pursue a science career... and maybe be one of those elderly ladies who comes out of retirement to suddenly become a flight attendant?
Anyway, I digress. Point is, no matter what profession I pursue, I want to travel.
However, I can't be certain that I'll be able to find a job that'll allow me to travel - - Which is why I decided that I wanted to study abroad sometime during my college years.
I started looking at potential study-abroad locations already during my first semester in college, and thought that Germany would be a good choice, since Germany is pretty well known for their good research in science, particularly pharmaceuticals (which is what I was interested in). So. I signed up for a German class for my second semester in college.
Let's just keep this short and say that this ended up being a little traumatic for me. Eagerly, I went to the first class and was:
1. Surrounded by upperclassmen and graduate students (INTIMIDATING!)
2. Surrounded by people who already knew some German (It was a BEGINNER'S German class, though!! DOUBLE the intimidation!)
3. I know it's a good teaching technique, but the teacher was speaking in German the ENTIRE time (Even on the FIRST DAY!)
4. Hearing German in person... it sounded SO foreign to me, not too pretty, either, so it just sort of turned me off.
Needless to say, I was SCARED. Besides, the class interfered with my OChem lab, so... let's just say that I dropped German for the practical purpose of fulfilling credit for my major.
After this, though, I just decided that I wasn't interested in Europe. Along with my childhood dreams of becoming a pediatrician, I also had this goal of someday working with Doctors Without Borders, or some other charity organization that goes abroad to help citizens of other countries that are REALLY in need. The areas of the world that I was interested in were SouthEast Asia, Africa, and Brazil. So, I started looking up programs that went to these locales.
The only program in Africa through my school was in Ghana, and my mom wasn't EVER going to let me go there.
I wanted to go to Thailand (I must admit, mainly because of the temples, elephants, and FOOD), but the protests that have been recently occurring in Thailand didn't really appeal to me or neither of my parents.
So, I decided on Brazil.
And... seeing that it's very difficult for science majors to receive credit while studying abroad during the normal semester, I decided to study abroad during the summer.
Brazil has been on my mind for a while... And I know that I'm going to sound naive, mainly since I've never been there and haven't done that much research AT ALL on it, but... here are some of my main reasons WHY I want to go to Brazil:
1. I've never been to South America
2. Portuguese is such a beautiful language
3. Many Japanese people immigrated to Brazil, so I feel that I'd have SOME sort of clutch if I felt lost (identity-wise) in Brazil
4. Many OTHER people have immigrated to Brazil, and I'd love to see what kind of mixed culture has been "brewing" in Brazil / Being "mixed," myself, I'd like to see what kind of culture dynamic is in Brazil
5. The weather and beaches (Hey, SOcal girl, here. What you gonna do?)
6. I want a change/ new experience.
My experience begins when I fly from LAX to Brazil on June 19th, then come back on August 2.
I'm super excited.
I've always loved to travel. When I was younger, and even now, while I had the goal of becoming a pediatrician or something health-related, I secretly always had a dream of becoming a flight attendant. They just seemed to have it all, you know? The cute uniforms, perfect makeup, ability to speak different languages, some sort of respect/dignity, and above all, you just knew that they had seen the world.
I'm sure, though, that being a flight attendant is a lot of work and, like any job, has it's ups AND downs. Besides, I love the sciences and hope to have a profession in that realm. So, I'll scratch off flight attendant for now + put it on the shelf, pursue a science career... and maybe be one of those elderly ladies who comes out of retirement to suddenly become a flight attendant?
Anyway, I digress. Point is, no matter what profession I pursue, I want to travel.
However, I can't be certain that I'll be able to find a job that'll allow me to travel - - Which is why I decided that I wanted to study abroad sometime during my college years.
I started looking at potential study-abroad locations already during my first semester in college, and thought that Germany would be a good choice, since Germany is pretty well known for their good research in science, particularly pharmaceuticals (which is what I was interested in). So. I signed up for a German class for my second semester in college.
Let's just keep this short and say that this ended up being a little traumatic for me. Eagerly, I went to the first class and was:
1. Surrounded by upperclassmen and graduate students (INTIMIDATING!)
2. Surrounded by people who already knew some German (It was a BEGINNER'S German class, though!! DOUBLE the intimidation!)
3. I know it's a good teaching technique, but the teacher was speaking in German the ENTIRE time (Even on the FIRST DAY!)
4. Hearing German in person... it sounded SO foreign to me, not too pretty, either, so it just sort of turned me off.
Needless to say, I was SCARED. Besides, the class interfered with my OChem lab, so... let's just say that I dropped German for the practical purpose of fulfilling credit for my major.
After this, though, I just decided that I wasn't interested in Europe. Along with my childhood dreams of becoming a pediatrician, I also had this goal of someday working with Doctors Without Borders, or some other charity organization that goes abroad to help citizens of other countries that are REALLY in need. The areas of the world that I was interested in were SouthEast Asia, Africa, and Brazil. So, I started looking up programs that went to these locales.
The only program in Africa through my school was in Ghana, and my mom wasn't EVER going to let me go there.
I wanted to go to Thailand (I must admit, mainly because of the temples, elephants, and FOOD), but the protests that have been recently occurring in Thailand didn't really appeal to me or neither of my parents.
So, I decided on Brazil.
And... seeing that it's very difficult for science majors to receive credit while studying abroad during the normal semester, I decided to study abroad during the summer.
Brazil has been on my mind for a while... And I know that I'm going to sound naive, mainly since I've never been there and haven't done that much research AT ALL on it, but... here are some of my main reasons WHY I want to go to Brazil:
1. I've never been to South America
2. Portuguese is such a beautiful language
3. Many Japanese people immigrated to Brazil, so I feel that I'd have SOME sort of clutch if I felt lost (identity-wise) in Brazil
4. Many OTHER people have immigrated to Brazil, and I'd love to see what kind of mixed culture has been "brewing" in Brazil / Being "mixed," myself, I'd like to see what kind of culture dynamic is in Brazil
5. The weather and beaches (Hey, SOcal girl, here. What you gonna do?)
6. I want a change/ new experience.
My experience begins when I fly from LAX to Brazil on June 19th, then come back on August 2.
I'm super excited.
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