Tudo está terminando

Officially, as of today, my program is done! We had our Portuguese final exam and Brazilian history take-home paper, yesterday... and today, we gave little 10 minute presentations in our Portuguese class on whatever topic we wanted... then at 12, our HM´s came, we had a cocktail (or.. cah-kee-tail) reception with the distribution of our certificates of class-completion... then, all was done!

I´m ready to come home (ah... ASIAN food withdrawal to the MAX!), but at the same time, I still can´t believe that my 6 weeks in Brasil have passed by SO quickly, and there are still some things that I could´ve taken advantage of! But then again.. my wallet is kind of crying in a corner, in agony, so... perhaps it really IS time to leave, haha!

Meanwhile... I didn´t talk about/show some things that I found to be pretty important parts of my trip - or, at least, things that I´ll remember distinctly. So... here they are!

1. Candomblé - although we couldn´t take photos (see the photo for a doll-representation, haha!), we went to this Candomblé ritual last weekend (at night, pretty late!), which is the only ritual that `outsiders´ are allowed to see. Everything else is done in secret.

We got there around.. 7pm. First off, people are supposed to wear light coloured clothing (preferably white) to this ritual- since dark colours are associated with just, being dark/not welcoming the orixa´s presence. Women are supposed to wear skirts, but... haha, we got away with wearing shorts.. When you enter the building in which this ceremony takes place, men sit on one side of the room, women on the other.

During this ritual (which... probably FINALLY started around 8pm.. it´s Brasilian time, what do you expect? haha!), ladies dressed in `tradional´ attire (big white skirts, blouses, jewelry/bangles on their arms, coloured little cloth/sash tied around waist or shoulders, hair tied up or in a little head wrap) first come out, dancing with special arm movements in a circle, while drums are going, people are singing chants (Yoruban?)... singing about different orixas..

After a while, the ladies exit the room, then re-enter the room with food on their heads, still dancing, and eventually putting their plates of food onto a table in the center of the room. This part of the ceremony was very impressive, not only because of the crazy amount of food that they had (which they eat at the END of the ceremony, probably around 2/3AM!), but because it´s during this part of the ceremony that some participants just, suddenly start jerking around a bit, yell/moan out a bit, and are put into a trance - because they´re being enspirited by the orixas. One women, in particular, I remember, because she was carrying this CAKE on her head, supporting it with her hands, but at one point - this other woman started assisting the cake (by lending a hand), but, all of a sudden, the woman (originally holding the cake) just got into a trance, that the cake nearly FELL! Fortunately, the supporting woman caught the cake, and the woman (in trance) was successfully/safely enspirited by her orixa.

Anyways. There were about more than 10 people or so who were put into a trance (eyes closed, some people´s lower jaws were quivering, some people would randomnly yelp out) - including these two little (9-12 year old?!) girls. What´s kind of freaky/cool, is that once these people are enspirited, they start dancing according to how their orixas dance - so, you can tell who some of the people are enspirited by, based off of how they carry themselves/arm movements, etc. These people/orixas just, dance and move around the room, freely, so when they came towards a person, the person would hold up their hands (palms facing the orixa), `absorbing´ the energy of the orixa, or else, if permitted, hug the orixa person.

This part of the ceremony went on for a long time, as it seemed like each orixa had their own special song to dance to, and there were a lot of orixas. But, finally, all of the orixas exited, then came back into the room with their special clothing on (wearing their colours, holding their symbols/tools, wearing head-dresses), which makes it much easier for viewers (like us!) to distinguish each orixa from one another. However, by this time, it was already 10.. 10:30 pm, so we left RIGHT at one of the cooler parts of the ceremony!! oh well... it was still, a very impressive event, all the same.

The following day, we visited another Candomblé community, which was a bigger/more established Candomblé community/village than the one we saw, the night before. It´s crazy, because - the candomblé religion believes heavily in nature´s power, so there´s a ton of greenery around the village, yet... this village is seriously, in the MIDDLE of the city/urban area!

Currently, it´s safe for the villagers to practice their religion - however, they still need to alert the police when they´re going to hold ceremonies. Back in the earlier 19/20th centuries, candomblé rituals were highly scrutinized, and police forces used to raid and severely punish people for holding them (just like how police forces also used to raid/arrest people who practiced capoeira!). However, one of the Candomblé leaders (Mãe.. Nina?) approached Pres. Vargas, who at least understood a bit, the importance of this religion to its practicers.

2. Social programs, especially for African-descendants: Unfortunately, we didn´t visit an African-descendant-support-organization until this week... and I definitely wish we had visited, earlier, since the experience was just so... inspiring.

The organization that we visited is called `Omi-dùdú´, and they provide after-noon classes for Afro-descendant youth. We went to a school of this program and stopped by two classes, I believe an Ethnomedia class and Ethno/gender class. While we in the classrooms, we were asked questions / conversed with the students (about high school age?)... and the whole experience was just, so... empowering, since it just (at least for me) made me feel like, despite our origins, we all as human beings just want to have equality/justice in the world... and it made me feel good again to be put into a setting where people were questioning society´s stereotypes on people (racially, with gender, as well). Although I´m not interested too much in education, this experience made me just want to spread my wings to connect to people around the world (and in my case, extend medical outreach) even more.

What´s even more inspiring, is that these teenagers/participants of the program are from very poor neighborhoods. In fact, the school was RIGHT next to this type of `favela,´ and I just.. find it so heart-warming that these youth were actually, interested in trying to improve their futures by seeking programs like this to question the world and educate/empower themselves in order to make change. It just makes me so mad/sad/disappointed in individuals who aren´t thankful for their educations, spend their days just wasting time on nothing, or just, not putting their education/skills to use.

Another organization (there are several, but we only really looked at Omi dudu, this one, and Ilê Ayê) that´s important here in Salvador, is Olodum. Olodum was created in 1970´s soon after the first all-African `block´, or, group, was created to participate in the Carnavál that is held in Salvador every year (February). The group is distinguished as being a drumming group that involves Afro-descendant youth, kind of as a way to incorporate music in youth´s lives and keep the youth away from bad influences. Olodum´s mission is basically to spread the word of Afro-Brasilian pride, empowering minorities, and of course, unity - and it was helped greatly by Michael Jackson, as MJ (and Spike Lee) came to Salvador to film his music video, `They Don´t Care About Us´ with Olodum. The photo to the left was taken when we went to Pelourinho, and I believe that this is the same courtyard area where MJ filmed his music video...

So, as you can expect, it was a pretty big deal when MJ passed away - even though I´m.. HOW many miles away from the states?! - since, many Salvadorans loved him as being a supporter of Olodum.

Frutas fabulosas que sentirei a falta de... ou... não!

Top right, clockwise: Avocado, pinha, cacau, tea cup (for size reference!)

People have been asking me about what exotic fruits I´ve been eating here... and... to tell you the truth, I haven´t been eating too many `exotic´ ones, since... I´m not such a fan! BUT! I´ll still talk about them, anyways...

I guess I´ll start off with the ones I dislike, haha! (Even when I eat foods, I tend to eat the bitter/blah-tasting things first, then save the best things for last, muaha!) Onwards, ho!

* Papaya - self explanatory, we have this in the states, as well...

But, just in case, let´s call on our buddy, good ol´ wikeeee: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papaya

Interesting thing that I just found out on this link - Papaya´s also called `paw paw?!´ I always thought that Baloo from `Jungle Book´ was just making up words in his song, Bear Necessities, but.. I guess that`paw paw´ actually meant something! Good to know...

* Mango - eeeyeah. I´m not a HUGE fan of this, but, I admit - with the Thai dessert, Coconut-flavoured sticky rice, mango is so-so. Although I don´t really like the taste, I love the colour and how people (like my dad, aww!) cut it up so it looks like an orange sea-anemone.. haha! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango Brasil is apparently the top 7th producer of Mangoes..

* Maracujá - aka.. Passion Fruit, but... MAN.. am I NOT passionate about this fellow.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maracujá It´s made into a lot of desserts (pudding, with the seeds floating on top), juices, mix with cachaça... yeah.

* Cacao - yes, the fruit of my lover-for-life, chocolate! My HM´s friend has some cacao trees, so she brought one over, and we cut it and ate the `meat´ surrounding the seeds (which are dried/roasted for chocolate), and.. yeah. Not too much of a big deal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacao Just as a sidenote, in Brasil, most of the chocolate is made by Hersheys, Lacta, and Nestlé (actually.. Nestlé seems to be EVERYWHERE here... as well as Kraft!!)

*Cajú - aka, the fruit of cashew nuts (castanhas de cajú)! I was pretty amazed when I first saw these, since they´re so odd-looking, yet beautiful! I also couldn´t believe that there´s really, only one cashew nut per cashew fruit! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cashew I love Cashew nuts, but.. cajú juice is... not my preference. A lot of other people like it, though!

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Fruits that eu ADORO (yes, this separate list deserves a WALL to separate it from the others) hah!:

*Bananas - normal and terra (aka, plantains) - I´ve been eating bananas practically everday, in smoothies (with chocolate), with cake, boiled, grilled with cinnamon sprinkled on top, or as my favourite breakfast of all time - nutella spread onto toast with sliced bananas on top. I´m actually afraid I´m getting tired of bananas, since I sometimes eat 2-3 per day... oh no! Actually, did you know that eating bananas potentially increases your risk of being bitten by a mosquito?! Those buggers are hungry for shweet blood... eeks! dun dun dun!

* Coconut - Coconut yogurt, coconut in cake.. coconut in icecream, mixed with chocolate icecream.. mm!

* Pineapple - aka, abacaxi - love! We usually have 3 pineapples in the fridge at a time... mwa!

* Kiwi - I notice that this list seems VERY boring so far, since these fruits are pretty common in the US, but.. they just taste, SO good, here! Okay, I´ll try to be more interesting, now...

* Guava - aka, goiaba - yummy slightly-sour skin with slightly sweet-gooey-seeds, inside... is seemingly everywhere: juice, jams, in candy, in cookies (like, fig newtons!), with chocolates... I especially liked having guava jelly/paste in a beiju (http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapioca Basically, a tapioca tortilla, folded over filling, like a crepe, almost) with melted fresh cheese.... mmmm...

* Jenipapo - not to eat, but to drink. Naturally alcoholic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenipapo Apparently, in the West Indies, it´s called a `Marmalade box?!´

* Pinha - it looks like a green pinecone.. and has mushy things attached to each `scale´ of the fruit, inside. Each mushy thing is basically the `meat´ of the fruit surrounding an elongated oval-shaped black seed (that you spit out). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_squamosa Apparently in English, it´s a `custard/sugar apple?!´ mm... gostoso..

* Rambutan - yeah... not too commonly eaten here, but... delicoius, all the same! I always love seeing piles of rambutan... so pretty! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan

* Avocado - aka, abacate - So, when I first started eating this during lunch/dinner with my salads w/lime sprinkled on top, my HM´s friend kind of looked at me funny. Apparently, in Brazil, Avocado is seen as a fruit, so, it´s weird for some Brasilians to imagine eating avocado as a meal/non-sweet thing. They probably do this in other cultures, too, but, I did enjoy eating it as a dessert, as my HM prepared it: mashing up or blending the avocado, adding sugar, lime juice, and milk (or, milk powder, which is more commonly used, as I´ve mentioned). Just as how avocado is sometimes used in American sushi (I stress this, since Avocado is not used in real Japanese sushi!!) to add a creamy-factor, this dessert is pretty creamy, and I want to say that it almost tasted like a cheesecake that used lime... mmm...!

Uma Otra Lembrança (médica) do Brasil...

Perhaps this is just a SIGN that I shouldn´t go into anything health-related, since obviously I´ve been having such good luck, medically, on this trip. OR, perhaps this is more of a sign that I should go into medicine, to help others so they don´t `suffer´ from the same mistakes as I? haha!

So, I guess that dancing all night until sunrise wasn´t really such a good idea, or perhaps it was, because... A few hours after I woke up on Saturday, I began to notice some bruising on my foot and pinky toe area, even though no one really stepped on me, the previous day. My foot felt fine (just a little pain when walking up and down stairs), but I finally decided that, since my foot was bruised, that I´d just go to the doctor to see what on EARTH was wrong with me!

Off I went to the medical clinic with my HM (host mom, btw. I feel like Rachel Ray with her overuse of, yet re-defining of `E.V.O.O.´, haha!), which was pretty close by. This was my first time ever to go to anything emergency-health-related, and.. hey! My first time was in Brazil, cool! (Well, not really, haha!).

So, after waiting for about 20 minutes, my HM and I went to see the doctor, who not only helped a previous study-abroad `daughter´ of my HM (when the daughter apparently BROKE her toe), but also when my HM broke HER toe, too?! I guess my HM has a lot of experience with broken.. feet?! Anyways, the doctor examined my foot, and said that he couldn´t really determine what was wrong with it by sight/touch, so he sent me to get an X-ray.

Onward to the X-ray room to get a couple shots of my foot taken... and when we got the X-ray back (about 10 minutes), we discovered a couple interesting things:

1. My pinky toe is indeed, slightly fractured.

2. Apparently because of either my genes or because I didn´t spend enough time in my mother´s womb (ahha, premie, oh yeah!), one of the bones in my big toe apparently never completely formed? Rather, the pieces are there, but 2 pieces aren´t completely conjoined?? Apparently I will have feet problems in the future because of this. Wow. Good to know, sim? Haha!

So, anyways. I then got my foot bandaged, and was told to just keep it easy on my foot (no dancing, darn!), but still walk on it. hurrah!

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I´ve been wanting to go to this church in Salvador, Igreja de Nosso Senhor do Bonfim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Nosso_Senhor_do_Bonfim,_Salvador), since it´s a pretty important landmark of Salvador. This is the church that is pretty important for the Afro-Catholic syncretism-religion, and every year, there is a Festival of Bonfim, where tons of ladies (in traditional Afro-Brazilian dresses) wash the steps of the church, amongst other things to celebrate Oxalá, the most important deity of the Orixás. This is also the place where the colorful ribbons with `Lembrança do Senhor do Bonfim´ originate, and you´re supposed to tie it around the fence poles around the church, or else tie it around your wrist in a knot 3 times or so (for 3 wishes). These ribbons have become a pretty... what´s the word (I´m losing my English!!) ... stereotypical (?) or, well-known image of Salvador, so these ribbons, as well as other souvenuirs with depictions of or usage of these ribbons, are sold everywhere in Salvador. Anyway, this was one of the places I HAD to go to before I left Salvador.

PLUS. I had an even better reason to go, BECAUSE... the Igreja has a room where people buy/leave wax or wooden depictions of body parts, in order for the gods to heal their bodies - in exchange for their devotion. As you can see, the ceiling in this little room was covered with kind-of-eerie body parts (legs, hands, babies, heads..). The walls were covered with photos of people who had come to the Igreja with various (and sometimes really serious) health problems, and later were cured!

Anyways. I don´t know what to believe, but! At least I can say that I´ve visited this beautiful church, and that I´m doing my best to heal my foot!

Cheers!

O sol nasce á cinco e cincuenta horas

Just as an update from last time -

* I spent the following day at home, all day, just resting my foot (icing, hot water baths, bandaging), since I couldn´t really walk on it. After much debate with both my HM and my sister (on skype), as well as my parents going a little frantic about my health over a plentitude of emails (I have never checked my emails SO many times in ONE day here, in Brazil!), we decided that I´d probably just be bandaged and iced (aka, misma coisa as in the apartment) if I went to the doctor, anyway, so.. didn´t go to the doctor.

* 2 days after it happened (aka, Friday) my HM drove me to school, and I was able to limp around school a bit, then gain confidence to not only walk home for lunch, but walk to the shopping mall, afterwards. Right now, I have a little bruise on my pinky toe, but.. other than that, not much swelling, only slight pain on my pinky toe, still...

It´s walkable, but, yes, I will see a doctor when I get back to the states.

So, even though I knew that I still shouldn´t really put too much pressure on my foot... this is my LAST weekend, so, I´m sorry to my possibly-future-crippled-self, but, I think I´d agree in the future that I´d regret NOT having fun than having some crazy night but ending up with a potentially crooked toe.

The first week that I came to Brasil, a friend of mine said that her friend from a local hostel mentioned a TIRE STORE as one of the best places to hang out...

Intriguing, right? So, this whole time, I´ve been wanting to go to this famed `Borracharia´ (`tire store´, in Portuguese), but we haven´t really had the opportunity to do so, because Borracharia is only a dance club on Friday and Saturday nights (apparently, it really is a tire store during the day?!), and we haven´t had many free Friday or Saturday nights - because of program events...

So, 3 of my friends and I met up at 11pm or so on Friday night at McDonalds (aka, Mah-kee-doh-nahl-jee, which has become a good meeting place for us, haha!), caught a cab to Rio Vermelho for 20$R (I just had to ask the cab driver if he knew about the Borracharia in Rio Vermelho. he knew. muaha!), but when we got there, the club wasn´t really open yet!! *note* - Clubs in Brazil typically start really late. This place apparently started at 12... so long for beauty sleep, haha! anyways, we sat around a bit in the accompanying bar area, sipping caipirinhas (well, not me, since I´ve had enough of those, bleh!) watching this weird Brazilian singer´s concert on the TV... his costume was very questionable, almost Cleopatra-esque, but for a guy??

Anyways. The club started at 12, but we didn´t go in until probably 12:30 or so (15$R for girls, 20$R for guys), and it was funny, because as soon as we walked in, they were playing a lot of hip-hoppy... aka non-forró, samba.. or any Brazilian music that requires a lot of hip-shaking and foot-work. So, we were like, `Thank GOD!,´ we can probably dance to this music, and one of my friends was even very confident to say that we´d be the dancing champions to this music, since apparently Brazilians can´t dance to this music (that we´re used to in the US) to save their lives.

meh. Some of the Brazilians were okay.. but, I must admit, we were at least creative with our moves and had fun. It was certainly entertaining to watch some Brazilian guys wave their hands around a lot and do other moves in order to try to look `ghetto´ with some of the songs.. buaha! It definitely was refreshing to hear some remakes of the `Strokes,´ `the other one bites the dust´(haha!) and other US music, but I think the club kind of overdid it with some of the older US hits and techno-ey modern Brazilian music. Oh well! We met and danced with some Brazilian university students, and... yeps!

Long story short. Lots of dancing, typical overly-confident/insistent Brazilian guys, people drinking and smoking, losing my voice.... the club ended at around 5AM, and we could start to see the glow of a new day.

Came home around 5:30. Took a shower to wash off all the cheiro da Borracharia. Looked out the window.

Bom dia. Uma semana mais. Amargodoce.

Não estou certo que eu esteja bem!

So, our grammar lesson in Portugese, today, was the subjunctive form of verbs!

Do I hear a really loud groan from people out there, who, like me... have some difficulty with differentiating when to use subjunctive vs. indicative forms?? eee... YEAH. For example, when you DO think something, you use indicative. But, if you DO NOT think something, you use subjunctive. How confusing! blah!

Anyways, our teacher didn´t really assign us homework, today - but, instead, he told us to practice using the subjunctive form with people, today.

umm... yeah, right... I´m really going to go out of my way to use the seemingly magical set-up phrases for subjunctive, and then proceed to conjugate a verb into the subjunctive form...
So, pretty much, I just used my normal present, preterite, imperfect, future, and conditional forms of verbs today in the house and when I went out to the supermarket... UNTIL!


So, I´ve been feeling a little homesick, recently, especially since I haven´t spoken to my family for a few weeks. So, tonight, I was supposed to have a Skype date with my sister at 8pm. (Her 7am). But, I was still having a little meal with my host mom at 7:55!! So, I excused myself quickly and was running off to turn on the computer, when... I was really stupid and clumsy (like always) and hit my foot on a wall corner, so that the wall corner went inbetween my pinky toe and 4th (name?) toe. And.... I kind of heard a little crack and it hurt - but, I figured, I´m always clumsy like that, so... no biggee, right?

Well, my pinky toe didn´t swell up too much, but it was hurting pretty badly, my pinky toe looked (and still looks.. uh oh?) a bit.. permanently spread out from the other toes, and I couldn´t really put pressure on my foot to walk.. and I´ve never broken any bones or sprained anything before, so, all of this stuff was pretty new to me - although, I have to say, I was more fascinated than worried about my foot, haha!! But, ANYWAYS! The point was, I wasn´t quite sure what was `normal´or not.

PERFECT timing for the subjunctive, right? Okay, so.. yeah, I know it´s super weird of me to have thought of grammar at a time like this, but.. oh well! Phrases that I used were...

* É posivel que meu dedo esteja quebrado... (It is possible that my toe is broken!)
* Espero que eu não tenha que ir ao médico. (I hope that I don´t need to go to the doctor!)
* Sinto que eu precise de gelo. (I think I need ice.)

Tomara que eu não tenha mais problemas no Brasil, e que possa caminhar, a manha!

O que faz você feliz?

` mmm... kabocha and okra... my FAVORITES!´

Our Portuguese teacher had us read some poems, today, in class - as a conversation topic for us. Today´s topic was `what makes us happy?´ Definitely made me think about home~!

This particular poem didn´t really have an author - BUT! It was used for a grocery store commercial.. haha! The ending phrase of the commercial being something along the lines of `(blank) Grocery Store, where you are happy.´

Looks like Disneyland has some competition, eh? haha!

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O que faz você feliz?

A lua, a praia, o mar

Uma rua, passear

Um doce, uma dança, um beijo

Ou goibada com queijo

Afinal, o que faz você feliz?

Chocolate, paixão, dormir cedo, acordar tarde

Arroz com feijão, matar a saudade

O aumento, a casa, o carro que você sempre quis

Ou são os sonhos que te fazem feliz?

Dormir na rede, matar a sede

Ler ou viver um romance

O que faz você feliz?

Um lápis, uma letra, uma conversa boa

Um cafuné, café com leite, rir a toa

Um pássaro, um parque, um chafariz

Our será o choro que te faz feliz?

A pausa para pensar

Sentir o vento, esquecer o tempo

O céu, o sol, um som
A pessoa, ou o lugar?

Agora me diz, o que faz você feliz?

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I would say that this summer has already somehow made me ponder what I really enjoy doing. Although I have limitations as to how open I am, I enjoy meeting new people and talk about things with them, without a preconceived (and usually prejudiced) notion of who they are just by what their appearance is. To not necessarily be completely prepared for, but have a positive mind and will to deal with events in my life, whether they be good or bad. To enjoy things without feeling the need to impress others. To take chances. To be honest. To live.

Meu caminho~

Oh, cobble-stone like sidewalks... avoiding dog-poo... walking past construction sites... venturing off onto the street when there´s a random newspaper stand in the middle of the sidewalk... getting the occasional `konichiwa´ at least twice a week...

Livre Arbítrio.

So, last time, I reported on everyday things that I encounter in Brazil that I find amusing/will miss.

This time... I´ll talk about something that I encounter practically everyday, and although people here probably find this `normal,´ and I know I´m supposed to be open-minded to everything here for my cultural immersion, I´m quite content with myself questioning this one part of my Brazilian life and in turn, not accepting it, because it is just... not rightly-minded in my book.

All of the people in my program live with middle class (and possibly higher?) families, most of which have maids (empregadas domésticos). Some families have them come once, twice a week... everyday... or even weirder, some maids actually LIVE with the families. These women are all of the lower class, meaning - in Brazilian terms - that they are of African descent, and probably completed a lower-than-high-school education. Some women are from here (Salvador, the city), while others probably come from the `interior,´ where there are no jobs at all. Most of the time, the maids are apparently not under a contract with their employees - thus, they are not necessarily guaranteed insurance, social security benefits, or even minimum wage. However, most of them have no choice but to work as maids, since they do not have enough of an education to work elsewhere (our guest-professor [below] said that you need at least a high school education to work in a sewing/clothing factory).

Last week in our culture class, our guest-professor (a feminist from the University of Bahia) spoke to us about women in Brazil: voting, domestic violence, education, salaries, involvement in politics... And of course, our guest-professor spoke about `domestic workers,´since all of us US students have actually seen them in our apartments. And I was really glad when our guest-professor addressed the issue of how she´s a feminist, yet has a maid in her house: kind of hypocritical, não, for someone who´s all for women´s rights? And yet, I was a little disappointed by her reply - that, in a way, she´s supporting her maid by offering her a job that she needs?

See, in my apartment, I´m not quite sure how to comment on the treatment of our maid, Laura.

Whenever Laura comes (which is around 6:30 in the morning), she helps make breakfast, prepare lunch, wash clothes, wash dishes, wash the windows, sweep and wash the floors, clean the bedrooms and bathrooms... everyday... then leaves around 4-5pm or so. At least, in my house, Laura and my host mom (let´s just call her HM, for short) seem to prepare meals together - well, it´s more like Laura chopping up things, then my HM putting the things together and adding the seasoning. In other houses, I´ve heard of some people´s maids cooking things all day, then putting them in freezable containers, for the HM´s to just heat up for later - thus, THEIR HM´s never cook.
Another weird thing is that while I´m eating breakfast or lunch with my HM, Laura is just kind of standing there in the kitchen, ready to bring us a spoon, or clean my plate inbetween different foods (so that the flavours won´t mix?? Example: I was eating pineapple, so the plate had a ton of pineapple juice still on it - and then I wanted to eat some toast or grilled bananas, so Laura washed my plate in a second and gave it back to me...) - which is nice, BUT... who would seriously get up to clean their plate like that in the US, each time? Anyways. Laura kind of just stands there, watching us eat, waits for us to finish and leave the kitchen, and THEN she eats by herself.

While I want to say that this social inequality is only minor - since, it seems like Laura and my HM get along most of the time, since they joke around and seem to have fun in the kitchen, together - there have been times when I´ve felt uncomfortable, but had no choice but to just nod in agreement or say nothing at all. As I was leaving the house 2 days ago, for example, I was literally just stepping out of the door, when my HM stopped me and pointed out to me some areas in the kitchen that were a little dirty, as a result of Laura being `lazy´ and having to be told where to clean, or else she won´t clean it. However, I found these supposedly dirt-infested places to be ridiculous, since my HM pointed out:
1. a little spot behind the oven.
2. an upper corner of the kitchen wall, where seriously, my eyes would never really wander off to...
3. the door - had a little bit of a streak from where Laura had washed it, but apparently not well enough..

Besides the fact that these places were just, again, ridiculous, I just find this to be killing me, since it just makes me feel like Laura´s a victim of back-stabbing, or just, in general, common respect. Laura is probably about 50 years old or so, African-Brazilian, and she´s a really nice lady who loves to whistle and joke around (although her accent is a bit thick and I have trouble understanding.. haha!) with me. She´s human, and yet, she does her job really well, at least in my opinion (which is perhaps not saying much, since I´ve never had a maid in my house in the US). I at least think that my HM should appreciate all that Laura has done, and not criticize her for things that are just ridiculous - or.... perhaps, I´m afraid to say this.... this is just the norm in Brazil?

Although Laura used to come in everyday of the week to repeat this cycle of serving us, I think that my HM got mad at her for some reason, and basically told Laura to not come back (this was about 2 weeks back). That day when I came back from school, I went to the bathroom and the sink didn´t work... so I told my HM, and she automatically blamed Laura for it. For which, I thought was crazy/rude that my HM should just automatically blame Laura for anything. However, my `sister´(from Illinois, who was still here) kind of laughed and said that it probably was Laura, and that she was glad that she did it.

Now that I look back, I too must say and admit.. touché, Laura. Good job for striking back.

BTW:
1. Bathroom sink problem was quickly solved by just turning the water switch from off --> on to the bathroom.
2. After Laura striked back, my HM surprisingly was able to maintain the apartment pretty well, cleaning/washing all over the place... however...
3. Laura is back- although, she only comes twice a week, now.

Só no Filé

So! I´ll only be here for two (actually.. less than!) weeks, so! I just decided, instead of reporting on a daily event, I will just blah-blah-blah on everyday/normal things in Brazil! So, perhaps when I miss Brazil dearly, I shall look back on this post and just chuckle to myself.. ha! So, here´s a bit of my life that I´ve lived in the past 4 weeks.. só no filé.

1. MILK
- is sold in boxes. Not only that. It´s NOT refrigerated when it´s sold!! Fortunately, though, they DO refrigerate after opening.. :)
- is, most of the type, drunk in the form of POWDER. Well, actually, in MY house, my mom doesn´t really drink milk as MILK. She only really drinks milk in her coffee - so, it´s more of adding milk powder to your coffee for cream. BUT. My Portuguese teacher was saying how he himself prefers milk powder to REAL milk...?

2. WATER
- you have to BUY water ALL the time. Even in restaurants, they usually charge an extra 2 reais or so per bottle if you just want a bottle of water with your meal.

3. SHOWERS
- DON´T take long showers, or else you might BURN OUT the shower! (haha, this sounds weird, right?) So, I`m not quite sure EXACTLY how the showers here work, but, basically... the shower head area has a heater thing attached THERE, which is operated electrically. If you take a long shower, you have a risk of overheating the heater-apparatus, and thus, like a light bulb, it can burn out... and you´ll be left with FREEZING cold water. Yeah... I (and I think other sutdents of the program) didn´t know this the first week we were here, so we just assumed that all Brazilian showers are just FREEZING cold the whole time!!
- Turning on the shower `stronger´ means adding more cold water. So, DON´t turn the dial too hard unless you just enjoy being ice-cold.... like a penguin..
- The technique that I have come to use, after experience (haha..): Wet hair. Stop shower. Lather hair with shampoo thoroughly. Turn on shower to rinse out shampoo. Stop shower. Condition hair. Turn on shower to rinse out conditioner and wet scrubber-thingie at same time. Stop shower. Put soap stuff on scrubber-thingie and wash body. Turn on shower to wash off soap and whatnot. DONE.
- Btw. You´re sort of expected to take a shower not only everyday, but seemingly, however many times a day. Which is good, since they´re very hygienic, but.. to an extreme, perhaps? Woke up? Take a shower. Come back from school? Take a shower. Eating dinner in a little bit? Take a shower.

4. Avocados
- are HUGE in Brazil. I feel like Brazilian Avocados are like ostrich eggs in comparison to the chicken-egged US Avocados. And green on the outside!

5. Taxes
- The price that you see in the supermarket, is the price you pay. Although I know that this may actually be the supermarket overpricing things over the tax, BUT. I kind of like how simple the math is in your head, when you only have a few reais in your pocket, and don´t have to calculate/estimate whatever percentage of tax you have to add on at the cashier...

6. Bats
- So.. one day, my host mom and I were eating dinner, and then ALL of a sudden, this BAT flies through the kitchen window?!? I was REALLY suprised, but my mom didn´t seem too surprised, and eventually the bat flew out of the window... And my host mom was just casually like, `Oh yeah. Bats sometimes fly in because they´re attracted to the scent of fruit.´ So, just like that, my host mom then proceeds to just put the bananas and pineapples and papayas into the fridge, so the bats can´t smell them. Apparently it happens.. not OFTEN, but it does. I´ve seen bats a total of 3 times flying through our apartment... haha!

7. Petrobras
- Has a monopoly over the gas in Brazil.

8. EEE-s!
- When pronouncing words in Portuguese, sometimes... it´s just amusing, especially with foreign/English words that Brazilian people say to us because they think we should know them, but at first, we have NO idea what-in-the-WORLD they are saying!
- Por exemplo. I will put out the pronunciation, first..
a) Lee-ree-kee : What are they trying to say?? To put in context, my host mom was like, `What does the lee-ree-kee mean?´when we were listening to a song. You guessed? Answer: Lyric. In Portuguese, whenever there´s a D, T, K, P, ... at the end of some words, they add an `ee´to the end!
b) Bra-jee Pee-chee: Like the example above. Answer? Brad Pitt. buahaha!!
c) Hih-pee Hoh-pee: I thought this was SO hilarious when one of my friends was saying how her host mom asked her if she liked this, and proceeded to apparently make some `ghetto´-like hand gestures while listening to Snoop Dog (pronounced snoo-pee doh-gee, btw!). Answer? Hip Hop.
d) Hoh-kee: This is kind of a hard one. But, in Portuguese, whenever there´s an `r´at the beginning of a word, it´s pronounced like an `h´. So, combine the secretly hidden `r´with the weird portugese way of pronouncing consonants at the end of words? Answer: Rock.
- Basically... things are SO much easier via reading than listening...

Fotos, finalmente!!

SO! I figured out that I can just select which photos to upload from my camera to the computer... muahah! I don´t want to show TOO many, since it´d spoil the fun of me showing them to you guys in person... haha!

Um Exemplo do Cinema Brasileiro

Isle of Flowers - Part One

Isle of Flowers - Part Two

Volta.

This past weekend was probably one of the best weekends I`ve had yet, in Brasil. Simply put, it was amazing, worth every reais e centavo spent.

Friday late night, I went with some friends to Rio Vermellho (the `bohemian´/college student hangout area) to go eat some acarajé. Typically, students/people come here during the evening/later at night to enjoy a plate of acarajé, washing it down with few bottles of Nova Schin or Skol. I forget if I`ve already explained what acarajè is, but it`s basically a lump of mashed black-eyed peas, fried in palm oil (the use a TON of palm oil here, dendé), served with some sundried shrimp (optional), hot pepper sauce (pimenta), vatapá (a paste made of shtuff.. I think it has meat in it.. woops!), and a light chopped onion/tomatoe/parsley salad on the side.
Although, on Friday night, I had abará instead of acarajé (hey! Saving calories, right?? haha!). Acarajé is fried in palm oil, and abará is steamed in banana leaves, basically looking like and having the same consistency as a tamale (with no filling). SO GOOD.

Saturday, I woke up early to meet at my school (7am) with a smaller group of our program to go to Chapada Diamantina, a national park in Brazil - still located in the same state as Salvador, Bahia. Just as a reality check - Brazil is the same size as the US (minus Alaska), so getting around Brazil DOES take a long time, especially if you`re taking a road trip! So, Chapada Diamantina is in the same state as Salvador (more interior)... but it took us SIX hours to get there!! (kind of like LA to SF, right?? haha!)

Words just can`t describe the beauty. PLUS, I still want to be able to present my stories to you guys when I get home without the grumble of, `Julie... we´ve ALREADY heard this ALL before!´so! I shall keep this short!

Saturday:
1. Morro do Pai Inácio - although it was raining when we got there, the hike up was just, SO rewading - I miss hiking SO much. Basically, we went on top of this `plateau´ which was VERY high up, and overlooks a great forest with other mountains and plateau. What`s even cooler is that Morro do Pai Inácio used to be underwater, so gradually the water just sank/eroded things along with it. So, in a way, it`s KIND of like the Grand Canyon, except there aren`t really canyons, and it´s very green. so beautiful.
2. Lençois - a town right outside of Chapada Diamantina, that has residents, but mainly serves as a tourist spot for people visiting the national park to stay in. Back in the day (or... still?) Chapada Diamantina was a really important spot for mining diamonds (hence the name, Diamantina), so Lençois used to house many miners, as well. This was a really cute town, too, since it had cobble stone streets, colorful Portuguese/colonial-inspired buildings... basically, a CLEAN version of Pelourinho (in Salvador). We stayed in a pousada (an inn) in Lençois.

Sunday:
1. Gruta da Lapa Doce - a cave that used to have water in it, but is now very DRY (and relatively warm) and is actually very sandy inside. Good thing for claustrophobics - this cave was HUGE! Plenty of stalagmites and stalactites of interesting shapes... including some that cast interesting shadows (ex. if you waved a lamp around this particular one, it looked like a dog/wolf opening and closing its mouth. Or, another one where if you stood near it with your arms out, looks like you`re riding a lion... haha! seriously, some of those cave people had time on their hands!). At one point of the tour through the hike, our guide and other guides completely turned off their lamps, and someone was playing this very calm/almost mournful tune on a recorder/flute/whistling (?). The experience was just.. so surreal. Being left with nothing but a little quiet tune, yourself, and darkness.
2. Poço de Diabo - a waterfall that was just, BEAUTIFUL. The whole time, I had to keep reminding myself that it was all NATURAL - I think this was my favorite part of the trip (water plus GREAT hike, YES!). Basically, we parked our omnibus, went down this trail across a stream, through bushy/rockyness, hiked over more streams, down a cliff, and arrived at this waterfall that was just.. overwhelming. Interesting note - the water was clear/clean, but.. brown?? In my opinion, the brown water just made the waterfall even more beautiful, and the rock formation and lush greenery around it was just, AWW..

Monday:
A few of us got in this safari-style jeep to take a 40 minute drive to a quilombo. Basically, a quilombo is a type of small village that was made in the 18-19th centures in Brasil by slave fugitives. They are typically characterized as being VERY remote / hidden in the jungle, apparently having only one main road leading to it (that only residents knew about). Our program director had let us know that this particular quilombo (which is actually NOT in the original quilombo location, but was relocated in the 50`s, just across the river) didn´t know about TV´s until only about 5-6 years ago. SO! Basically, I was expecting the village to be almost like an African-tribe-village thing (like what my friend showed me pictures of in Kenya, where the people still build huts/houses traditionally, have a few modern-day clothes, but are relatively tight-culture and not familiar with outside technology nor events). However, I turned out to be very wrong - the village was kind of just, like a rural town. There were houses, an elementary school, electricity (due to a government campaign about 5 years ago to give all Brasilians, light), a few cars, water, everyone in modern day clothes, a youth-soccer team.. There even exists an international quilombo association (which, so happens, the leaders of the quilombo we visited were at a conference for this association, that day!).
Basically, it`s a very tight-knit community where all the residents are of slave-heritage, only about 40-50 families living there. Their only source of income is really, donations from people who visit (we donated 2 reais each person), honey, fishing (although fish levels are declining)... and some residents live in Lençois during the week for work, there. For food, they have their own community farm, and even a mill for making flour (farinha, I believe out of aipim) - so, really, they are very self-sustaining.
One of the crazy things, though, is that this community (which was recognized by the government as a true `quilombo´only within the past 10 years or so) has to pay taxes, even though they really don´t receive benefits (well, perhaps electricity and water are benefits?). The man that we were talking (nickname, Leão, which means lion! haha!) to really made it seem like it´s difficult for the community to financially get by (to pay taxes), and that it´s really only the visitor-donations that are helping them. There IS a health center, but Leão said that doctors come VERY rarely - sometimes only once a week, once a month.. VERY irregular. Children go to the local elementary school, but for middle school (or even higher educations), they must go to Lençois (which, I remind you, is a 40 minute drive away, on a dirt road through the forest, a pretty rough drive). Additionally, school there is from 6-10pm?! So, only a few students are really WILLING to go pursue a higher education, unless they stay in Lençois during the week.

So, I think this whole living situation left a lot of us students wondering... WHY would people want to live here, if there really don´t seem to be too many benefits - health, education, financial - here? We kept on asking Leão about people who leave the community for work or other opportunities, and whether they really DO come back or not. Repeatedly, he kept on answering, `Volta,´(They return) SO matter-of-fact-ly. This is their home. The community IS their family (sidenote: there basically isn´t any crime here, since everyone´s either related or very close) that they identify with.

Less than three weeks `til I volto. Bittersweet.

Um café com leite

Seriously... I never thought I`d say this SO much, but... coffee with hot milk is simply... bom! I love how café is served at seemingly all hours of the day, here.

That being said, though! The title of this time`s post is actually.. part of ANOTHER Portuguese/Brazilian figure of speech! Como... `Ele é um café com leite,´ apparently means that, `He´s nothing special.. just young/inexperienced/unimportant.´

SO! I definitely felt like that, TODAY, since... this afternoon, we had a dance lesson! You know that song,`Hips Don´t Lie´with Shakira?? Yeah. I feel like my hips are the EXACT opposite of wonder-woman Shakira´s, haha! So, does that mean that my hips... DO lie?!? Haha~! Anyways, I digress, yet again...

Today`s dance lesson covered: forro, samba, pagode (a variety of samba)... Our teacher was this CRAZY little woman who had MAGENTA-coloured frizzy hair, this great smile, and the SKILLS to shake her hips like CRAZY and GLIDE across the floor. Not to mention, her assistant/son who demonstrated some dance moves and played the drum/tambourine/cowbell/berimbou at times was pretty cute, I must say... Dare I mention that in addition, he also does capoeira?! AH! ANYWAYS. Focus!

Basically, all of these dances are performed to very upbeat, folksy festival music (if only we had learned this BEFORE São João, né?) that, I think is very reminescent of that cheesy/slightly annoying music that you hear when you`re trying to search for a good radio channel while you`re stuck in traffic, but instead land for a few seconds on a Mexican/Latino-folk station, then DESPERATELy turn the dial, quickly!
haha!

Anyways. Basically, all of these steps including shuffling your feet 1-2 to the right, 1-2 to the left, REPEAT. During this period of time, you are expected to not really pick up your feet too much, and oh! yes. Try to shake your hips in a cool way at the same time. And, oh! to make it um pequeno mais difícil, dance with a partner, add some twirls, voilá!

Of course, even though I absolutely can`t shuffle my feet while trying to cool-y shake my hips, it was a lot of fun! There was a portion of the dance where you basically jump up and down, switching feet, which I could do (thank goodness, right??)! And of course, there were some pretty fun dances where you dance in a circle, watching/supporting everyone shake their `thang,´ hehe!

In any case. I`m in Brasil, I can make a fool of myself. It was fun, and hey! Got a good workout from it! Que bom. Beijo.

A lua e as estrelas...

This afternoon, we had our usual Afro-Brazilian culture class - today`s topic being... Afro-Brazilian religion, more specifically, Candomblè!

I thought this topic was pretty nifty, especially because it`s just so cool how mixed of a religion Candomblè is.. or, I guess to be more proper, it is very `syncretized.´ So, even though I`m not an expert on Candomblè, I thought that I`d use some of today`s post to just present some of the information that we received today in class!

So, Syncretism is when one religion assimilates into another religion, kind of making a fused, mixed religion. In the case of Candomblè, a fusion of different African religions (coming to Brazil via the trans-Atlantic slave trade, mainly Yoruba-speaking) and Catholicism occurred.
Popular Catholicism in Brazil is for the most part, apparently very practical, being more devotional than sacramental. For example, our teacher was saying how people here usually go to church in order to ask for protection, security, and ways to solve everyday problems, in exchange for gifts/devotion to god.
With the trans-Atlantic slave trade, several different groups from Africa were transported to Brazil, and mainly in the urban areas, several associations were formed by the slaves as a means of building their own community/family away from their real homes. Examples of these associations are: Juntas, bank-like organizations to buy other people`s freedom; Cantos de Trabalho (I didn`t really get this...?), slaves that would sell their master`s things in the market would keep some of the profit for themselves?; and Irmandades Catò licas, sisterhoods and brotherhoods.. that also built churches for themselves (since slaves couldn`t enter their master`s churches).

Anyways! What IS Candomblè? First off, it`s a VERY secret society - solely oral traditions, and so people within the religion are not really allowed to talk that much about its ceremonies and whatnot... which is kind of funny, since our teacher for today is actually a membre of Candomblè.. but I guess he didn`t reveal TOO much to us, haha?!
Candomblè belives in one, all powerful god (Oludumarè), who is served by lesser deities (orixas). Every person in Candomblè has their own orixa (can have more than one!) that controls a person`s destiny and protection. An Orixa represents a force in nature (water, trees, etc..), is associated with certain foods, colours, animals, and days of the week, and are sometimes associated as being the ancestors of different ethnicities (like, African kingdoms) or different elements (like, trees). According to our teacher, there is no concept of good or bad - just, that people need to fulfill their destiny to the fullest, and that any wrongs that one commits WILL return to them. Additionally, Candomblè worships ancestors - so, sometimes, one will have a particular orixa because their grandmother/ancestor had it - and ancestor spirits ensure that past moral standards will continue in the present.

SO! In a REALLY small nutshell, Candomblè worships nature and ancestors, and practices of Candomblè include: Divination (to try to figure out the cause of any misfortune of a Candomblè follower), Initiation (apparently takes about a month, which one spends in recluse/at the temple, to prepare people`s body to be `taken´ by an orixa in a trance), Sacrifice (no explanation needed??), Celebration (feasting after the sacrifice ceremony. Apparently, this is the ONLY practice of Candomblè that OUTSIDERS are allowed to attend. Everything else, is SECRET), Possession (by an orixa), and Healing (physically and spiritually).

So, the way that Catholicism is involved, is mainly that all the orixas (spirits) have second names that are associated with Saints of the Catholic church - in order for the slaves who started this practice to not be too discriminated.

There is more that we learned, but.... I think that`s enough.... haha!
--------

Just as a sidenote, I thought I`d write a little about what`s been on my mind a little, these past 2 days. If you`re interested more about Brazilian adventures, then... don`t read further, haha!

So, one of the things I wanted to gain from this trip was to get a better perspective of what I want to do with my life. Today is `tanabata,´ a type of festivitiy in Japan where one is supposed to make a wish (the story goes that two lovers in the stars/sky are separated by the Milky Way all year long, but ONLY on 7.7, are allowed to see each other), so I figure that today is an appropriate day for me to wish for something pertaining to my future goals.

For this Brazil program, one of our assignments includes giving a presentation on any topic pertaining to Brail that we found to be interesting. With me, I`ve been interested in researching the differences in diet between the US and Brazil. This started, because, as I think I`ve mentioned SEVERAL times before, there is a TON of sugar or salt in almost EVERY Brazilian dish I`ve had here, so I was interested in seeing whether or not there was a noticeable difference in diabetes prevalence in Brazil vs. the US. Well, so far, I`ve had some trouble finding information comparing diabetes levels, but I found a lot of information on overweight/obesity levels.
Of course, the US has higher percentages of overweight/obesity prevalence than Brazil, but a lot of papers that I found seem to point out that levels in Brazil are increasing at a pretty rapid rate, especially because: the economy of Brazil is becoming more competitive, globally; at the same time, food prices in Brazil are very high, so that cheaper but unhealthy foods are becoming more of the reality; the population is becoming more urban than rural/agricultural... amongst other things. Anyways. In addition to getting all these facts and figures, I started diving into really weird (but relevant?) tangents, such as sugar import/export, numbers of McDonalds restaurants, literacy rates... etc. etc.... If I get stuck on a topic I like, I can spend HOURS doing everything I can to get the answer I want.

Perhaps it`s because I don`t have my OChem or Biology book in front of me right now (you know I`m not THAT crazy to lug Vollhardt and Campbell on an airplane, right?? haha!), but at this moment, I feel really interested in more public health issues, like providing more education/health services for people. That being said, though, I still want to be at the forefront of research in order to BE there and actually provide answers/solutions, medically (pharmacology?). And that being said, I also want to actually interact with patients, because I want to actually see the faces of people that I`m trying to help, and to let them know that they`re not just another number or file in the system.

Okay. nevermind. perhaps I`m still confused as to what I want to do with my life - so, I´m still stuck between Grad school, Pharm school, and perhaps Physician`s Assistant or Nursing School program. AGH! At least.. I`m still SURE that I want to travel and provide health-care to people in need, probably through a program such as or similar to that of Doctors Without Borders! AGH!

Basically.... I need an orixa for MUITO help! haha~!

4 de julho no brazil

So, while everyone in the US was probably having barbeques, watching fireworks, and doing whatever traditional Fourth of July celebration stuff, the students in our Brazil program went on a weekend trip to Praia do Forte, about an hour`s bus trip away from Salvador.

We met up at school at 8AM in the morning (which.. never REALLY happens, since, not ALL people can get up that early on a Saturday, haha! *grrrr!*), everyone carrying their backpacks full of beachwear, bug-repellant, SPF lotion... and of course, dangling plastic grocery bags with the MASSIVE amount of snacks that our host-mothers provided us. Seriously, these women just expect us to eat SO much!! These snacks typically consist of a can of guarana or package of juice/chocolatey/SWEET drink, potatoe chips, ANOTHER type of potatoe chips, cookies, fruit, sandwiches, crackers... all of this, PER PERSON.

Anyways! Let us not get caught up on just how much weight everyone`s going to gain on this trip... haha!

Our first stop in Praia do Forte was this castle, apparently the first castle built (by Europeans) in South America - Castelo Garcia D´Avila. One of the things that I found to be most interesting about this fort, was that the land/farm that is was on, was HUGE/the biggest `farm` in the world (almost like, a 1/3 of Brazil?? I forgot/perhaps am exaggerating.. haha!), and that D`Avila claimed his land by spreading his cattle and coconut trees! In fact, before D`Avila, there were NO coconut trees in South America - he brought them from India!! I thought this was super crazy, especially because just, the idea of tropical places just bring about the image of coconut trees swaying in the breeze... not to mention that the coconut icecream here is just, BOMB. So, thank goodness that D`Avila came to Brazil, eh?? haha!

This castle was also interesting, since:
1. They actually brought some stone blocks from Portugal to build it, using local (Brazilian) rocks to kind of form the cement/inbetween material.
2. They had a room to punish slaves/prisoners in, which was a pretty regular room, but.. right below were rooms that had jaguars in them... so the point was to frighten the prisoners with the sound/threat of the jaguars... EEK.
3. There was a big tree, nearby, that apparently houses one of the indigenous spirits (forgot the name...!). Supposedly, back in the day, people would come under this tree to be married, but all the witnesses would be VERY attentive to the tree, since, if ANY leaves fell from the tree during the process, this would mean that the tree-spirit-thing did NOT approve of the marriage, and so the marriage would be CANCELLED! Crazy, right? Good thing there doesn`t seem to really be a fall-season, here...

After the castle, we went to drop off our things at a hostel (SUPER good, btw) at Praia do Forte, then went to a Sea-Turtle preservation center (Tamar Project). Because turtle season is from August to April, we didn`t see any turtle eggs, but, we did see a few turtles that were in the tanks at the center... One thing that I read (and I`ve learned before, but, hey! I think it`s a cool fact) is that the sex of turtles is determined by the temperature of the sand that they are kept in during development. Female turtles come from hotter sand temperatures, muahah! However, this actually isn`t too cool, since I think one of the info-signs at the center was saying how the sands have been pretty warm, recently, so there`s been fewer and fewer males?
oooh.. boy. Global Warming??

Afterwards (YES. We have QUITE a schedule, right?) we went to our program director`s parent`s house, located right on a lake, and had a TON of food, including traditional Brazilian food, such as, what of course but: MEAT, some crab casserole dish thingie, fried yucca (eaten like potatoe fries), feijoada.. amongst other things, with some people drinking nothing other than Bohemias, caipirinhas.... having fruit and maracuja pudding for dessert, and a cafe-espresso to top it all off. It was a pretty fun time, with people dancing forro (a type of Brazilian music.. kind of folksy.. played a lot at parties/big gatherings) and people TRYING to dance forro but only really succeeding in moving their feet and not their hips (*cough cough*).

We then drove back to the hostel and hung around the little village (or.. touristy-area) of Praia do Forte, listening to live music, eating icecream (I had this weird flavour called `umbu,` apparently a local fruit?? I much rather enjoyed the coconut icecream, and my friend`s PEANUT icecream was just, AH! As she put it, `orgasmic,` haha!).

Sunday (the fifth) was spent lounging on the beach, exploring the tidal pools (I saw some tiny blue, and yellow/black striped fish!), buying souvenuirs, and just.. RELAXING, as if we haven`t been relaxing enough in Brazil, already, right??

SO! On a scale of 1-10, I`d have to rate this beach resort as... a 6. It was nice, but, there was kelp all over the place, the beach had a LOT of tidal pools, so it was actually hard to walk around in the water/find a place to swim, and there were just way too many souvenuir stops (Hawaiian-resort village... artificial?) in my opinion... but, hey! I got to work on my tan, so, that`s always a plus, right?? haha...

A faca e o queijo...

This time.. I`m going to be even more disorganized and just put down random things that I`ve found interesting, or just thoughts that have been swimming, recently, in my mind.



1. Bompreço - literally, `good price`, is pretty much everywhere. It`s a store with pretty much everything, as well, so, yeah, I`m glad that there`s something convenient and sort of cheap for the Brazilian population. But, what bugs me about this store is that it is the Walmart of Brazil. And I`m not kidding - it`s owned by Walmart. I think the reason why I`m irked by this store is that I`m a little creeped out by how much globalization is taking part in our modern-day world. Perhaps what I really want is just every country to be independent enough to have their own strong, domestic businesses, instead of foreign ones? Meh! I`m DEFINITELY not an econ or global studies major, so, perhaps globalization really is better for the global economy, but, just morally, in my mind, I`m not quite a fan. This is the reason why I really dislike Starbucks, because it`s just insanely stupid how it`s EVERYWHERE.



2. The title of this time`s blog, means `a knife and cheese.` I find this very cute, since, in Portuguese, if one has a knife and cheese, it apparently means that - all is well, and that one has all that they need. Sometimes I wish I could live without internet, without media, and just live happily and simply with just the few things I need in life. Perhaps this is called retirement?? haha!



3. I still don`t understand how this works, but, our Portuguese teacher told us that apparently, in Brazil, you should keep your receipts (from the store) instead of throwing them away, since you can give them to charity organizations, later? For example, after you`ve kept your receipts for a while, you can either give your receipts to your church, or charity boxes (for hospitals and other organizations) usually in the supermarkets... and no matter how much money was on the receipt, each receipt has the same value of donation (from the government? I guess, through product tax?) to give to the charity organization. Neat-o, right??



4. Pra chuchu - literally means, for/by (or by means of?) chuchu (chayote). WHAT DOES THIS MEAN in HUMAN terms?! Basically, a chayote apparently grows VERY fast. So, if one uses this expression in a phrase, say.... `I`ve been studying pra chuchu`, it basically means that `I`ve been studying so much like CRAZY!` Haha! By the way, chuchu has become one of my favorite veggies, here... :D



5. The social differences are definitely noticeable, here. We were talking in class about the differences between the Brazilian and US economies, and.. basically, it`s just mind-blowing how little people earn, here. I`m not quite sure how accurate this is, but, basically, our teacher was saying how, with minimum wage in the US, one should be earning $640 a week. In Brazil, on the otherhand, sometimes people earn only $R435 a MONTH. Which, is we just round the conversion rate to be $R1 = $2 US, then.. that`s about $217 a MONTH?! I need to do more research online, but, it`s just insane how the majority of the country`s wealth is by so FEW people, but about 20% of the country`s population is below poverty. Anyvays... again, I`m probably a shame to my father for not knowing more about international business or what economical/financial terms actually mean (sorry, Papa, haha!), but, you can definitely see the difference on the streets.

What`s even more insane is that although the Brazilian average income is SO much lower than that of other countries - I tried this website, which claims that apparently the average Brazilian annual salary is $8,723, while the US is $31,410 http://www.worldsalaries.org/) - that things here are not necessarily cheaper... Certainly, some things are cheap depending on where you go, but clothes are basically the same price as in the US.. food`s a lot of the time actually more expensive here... and, yeah!



So... this might be a hint hint to some of my friends that I might not be able to get that many souvenuirs for you guys.... haha! Desculpe!

Meu verão, seu inverno!

Sorry I haven`t posted in a while!

Yesterday was Independence Day in Salvador, although Brazil`s Independence Day is on September 7th (1822?). Why does Salvador have another Independence Day? Apparently... after Brazil became independent from Portuguese, some loyal-Portuguese people in Brazil fled to Salvador, so basically they had their own Portuguese civilization here, still. So, on July 2, 1823 (?), almost a year after the majority of Brazil was freed from Portuguese control, locals in Salvador rebelled... and thus, became independent!

Anyways. Thus, I didn`t have school, yesterday, so... I walked around the city! In the morning, I went to the beach (Praia da Barra), which was ALREADY crowded with people at 10:30 or so! Keep in mind... this is supposed to be WINTER in Salvador, and someone was saying how the water was a little cold, but.. hey! It was a WARM, SUNNY day.. and the water was definitely warmer than California water (which isn`t saying much, since I think that California beach water is COLD... due to the coastal water flowing from currents from the north?).

So, how is the beach scene, even in the middle of winter in Salvador? MANY people lying on the beach (mainly on sarongs, NOT towels. People don`t really use towels at the beach, here!) .. parasols.. tiny bikinis on everyone, including people who shouldn`t really be wearing them (haha!)... lots of necklace/sarong/henna vendors... men (vendors) walking along the beach carrying poles with sunscreen and tanning lotion packets dangling from them... acarajè (a type of local food) women...

My menu for yesterday included going to a shop with açai! Basically, I had a bowl of açai puree (smoothie?) with slices of banana and granola sprinkled on top. SOOO GOOD! I`m definitely going back. Afterwards, on the beach, my friend and I had some cheese on a stick. Basically, what is also SUPER common on beaches (and on the streets.. basically, there is cheese EVERYWHERE, haha!), are `queijeros,` men who carry around tupperware boxes full of rectangular blocks of cheese, as well as metal containers full of charcoal. So, they come up to you, you ask for a queijo, and they plop their stuff right there in front of you on the beach, set up the charcoal, stick a queijo on a kebab stick, grill it right there... then ask if you want either oregano or molasses/honey on it! I`m sure it has plenty of fat/calories, but... SO worth it. Hey! Only in Brazil, right? haha!

Açai: 5 Reais. Queijo: 2 Reais. Having SUCH a labor-intense summer?? aww~...