Sao Paolo and This Week - No Culture, sorries

Hello Everyone! (and by everyone I mean a wider audience than I was really anticipating, haha) Sorry it's been so long; right when we got back from Sao Paolo the computers went to the shop, but they're back now. Really it's more of a pain for me because there's so much to catch up on. Oh, and thanks for the comments! I really appreciated them eventhough I didn't respond, haha - I was afraid this would be really boring to read, but I guess not!

Okay, Sao Paolo:
We left early Thursday morning and drove for a long, tedious time (6 or 7 hours) to get to SP. It was fun to see the countryside though - well, not quite 7hours worth of fun, haha, but at least that was something - and I took some pictures and videos along the way there and back. I have a photo gallery account on Flickr now, so I'll be posting the pics this afternoon, and I will put the link in the list at the bottom of the page. Actually, I'll go ahead and add it to the bottom of this post too to make it easier. I also took some video (no sound, though, blah), and I'm going to set up a Youtube account so I can embed them on this page and also have a gallery. Diddo on that link.

We went to the giant mall to have a bite to eat. I had salmon that didn't compare to any salmon I could eat at home, but that's pretty much the only seafood I've eaten since I got here, so I'l take what I can get. After that we stopped at my Aunt and Uncles' lovely apartment (Claudia and Mauro), which is in a very nice area of SP, and then took my host brother to the airport, meeting my host cousin, Amanda (she goes to the university there) on the way. The scene was much less frantic than my departure was considering he actually had his passport and tickets with him, and it was, of course a common scene of tears and hugs and pictures, etc. I was sad to see him go; I liked him a lot, and he was cool about introducing me to his friends and stuff. He left behind lost of books and movies in Portuguese, so I'll bew getting into those. I started the 4th Harry Potter book in Port. the other day, and it's not too bad to read. I understand written Portuguese better than spoken, and I think it's helping with my vocab. Henrique left the Communist Manifesto, The Book of Five Rings, the Art of War, and the Two Towers beside his bed, but I don't think I'll be there... well, ever, haha.

The next day we went shopping downtown, and that was fun, but I was definitely ready to be done. Going shopping in the 3rd largest city in the world on $50 a month is a little tedious, haha, but, hey, that's culture, and sometimes I like trying on $500 sunglasses while pretending to sip from 200 tea cups (I'm not even exagerrating!). I tried to make sure I was in the back of the crowd at all the shops so the ladies wouldn't talk to me, haha, but it didn't work very well, and my host mom had to intervene when I gave them blank stares. I can talk and understand a little bit (sitting in school helps with the understanding a lot), but city chicks in shops talk too quickly for me to understand. Oh, in the morning we went to an open air fruit and fish market, and that was a lot of fun. It was less than a block away from the house, and they fruit is unbelievably cheap (unless it's imported). I didn't see a box of strawberries that cost more that $1 (and they are goood strawberries), and they are always giving you free samples, so I got to taste a lot of new fruits. My new favorite is Mexerica (mee-shee-ree-ka) - it's like an orange except way better. I eat one or two pretty much everyday. So yummy! Food here in general is cheap. We went to a good sushi restaurant that night, and six of us ate for, prepare yourself for this, under $50! We had plenty left over too. It was pretty awesome. Brazil has the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, so it's common here.

The next day we did "Citytour!!!", and went to a few of the historical places in SP. My favorite was the second oldest train station in the city (the first was built by the English, and this one by the Brazilian coffee plantation owners, so there were odes to coffe all over it, or so my host mom whispered in my ear while the tour guide was talking, haha), which now has the 4th best music hall in the world. We couldn't take pictures inside, darn-it, but it was reallyu astounding. The ceiling is made of blocks that move up and down in order to adjust to the style of music (church or symphony, etc.), and it was all the original ornately carved cement of the train station with comfy seats. There were four college students (they looked like, but they were incredible) practicing while she was talking, so I just tuned her out and listened to the music. Even in that setting it was a very neat experience, and it made me put going to a for real music hall to see a for real orchestra on my list of things to do.

We also went to the old palace (now the museum, but it was closed) and its gardens, the famous Cathedral of Se, a small museum with some famous Brazilian art and a place where you could tour the cells where they tortured Communists during the Cold War - creeepy-, and a few other places so I could get pictures. It was cool too see the history, but what interested me asmuch as anything was the graffiti and the poverty. I took a bunch of pics of the graffiti (of course I never seemed to capture the coolest pieces, of course), and stared just as much at the homeless people and the favelas (Brazilian ghettos) as the monuments. To me they seemed a little bit superficial with all the sadness and despair at their feet, and the old, toothless man speaking in tongues for money in front of the grand cathedral, the man resting against the side of an old building to take a dump, the homeless camps on the grass in the center of the freeway, and the crumbling apartment buildings held just as much significance as the place the artificial odes to government and religion.

Following most of our touring we went to this awesome indoor/outdoor market that was like the one we had gone to Friday morning except on a much larger scale (the pic is of me being excited about the cheese at the market, haha). It was in this huge building that was like a cathedral mixed with a warehouse, haha. It was just a big open space with pillars and stained glass with every possible (fresh) food item you can think of. There where isles and isles of all kinds of cheese, wines, meat, fish, fruits and veggis, etc. On the second level there is a big line of restaurants (like an up-scale food court), so we had a little lunch there and shopped for some fruit. That night we went to the mall for a little while, and despite my cynicism and disillusionment it was nice to look around, haha.

It was a good trip. I still really like my family, and it was a lot of fun to stay with Mauro and Claudia, who know the city very well, and have a warm and welcoming house and demeanor. I even got my own room! haha, and Amanda was cool (she's 20, and we stopped at her little aparment as well), and haning out with everyone is a good time, even if they were all sad about Henrique's departure.

When we got home the honeymoon period ended.

My host dad went back to work. He travels selling musical instruments and equipment for the family business, so he's only hom on the weekends. I went back to school, which is helpful, but terribly boring too, since it's an effort for me to understand, and after a few classes I get tired out and just want to sleep. There's a cool Mexican guy in my class, though, and his English is very good, so I talk to him most of the time. The people at school sort of talk to me, and they sort of don't. They do stare at me all the time when I'm walking down the halls or sitting in class, though, which is a little disconcerting. I think it's more curious than hostile, but I don't necessarily like the attention regardless.

Most days some new people will come up and ask me about myself and talk to me for awhile, but I haven't made any really solid friends yet apart from Gerardo. There are a few other people I talk to on a regular basis as well, and I think my social life will start to actually exist here in a few weeks, haha. They seem more likely to talk to me if he's around since he can help us if we don't understand eachother. When people talk to me slowly and directly I can usually do just fine, but the pronunciation makes it hard to catch the words. I can say all the essential things, but I don't practice anywhere near enough. Basically, I go to school and speak in English and some broken Portuguese, and go home and speak in English and some broken Portuguese. I am reading 100 Years of Solitude in English as well as Harry Potter, but once I'm done with it no more books in English! It's just way too good for me to give up.

After school is really boring right now becuase I haven't gotten into any activities yet. I have a little bit of a conundrum (spelling?) in the area too, because there is a gym up the road, but it costs $R80/month, and I only get $R100 so I don't think it's worth it. There is another gym that a few of the exchange students go to, and it costs $R60/month for both unlimited gym and capaoiera classes. I really want to go there, but it's sort of a pain for my family since I can't just walk, and the Capaoiera classes end at 7 when all of my host sister's classes (ballet and Engilsh) end at six. My host mom doesn't want to have to wait around on me, which is understandable, but I'm hoping to work out some other means of transportation so they can drop me off at the gym everyday during Paula's lessons and then pick me up when I don't have Capaoiera and I can take the bus or ride home with someone when I do. I'm sure we'll work it out, but I'm hoping it's soon because sitting around the house for 11 hours is not so wonderful. I even went and ran over a mile yesterday (I think - is 2,000m more than a mile? I'm pretty sure it is.), and we can't be having that!

Actually I have been pretty homesick these last few days, and I think it's mostly because I have nothing to to but sit around and think about what I could be doing at home, haha. Harry Potter and Protuguese TV only goes so far. As I said, the honeymoon period is over, and I feel like this is really the first week of my exchange. I think it will be fine; I just feel much less grounded than the others who are here, but most of them have been here for over a month, so I think that's okay. I just need to develope a rhythm now that everything has settled down.

Oh man, I accidentally just hit control-X and about had a heart attack, haha, but it's ok! Tudo Bom.

So that's where I am right now. I will put those pics and vidoes up following this, and add the links so you all can see them. You don't have to have an account for either, so no worries. I'm sure I left some things out, but I'm tired of writing, and that was a long post, haha.

Oh, and the water doesn't really spin the other way. I honestly never payed attention to the toilet at home, so I didn't know which way it spun, but I was under the impression that it was clockwise since I mentioned it to some people and they never corrected me. Sorry for the disappointment, but it's counterclockwise here, too. I took a video and everything! haha

Thanks for reading/caring everyone, it means a lot, and I'll write again soon! Oh, I'm supposed to do my culture thing. Darn. I'm too sick of typing now, so sorry, haha. I'll try to do it tomorrow or the following day, and maybe I'll proof it then too (would anyone like to volunteer to be my editor? haha). Any requests? I was thinking about doing maids or school; I know food is an area of interest, but I feel like I should know ther terminology better before I cover it, so it'll have to wait.

Tchao and beijos (kisses)!
<3 Alanna

my picture site: http://flickr.com/photos/alannainbrazil/
i haven't gotten the video set up yet - it's soooo slow
everything will be alannainbrazil, by the way, just to make it simple

My First Week and the Crazy Driving

Well, today marks a week since I got home, and there's sooo much to talk about.

I basically got here and unpacked enough to re-pack for a weekend in a town nearby called Salto Grande, where all the exchange students from my district met for a sort of conference/fun weekend. The pic is of most of the exchange students - they weren't all there because he was suddenly just like "ok - we're going to take a picture!" so not everyone knew about it. The whole weekend was really great. There are amost 70 of us in the district, I think, and I found a few girls that I got along with really well, so we're going to be hanging out on the weekends. I live in a fairly larger city, so I think they're going to come here for the most part, which is good for me, haha. Most of the people were really cool, and it was fun to sit at a table and eat lunch with people from Germany (there are lots of German kids here), Mexico, Canada, Holland, France, Denmark, Japan, you name it, haha. Almost everyone spoke English, though (literally like 98%), which was nice, but it also made me feel sort of ashamed to be American. It's like we push our language on everyone else and are, for the most part, too lazy to bother with theirs. I know that we don't have as much contact with other countries in terms of borders, but still, it made me feel a little bit guilty.

We had a bunch of boring conferences about rules, etc., but on Sat. night we had a big party where we did traditional dancing and dressed up, and then they played like club music. It was a lot of fun. I like the traditional dancing - it was basically the typical couple dancing where you trade around and all hold hands, etc. It was a lot of fun. The Brazilian Hip Hop is really good, too (or Hippy Hoppy, as they say, haha). There was this one group that I really liked, but I forget the name. I'll have to find out because they were quite good.

We also found out about the trips, and they look AWESOME.

I'm for sure going on the first two, which are a trip to the Amazon and to Northeastern Brazil (mostly the beaches). In the Amazon we'll be on a boat for three days sleeping in hammocks and making stops to go into the jungle and see some of the native villages and stuff, and we'll esentially be beach-hopping and going to Rio on the Northeastern trip. They made a DVD last year for all the exchange students (we'll get one too, yay!), and we watched clips from it (it was over an hour long). It looks absolutely incredible. I'm so excited. We'll be gone for 28 days and it's under $4,000, so I think that's essentially the chance of a lifetime - especially since we're going to get to go see native villages and do things w; actual Brazilian ppl instead of just being regular tourists. There are also trips to Carnaval in Rio, Iguacu Falls, and Machupichu (I would also LOVE to go there, but we'll see about the $$$), but those are later in the year.

So I had a great weekend, but I was happy to just come home and chill out - it was a tiring few days between traveling and staying up late, etc. I started school Monday, and, just as I assured, it's really boring, haha. Portuguese is really hard to understand - like Spanish/French/Russian all mixed up, haha. It's a beautiful language, and I'm looking forward to learning it, but it's hard, haha. I think I'm goint o take some formal lessons, though, which should help. They're expensive, but if I can get a group together we all split the cost, and I already know one guy who said he'll do it. I think we'll be doing a lot of grammar, which is good because that way I'll be fluent in both written and poken Portuguese. The teacher seems like he's very good - he teaches at the college and works through Oxford, and he's super-nice. So, that's cool.

I haven't been terribly homesick yet (some people talked to their parents like 3x in the first week), but it's supposed to really set in after the first month and a half. Luckily, though, that's when we're going on the trips, so at least I'll be distracted. I did get a splitting headache in school today, though, and it made me sick to my stomach to the point that I almost thre up, so I left at like 10:15, went to sleep, and woke up a little after 1. I'm still not feeling my best, but I'm much better now. I really hope it doesn't happen again.

We're leaving tomorrow morning to go to Sao Paolo for the weekend and to drop my brother off at the airport. He's going to Canada for the year, and I'm sad to see him go because he's very nice, and his English is very good, so he's been helping me out a lot and introducing me to people in the neighborhood. Oh yea, there are these BBQ-type things they have every weekend in athe center of my subdivision, and I met a lot of people there. They talked to me more than the people at school did, so hopefully I can become friends with them. They also have soccer every Tues and Thurs for girls (like lessons), and I went last night. They're all younger than me, but they're nice and I made 2 goals, haha. At the same time the guys who are serious and very good play in the other field, so that's fun to watch as well.

I was thinking it's a good idea, since there's just so much to talk about, for me to talk at first about what I've been doing, and then to cover an aspect of culture that I've experienced - family, food, fashion, friends, etc. (note my brilliant use of alliteration, hahaha) That way I can cover everything. So, my first topic, since it was really the first Brazilian thing I really experienced, is driving.

People drive crazy here!!! I thought maybe it was just a city thing when I was in Sao Paolo, but it's NOT, haha. There is no such thing as pedestrian right of way, and people go so fast through town (literally like 40MPH, I'm guessing - everything's in Kilometers, so I'm not sure) even when there are people around. The stop signs ("Pare") don't mean stop, they mean yield, and by yield they mean go through them anyway and if someone is coming slam on the brakes. They very rarely use turn signals, and they literally drive in athe middle of the road and cut eachother off constantly; there are also tons of little motorcycles that are always weaving through traffic, and speed bumps throughout the road that make you fly up out of your seat because they don't cause people to slow down. It's so stressful for me to just sit in athe back seat and hold on, haha. I'm not allowed to drive here, but even if I was I wouldn't - I would die, haha.

But it's funny, because they are so layed-back about it (just like they are about everything). When they get cutt off or os someone almost hits them they don't really care at all. No one beeps, no one gets mad or gives eachother the finger, it's like they understand that no one is going to follow the rules, so it's ok. I'm getting used to it, but it's still somewhat disconcerting.

Anyway, I have to pack for the weekend. I'm probably just going to buy batteries so I van take pics of Sao Paolo, and figure out a way to charge mine when I get back. I might buy a converter too, while I'm there, so I can actually plug it in.

I hope you all are well. OH, I almost forgot, for those of you that are wondering, the common myth about the toilets flushing counter-clockwise is indeed TRUE, haha, maybe I'll take a pic to prove it. Actually it took me a few days to figure it out because the toilets just sort of suck everything down at once and don't really spin at all, but I noticed it one day in the sink while I was brushing my teeth, haha.

I'll update sometime next week.

Tchau!

AQUI ESTOH NO BRASIL (here i am in brazil)

Soooo, I'm here!

We left the house at 11:00 AM yesterday for the Pittsburghy airport, and I arrived at my new house at 3:40 PM (4:40 here) our time. Right now everything is very exciting and surreal. It's like everything is the same, but all the details are different. The roads look like our roads, but the stop signs are round and say "pare", the cars are the same but the liscence plates are different, the people look the same, but I can only understand little snatches of what they´re saying, the key board is just different enough that I have to pay close attention to type, the shower has hot water but it's solar heated, the clock in my room (my host sister´s room) says 22:06, and you have to throw away your toilet paper instaed of flushing it.

The trip here was good once I left Pittsburgh. The big dilema was that the travel agency had sent my passport through FedEx, and we told them to hold it at the store for me because we were going to pick it up on the way to the airport (it´s right off the highway on the way); however, they sent it out anyway, so we had to wait for them to go pick it up and bring it to the airport. My flight left at 1:45, and they weren't there until 1:05, so, needless to say, it was a huge rush to get me through security and all that once they finally arrived. We would have been fine if it weren't for their mistake. Anyway, it actually turned out to be a good thing that I was in such a rush because it helped to give me the momentum I needed not to stop and hesitate at the door. I just gave quick hugs and kept going. I only cried while we were taking off and after that I slowly became okay.

My layover in NY was 6 hours, so my friend Luke, who goes to acting school there, came to visit me ther for about 1 1/2 hour. It was a nice little visit, especially since he'll have moved to LA by the time i get home, so we don't know when we'll see eachother again.

The flight to Sao Paolo was 10hours, from about 10:30 PM to about 9:30 AM, but by that time I was ready to leave the country. Once I got through the first flight and knew there was no turning back I started to get less scared and more excited. There were two really nice Brazilian guys sitting by me on the plane, and they talked to me for most of the time (sometimes they had side conversations in Portugese then they would ask if I understood - which I didn't, haha). The one has his own factory making and selling organic/protein cookies, brownies, and other snacks in NY, and he was showing us his products. He was extrememly friendly and hyper, haha, it was a lot of fun. They both told me a lot about me town and Brazilian life, etc. And, I will note, they were much nicer than the Americans I was sitting beside who never said a word to me, haha.

In the morning I was able to sit by the window and look out at the countryside - the view was breathtaking. It reminded me of a Van Gogh painting with all of the patchwork fields and rich, contrasting colors. Where I am is basically rolling hills/plains, you can see around for miles. It's very different than what I'm used to, but in a very good way. And Sao Paolo was HUGE. I think it's the 3rd largest city in the world, and as we flew down it was literally sky scrapers as far as the eye could see. I'im gald it was a clear morning, but it's too bad I did't have my camera on the plane. Anyway, you can check it out on Google Maps or Google Earth. It's a great place.

My host mother (Leana), her sister in law (Claudia), and her brother in law (Mauro) were all there to meet me once I got through customs, and they were all extremely kind and excited to see me. We drove to a smaller airport, and on the way we had some nice conversation that was a mix of Portuguese, English, and Spanish. Today Leana has let me speak English, but after this weekend I think we will try to be more strict. The driving here is much less structured - very much an every man for himself deal - but i've only been in the larger cities, so that's pretty normal in the US as well.

My host family so far has been great. They have made me fel very much at home, and their house is beautiful. I think I wil be very happy here, especially once I can speak more Portuguese. I think I will be able to pick it up enough within 2 or 3 months to at least hold my own, and Leana is looking into getting me lessons with her English teacher so that I can learn the grammar and everything as well.

Basically, so far so good. I am getting up at 6 tomorrow to go to a weekend long convention, so I should probably go to bed. I will probaly pick 2 days out of the week to get online for a while to update this, upload pics, check e-mail, etc, so dont't think I'm rude if I'm not prompt, haha.

I feel like there's so much more to say, but I'm tired and I don't realy know how to say it, anyway. It's only the first night, afterall. I will take pictures of the house, my shcool, the town, etc. and post them within the next few weeks. I still have to set up an account, but when I do I will put it in my links at the bottom of the page.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment, e-mail, and whatever.

Muito Amor!
Alanna