Finally Staring to get into Life Here and Having a Maid

Alright, it's been awhile, but I'm finally starting to be kinda busy, yay! Let's see, the last time I wrote was Aug 30, a Friday.... Wow, a lot has happened since then.

School has been the same - rather boring, but it helps me with my listening. There's another exchange student in my class who's from Mexico, but he speaks very good English because he lives on the border and has gone to school in the US since he was a little kid, so I talk to him most of the time. A few of the girls in my class also talk to me on a regular basis; however, most of them talk to me in English, so I haven't been practicing my Portuguese as much as I should. We are going on a school trip to a big amusement/rollercoaster park later this month, and that should be a lot of fun. I'm excited about it. School is somewhat more informal than it is at home (teachers are called by their first names, and the class is pretty relaxed), but the students are expected to take a very active role in their own education, I think. At the end of the year the oldest students take a big test called the Vestibular, and they have to get a certain score in order to get into college. The state schools here are better than private schools, but they are very competitive, so you have to work hard to get in. I will cover the school system more thouroughly later.

Since my last post I have finally gotten a bit of a social life, and my first party was the Saturday night following my last post. It was, for better or worse, essentially the same as a party I would have gone to at WVU, I think. The drinking age here is 18, so it's pretty much a mix of high school and college aged people. Some people drink, some people don't - you just have to hang out with the right people, and you'll be fine. I hang out with other exchange students and some of their friends, so everyone is very cool, and no one cares whether you want to drink or not. Don't worry everyone!!! I'm just as safe here as I would have been in college - actually, since my parents are pretty protective, it may be even better. The people here just want to dane, talk, and have a good time, so it's nice. There's really no pressure.

That Sunday I went out to the family farm for a traditional BBQ (the pic of me on this post is at the Currasco - meat fresh out of the grill), which is called a Churrasco (chu-hass-ko), and learned why people like to eat meat. As some of you know and some of you don't, I really am not a big meat-eater; I will pretty much always choose fish or chicken, and I have never ordered a steak. In fact, usually when I have to watch people eat steak it grosses me out. However, they have this meat here called picaña, and it is delicious. I don't know if it's the way they prepare it or what, but I ate it until I was stuffed, haha. The farm itself was very beautiful; I took a lot of pictures, which I have to post on my Flickr at some point. It wasn't that big, but it was very cozy and well-kept. They had a lovely garden, lots of fruit trees and flowers growing all over the place, and a nice view of the countryside. My mãe (mom) and her sister and 2 brothers grew up there.

I went to the Rotary meeting for my host Rotary club, which was less than exciting, but it wasn't too bad. There are a few clubs in my city, and mine hosts me, a Mexican girl named Tania, a German girl named Johanna, a German guy named Tobias (Tobi), who was only short term and left Friday, and a French girl named Lucie. The Brazilian students who went on exchange last year were also there, and we all sat together and talked, it was nice to meet everyone again. I met some of them at the big Rotary conference, but there were so many people it was hard to really get to know anyone.

One of the Brazilian guy's dad got me a membership at an acadamia (a YMCA type-thing) called Tennis Club, where they have a lot of classes and stuff, so I will hopefully start going there this week to work out and maybe sign up for Capaoiera, which is a Brazilian martial art that I would like to get into. It is half dance, half martial arts; it was created by the slaves here because they weren't allowed to practice their old martial arts for fear of revolt, so they made it look like it was just dance. You can find lots of videos of it at Youtube.com - just search for capaoiera. I'm looking forward to that, although I might have to do something else because the class is from 6-7, and my sister's classes all end at 6, so my mom doesn't want to have to wait around for an hour after my sister is done. They might have a Samba class or something that ends at 6, and that would be cool too. I'll go check it out.

The only problem is the money. I only get $50, or 100 reais ($R) a month, and to go to the gym and take a class is $30/month, which is a really good rate, but when you have to live on $50 it's a bit much. I also really want to take Portuguese classes, but that will be almost $30 as well, so I'm not sure what I should do. I'm sure it'll get worked out, but it's a little bit frustrating. Actually, I am planning to ask my pai if he can look into the Rotary clubs paying for us to take Port. classes, becuase there are about 7 of us interested in taking a class together from the same teacher, and he will charge $R385/month (about $190) that we can all slpit between us. So, if the clubs are willing they could just aplit it between them, and I don't think that's too unreasonable. I hope they would be willing to do that.

I made chocolate chip cookies last week with a few of my friends, and then I learned to play a Mexican card game that is a lot of fun. My host family loved the cookies I brought with me, but the brown sugar here is a little bit different so these didn't turn out as well. They are still good though, and I think I will make some more today to sell at the neighborhood BBQ tomorrow. They have a churrasco every other Monday night for the neighborhood, and my mãe suggested that I do that to make some extra money.

I went to a few other parties last week - a going away party for the German guy, Tobi, a churrasco that was only for ex. students, and another churrasco at a Brazilian friend of mine's house and then stayed with Annia and Tania at Annia's house (two Mexican girls), so I have been keeping busy. Last night there was a mini-music festival here that I really wanted to go to, but it was $R30, so I decided to use the money for going to the gym or Capaoiera instead, and went to Tania's house to watch a movie. She lives in my neighborhood, about a five minute walk from my house, so that's convenient.

This week my host parents are out of town for my pai's (dad's) work, so his parents are staying here with Paula and me. He travels around, and my mãe usually stays here, but I think he is just very tired and lonely. I think he hasn't been able to take very many breaks lately, so he wanted some company. Both of my parents work for their fathers' companies. My avo (grandfather) on my pai's side owns a music store, so my pai travels selling their equipment and going to fairs, etc. I haven't been inside the store itself yet, but we've driven by a few times, and it looks very nice. My avo on my mãe's side owns several factories, but I can't remember what they produce. I think it's something rather industrial - rubber, or something like that. She is an accountant there, and she said it's very boring. Her brothers and sister also work at the factories. Everyone on both sides of the family is well-off because they are successful entrepeneurs, and I think they have worked hard to become so.

Hmm, I think that's pretty much what has been going on. This Friday there is no school because it is the city's birthday (there was no school last Friday either in celebration of indepencdence day, which isn't really celebrated here at all, except that there's no school or work - I think maybe they did fireworks in São Paulo, but that's it, haha), and I am going to a concert with a few girls from my class and a few ex. students. My host parents were kind enough to get me the ticket, and I'm really excited to go. It's a band called Babado Nova, and it's traditional Brazilian dance music. They told me it's pretty much country, but it's a lot of fun to go dance. I don't know how to dance, but hopefully I will learn. They keep trying to teach me at parties, but it's sort of hard. They say here that Americans have no rhythm (which, compared to Latinos, most of them don't), but that I will learn eventually, haha.

Actually, being labeled an American is one of the strangest things about being here. I'm definitely not accustomed to being a minority, and, eventhough it's not a big deal to them, it's a strange feeling. The weirdest thing is being called gringa, which can be offensive, but when I get called that they are just kidding. Mostly I get called that in school - they also call Mexicans that, so they say 'oi gringos' (oi is hey or hi) or 'tchao gringos' (bye) or whatever. I'm not offended by it. It's just weird.

Okay, here's my bit of culture for this post: having a maid.

Having a maid is one of the biggest cultural differences I have to face, which is mainly, I think, because a lot of the differences are subtle, and don't come into your room to put your clothes away for you and make the bed. In the morning, when we're leaving for school, you can see all the maids walking to our subdivision to go to work, and they have a special "service" entrance where they check in. I guess they are basically considered 2nd class citizens, but they told us before we came to think of is as their opportunity to support themselves and their families, and that most of the appreciate that. I'm not sure how easy is it to move up in social class here, but my suspicion is that their kids usually end up doing similar work as well. I don't know, but from what I've seen that seems most likely.

Our maid's name is Beth (bech). She's probably in her late 20s, is married, and is very nice; I like her a lot as a person, but she has messed up a few of my clothes in the wash, which is a little bit irritating. Actually, sometimes when I get bored I wish I had to do laundry just for something to do - I have pretty much no responsibilities here, and I get antsy because of it. When I try to help, though, she tells me not to - I think she just prefers that I let her do her job, though, so I stay out of it. It's still weird for me, though, to be sitting there reading or watching TV while she cleans my bathroom, and I am not totally comfortable with it. As I told my dad, though, if the worst thing I have to deal with is akward convenience I guess I don't have too much to compain about, haha.

She likes company, though, and whenever I'm around she talks to me. It's funny, because it takes us like twice as long to have a conversation as it would normally, and it's a lot of my smiling apologetically, leaning in closer, and asking her to repeat everything she says. We're getting there, though, and I appreciate it, really, because she's one of the very few people who speaks to me solely in Portuguese. She told me that she always wanted to learn English, but was never able to. I think that learning English is really a big key to success here, and I find that almost everyone my age can speak it well enough to carry on a conversation with me. This isn't always the case with older people, but they can all say hello. I love talking to my Brazilian friends on the computer, because it's always a funny mixture of my bad Port. and their bad English. Haha, my favorite thing is that instead of saying 'haha', they say 'uhauhauha' (that was directly copied from a conversation I'm having at the moment!), which to me really doesn't resemble laughter all that well. I just sort of imagine this weird sound, haha.

Well, I have to get to bed. As always, thanks for listening, and I will write sometime in the next week or so - I have to tell you about the concert!

tchao and beijos! (bye and kisses)

<3 Alanna