Wazowski

I'm not and won't be in São Paulo for the holidays

Not by choice, homesickness, or a desire to see my dogs, (though that's certainly been nice) but only because my visa declared I must. To quote the beloved Mike Wazowski " That darn paperwork, wouldn't be easier if it all just blew away." 

I would have loved to experience a Brazilian style Christmas. At least I was lucky enough participate in  "Amigo Secreto" which is similar to Secret Santa. Like Secret Santa, it begins with secretive drawing the name of who you'll buy a present for. Your group (of friends, classmates, or coworkers)will set a date to distribute the gifts, but Brazilians add a twist. Before you can get your gift your "Papai Noel" or Santa will make a speech about you, without using your name. Usually it won't be obvious, they'll say something like "they have two eyes" until someone can guess correctly who the present is for. My new friend was very kind to my limited language abilities and simply declared: " She's not Brazilian." 
YET!

Between lighting up the christmas tree and hanging decorative socks on the mantle I've been working on getting back to my beloved SP, but until then I promise not to "blow away." 

I'll keep you posted on my winter adventures in North America and Europe !

A Day in the Life

I apologize for the delay, but the advantage of this is I have a lot to tell you! 

For starters, I got a new job! And overnight I went from having time more desperate to be filled than a clingy girlfriend, to barley finding the time to sleep. 

A weekday looks something like this for me:

I wake up around 6 am and walk a couple kilometers to school. There I observe as my classmates attempt to do math with these unusual strategies, approach english like a chemical equation, and discuss Brazilian literature. We also do normal things like exercise and eat snacks, but mostly I just try to talk to my friends there and they ensure that I learn all the profanity and hip slang.




<--- Division 


I finish school at 12 pm and then run home so I can have a few minutes for lunch before going to work at a Bilingual school called "safe step". Fortunately, it's only a 12 minute walk away. Unfortunately,  it's up a mountain that's only called a hill when you're not climbing it. 

I work from 1pm-5:15pm with the most beautiful babies in the whole world. My job is to play with them and speak to them in English. The most challenging part is my kids are barely old enough to speak Portuguese, so even the most basic gesture "sit" could be answered with tears or more likely, just ignored.

Now that I've been with them two weeks most of them will respond to "Bye" or " I love you" but the process is very slow. I'm easily having more luck teaching my coworkers english. With the kids I say a work a hundred times before they repeat it, with my coworkers it's once.

Which has led me, someone who's envied people raised bilingual for years now, to question how much easier it really was for them. That is to say, perhaps learning languages is always hard, I mean it takes most of us 12 months to say a word in our first one, but we forget the struggle when we're young. Or maybe are just less embarrassed to make mistakes. 

So that's it. I spend the first half of my day struggling to express anything in Portuguese. And the second part speaking English to people whom, if they understand anything, are too rude to reply. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I also have Portuguese lessons from 5:30-7:00pm . By the time it's all said and done I'm so desperate to be able to express myself that I start spinning and the words come out so fast I can barely understand myself.

If nothing else these past few months, I've learned there's other ways of communicating, of course hugs, smiles, elaborate hand gestures, and impressionistic dances. But also that sometimes you don't have to say anything,you can just listen...

and pray the teacher doesn't call on you. 

"Era Uma Vez...."

"Once Upon a time..." 

There lived a young woman who so desperately wanted to learn Portuguese . She traveled thousands of miles through the sky to a distant land where almost everyone speaks, sings and dances to the beautiful language.  Upon her arrival she met with a master as often as she could, but the language just kept slipping away. After a month of less than satisfactory progress she decided it was time for something drastic....


So drastic I'm almost embarrassed to tell you: 

I'm back in High-school.

I know, I know the disgusting place of crushed dreams and wasted hours staring blankly at a frozen clock. And while school is drastically different here, the same unpleasant atmosphere is undeniably present. 

So I'll explain. We've been discussing my options as to how I can live In Brazil next semester. With my current visa I have to leave every three months and I can only stay in the country for 180 days of the year. After drawing out all the options we discovered the easiest way for me to get a visa is to just enroll in school , and since I don't have a Brazilian high-school diploma- that's exactly what I need. The obvious advantage of the school is that I'm constantly forced to speak Portuguese which is the best way to learn the language .

Additionally it is already offering me some great insights into Brazilian culture. Here in high school you spend all day with the same class in the same room, but different teachers come and go. Also the day is much shorter, most students only stay in school for the morning or the afternoon not both. I've only been there two days but I'll be excited to learn how they choose to focus on history and the humanities in general. 

For my Portuguese lessons I've been writing a lot fairytales, and sometimes I surprise myself half way-through with where I want to the story to go.  Going back to high-school is a chapter I never thought I'd write. 

Ilhabela - Capital da Vela

Last weekend I traveled I traveled to the foreign and not so distant island of Ilhabela for a jazz festival. 

And as you probably imagined, it was magnificent. 

It all began with me and my lovely travel companions leaving a few hours later than planned to arrive Thursday night with enough time to get ready and go to "Ilhabela in Jazz."  

And ohmygoodness there was so. much. Jazz. Which I should of expected, but wasn't emotionally prepared for: I listened to more jazz in one night then I had previously in the history of me. 

On the last night, just when I thought we had heard all the jazz there was, (fast, slow, instrumental,  a glittery lady signing) a friendly old man come on the stage and starts playing with squeaker-toys. 

So the jazz was pretty intense in and of itself, 

But the biggest "culture shock" for me was Rolê which I defined in my phone as "get no sleep." 

It really means something like "hanging out time." but the thing is Brazilians participate in this very, very late. Since the jazz festival didn't end until 1 am, the rolê lasted until 4 am and I was exhausted. 

So in an effort to get us back to the house I pronounced gently, " Vamos." but with no avail. Over the course of the night I learned  Brazilians have many words for "let's Go. " ( Vamos , Partiu, Vamo nessa...) for the same reason eskimos have so many words for snow: you need them. .

.

I've mentioned before that Brazilians aren't punctual people, and as they drag their feet if they only had one word for "let's go" you'd turn into a mocking bird. I was thankful there were a few. 

  

But I was pleased that everyone still woke up before noon for a breakfast of cheese bread and the first day and we were able to enjoy the perfect beach weather! 

The biggest factual difference between Brazilian Beaches and American ones is in Brazil you don't need to plan your trip at all. When you arrive there will be chairs you can rent or sit in if you buy a beer. Everything from swimsuits, jewelry, to towels are for sale right on the water, and there are people walking around selling delicious treats and water all day. It's noisier, but certainly more convenient.    

Dogs were running freely on the beach and requesting my attention. 

The biggest opinion based difference is that Brazilian Beaches are far more beautiful. 

Walking around the town I discovered an English school decorated for Halloween. I keep forgetting that it's that time of year because it looks and feels like summer, and it's not nearly as big a deal here. 

Pictured above are two sand cars, I really hope I get the opportunity to ride in these funny vehicles someday - I've never seen anything as cute as them in the States.

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Not only do you not need need to pack anything for the beach. did I mention you don't need to pack anything for the road trip either? At every stoplight and traffic jam there's people selling food and drinks, and this is true for all of São Paulo from what I've seen.  My personal favorite car snack is Açaí, a super food with nutrition and sugary heaven. 

It took about five hours to get home because of the traffic, but when it was completely stopped people started dancing in the streets and I remembered one of the reasons I love this beautful country : 

No one's in a rush to leave, and it's never boring. 

Obrigada por ter me Ilhabela <3 

Amigos

Whenever I'm living abroad I remember the words my father told me years ago before traveling to the middle-east," If you ever get into any trouble, remember you're anything but American." 

Even then I didn't question the validity of the statement. It made sense to me that Americans would be unpopular given my  understanding of history and current events. And now I understand that the American tendency to presume our culture is superior and expect everyone to speak our language can't win us many friends...

So because I move around so much that's always my concern: making friends. Fortunately, despite my somewhat apologetically American status it hasn't been difficult for me to win over the hearts of the kind, open Brazilian people.
But I've made notes for anyone hoping to gain the friendship of some of the coolest people alive. 


1. Bake them Cookies. While there's a huge debate in Brazil whether they're called "Biscoitos" or "Bolachas" (Bolachas of course;) ) what everyone can agree on is that they're really, really good. However no one knows how to make them, so they're a real treat ! 

Making them with friends is fun too. 

Everyone Loves Cookies 

2. Music. Well this is especially true for me as I attend lessons at the conservatory, it's truly a universal language. Whether or not you speak Portuguese everyone can enjoy good music.     

I had the opportunity to watch my good friend play jazz  in the beautiful "Sala São Paulo," performances are often offered here for free or very cheap. 

3. BBQ. One of the most fundamental aspects of Brazilian culture. They're a lot of fun, and there's a lot of meat. If you get invited to one, just go. There's no excuses. I'm a vegetarian and have attended four.

--> Some people claim that sharing beer is the key to a Brazilian's heart, but it's not necessary, they also love coffee.  

4. Lunch! It's the "big" meal here and can last a couple hours. Something that's really common here are the restaurants that are "self service." What that means is they're buffet-style and how much your food weighs is how much it costs. The only confusing part for me was then still paying at the end of the meal, but I really like them because you get and pay for what and how much you wan

This Dog is in no way shape or form relevant to this post, but he's too beautiful not to share with the world. 

Um Mês

Today is a very special day for me as it marks one month since I left Raleigh, North Carolina to arrive in the beautiful tropical metropolis that is São Paulo. 

In honor of the occasion I've taken the time to compose a list of somethings that makes the People of São Paulo, well "Paulistas:"

1. Putting salt on everything. I've heard this is more common in hot countries because we sweat more and don't get me wrong, salt is a magical thing that makes french fries irresistible and broccoli bearable... but... on salad? Really?? Now that's just excessive. 

2. Cake... For Breakfast. To us Gringas who are raised  with cake smothered in frosting for birthdays and only other festive occasions, cake seems really out of place on the breakfast table. (But as one Brazilian pointed out to me, how different is it than eating donuts with our coffee )

3. Cat-Calling. So I know this is a problem in virtually every-city in the western world, but that doesn't make it any less crazy, and makes me wildly uncomfortable daily. 

4. "Tudo Bem? Tudo Bem: " the most common greeting here in São Paulo. It means literally "Everything good?" to which you're expected to reply," Everything good." First of all, it sounds funny to repeat what someone just said as a greeting. And secondly, Everything is a really big word to be trowing around all the time.  Especially when claiming that everything is "good," that there's not a problem in the world. 

It's certainly optimistic. 

5. Arriving Late on Time. When someone says let's meet at 16:00, they probably mean at the earliest 16:30.  I'm starting to "relaxe" and enjoy a less punctual life-style: at least if I want to spend an extra five minutes doing my hair, they'll understand. But it can be frustrating to arrive somewhere and not know when your buddies will show up. *

* A couple of Brazilians I know are punctual, I feel sorry for them as they must look like this cat much of their lives. 

6. Kisses/ Beijos: On any one day of my life here in São Paulo I'm not surprised to be kissed more times than I ever was before moving here. 

My first day of music school here in SP, I was very tired. One of my classmates greeted me with the customary kiss, and I'm still teased for the horrified expression I responded with. Well I had been warned this would happen, in practice it really shocked me.

Now well  it feels nice to be acknowledged so personally by everyone, it inconvenient to have to stop and kiss thirty people before I can go home, 

And I'm constantly forgetting just how important these little kisses are. 

6. Starting Parties at 0:00. I'm tired before these parties even begin. The first time I got invited to one this late I thought it was a joke or that my new friends were just really strange. Now I realize that most young Brazilians  feel ruining ones sleep schedule is a fair price to pay for partying until 5am. 

7.  0:00. Every time I look at the clock and it claims "0:00," my first assumption is the clock is broken (We don't have a 24- hour-clock in the United States). Now I can convert it to "midnight" at just a second glance, but the mere concept of a " zero" time  leads me to existential questions revolving around what time is, exactly.  Like, if one month can go as "fast" as September did for me, are hours and minutes really a practical way of measuring our lives? 

Anyway despite and sometimes because of her quirks , 

Because... Well I do. 

Pictures: 

Salt: www.msgfacts.com

Cake: www.multireceitas.com.br

Balloon girl: www.ctvnews.ca

waiting cat: www.flickr.com

Beijos: www.blogdomadeira.com.br