Things Brazilians Like: Part Two

26. Starting parties at 12 and letting them go until noon the next day.

27. Neon colors in general.

28. Lemon pound cake, but instead of lemon…..pineapple.

29. Drinking “terere.” (Terere [ter-ray-ray], also called maté, tastes like green tea. The way you drink it is by filling a glass cup with special loose leaf tea, then pouring either cold fruit juice or water over the leaves and drinking it with a special metal straw that filters out the tea leaves.)

30. JUSTIN BEIBER, this whole country has Beiber Fever.

31. Nike Shox.

32. Reggae music.

33. MSN messanger

34. Orkut (or-kootch) the Google social network site.

35. Posing for photos. No one takes candid pictures.

36. Wagging their fingers while saying “tsktsktsk.”

37. Using photos of themselves as the background of their phones, that way you always know whose phone is whose.

38. Bumper stickers that say “Jesus Cristo é o Senhor” (I have to keep from laughing every time I see this because it directly translates to “Jesus Christ is the Man” and makes me think of School of Rock. I don’t think Jesus would ruin the ozone, burn the Amazon, or kidnap Shamu and put her in a chlorine tank….)

39. Salt.

Your Very Own Portuguese Phrasebook!!

1.My name is _______.

Meu nome é ______. (Meh-o noh-me ehh)

2. I’m from the United States.

Eu sou dos Estados Unidos. (Ay-you soh doos Es-ta-doos Oo-nee-doos)

3. Sorry, no I don’t like Justin Beiber. (Very Useful)

Desculpa, eu não gusto de Justin Beiber. (Geh-skool-pa, ay-you now go-sta gee Justin Beeber)

4. Corintians are awful! I root/cheer for Sao Paulo [ or if you want Flamengos].

Corintians sao ruin! Eu torço por Sao Paulo [ Flamengos]. (Coor-in-chee-ins sow hween! Ay-you tor-soo poor Sow Pow-loo [Flah-meing-goos])

5. Watch out, he’s a player. ( Also Very Useful)

Cuidado, ele é um safadinho. (Quee-dah-doo, el-ee eh oom sah-fah-geen-you)

6. Damn!/Holy crap!/ Oh my gosh!

Nossa, [gente]! (Noh-sa [jen-tchee]!)

7. Make me a sandwich!*

Me faça um sanduíche! (Meh fa-sa oom sahnd-wee-she!)

8. Where’s my sandwich?!*

Onde tá o meu sanduíche!? (Own-gee sta oo meh-oo sahnd-wee-she?!)

* After hearing the phrase “B*tch, make me a sandwich,” my host brother Lauro thought it was hilarious and took great pleasure in telling me to make him a sandwich every time I would walk into the kitchen.

Portuguese 101, Yo!

It’s not a lie that Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, but where people go wrong is thinking Portuguese is Spanish with a weird accent and different verb endings. Portuguese is completely its own language and is, in my humble opinion, a lot harder than Spanish. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up with Spanish being spoken everywhere from the grocery store to Sesame Street, or maybe it’s because I’ve never been fully “immersed” in Spanish, but either way Portuguese is hard! I can roll my R’s and even attempt the accent from Spain where all the S’s turn to TH sounds, but in Portuguese there are some sounds that, to me, are MUTIO DEFICIL!

When speaking Portuguese, instead of the –ion ending in English and the –ción ending in Spanish, you use –ção (ssow). This is extremely difficult for me to do because when speaking you somehow miraculously use the back of your throat and nasal passage simultaneously. This is an extremely vital sound as well, because much unlike Spanish, Portuguese is a tonal language. Stressing the wrong sil-la-ble can completely change the meaning of a word. It’s the difference between grandma and grandpa, past and present verbs, and bread and a rather vulgar slang word.

Portuguese is also read much differently than Spanish. In Portuguese many letters make completely different sounds than in English. For example the word “radio” (I think you can guess what it means) is pronounced “ha-geeoo,” my name is said “See-mohwwn-ee,” and “differente” (different) is “gee-ferh-ench.”

Brazilians also use three different verbs to express to be. “Ser” expresses things that are permanent and “estar” and “ficar” (which literally means “to stay”) express the impermanent. As far as I can tell, the difference between these two verbs is like the difference between “good” and “well” and is something that’s difficult to explain, but easy to mess up.

However, in exchange for the impossible (well not IMPOSSIBLE) pronunciation and 3 forms of “to be,” Brazilians made the verb endings nice and simple. Unlike the 5 or 6 you need in Spanish, I only really have to be familiar with three verb endings to communicate in present tense Portuguese. Brazilians use the word “eu” (ayy-you) to say me/I, “você” (voh-say) to say you, ele/ela for him and her, “a gente” ( ah jen-tchee, literally meaning “the people”) for us/we, and plural forms of ele/ela/você for them/they. The nice thing is that voce, ele/ela, and a gente are all in the second person, and therefore use the same verb conjugation! Needless to say, this makes my life a lot simplier.

So far, my language skills are rapidly improving. I’m able to (semi) correctly use ficar/estar. If the person I’m speaking to speaks slowly enough, I can understand pretty much everything, and if I don’t understand, I can tell them exactly what parts they need to repeat. Some people are easier than others to understand, but it’s all a matter of how much they articulate and how many verbs they throw into one sentence. As of now, I can understand everything my host mom, brothers, and sociology teacher say, and none of what my host dad, history teacher, or Rotary president tries to tell me. That’s ok though, at least when I come back to the United States I’ll be really good at charades.

Confessions of a Caffeine Addict

I never understood why my parents drink so much coffee. Then I came to Brazil. Now I completely get it; it's because coffee is DELICIOUS. In Brazil, no one uses coffee makers though, so when you make coffee, it really is you making it. So after about the 5th day of me asking my host family to make coffee for me, my host brother, Lauro, decided it would probably be a good idea to teach me. Because I'm so generous with my knowledge, I will now impart onto you all the fine details of making a good cup of Brazilian coffee.

1. Use a pot with a spout, and put about 2.5 cups of water on to boil.
   

1. 2. Wait until the water is almost boring then add two or three tbsp of sugar.

1. 3. When the sugar-water begins to boil, add two to four spoonfuls of very finely ground coffee to taste and turn off the heat. Stir.
2. 4. Take your thermos and hold your "coador" (coffee filter made from fabric) over the top. Slowly pour the coffee through the coador.
3. 5. Stick a spoon in the filter and twist to wring out all the excess coffee.

6. Add milk, or if you're feeling adventurous, chocolate powder, cinnamon, and condensed milk to make a Brazilian cappuccino.
I am now officially addicted. My host family thinks it's hilarious.
Careful though, Lauro taught me that the word coador is almost exactly the same as the word for "pain in the a**"...

Brasilia and Minas Gerais!

My host brother, Lauro, is also an exchange student. He’s going to a town in Canada that’s very close to the border between Canada and New York on September 7 ^th, so it seems only practical to get him an American visa as well as a Canadian one. This is why I got to skip two days of school to go to Goiania and then Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. So on Monday morning Lauro, Lenilda, Severino, and I got up at 4 a.m. in Goiania and drove to Brasilia. We arrived around 7:30 in the morning at the American Embassy, where for some strange, ironic reason I don’t fully understand, I was the only one not allowed inside.

I said goodbye to my host mom and brother and headed off to the car with my host dad. He tried to explain to me what we were going to do while we waited for my host brother to get his visa. I picked out a few words and assumed from what I heard that we were going to go check out some tourist attractions in Brasilia. So we hopped into the little white VW and I promptly fell asleep.

About an hour and a half later, a bump in the road woke me up, and I quickly realized that I was definitely not in Brasilia. My assumption was quickly confirmed when my host dad, Severino, pointed to road sign a few meters ahead of the car and says “Minas Gerias!”

Now, I should tell you I have absolutely no idea where the state of Minas Gerias is compared to Brasilia, no idea why I was there, and no idea what my host dad was trying to explain to me. All I knew was that we were driving on a tiny road on top of a mountain and there was LITERALLY not a scrap of humanity, save for a plastic bag stuck in a tree, anywhere in sight.

After another hour of driving, we pulled into a tiny little town. It turns out my host dad needed to get some papers signed for his work, so while he was busy I took the time to grab a can of mango nectar (I love being able to say that) and take some photos of the gas station we were at in Minas Gerais.

The 2.5 hour drive back to Brasilia took me and my host dad through the mountains of the Brazilian country side. It was one of the most daunting things I have ever seen, because unlike the Midwest, this region of Brazil is very newly developed and mostly just empty land. We drove back through giant hills that had uninterrupted wild flowers and tropical trees while wild swallows flew over the road. Never in my life have I been able to see so far without seeing any evidence of humans.

We arrived in Brasilia in the late afternoon, picked up my host mom, Lenilda, and Lauro, then made a quick tour of all the main tourist sights in Brasilia.

In the middle of the 20^th century, the Brazilian government decided to move the capital from Rio de Janeiro to a new city in the middle of Brazil. It was for this purpose that Brasilia was designed and built. It is an extremely modern, well-organized city full of futuristic white buildings, the most famous of which were designed by Oscar Niemeyer strictly to serve as the Brazilian capital. It is an extremely beautiful city, yet extremely daunting because of just how much all the buildings match.

I visited the National Cathedral (pictured) and then rode an elevator halfway up a TV signal tower to the “skydeck” of Brazil and took photos. You can see all my photos of Brasilia and Minas Gerais on my Facebook (and soon, depending on how slow my internet decides to be, my flickr!).

Frustration!

As much as I love it here, and I really do LOVE it, there are somethings I didn’t expect to have to deal with that are very hard to “acustomar” to.

In Chicago, I was a good student, I was smart, I won awards, and my teachers liked me. In Chicago, I could take the El around the city, go for runs by myself, and walk around at night without feeling vulnerable. I didn’t usually get lost, but if I ever did I knew I could rely on the grid, public transit, and the fact that if I walk far enough east, I will always find the lake. In Chicago I felt self sufficient and responsible and knew I could take care of myself and school without having to rely on other people. Here in Brazil, it’s completely different. In school, I sit, watch, and try to participate, but discussing microbiology and philosophy is pretty hard when I'm not yet fluent in Portuguese. It’s impossible to study for tests, because all my notes are in Portuguese, so I haven’t gotten higher than a D on any exam so far. It is so frustrating because I want to show people I’m not stupid. I want to tell them, “That’s ok you don’t have to explain how to find a volume of a cube. Believe me, I understand,” and “Yeah, I have heard of the Holocaust, you don’t have to try and explain again.” Because I DO almost always understand. It’s answering that is the problem. For example: Last week I took a biology test. I actually figured out what every single question was asking, but I had no idea how to even begin to explain the answer. I was so proud of myself that I knew what the test was about, but I couldn’t show anyone that I had understood because I didn’t know how to explain what types of organisms lived in coral and which stage in evolution a fully formed respiratory system appeared, so when I got a 30% my biology teacher got pissed off. Now he checks to make sure I’m paying attention and taking notes, something I’m definitely not used to having happen to me.

The other issue I’m having is with being independent. I’m not used to needing to have someone acompany with me everywhere I go. I hate not being able to answer the phone, but I can’t do charades over a landline, so it just goes to voicemail. I’m finally starting to be able to do little things on my own, they’re just so insignificant though that I want to scream! Going to the pharmacy by myself, ordering my own food, walking to and from school, etc. Over the weekend, my host family and I went to a rodeo with Rebecca, the exchange student from Germany. My host mom gave me money, and I went and ordered for Rebecca and I. They were so proud that I could ask what was in all the food, tell them Rebecca wanted hers fried, and tell the man behind the counter I was an exchange student and that’s why I have this funny accent. I was proud too, but also angry that it was such a big deal for me to do something a five year old could have done.

I can’t wait to be fluent, but even then I still won’t have as much freedom as I’m used to having. Here in Brazil, even in a small town like Mineiros, it’s very dangerous for teenage girls to go everywhere by themselves. Mineiros may only have 47,000 people, but there are still bad parts of town, drugs, and crime. I can’t go beyond my neighborhood without testing my safety, especially since it is obvious I’m not from here and about 1 in every 300 people speaks English. Even just walking to and from school can be scary because of how aggressive the men and cars are here. The law ruling that cars must stop for pedestrians is flipped here, and thus crossing the street can be extremely hazardous. The men on the other hand, are even more aggressive. They stare, whistle, and follow the “pretty” girls and make fun of the “ugly” ones. It doesn’t matter if you’re walking with other girls, other boys, or even your family; men will still stare. It is also extremely vital that you don’t respond to anything they do, which can be difficult sometimes. If you show them any attention, they will think you’re interested and turn up their game. If you tell them to stop or rudely answer them, like so many women do in the U.S., the men will think you want to fight, even if you’re a girl. I don’t EVER feel like I’m even in danger, but it’s really difficult to just keep walking even though you know you are being watched. No matter where you go, it’s like you never have privacy. It’s for these reasons that my host parents are very careful about where I can go alone.

The whole experience makes you feel a bit like a child, because you CAN take care of yourself, but at the same time you can’t. You have to rely on other people to communicate for you, and know what’s going on. You also can’t express what you’re thinking or what you want easily, just like an infant. The part that makes this even more frustrating is that when you get a taste of such extreme independence like living away from home, it’s so difficult to know that you still have to rely on other people even more than you did back where you're originally from. Even though I still absolutely adore Mineiros, adapting is definitely not problem free.

Cachoeirinha!

(Pronounced cashoo-wear-een-ya)

My cousin Francesca, a former exchange student to both France and Brazil, gave me some very valuable advice before I left. She told me that if I ever have to choose between school work and having a once in a lifetime experience, school should never win. This advice is what prompted me to opt out of an afternoon gym class (that no one goes to anyway, don’t worry Dad!) and go with my host brother, Lauro, to a cachoeirinha (little waterfall) outside of Mineiros. Around 3:30 in the afternoon, I grabbed Lauro’s old mountain bike with a broken pedal and Lauro grabbed his little trick bike (the kind where you almost kick yourself in the face when you ride because the seat is so low and far back) and we walked them out to the edge of Mineiros where the asphalt turns to red, powdery dirt and all that’s in sight are hills, fields, and farms. Where the dirt road starts, the shade ends, and so does humanity. You can see for miles and miles!

Lauro and I started biking in our shorts and white t-shirts and immediately regretted not bringing sun screen. We rode for about 15 minutes father and farther away from Mineiros towards the meat farm outside of town that marks the turn toward the little waterfall. There were absolutely no clouds and very little wind, so the dust our bikes kicked up as we sped down the hills on our inappropriate bikes stuck to the sweat on our faces and turned our entire bodies orange brown.

We finally got to the meat farm and turned down and even smaller “road” that was actually just worn tire tracks that went down hill the whole way. Halfway down the road, Lauro realized that something wasn’t right, because in the year and a half he hadn’t gone to the waterfall, someone had built a farm on top of the path we needed to take. We decided that after biking all that way, there was no way in hell we were going home yet. So we tossed our bikes over the fence to the farm, made our way around a soybean field (where we got weird looks from all the farm hands, I guess farms aren't the highest tourist destination), and down into this little ravine in the center of the farm where the river to the waterfall was. We ditched our bikes at the top next to a field of (legit) red hot chili peppers and had to climb down using tree roots and vines. I felt like Tarzan, it was awesome. Once we got to the little river, it was like being in the center of the rain forest. There were all these wild birds and giant trees with twisted roots covered in vines growing out of the river and BUGS EVERYWHERE. So I broke out my 98.15% DEET bug spray and we hiked and waded our way through the river.

We never did find the waterfall, because the stupid soy bean field took us so far away from where we needed to go, but we did find a place where the river got deep enough for us to jump in (pictured), so we washed off as much dirt and bug-spray as we could before making our way back. We climbed back out of the ravine, got just as filthy as before we went swimming, got covered in burs and bugs, and got smacked in the face by some vines. Once we finally made it back to our bikes, we rode back to the fence. Lauro jumped over first, then I handed him the bikes before jumping over myself. It turns out in retrospect, that we probably chose a bad spot to cross the fence because one of the bikes landed on a fire ant nest. So when I jumped over the fence I proceeded to promptly be bitten on my foot. Well, I completely flipped and started screaming like a four year-old girl and until my host brother realized what was going on and killed the stupid thing. Thank god. It was the most painful experience!

Once we got back to the main dirt road it was about 6:15 and the sun started going down. It was absolutely GORGEOUS. Since there are absolutely no buildings outside of town, you could see the entire sunset. And that’s when toucans started flying overhead. Yeah, I love Brazil too.

It took us about another hour to get home, and we got stared at by all the everyone that we passed. This honestly didn’t surprise me at all considering we both had scrapes all over our bodies, red dust everywhere, and we wearing soaking wet and completely filthy clothes. My shirt was so coated in dirt that you could see a line where it was tucked into my shorts. By the time I got home, I had probably 15 more bug bites, the biggest bruise I’ve ever gotten in every color imaginable on my thigh, and so much dirt in my hair I looked like a red head.

You might be reading this thinking that it was the adventure from hell, but I can honestly say it was one of the best days I’ve spent here so far. I literally hiked though a mango orchard and a tropical river and now I have an epic story to tell when people ask me about what happened to my legs! It was completely unforgettable and absolutely hilarious. I have never had a better time not going to gym. Jullian and Emma; if you guys are reading this, we're packing a picnic and going out to the farm when (not if!) you come to visit. It's amazing.

Update: Driving Edition

I would like to start this post out by saying that I absolutely love Brazil and feel 100% safe and secure, so don’t worry. That being shared, I’m going to tell you about the biggest culture shock I’ve experienced so far.

I figured that the language or the food or school would take me farthest out of my comfort zone, and although they most definitely do, they aren’t nearly as shocking as one other thing I’ve experienced since I’ve come to Brazil. What is it that has, you might be wondering?

The way people drive.

Now I am in no way, shape, or form someone to judge the way other people drive considering the number of red lights I’ve failed to see and the times I’ve made a bad turn down a one way street, but let’s just say Mr. Calquon would probably not approve of how they roll in Brazil…

When my host parents and two host brothers picked me up from the airport in Goiania, we all sqeezed into their small 5-seat Voltzwagon hatchback and took off to my host brother’s apartment in another part of the city. Before I could even experience the food, school, or even a full fledged conversation, I had a mini culture shock attack when I looked out the window and noticed just how many red octagons reading “PARÉ” we were zipping by. Everytime my host dad took a turn I would slide into my host brothers, who just smiled at look of shock on my face.

The next day, we left on host brother in his apartment in Goiania and headed off to Mineiros, the town where I’m staying. The highways in Brazil are nothing like the Dan Ryan or the Eisenhower. They are all small two-lane highways, and since Mineiros is not quite a “destination city” the roads leading to it are not always the best maintained. And even when they are, when your driving in a very tiny little stick shift car going 170 km/h each tiny bump lifts you out of your seat.

Now, Brazilians have a reputation for being very touchy feely people who don’t have personal space bubbles, a cliché that is very true. What people fail to realize however, is that this part of their culture is also relevant when it comes to driving. Never have I ever seen so many cars driving so close and so fast before. Brazilians also love to pass cars going slower than them, even if there might already be a car in the oncoming lane. Now imagine that with a dirt road and a spare tire.

I don’t think I know any words, in either English or Portuguese, which quite describe what a car ride here is like. All I can say is that I wish my host brother wouldn’t laugh at me when I put on my seat belt….

Update: Food Edition

Alright. It’s 1:40 pm in Mineiros. Classes are over for the day and I have three hours until I have to go back to school to take (and hopefully PASS) a math test. I’m sitting in my living room blasting Little Joy, curled up with a pot of delicious Brazilian coffee and Deko, my host family’s chihuahua. It’s time to catch up on the three weeks of blogging I’ve blown off.

Let the blogging marathon commence with a topic everyone in Chicago seems to be very interested in: Food.

Brazilians have a very different eating schedule than we do in the United States. Breakfast is eaten together as a family very early in the morning because the Brazilian work day starts at 7 ’o’clock. Lunch is a family meal. Everyone comes home from work and school to eat together before going back to their own activities. And dinner, unless you eat out, is a very casual ordeal where every man essentially fends for himself.
Breakfast is mostly snacking, where various forms of carbs are placed on the table mixed with the occasional protein. There is always, always coffee, brewed very strongly with sugar. We eat lemon or pineapple breakfast cake, sweet bread, cinnamon biscuits, or pão de queso (which everyone seems to have their own style of making) with goiaba jelly. When my host mom wakes up early enough, she makes little ham and cheese sandwiches in her George Foreman or scrambles eggs and chops up tomatoes to go on top. When you are eating outside the home for breakfast there is usually fresh fruit like manga, banana, abacaxi, and morango (mango, banana, pineapple, and strawberry, respectively). That, along with the occasional sausage, pretty much sums up breakfast.
When most people tell me they eat the same food every single day I usually assume they’re exaggerating because, usually, they are. When people tell you that Brazilians eat rice and beans everyday however, they are telling you the absolute dead truth. I don’t think a day has gone by I haven’t been offered rice and beans. This is especially true for lunch, where the general meal formula is rice, beans, one or two types of meat, a cooked veggie, a raw veggie, fresh pineapple or orange juice, and Guaranaaaaa! My method of eating has sort of evolved into piling a little rice and beans onto my plate, then heaping a ton of whatever fresh vegetable we have on top along with hot sauce and this cornmeal/seasoning/texturizing food called farofa, mixing it together and diggin’ in. The meat is usually cooked with broth and these roots that taste and look like potatoes but AREN’T and is almost all ways chicken (frango) or beef (carne de vaca or carne for short). When you eat out for lunch, you don’t actually order anything but a drink. When you arrive you’re handed a sheet of paper. You grab a plate, and serve yourself buffet style. Next, you go to the man who’s barbecuing and indicate the 2923954874 different types of meat you want to have for lunch and he will take them off the grill and but them onto your plate. When you’re done serving yourself, you weigh your plate and a woman marks the number of kilos of food you have on your paper then asks you what you want to drink and marks your answer down. Now, I have discovered that the way you tell the quality of an establishment is by their variety of beverages. If they only offer goiaba, mango, and grape, it means that they only served canned juice and you’re allowed to think badly of the restaurant. A good restaurant will offer at least 9 types of suco (fresh fruit juice), all 3 famous brands of Brazilian beer, Coke, Coke Zero, and most importantly Guarana (a soda made from berries only found in the Amazon and the most important/addictive drink in Brazil).
The food has definitely taken some getting used to. The hardest part is that we eat the same thing essentially every single day! Meat, meat, meat, rice and beans. However, I think I’ve finally found my food-niche in the millions of fruits that grow here. I’ve been here a month and not even made a dent in the all types of fruits I have yet to try, not to mention learn to pronounce….
That’s all for now on the food front, but heads up because I have sooo many more things to write about.

Things Brazilians Like

Since I've arrived in Brazil, I've noticed a few things that seem to be very popular here. This is the beginning of what I'm sure will end up being a very long list.
1. Wearing high heels….all the time.
2. American music rerecorded in Portuguese.
3. American movies dubbed in Portuguese.
4. Lady Gaga.
5. American style hamburgers.
6. Hamburgers in general.
7. Meat in general.
8. Rice, every single day.
9. Women
10. Havianas (which they sell everywhere, even the supermarket, for dirt cheap)
11. Tropical juices from fruits no one in the United States has ever heard of.
12. Soccer (but that’s kinda a given).
13. Volleyball (called “volei”).
14. Soap operas, which are on all hours of the day, everyday.
15. Bikinis, very very tiny bikinis.
16. Coffee that is as strong as American espresso, brewed with sugar.
17. Pão de queijo, (bread rolls baked with cheese inside the dough) which they eat almost as much as rice.
18. Motorcycles.
19. American swear words.
20. Having ingenious ways of getting rid of mosquitoes.
21. Neon nail polish.
22. Parties.
23. Painting their houses crazy vibrant colors.
24. Antique VW bugs.
25. Everybody Hates Chris