Typical Day

Sometimes it just hits me..I am living here. I am starting to feel the rythm of it all and a comfortable routine is falling into place. On the weekdays, Segunda feira though Sexta feira, I wake up at six o'clock with a knock on my door from my host mother and the words "bom dia". After my primping and prepping I go to the kitchen for breakfast which almost everyday is mamao, a type of melon, freshly made orange juice and toast. Lucy makes the toast on the stove in a skillet and uses bread from the bakery.
My school, Liceau, starts at seven o'clock, but not a day goes by that student walks into class a bit late. There are no detentions given. The student gives a polite excuse me and then goes to his seat. The normal days at school seem to last for much longer than in actuality. I still cannot understand the teachers and so I will make vocab sheets, go over old vocab, look at work from my Portuguese class and when I am not doing that I am day dreaming.
After school everyday I am given a ride home from Fernando's (Tiago's best friend) mother. I enter my apartment first through two security gates. I say "oi" to the security guard on duty and make my way to the elevator which I take to the top floor, 16. When I come home I greet my parents with a hug and a kiss to the side of the face. I set my school things in my room and then we eat lunch.
My midafternoon life has a good variation to it. There really is no exact schedule to it and I do not think there will be one. I like it like this.

This weekend I went to a wedding in Sao Paulo. This wedding like the other one was not in a church. instead it was at a really nice house. The music for the actual ceromony was not at all traditional. Again there were waiters brought around food and drink. The dancing was again great and the main event. As in the first wedding I went, hats and masks and glow lights were passed out on the dance floor.

I actually met another "gringo" from New York at the wedding. He, a graduate of Columbia, and a man with a really interesting life story, explained this to me. Things are more expensive here because Brazil is a third world country...Here exists the extremely poor and the very wealthy. The poor do not shop in stores and so stores are made for the wealthy. The wealthy can afford higher prices and so items are more expensive. It is true. Clothes, shoes, electronics are all more expensive here than in the states. I spent 22 raeis this afternoon on a bar of cetaphil soap.
However, produce seems to be less expensive here.