CARNAVAL!

Festa de Carne

Brazilians are crazy about their meat. It only takes a few churrascos (Brazilian BBQ) to observe this. So the fact that they have a national holiday named for meat (carne) is ridiculously appropriate. The origin of this holiday came from the dominatly Catholic Portuguese...(Brazil was a Portuguese colony). Part of the Catholic tradtion is to refrain from eating meat as well as doing other forms of penance for the 40 days of lent that lead up to Easter. So the people of early Brazil decided to take advantage of the five days before lent by throwing a huge party. Over time Carnaval became greatly influenced by African culture and became more focused on costume and dance (Samba:)).

The second day of Carnaval my host parents and I drove to Sao Paulo to meet up with my host aunt, uncle and cousins at there home. Together we ate lunch and then after everyone napped in order to prepare for the extensive night a head. Around ten o'clock two taxis arrived and we drove through the city and to the out skirts where the Sao badrem...(the spelling is wrong) or this stadium specifically built for Carnaval is. The taxis proved to be a very good idea...as we passed large masses of traffic waiting to park.

The show began as we arrived in our seats, our seats only feet away from the stretch were all the focus was taking place. The pictures above tell the a good part of the general story. There were seven dance schools that put on the show/competition. Each school consisted of about 4,000 participants. The 4000 had to make it down the long stretch (about a mile) with in an hour...dancing and singing..some pushing the huge detailed cars that you see above. At times there would be explosions of confetti that littered the statium like snow...creating a star-like effect in some of the photos. The final show my family stayed for (we left at five in the moring, an estimated two hours before the end....) had the crowd wild. The theme was Corintias...a very famous soccer team in Sao Paulo. Before this particular school started...Corinthean flags were passed out into the entire croud... WIth the mucis blaring and the bass strong...the entire crowd stood and waved there flags to the beat of the music....singing and shouting in preparation for what was to come. Fireworks went off....the dancers came...and placed on the main float was a the famous Ronaldo...a Corinthain soccer player.

Funny story about this guy. My host mother told me last night that it was top news last year that Ronaldo entered a motel with two prostitutes. My host mother explained that it wasnt that they were prostitutes and it was not that there were two of them...it was that the two beautiful women that he entered with were not actually women...and when Ronaldo discovered this (hahaha...awkward) he became so enraged that be distroyed everything in the motel room... And then...he got charged for this..and went to jail.

Carnaval lasted until until Tuesday. Sunday of Carnaval I went to a baile with my friend...Monday I went to Aguas de Sao Pedros with my host parents and met Heini and his wife and mother there. And then Tuesday was Sergios, my host father's birthday..so family came to our house and we had a small part with pizza and icecream cake. There is going to be another party for Sergio on Saturday..this time with more people.

MIND

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MATTER

Today I was scheduled to return to school...eghh.. My host mother entered my room this morning and asked if I wanted to go... Ohh.... I layed in bed for five minutes creating a mental pros and cons list.

Pro: leave house

Possibly see other exchange students

I technically should

Con: Sit and Do nothing

sit and do nothing

sit and do nothing

So, I stayed home today. It's a joke really. There is almost no motivation for me to want to go... Sometimes I read...the same book that I have been reading for the past couple months. Everytime I read it gets easier and becomes more enjoyable...but I can read at home as well...and not have to worry about offending the teachers...ughh.. School tomorrow..I actually want to go.. Too long in the house...and I want to go to school...one day at school and I want to stay in the house.....One day and then the weekend. Yay!

Brazil 101

-"the good life ends after 25"

- Cheating in relationships seems to be more accepted here than in the states...however..only on the males part......I think this idea is European as well

-If you pray to some saint to help you find something and find what you are looking for...you jump three times and say "achei achei achei" ....."found found found"

Five Down, Five More to Go.

Back to School

I returned to Liceu, my high school, on Monday. The Christmas break here is the equivilent of the US summer break. So, before December I was in 2nd grade and now I am in the 3rd, the graduating year. (Brazilian high school is divided into three years) I was happier than I had expected to be, when I saw the faces of my classmates. They all looked the same, except that everyone was a bit more bronze, and for the most part, they even sat in the same desk order that they had the previous year. On the first day, I sat in the very middle of the classroom. Behind me, the new kids, six of them. Last year it was I, who sat in the very back of the classroom and I could not help but smile to myself, feeling that I had moved up in the food chain, no longer the novist.

For now, it is good to be back. Its good to have a focal point and a (sort of) realm of orginization.

The Other School

Last weekend I was in the town of Aguas de Sao Pedros. There my host parents and I spent the weekend celebrating the birthday of Heini, my hosts dad's long-time friend. There, I met a lady named Erly, who spent a year of High School in North Canton, Ohio. Erly, who now owns a Language School in Piracicaba invited me to teach English class at her school. On Monday, I visited her school and she gave me a short briefing on how she wanted me to teach the class and provided me with some text books. My first class was the next day. Now, mondays through Thursdays I teach a one hour class per day.

"When the Moon Hits Your Eye"

For the most part, last Friday night until Sunday afternoon was a blur of endless meat, sleep and for those who drink it, beer. However, for a couple hours on Saturday night, we took a break from churrasco. Ever since my family found out that I was a "Pizzaiola", they wanted to test my skills. Saturday night I cooked for a dozen people. I prepared the dough two days before hand and constructed six pizzas that night infront of everyone. It was a lot of fun to impress the brazilians with my dough tossing skills and was really cool to cook in a stone oven for the first time. The pizzas, except for the first one (was not used to the stone oven) turned out wonderful.

Half Way

Glass half empty? Glass half full? I cannot decide. I am five months in now and I have reached the half way point. The glass is definatly still full. I have plans for furture travel inorder to see more of Brazil, I have the furture holidays, my Portuguese has further need for improvement. Five months is a good amount of time, but then again...where have the previous five gone? I cannot help but feel the beginning of the end. I am not sad because I already have plans for when I come home, but I am aware that their will be sadness in future and it's a bit haunting.

Brazil 101

-Don't judge a store by it's cover. (It's a fact that decent clothing is much more expensive here than in the states. However, it is possible, at times, to find clothing at a decent price. Here, some stores appear expensive from the window...but are in actualluality decently priced. So, it's best to check it out...)

-Eating is sacred. I found the perfect example of this on a Brazilian Sopapra. On the show, there was this little girl fighting with her mother. Her mother remained calm through out the name calling and bad behavior, but when her mother asked her if she was going to eat supper and the little girl said no, her mother threw her hands up in the air and stomped out of the room.

-Brazilian government has OBVIOUS corruption.