The being far from home emotion waves are quite noticeable. I usually have a week full of fun and distraction and excitement, getting to know my friends better and being extremely motivated and outgoing. Then the next week, feel antisocial, closed off and miss home a lot. I'm working on it, so that the "I don't freaking want to speak in Portuguese" moods don't last too long but I'm sure I'll keep missing home. : ) This last week was kind of boring but I don't see any more of them in my near future so I may as well enjoy these next few "nothing" days. There are beach plans, BBQ plans, dance club/bar plans and having a job plans all coming up in the next week.
This is a photo of my classroom. I have all 4 of my classes in this same room. When I lose weight (which happens when you're poor and don't buy much food), my butt usually gets smaller first. This is unfortunate considering the flat wooden chairs.
Classmates: Tayara, Amanda, Michely, Me
This is Carol's dad, Pedro Leopoldo Monteiro. He's grilling goat linguica for lunch. He normally smiles a lot, but I'm pretty sure he was saying something when I took this photo. He has bad teeth but a really nice smile anyway because he's so genuinely jolly. I'll get a smiley one sometime soon.
Today at the bakery I got called Galega!!! It made me feel so much more Brazilian. I'm not "Norteamericana"...I'm just a blondish Brazilian.
I also got lots of compliments today from the girls in the international coordinator's office about how good my accent is. : ) : ) : ) I went there today because Michely, the assistant, wanted to tell me what we needed to do to set up a Brazilian bank account! Money! Woo Hoo! What a good day.
I start leading that conversational English class in a WEEK. Crazy. All the students are really anxious because they had to take a test to judge their english level, and only the 15 best get in. Which means, I hope, they're all really dedicated to learning English and will be a lot of fun to work with.
Last Saturday Night in Garanhuns, Carolina's friend Vanesa's brothers' band was playing at a bar. We all went and danced. The next morning I was talking to the grandma about how I was tired because I still wasn't used to staying out til after 4am. She laughed and said "4? that's nothing." She then continued to tease me by telling Lucia Angelica that I'm not yet accustomed to partying in Brazil. Oh Grandmas. We also watched one of her favorite movies together in her room while eating home made dulce de leche. It was Scent of a Woman with Al Pacino. Haha.
Rio Capibaribe! I took the bus to Parque Jaqueira yesterday and walked along the river a little.
Here is something that amuses me: The weather here is whack. Completely. Sometimes Carol will yell " 'ta chovendo! (it's raining!)" and everyone will jump up from whatever they're doing and run to shut the windows. It's like a fire drill, but a water drill, and not a drill.
I've been very very busy lately. On top of classes, for the past 2 days, I've been going to seminars on bee and honey production. Yesterday through tomorrow is Agrinordeste, the huge regional ag conference. I was originally signed up to go to the cattle seminars but they messed up and I didn't argue because I decided bees would be more interesting anyway. : ) I'm already learning about cows at school and ever since a Reading Rainbow we watched in elementary school, I've wanted to raise bees.
After a week and a half, I FINALLY had my goats/sheep class and so far I like it, even though 2 hours is a long time to sit in class period, let alone in a second language on a wooden chair. I still haven't had my Water Buffalo class, but the professor is a young guy who's good friends with my roommate, so I think it'll be good.
I finished translating Pedrinho's research project into English! I'm so excited to get to go to the farms and lab with him in October when it all gets going! I am thoroughly motivated and feel like I'm going to completely own the Animal Science Dept in Davis when I get back. : )
Here are some photos that Renan emailed me:
Renan, Juana, and Me at Boa Viagem at night, after we ate Tapiocas in Olinda. A few days after this outing, Juana flew to Texas to be part of the same program I'm doing, but at Texas A & M. We still talk online sometimes, her in English and me in Portuguese. It's hilarious.
Kalina, Renan, Me. Even though I know Renan through Juana who I know through Carol, and Juana was in Texas, and Carol couldn't go...Renan still really wanted me to come to his birthday party at "Downtown Pub." It was decorated in British Rock Decor.
Renan and I got there around 10:15 then walked around the city and sat at a table outside waiting for people. We actually went to Down Town Pub around midnight, had a drink and danced until almost 3. He's a lot dorkier than I gathered from our first meeting, but in a good way of course.
So the days have been quite good, but quite full. I'm looking forward to visiting the fam in Garanhuns this weekend. No plans, a nice hammock, free food, a cooler climate. It beckons.
Oi Pessoal! Hey Everyone! I jacked some photos of my Brazil family off of Leo's Orkut (facebook type thing.) :D I thought you should see what they're like...
Carolina and Vovó (Gramma).
Carol is just a couple months older than me. I love it when she speaks in English. It's adorable. She always says "cooks" instead of cookies. Her favorite American song is Lucky by Jason Mraz.
This photo must be a couple years old...cuz now Vovó's face is nothing but wrinkles. It's hard not to stare at her face but the lines are mesmerizing. She's really really good at being a grandma. She always asks me if I'm sure I don't want to eat more food. When I had a back ache from sleeping in a hammock she asked me every hour or so if it was feeling better. She told me I should call her grandma.
The Brothers, Pedrinho and Leo.
Leo is the oldest. I think he's 28. He is a journalist. He doesn't really slow down when he talks to me, so I probably misunderstand him more often than anyone else. He teases me about being American. When he was younger he was very skinny, but I've noticed that now he really really likes cookies. The whole family has a thing for these cookies that are like chocolate oreos. They're ALWAYS in the house.
Pedrinho I think is 26. He's the taller one. Pedrinho is a nickname for Pedro. Like Pete for Peter. They call him Galego. Here galego/galega is slang for blond or more european looking people. He's a large animal vet. He tries really hard to talk to me but it's still difficult because he's always smiling and laughing when he talks. He's been trying to speak in English a little bit. He's said "Gud Morneen," "Come here. Please," and insists on saying "Hellloooo." Lately his favorite thing is "I hungy." haha. He loaned me a book about horses to read, that was written by a guy from SALINAS. I asked my dad if he'd heard of him, because he seemed like a pretty famous horse dude, and sure enough, this guy used to be from Buellton and my dad went to one of his seminars as a kid. Awesome?
I couldn't find fotos of the parents...I'll take some soon. I have a good story though. Last Sunday I woke up to Pedro (the dad) playing guitar and singing. He has a surprisingly excellent singing voice. When it was about time for breakfast, before he put his guitar away, he asked me if I knew Carol King. I said yes. He asked if I liked her. I said yes, which is not exactly true. Then he said, ok sing with me. Miraculously, the song he chose was "You've got a Friend," which is THE ONLY Carol King song that I know the words to. So I sang with him. It was lovely.
I learned last week that Lucia, the mom, is an ENGLISH professor...I knew the professor part before. They nagged her at dinner to speak English and she wouldn't do it. It seemed like she was embarrassed or something so I said, "she just doesn't want to because she knows how much I need to practice Portuguese, and doesn't want to spoil me." When we left Garanhuns, to go back to Recife, we were going around giving hugs and kisses and I said "Tchau Mãe (Bye Mom)" and she giggled.
Everything here is just so much like a family. We eat together a lot of the time. We grocery shop together. We wash our laundry together. We do eachother's dishes. It's nice.
Yesterday I went to Olinda, the town just north of Recife. It's pretty well known world wide because it has such a rich culture. I went there with my new amiga Juana and her boyfriend Renan, which is pronounced kinda like HayNUH. Their reason for going was to eat Tapioca and they invited me along. I was very pleased to find out that tapioca here does not mean oddly textured pudding.
Tapioca is made from these things. Mandioca.
The starch is somehow isolated then used to make a certain kind of flatbread type thing. It is pure white and has a really really special texture. You know how when you roast a marshmallow and the outside is dry and a little crunchy, but the inside is still gooey? That's the most similar thing I can think of except it's not gooey, just a little sticky. And it doesn't taste like much, cuz it's just starch basically, but they add salt or sugar, depending on whether you want a meal or a dessert and you can order them with all sorts of scrumptious things inside. It's basically Brazil's version of a tortilla, or crepe...but it's soooo different and cool.
They first cook the tapioca in a round thing, then they put what you want in the middle and fold it in half. I let Renan order for me so I got one with coconut and cheese...which sounds weird...but it was DELICIOUS. Next time I'm totally getting meat though. (:
This is Olinda. There are a lot of very very old churches and historical buildings there. So it's a neat place to walk around. The government is constantly renovating and trying to preserve stuff. They're also really well known for having an especially excellent Carnaval. That city further down the coastline, in the background, is Recife. Hi house!
Tonight I was just starting to think about going to bed when Leo and Renata (Leo's gf) invited me out for french fries...at like 11:30. At first I said no cuz I was super tired and not dressed, but they insisted. So we went out and ate french fries and drank beer. They also ordered shrimp, which was very yummy. The shrimp here have heads. And also all their legs and feeler things. It's basically like the shrimp come out of the ocean, get cooked, and that's that. No middle men. It was neat. Also Pedrinho (Carol and Leo's other brother) met us there. They're all so much fun. It'll be even better when I can understand all their jokes...
So quite a bit has been happening but due to the lack of camera, I haven't really wanted to post anything on here. Who wants to just read a bunch of words? But problem temporarily solved! Meu amigo, Leandro, took photos on our hike Saturday. So here you go.
There's an ecological reserve/zoo right next to my school. We got to hike through the forest! And it was free because the school covered it as an educational excursion.
These are a bunch of the kids in my class. The way classes work here is different. They pretty much hand you your class schedule for the whole 5 years. Everyone takes things in the same order and you have every class with the same group of kids for the whole time you're in college. So basically, they're all really close.
Luckily Brazilians are super sweet so they're adopting me pretty quick. I have basically all their phone numbers now and talk to some of them online. Next week I'm going to the beach with Leandro, Amanda, and Felipe (that tall skinny guy in the middle.) His nickname is Magro, which means skinny.
Our guide in the back, Tayara, Luciola, Janete, Me, Valtson, Xélen
Mud mud mud mud mud. My shoes are still gross. It also poured on us at one point and continued to drizzle on and off. I was the only one who kind of enjoyed the rain. They're all tired of it by now but it's still a bit of a novelty for me.
This house was the end of our hike. It was really neat. There's a super cool story about the woman who lived there. I couldn't understand all of it...but basically she was a very wealthy Jewish woman who was known for being good with medicine and herbs etc. After a while the Catholics labeled her as a witch and I don't know exactly what they did to her but before she died, she threw all of her valuable possessions into the water surrounding her house. Now people throw in small change and treat it basically as a gigantic wishing well.
Other than finding FOUR ticks feasting on me the next morning, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. And yes I showered that night...the ticks here are just ridiculously tiny. I would never have overlooked homestyle ticks.
The next day, Sunday, I walked around the city for like 4 hours. Monday I went to the school to register for classes. Today I basically just watched Brazilian music videos on my computer, looked up whatever words I didn't know, then sang them a few times. It was relaxing while still being semi-productive.
In other news, I may be leading a conversational English class twice a week...
Yesterday was my first full day in Brazil, and it was a very very full day.
Phase 1: Avenida Santo Antônio to listen to some popular local music, dance and hang out with Carolina's parents.
Phase 2: Parque Euclides Dourado with Carolina's friends (lots of them.) In Portuguese, my name comes out kind of like Henny. I think some of the girls could tell I was getting tired of having to explain things to people so they asked my full name to see if they could nickname me. This is how I became Elena. After a while Carolina made them stop and try harder to say Renee. I think she didn't want me to feel made fun of or something but I really really didn't mind. It was SO MUCH easier than having to teach every single person I met. I guess I'll just have to be Henny.
Anyway this group relocated to Parque Ruber Van Der Linden for some more hanging out. We met up with her dad and brother again and their friends and then went home to rest.
Phase 3: Esplanada Guadalajara for a concert. Jorge Ben Jor. Look him up. Anyway, it started raining as soon as we got there! We stayed though, got soaked through, and didn't get home til 4:30am.
Here's some Monteiro Family Trivia:
Dad: Pedro Leopoldo Mom: Lucia Angelica Brothers: Leo e Pedrinho
Pedro Leopoldo loves jeeps! He's in a jeep club (jipe clube) and had (I'm not exaggerating) over 50 trophies from Jeep events (Jeepcross.) There are a bunch on the table in the photo below, ALL from jeep festivals.
Pedrinho is a large animal vet specializing in bovine reproduction. He is constantly laughing and sneezes ridiculously loud like Jimmy.
A friend of Pedrinho's knows some english from playing Warcraft etc.
The family has an 8 year old cocker spaniel named Dara.
The president of Brazil, Lula da Silva is from Carolina's hometown.
The trip has been wonderful thus far. Travel was long and exhausting but I can already tell it was worth it. I LOVE it here. As soon as I left the airport and was driving through town I felt immediately comfortable. No worries at all, kind of like it just fit me or something. It's pretty difficult to understand native Portuguese speakers but I'm managing well enough that I'm not at all stressed out or overwhelmed.
Partial view from my living room.
The ocean is behind the skyscrapers.
We drove for over 2 hours to my roommate, Carolina's, home town, Garanhuns, and are staying here at her parents house until Sunday. I met 2 of her girl friends today and one of them walked around town with us. It's their winter festival right now.
The area surrounding Garanhuns looks like this in every direction.
This was the touristy thing to do. I told Carol that Michael Jackson had one at Neverland Ranch.
Here are some of my initial observations. People just tie their horses to stakes on the side of the road to let them graze. There are cows in the open areas by parks in the city and I even saw one just walking down the street. People paint their houses the most ridiculous colors and I think it's great. They drive fast and mostly just care about getting where they want to go. They honk a lot though to make sure people know they're there. It's funny because the way they do it, it doesn't at all seem rude. I tasted a papaya for the first time at breakfast. It tasted like Fruit Loops. The people I've met so far are magnificent! I've even had a grandma make me eat more food.
This is a photo of my classroom. I have all 4 of my classes in this same room. When I lose weight (which happens when you're poor and don't buy much food), my butt usually gets smaller first. This is unfortunate considering the flat wooden chairs.
Classmates: Tayara, Amanda, Michely, Me
This is Carol's dad, Pedro Leopoldo Monteiro. He's grilling goat linguica for lunch. He normally smiles a lot, but I'm pretty sure he was saying something when I took this photo. He has bad teeth but a really nice smile anyway because he's so genuinely jolly. I'll get a smiley one sometime soon.
