Oh my, the time is flying by. Already I am a third of the way into my trip! It makes me realize that I still have a lot that I want to do. Still planning trips to Sao Paolo, Iguacu, Ilha Grande, Parati, Buzios, and Buenos Aires (aper-let me know). Thanks also for the birthday cards, it´s good to know you people back home haven´t forgotten me.
Surprisingly, the weather here these last few days has been less than sublime. All chilly and rainy. Supposedly normal, so say the Brazilians. The forecast for the next week doesn´t look that great either. HEY RIO, I ONLY PACKED ONE SWEATSHIRT! What am I supposed to do with all these spaghetti-strap tank tops I meticulously chose to fit in my suitcase. ARRRGH.
Family dinner with the roomies was last night, Jens Um (the German) made us all goulash with these dough ball things that I forget the name of. Delicious! Some of you that know me best may not believe this, but I have become hooked on soymilk. I know, I know, normally I am a die-hard 2%er. But under these conditions of cardboard box flash-pasteurized pseudo milk, I had to find another way. And it was soy.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Rio Rio Rio -- the good the bad the ugly
Okay, Mom, you may not want to read this post. The other evening while on a walk back from the park near our house, Parque do Flamengo, Krista and I happened upon a crowd in the middle of the street. Very eerie because no one was talking, especially in Rio because the noise is insane here always. Being the curious little gringas we are, we walk up to the middle to see what everyone is peering at. Three dead bodies, wrapped in body bags, laying in respective pools of blood. On the street. There was one police officer there, and a newspaper crew. I never figured out whether it was gang related or just an armed robbery or what. I didnt want to be the loud obnoxious American in that moment. I know murders happen every day in every country, just usually not right near the grocery store I walk to everyday right by my apartment. Anyway, it´s a good reminder that I need to be more aware of myself and my surroundings. I thought it was important to talk about and also to remind everyone that this is the exception, all the brazilians i talked to about it have never seen anything like that.
On a lighter note, I have a hammock in my room now. Woo hoo I have always wanted one. I´m jazzed. This weekend we have plans to go to Ilha Grande, a natural bioreserve island not too far away, for my birthday. 22 years old. Feels weird. Also, Krista and I are joining this gym called UPPER near our house, it´s very elegant and you get in by scanning your fingerprint. Very fun and James Bondish. I´m loving the exchange rate right now.
On a lighter note, I have a hammock in my room now. Woo hoo I have always wanted one. I´m jazzed. This weekend we have plans to go to Ilha Grande, a natural bioreserve island not too far away, for my birthday. 22 years old. Feels weird. Also, Krista and I are joining this gym called UPPER near our house, it´s very elegant and you get in by scanning your fingerprint. Very fun and James Bondish. I´m loving the exchange rate right now.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The Culture of the Dirty Foot
Hello again. It's been a busy weekend again. Friday the gang went to Lapa with some of the kids from school and saw Nouvelle Vague at this cool venue called the CircoPoador. Very fun. During one of the songs some guy climbed onstage and started samba-ing with the girls. Nice. Saturday was back to Lapa again, this time we started out at one of the little street bars. Here is where the dirty foot comes into play. Apparently, so my Brazilian friend tells me, this kind of bar, where the beer is cheap and the tables and chairs are of the stackable kind so as to fill the streets at night, these kind of places are called pesujo bars, meaning little dive bars or whole-in-the-wall places. But pesujo literally translates as dirty foot, pe-sujo. Very fitting, judging by the blackened condition of my foot by the end of the night. Muaha.
Let's see, what else have I been up to. Krista and I bought a Brazilian cell phone. Woo hoo! Finally coerced after we had our social life explode in our faces. Very exciting, it's prepay but you can buy the cards at any magazine stand, which are literally every 15 feet on the sidewalk anywhere in the city.
Hmmm. My roommates and I are starting a Tuesday night family dinner. Krista and I are cooking. Ha. We considered just getting some Big Macs and Fries and setting them on plates just to make our haute couture cuisine-ily inclined euro roommates mad. Nah we'll spare them.
Krista and I are noticing a lot more prejudice towards the foreigners. We've encountered a few instances where store owners were unwilling to serve us or speak to us because we are from os estados unidos. While rare, it is something to think about, being on the other side of the divide. On the whole, everyone is really excited to speak to us and hear all about our exciting lives in this great exotic land of Oooohhioooo. Most people ask if it's like California. Ha. Sometimes I let them live the lie.
One other thing that is crazy here is the amount of impoverished kids running about. They range from about 5 years old to 16, and they roam in terrifying packs trying to wrangle change where they can, in exchange for some gum or mints. They are very aggressive, a lot of them look like they are high, and they seem to be the biggest threat on the beaches. They sleep on the streets, even near my apartment. I used to like watching the Genie the Wild Child specials on the Discovery Channel, it's kind of like that. Rio has its own breed of urban feral children. Like an LOTF adaptation in NYC on heroin with Portuguese subtitles. Something along those lines.
Let's see, what else have I been up to. Krista and I bought a Brazilian cell phone. Woo hoo! Finally coerced after we had our social life explode in our faces. Very exciting, it's prepay but you can buy the cards at any magazine stand, which are literally every 15 feet on the sidewalk anywhere in the city.
Hmmm. My roommates and I are starting a Tuesday night family dinner. Krista and I are cooking. Ha. We considered just getting some Big Macs and Fries and setting them on plates just to make our haute couture cuisine-ily inclined euro roommates mad. Nah we'll spare them.
Krista and I are noticing a lot more prejudice towards the foreigners. We've encountered a few instances where store owners were unwilling to serve us or speak to us because we are from os estados unidos. While rare, it is something to think about, being on the other side of the divide. On the whole, everyone is really excited to speak to us and hear all about our exciting lives in this great exotic land of Oooohhioooo. Most people ask if it's like California. Ha. Sometimes I let them live the lie.
One other thing that is crazy here is the amount of impoverished kids running about. They range from about 5 years old to 16, and they roam in terrifying packs trying to wrangle change where they can, in exchange for some gum or mints. They are very aggressive, a lot of them look like they are high, and they seem to be the biggest threat on the beaches. They sleep on the streets, even near my apartment. I used to like watching the Genie the Wild Child specials on the Discovery Channel, it's kind of like that. Rio has its own breed of urban feral children. Like an LOTF adaptation in NYC on heroin with Portuguese subtitles. Something along those lines.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Post-pigeon Cleanup
Boa tarde. Today is a new day without pigeon poop on my head. Hooray.
We spent the day at the Federal Police to get our visas approved for our stay in Brasil. It was a morning and afternoon of confusion and waiting in lines. All taken care of now, though. Whew!
The bus from the airport (where the Federal Police are) dropped us off near our school so Krista and I came back to check our email and I met with my group that I am doing a project with this semester in my editorial design class.
Finally here are some photos of my school ESDI, escola superior de desenho industrial.
We spent the day at the Federal Police to get our visas approved for our stay in Brasil. It was a morning and afternoon of confusion and waiting in lines. All taken care of now, though. Whew!
The bus from the airport (where the Federal Police are) dropped us off near our school so Krista and I came back to check our email and I met with my group that I am doing a project with this semester in my editorial design class.
Finally here are some photos of my school ESDI, escola superior de desenho industrial.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Pombos
I got pooped on today by a pigeon on my way to classes. Pooped on. Direct hit: hair, shirt, pants, bag. Really loving Rio right now.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
September 7: Brazilian Independence Day
Oi, tudos! I know it´s been a few days. I have been keeping busy trying to figure out what classes I want to take. So far on my schedule is screenprinting, an interactive design class, an editorial design class with lot of theory, and photography. Soon I will find a portuguese tutor as well. So I will have a lot to do soon.
The other students at ESDI are very nice and love when we try to speak portuguese. I´m learning a lot as far as understanding when people speak to me. The trouble is when I try to speak because the accent here is so strange. It is very nasal and there are actually two dialects here, the "brazilian" dialect which I know the best and learned before I came and the "carioca" accent, which about half the people in Rio speak. It´s strange to learn how to say every word two different ways and apply it in each situation. I get by in any case.
Well, on Thursday night some students took us gringos out to Lapa, where everyone goes at night to party. We had been there once before but since it was the eve before the Brazilian independence day, it was a lot more rowdy than usual. The next day we went to Ipanema beach where there were about 10 people per kanga (towel-like things they use at the beach, beach towels are for tourists). It had such a festival atmosphere with spontaneous singing and music playing and such. Getting home was a mess because there was a military parade and a peace demonstration on the street near our apartment. So a few miles by bus took us about 90 minutes. And today of course we took the surf bus to a new beach, this one was called Barra de Tijuca. It was beautiful there but not like my favorite beach Prainha.
Next week in school I will be printing on my tshirts in screenprinting class with my professor Milton. I will update everyone with photos of how they turned out.
Okay. Here´s what I learned this week:
1. Bon de ver - "it was good to see you"
2. I have been taking the internet for granted.
3. No matter how well I think I´m blending in, everyone still knows I´m a tourist
4. I was most definitely born in England (so people keep telling me).
5. Chinese food here isn´t quite the same as in America = ramen noodles and onions?
6. Brazilians don´t know what napkins are. For some reason they keep handing me tissue paper with my food. I guess they are trying to curb the deforestation of the Amazon or something.
Cool stuff I ate this week:
1. agua de coco - coconut water, they give it to you fresh from the coconut everywhere
2. acaí com granula - Amazon berry smoothie with granola on top
3. salgado - fried bread with ham and cheese inside
4. caipirinha com maracujá - drink made with sugar cane liquor and passion fruit
The other students at ESDI are very nice and love when we try to speak portuguese. I´m learning a lot as far as understanding when people speak to me. The trouble is when I try to speak because the accent here is so strange. It is very nasal and there are actually two dialects here, the "brazilian" dialect which I know the best and learned before I came and the "carioca" accent, which about half the people in Rio speak. It´s strange to learn how to say every word two different ways and apply it in each situation. I get by in any case.
Well, on Thursday night some students took us gringos out to Lapa, where everyone goes at night to party. We had been there once before but since it was the eve before the Brazilian independence day, it was a lot more rowdy than usual. The next day we went to Ipanema beach where there were about 10 people per kanga (towel-like things they use at the beach, beach towels are for tourists). It had such a festival atmosphere with spontaneous singing and music playing and such. Getting home was a mess because there was a military parade and a peace demonstration on the street near our apartment. So a few miles by bus took us about 90 minutes. And today of course we took the surf bus to a new beach, this one was called Barra de Tijuca. It was beautiful there but not like my favorite beach Prainha.
Next week in school I will be printing on my tshirts in screenprinting class with my professor Milton. I will update everyone with photos of how they turned out.
Okay. Here´s what I learned this week:
1. Bon de ver - "it was good to see you"
2. I have been taking the internet for granted.
3. No matter how well I think I´m blending in, everyone still knows I´m a tourist
4. I was most definitely born in England (so people keep telling me).
5. Chinese food here isn´t quite the same as in America = ramen noodles and onions?
6. Brazilians don´t know what napkins are. For some reason they keep handing me tissue paper with my food. I guess they are trying to curb the deforestation of the Amazon or something.
Cool stuff I ate this week:
1. agua de coco - coconut water, they give it to you fresh from the coconut everywhere
2. acaí com granula - Amazon berry smoothie with granola on top
3. salgado - fried bread with ham and cheese inside
4. caipirinha com maracujá - drink made with sugar cane liquor and passion fruit
Monday, September 3, 2007
Homework?
Boa noite, tudos! Hello again from the marvelous city. Today is the first day I have done homework. All of us in the apartment are taking a screenprinting class and our first tshirt designs are due tomorrow. It´s really neat to see the graphic styles of each design roommate. So much inspiration. : ) An update will follow with pictures of our designs.
Anyway...the last few days we have just spent hanging around with the new girl from Germany, Karolina. She has traveled all around Central and South America so she knows alot about being in a foreign country. Her specialty is product design, so I don´t know how many classes we will be in together at ESDI.
It really seems like Brazil is my new (temporary) home because the shop owners around the neighborhood know us well by now and always wave and greet us when we pass by. We have a porter at the entryway of our apartment and he tries to teach us something new in portuguese every time that we pass through. Communicating with home is a little harder than I imagined just because Skype isn´t always working on the internet cafes around my house. Technology and Brazil don´t mix well.
My new favorite beach is this one we found called Prainha. It means "little beach" in portuguese. It took about an hour to get there on the surf bus which we take from right by our house. The beach is very picturesque and while it´s small it is also surrounded by tiny little mountains on both sides and a park behind it. But anyway the surf was crazy with waves coming in the bay from all directions, and three of us (Jens Um, Sebastiaan, and me) did some hiking to get a great view of my beach. Also, Jens Dois bought a surfboard so hopefully I can catch a wave eventually. First I´m going to bodyboard. Baby steps.
What else. Oh yeah. Our grocery store finally discovered that you can put plastic wrap on the meat and it lasts longer and doesn´t make the store smell of rotting flesh. Go SENDAS!
Mosquitos are horrible. Laundry is expensive. Chocolate is expensive. Jewelry is cheap. I bought some new Brazilian shoes. Exciting. Okay I´m rambling now so I will go back and play with my "flatmates."
missing my OSU family! tchau!
ps. check out my friend alicia´s blog. she is in argentina right now. muito legal!
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=184793128
Anyway...the last few days we have just spent hanging around with the new girl from Germany, Karolina. She has traveled all around Central and South America so she knows alot about being in a foreign country. Her specialty is product design, so I don´t know how many classes we will be in together at ESDI.
It really seems like Brazil is my new (temporary) home because the shop owners around the neighborhood know us well by now and always wave and greet us when we pass by. We have a porter at the entryway of our apartment and he tries to teach us something new in portuguese every time that we pass through. Communicating with home is a little harder than I imagined just because Skype isn´t always working on the internet cafes around my house. Technology and Brazil don´t mix well.
My new favorite beach is this one we found called Prainha. It means "little beach" in portuguese. It took about an hour to get there on the surf bus which we take from right by our house. The beach is very picturesque and while it´s small it is also surrounded by tiny little mountains on both sides and a park behind it. But anyway the surf was crazy with waves coming in the bay from all directions, and three of us (Jens Um, Sebastiaan, and me) did some hiking to get a great view of my beach. Also, Jens Dois bought a surfboard so hopefully I can catch a wave eventually. First I´m going to bodyboard. Baby steps.
What else. Oh yeah. Our grocery store finally discovered that you can put plastic wrap on the meat and it lasts longer and doesn´t make the store smell of rotting flesh. Go SENDAS!
Mosquitos are horrible. Laundry is expensive. Chocolate is expensive. Jewelry is cheap. I bought some new Brazilian shoes. Exciting. Okay I´m rambling now so I will go back and play with my "flatmates."
missing my OSU family! tchau!
ps. check out my friend alicia´s blog. she is in argentina right now. muito legal!
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=184793128
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