Plastic Bags and such

Okay the first thing a gringo needs to learn before coming to Brazil is this phrase:

Eu nao preciso de saco.
I don´t need a plastic bag.

As Krista says, "it´s not a question of paper or plastic, it´s paper AND plastic." Literally you order a juice to go and you get a cup with five plastic bags around it. The thing is more sealed than a cholera outbreak. This is the case everywhere. I started unwrapping the bags at the store because I don´t want to waste so much plastic. Whatever happened to the Amazon deforestation issue?

Thanksgiving was great! All the newcomers realized how awesome a giant meal with the people that are close to you is. Good work at the Turkey Shoot-off John. PSsss. Josh, you are the fave to win charades at sibs weekend, so don´t worry.

It´s time to start thinking about travel plans after school is out in three weeks! So close but so far....Right now we are looking at Bahia in the north but we might just stay around Rio after all. It would be nice to stay with Brazilian friends/the roomies for Christmas.

Today I saw 5 monkeys at the Pao de Acucar mountain! So cute. I´ve been waiting to see them just swinging around. Finally.

Pressure

Ay. I am starting to feel the pressure! Only 3 weeks left after this one. Time to start cramming in all the beach/suco/lapa/islandhopping I can before I go back to Ohio to become white and pasty. Too bad I have homework. Arg.

We are planning a Thanksgiving Dinner for tomorrow with the roommates and a few Brazilian friends. I don´t know if we can find a turkey so we might be eating goose or something weird like that. Anyway, it will be a good "holiday" - we still have school, rats - with friends/myfamilyinbrazil, just like it should be.

To all my family in Dayton: Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Eat some pumpkin pie for me!
John, I am rooting for you to win the Annual Smith Family Turkey Shoot-off Pool Tournament. Beat those uncles!!!!

Here is a photo for all of you to enjoy. I grabbed it from Krista´s flickr!

Boa tarde!

Oi! Hello. Last night the roommates and I were talking about all the never-ending kids songs we used to annoy people with. This is the song that never ends....haha. 99 bottles of beer on the wall. There is a version in German about ants and bees. Anyway, this is the kind of conversation we have been having in our apartment since we are going on 2 days of non-stop rain. I have cabin fever! Yesterday I made pancakes to pass the time (banana-nutella and apple-cinnamon). I needed baking powder for my mom´s recipe (nice and fluffy ones) but you should have heard me trying to explain what it is in Portuguese. First of all, no one eats pancakes here (que, panqueca?) and according to our Brazilian resource, no one uses baking powder. Since this was my first time baking anything here, I hadn´t realized that there is no baking aisle full of powders and sodas and creams. So I am not really sure where all these desserts on every corner are coming from... Anyway, eventually I looked on the ingredients list for a cake mix box and found bicarbonato de sódio (aka baking powder). The employee at the grocery store said they indeed did have bicarbonato de sódio, and handed me a can of fermento. Once I got home I realized with the help of my German roommate that fermento is a mix of yeast, baking powder, and other little secret ingredients. I decided not to throw that into the pancake batter. So, while they didn´t taste or fluff up exactly like Mom´s, it was nice to have some warm comfort food on a rainy day.

Updates for the week:
-Saw Cristo Redentor (giant stone Jesus statue overlooking the city)
-Ate a traditional Brazilian meal (Churrasco misto: pork, beef, chicken with rice, fries, veggies, and farofa)
-Fought with a cab driver trying to rip me off (you know your coming along a little in Portuguese when you can argue with someone)

Thanks for keeping up with my blog, everyone. Anne, I know you are my number one fan, so you get an extra special prize from Brazil. Also, this is a shout-out to Mrs. Reeder, I had so much fun with your daughters this past week!

Last night Sebaastian found out that he is a godfather/uncle. His sister had a baby girl and she is named Floor(flower in Dutch)! If any of the Van Hecke crew reads this, congratulations!

Impressions of Buenos Aires

1.Everyone is "Che." Your brother, your sister, a friend, a stranger. Portenos (people of the port of Buenos Aires) use it as a term of endearment referring to Che Guevara, who may be more important than Jesus there.

2.The chocolate is delicious.

3.Cafe culture is revered. <---aka i love it there! cafes are few and far between in Rio.

4.There is a serious coinage shortage crisis. If you do not have the exact "monedas," the cashier will give you a look of death and a giant sigh or will just round off your change, meaning you sometimes lose out. My heart palpitated every time I waited in line to pay. Ay! Alicia and I got in the habit of picking up 5 centavo peso coins off the street when we were lucky enough to find them. We would then jump for joy. Do the currency conversion of five peso cents, people. It´s pathetic.

5."Dale" can effectively be used to replace any word or phrase your heart desires. Okay, goodbye, hello, my throat hurts, your voice is killing me, etc. They can all be effectively communicated by DALE if the right inflection is used. DALE, DAle, Daaaale, dale, and so on. Why doesn´t English have a word like that?

It was good to be back home. I was a little surprised how much I missed my roommate family and all the crazy madness that is Brasil!

Update on Rio since I have returned:
-Saw Niteroi with Frank Barral who studied at OSU for his master degree in industrial design.
-My roommate Seba survived a near death experience with some kidney stones. We had to take him to the hospital. It was scary.
-Whined today because it´s been raining here all day. Pooh.
-Realised that time zones make my brain want to explode. Before the switch, Rio was one hour ahead of Ohio, now it is 3 hours. I finally figured out why. Took me a while, so I won´t spoil it for you. I am not a physics major, people. Give me break.
-Finally, thinking about all of Centerville/OSU that is mourning the death of Brian. You will stay in my thoughts and prayers.


Until next time...

Guest Post! -- by mi porteña favorita

Since Leesh has been so amazing in showing me around her city of Buenos Aires, I decided to give her a little bit of free rein in my post. She is one of the most intelligent and loving people I know. Here you go...

FIRST OF ALL HI TO THE MCINTIRE FAMILY! I MISS STOPPING BY THE HOUSE TO HUGS AND HELLO'S. YOU MUST BE SO PROUD OF SARAH PLANNING HER TRIP TO BUENOS AIRES. THAT'S WHY I'M SO GRATEFUL OF WHAT SHE HAS SACRIFICED TO COME VISIT ME. IT'S HARD TO EXPLAIN THE CITIES WE LIVE IN, BUT THEY ARE EXCITING, CHALLENGING, BEAUTIFUL, FRUSTRATING AND JUST PLAIN SCARY AT TIMES. OF WHAT I'VE SEEN IN HER (SARAH), SHE'S GRACEFULLY CONQUERING LIFE IN RIO AS WELL AS IN BUENOS AIRES.

MY HOST MOM, NUNZIA, IS ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH HER. SHE SQUEEZES US ORANGE JUICE EVERY MORNING, REMAKES OUR BEDS, STUFFS US WITH DINNER, CHECKS ON US IN THE MORNING, IN ADDITION TO BRINGING HER SPUNKY PERSONALITY INTO EVERY CONVERSATION.

I CAN NOT EXPLAIN THE GREAT DELIGHT I FEEL HAVING SOMEONE HERE WHO KNOWS ME AS WELL AS SHE DOES, SOMEONE TO SHARE MY ADVENTURES WITH, SOMEONE WHO IS TRULY INTERESTED IN WHAT LIFE IS LIKE FOR ME HERE. DURING THE DAY WE DON'T SEEM TO ACCOMPLISH MUCH, BUT IT IS FILLED WITH SILLINESS AND LAUGHTER ALL THE SAME. WE'VE WALKED AROUND THE CITY, WEN'T OUT FOR ICE CREAM, LUSTED OVER LATIN AMERICAN MUSIC MEN (WHICH MEANS WE WENT CD SHOPPING: AHHH, JUANES...), SPENT A NIGHT OUT AT A TANGO BAR EQUIPPED WITH STRAY CATS, CANDLES AND SOME LATINOS, AND A NIGHT IN STUDYING.

I AM EXCITED TO HAVE HER SHOW ME AROUND RIO THIS DECEMBER. I AM REALLY IN AWE OF HOW RIO HAS TRANSFORMED SARAH INTO SUCH AN ADULT: EVEN MORE BEAUTIFUL, TALENTED, ARTISTIC, INDEPENDENT AND COURAGEOUS. SHE'S ALSO PRETTY HUMBLE, AND I'M BRAGGING ABOUT HER I KNOW, BUT I'M FORCING HER TO POST THIS ANYWAY.

TAKE CARE ALL OF YOU, THANKS FOR READING, WE'LL SEE YOU SOON!

Bienvenida a Argentina!

Hola de Buenos Aires. (Jenn, queria que poderia estar aqui con nosotros!) I had forgotten my love affair with Spanish. I love it! It's Castilian Spanish here, though. I am so out of practice though, but it's coming back quickly.

Okay here's a quick recap. After some problems with my flight (it was over an hour late and the Brazilian airline Gol literally changed the departure gate 4 different times so all of us trying to make it to BA were running around the airport) I finally arrived. Lee was there to pick me up at the airport. I'm still so excited to be here! The first day we walked a lot around the city and then met with some of her friends (two were from Brazil and speak fluent Spanish). We ate ice cream and drank mate tea. Different from mate (ma-chee) in Brazil, it's a communal way of drinking tea. The Brazilians loved when I made mistakes in the language too, because I bring a lot of Portuguese forms and words into my Spanish.

So far I've seen the Pink House (equivalent to the white house), the Plaza de Mayo, the cathedral, the Plaza de la Republica, and a really strange awardwinning Argentine film Encarnacion that I thought was horribly boring. Also Alicia brought me to her internship with the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, the organization that fights for the justice and memory of the "disappeared" victims of the military dictatorship in the seventies and eighties. It was so cool because we met with a survivor of one of the military detainment camps. He was disappeared for 53 days and tortured and then officially detained for a few years or so. His story was very emotional and it was so awesome to connect with someone that lived through an event that I had studied in school. Here is a link explaining the organization:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Plaza_de_Mayo

I'm so proud of my Alicia, studying and fighting for human rights in South America!

Our Fridge Is Smelly - This is my whiny post.

I am still alive. Contrary to rumors you may have heard (Anne!) It's been crazy here for a while of course. I battled a day and a half of a high fever - 103.6!, a mugging (in front of my apartment- it sucks because I lost my camera but with the stories I hear I'm just glad to be okay) and almost having our gas shut off (the gas man was in our apartment and only left because I had just paid the outstanding bill from march - when we werent there? - whew. Oh and also now our fridge is broken. It smells bad. I took my food out. Oh yeah...I also got pooped on a second time. Not as bad as the first time, just a smidge on my shirt. But still! Seriously. Pigeons were on notice. They are definitely dead to me now. Anyway so the Brazilian saying that getting pooped on by a bird is good luck is definitely not true, because hours later I was mugged. Ha! I disproved your theory, Brazilians. I know I can laugh about it all now, but at the time I was pretty upset. Not only about my camera but about the safety and poverty issues here. There is just such a great divide between rich and poor here but they are all intermingling constantly in the streets and on the beaches. Our coordinator Rodolfo told us to expect this. I pass several homeless children sometimes just on my way to and from school. You know to expect crime and poverty but its different when its literally on your doorstep. I havent been in a complete bubble all my life (Columbus campus isnt that great either, people.) but its still a little shocking.

Anyway despite some minor setbacks I am alive and kicking and not worse for the wear. Tomorrow I fly out to meet my friend Alicia in Buenos Aires. She is studying there too. Check out her blog in my links. She would be proud to know I practiced my Spanish last night with my two new friends from Peru, their names are Carrrrrlos and Niiiiko. They just arrived two days ago and live only a block away. They are here to practice kickboxing. So my next post will be in Spanish for all of you.