True story. And it's not only crossing the streets but I don't think I would ever risk driving here EVER. In fact, apparently most women don't drive here because it's so dangerous. The other day I was on the bus to school (I live about 30 min away on a good day) and about 15 min into my route a bus slammed into the back of my bus and then just kept going...everyone on the bus was a little shaken up and annoyed but otherwise seemingly unfazed as we all got off and waited for the next bus to come around. Even cab drivers ignore the stoplights when there's not heavy traffic and no cameras; crosswalks? well those are just suggestions that no one really follows, and since sidewalks are basically an afterthought in many parts of town most people walk in the streets, scampering to the sides as people yell CARRO! or MOTO! Luckily, since I tend to run across streets at home anyway for no reason I was well prepared for the dangers of traffic in Belem.
Let's see, what have I been up to since my last post?
I'll spare you the boring details of my 3 hour a day portuguese class, which is actually going pretty well and skip to the good stuff.
March 18th (aka my birthday)
I just want to say again, best birthday EVER. I turned the golden age (at least in the US) of 21 and the day was amazing. Everyone in the program went to this small island across the river called Acre (not to be confused with a more southern state in brasil by the same name) for field portuguese, where we learned about the sustainable cosmetics industry in brasil and how many products from the forest are cultivated to be used in cosmetics. We then went for a swim and had a traditional bath given to us by the locals...so cool. Then we had an amazing lunch where my professor's wife presented me with this delicious chocolate cake and everyone sang happy birthday to me in portuguese. After, I went home where I was presented with another cake by my host mom, which was also chocolate and even more delicious. After that, later that night a bunch of us went out and then a few of us went to a popular club...I was up for 21 hours and completely crashed the next day.
March 20th
I went with my host sister to the praca de republica (square of the republic), which is basically like a huge farmer's market on crack. I bought some cool jewelry and some sunglasses...which I totally broke like 3 days later, oh well.
March 22nd -25th
The entire group (minus one who had bronchitis :( ) went to this small town called sao francisco where we spent 2 days in the jungle doing some research and just learning about what goes on in the forest. We went to a primary, secondary and a slash and burned forest. It was interesting to see the differences between the 3 and it brought everything I had learned about in school to a very harsh reality. The northern region where I am is very poor because most of the money is in the forest. There are sustainable development projects that are trying to change this but because of lack of education (among many many other factors) they aren't taking hold as much as conversationalists in developed countries would like them too. Case and point, the community owned primary forest where we went is under threat of deforestation because the people there simply need more farmland, because farming means money.
On friday, we went to another town called igarapacu where we learned about this agroforestry project near there. The german government teamed up with some brazilians to form this organization called embrapa in the early 90s. Embrapa is now solely run by brazilians and they have projects all over the amazon region. They promote the use of chop and mulch as opposed to slash and burn, where they have a special machine that cuts down the forest without using fire and then allows the land to fallow (regrow) with plants that are nutrient rich to replenish the soil (rainforest soils are among the worst in the world because the nutrients are in the plants not the soil), then create polycultures of plants in cycles to sell and eat. It's a pretty cool concept and seems to be working so far.
I felt pretty sick all day, which thankfully was just my cold being escalated from the extreme heat (something around 97 degrees) and then freezing rain immediately after. My body wasn't too happy but I feel much better today.
Some other things...
I just wanna say, I LOVE my host family. They are seriously some of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life. When I first met them a little over a week ago I was so nervous and couldn’t seem to utter more than a few words of Portuguese and now I’m having full conversations with them about why I think sustainable development within the rainforest region is important. It’s so cool. I’m thinking in Portuguese now, even as I write this. My host mom who usually cooks everything with meat has completely altered her cooking style to fit my vegetarianess, which is so sweet of her (and ah dues meu it tastes good). Everyone speaks fairly slowly now (even my 15 year old brother Neto, who at first would speak so fast I couldn’t understand a word he was saying) and I can pick up about 80% of what they’re saying. I finally met my host dad last weekend and he is so cool and works for agropalma (a [sort-of] sustainable palm oil company) so he knows a ton about the amazon. My little brother is by far the cutest 9 year old I have ever met and I play futebol with him a ton and I have actually gotten a little better. My sister is my age and is learning english so we kind of play off each other and speak in this portuglish, she goes to university in the area and is studying communications. My 15 year old brother, is also pretty cool, even if I can only understand 50% of what HE is saying sometimes.
The neighborhood I live in is adorable. It is this small little village by a river where everyone takes care of each other and the kids pretty much rule the streets. I love it here. Family is so important that every day is family day and it's kind of nice. Okay well I should probably shower and eat some food. I'm going to Manaus (another city) for 2 weeks and am probably not going to bring my computer so I'll blog when I get back. Miss you all!
Boa tarde :)
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Bemvindo a Brasil!
So I've decided that I could definitely live here. I know it's only been a little over a week and --with those of you familiar with the cultural adjustment curve -- I'm still in the honeymoon stage but seriously I love Brasil. There aren't enough words to explain how beautiful and interesting and rich the culture and the people are here. Since I obviously don't have time to write down every detail of the past week I'll give you the highlights and when I have more time go into detail later.
Here we go...
The flight to Brasil was interesting in its own way but also pretty uneventful in terms of difficulties. I flew from JFK to Sao Paulo to Manaus to Belem and had to wake up super early to make my first flight and by the time I got to Belem I hadn't slept consistently for 8 hours in 24 hours. But I made it and I had a girl from the program on my flight so that made it easier.
Once I got to Belem, my new friend Jess and I had to wait in the airport with all our stuff for 6 hours until we met our group, which actually went by pretty fast. Once everyone was together (24 people!>, our professor Gustavo told us that we were going to this place about an hour outside Belem called the sito, or ranch in english where we would have no internet or cell phone service for a week...thus the lack of updating. I apologize.
Some highlights from that/this week...
Tuesday| The sito was this beautiful place com muitos cavellos e cachoes e bacas [with many horses and dogs and cows) there were pineapples and mangoes and limes along with some local fruits growing there also, I was instantly in love. I slept in a room with 10 other people from the program and we had a great time. Most of the day was spent resting and getting to know everyone.
Wednesday. There was some unpacking but this day was spent mostly with orientation lectures about SIT and how the program was going to work.
Thursday. We had our first class, the environmental field study seminar. It was okay, mostly logistical stuff. We were also assigned homestay families based our our interests, and put into a portuguese class. I tested into intermediate!
Friday. We had our first portugues class with the whole group to orient us with some basic phrases we would need around town. I actually already knew a lot of it which made me pretty happy. We packed our bags for a weekend mini excurscion.
Saturday. the group was split up into 3 smaller groups and driven to random locations where the program coordinators dropped us off one by one and we were each given a task to complete in 3 hours without a cell phone or anyone to help us speak portuguese...this was called the drop off excercise. Here was my experience: ustavo dropped me off in a small town with this huge church that I cant for the life of me remember the name of where my task was to find out what people thought of the church...I walked around for a bit, asked a few people what they thought...they all loved the church. Then, it started pouring and this is where my experience became a lot better. I ran into a small bar where this elderly woman offered me a place to sit . She was super nice and I ended up holding a halfway decent conversation with her, it turns out I was just nervous. Being forced to speak portuguese and make tons of mistakes made me a better speaker.
After 3 hours we were picked up and taken to this gorgeous hotel that was right on the beach where we talked about our experiences and then went to a local restaurant. I would like to note here that during this trip so far Ive only almost eaten meat twice but caught it in time so, so far so good. Everyone gets beer with their meals and it is so weird being able to actually order alcohol without being carded, oh and I actually like beer here..go figure. After the restaurant, we wandered back to the beach and watched some futebol for a little over an hour until we started hearing loud music by our hotel. A bunch of us went to explore and found a car with a huge speaker playing american songs...in portuguese, SO AWESOME btw. We danced the night away with the local kids...yes kids (parents here are not nearly as strict as they are in the US)...it was tons of fun and a great bonding experience.
Sunday: of course no one went to bed until like 1 and we had to be up at 6...not the best decision. After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and set out for the mangroves, which are all around where I am. We had an hour drive from our hotel to the boat that was going to take us to the mangroves. The boat ride was then another hour and a half, however the day was gorgeous and warm so no one minded. The group that was taking us was an ecotourism group that is trying to promote tourism in the mangroves so that people can see how important they are.
The mangroves were beautiful...and muddy, which also happens to be very good for the skin so of course I slathered some on. The mud also meant that my shoes were instantly sucked in and one of the group leaders had to dig them out for me...I spent most of the rest of the time crawling through the mud where I was attacked by miniature crabs (dont worry it is not nearly as bad as it sounds, although a larger crab did pinch my foot super hard...that was not fun.) A few people ate some worms that live in the mangroves...I stayed out of this ritual. After the mangroves we went to the beach to wash off all the mud, the water is SO WARM here it is insane. Soon after we went to a local fishermans shack where we learned about the fishing industry in the area (like all other things, being taken over by large cooporations :( )...and then it started to rain HARD the worst storm I had experienced since being here, we waited until it had abated some and then set off on a mile long walk to the other side of the beach where we were meeting the boats...it started to rain again.
Once we were on the boat and out of the rain it was a little better, but we were still soaking wet and there was mud and dirt everywhere. It continued to rain incredibly hard and soon we were all freezing. By the time we got back to the vans, not many people were happy. Also my change of clothes...SOAKED so I got to sit in a van for 3 hours super wet...it was umm...awesome yeah that is it. We didnt get back to the sito until 9pm and by that time I didñt even want food, just warm clothes and a warm bed. Everything outside was flooded but it was okay because at least we were somewhere (sort of) dry.
Monday: our last day at the sito. We broke up into our portuguese groups and got the materials we would need for the rest of the semester. After, it was packing and chill time. we learned more about our home stay families and got pictures and a letter from them, it was pretty exciting. Oh and this day I woke up sick...obviously. But I promise not that bad.
Tuesday: We left the sito a little after 8 to go the mall and get our pictures taken so that we can register our visas with the federal police later. Then, after exploring the mall for a bit and eating lunch...theres this amazing vegan place not too far from the mall...so good, the only one that exists in the entire city...we went to the SIT office to finally go online and get a health lecture. After the lecture we went to meet our host family. I was SO nervous at first but then I became a lot more comfortable . I have a sister, 2 brothers. a mom, a cousin, and a dad that is only in Belem on the weekends because he works in another city during the week. They are so nice, and live in a small village in the heart of the city (I know that doesnt make much sense but here there arent just streets, but entire small towns that exist within the city.)
Wednesday: My host mom speaks no english whatsoever, my brothers and cousin speak so little it is almost non existant and my sister speaks a little so it was definitely very difficult the first day but wednesday it got a little better. The sister can understand almost everything I say but the mom and brothers and cousin have trouble sometimes. I had portuguese class, where we learned some more verbs in the present tense and then learned the months, and days...for 3 hours, which actually goes by pretty fast. After class I went home for the day where I had a delicious lunch. For never cooking vegetarian food, my host mom knows how to cook it really well.
Today: besides spending a ton of time updating this blog, I have had portuguese class for 3 hours and managed to find my way home on the bus by myself SUCCESS. Hopefully my host sister and I will go shopping for a dress for my birthday tomorrow soon and thats all I have planned so far. My portuguese is getting so much better, I love it I also understand people a lot more so thats good.
Some observations about Brasil:
The cars are always super shiny and new because not many people like to buy used cars here and they clean them all the time.
Everyone is religious here...and when I say everyone I literally mean everyone. The promiscuity of their clothes is pretty much all show, in reality brazilians are very conservative.
There arent many truly nice neighborhoods as we would consider them in the US, there are more nice buildings followed by run down buildings and houses. People dont consider the upkeep of a house or building as important as spending money on new cars or clothes or other things.
Apparently public education sucks here so most kids are put in private schools, which are very expensive.
Breakfast and dinner are super small, people only eat toast and tapioca with coffee and milk for both meals, while lunch is very big. In a way it makes more sense because after breakfast you will be incredibly hungry so you eat a big lunch that will keep you full until dinner. Oh and people dont really snack much here either.
It rains pretty much everyday here. Ive gotten used to it.
Myth: everything is cheap in brasil because it is still considered a developing country. In fact it is pretty much the opposite. There are high tarrifs on imported goods to promote local industry so while brazilian goods are fairly inexpensive, many electronics cost at least 3x as much as they do in the US.
I have never been more glad to be biracial, because everyone is some sort of mix here and thus I can blend in when I need to.
being a vegetarian is not nearly as hard in the city as I thought it would be. Most people understand that I dont eat meat even if they dont practice vegetarianism themselves..Im pretty nervous about my rural homestay though.
Okay I think you guys have been significantly updated...
ate logo
tchau!
Here we go...
The flight to Brasil was interesting in its own way but also pretty uneventful in terms of difficulties. I flew from JFK to Sao Paulo to Manaus to Belem and had to wake up super early to make my first flight and by the time I got to Belem I hadn't slept consistently for 8 hours in 24 hours. But I made it and I had a girl from the program on my flight so that made it easier.
Once I got to Belem, my new friend Jess and I had to wait in the airport with all our stuff for 6 hours until we met our group, which actually went by pretty fast. Once everyone was together (24 people!>, our professor Gustavo told us that we were going to this place about an hour outside Belem called the sito, or ranch in english where we would have no internet or cell phone service for a week...thus the lack of updating. I apologize.
Some highlights from that/this week...
Tuesday| The sito was this beautiful place com muitos cavellos e cachoes e bacas [with many horses and dogs and cows) there were pineapples and mangoes and limes along with some local fruits growing there also, I was instantly in love. I slept in a room with 10 other people from the program and we had a great time. Most of the day was spent resting and getting to know everyone.
Wednesday. There was some unpacking but this day was spent mostly with orientation lectures about SIT and how the program was going to work.
Thursday. We had our first class, the environmental field study seminar. It was okay, mostly logistical stuff. We were also assigned homestay families based our our interests, and put into a portuguese class. I tested into intermediate!
Friday. We had our first portugues class with the whole group to orient us with some basic phrases we would need around town. I actually already knew a lot of it which made me pretty happy. We packed our bags for a weekend mini excurscion.
Saturday. the group was split up into 3 smaller groups and driven to random locations where the program coordinators dropped us off one by one and we were each given a task to complete in 3 hours without a cell phone or anyone to help us speak portuguese...this was called the drop off excercise. Here was my experience: ustavo dropped me off in a small town with this huge church that I cant for the life of me remember the name of where my task was to find out what people thought of the church...I walked around for a bit, asked a few people what they thought...they all loved the church. Then, it started pouring and this is where my experience became a lot better. I ran into a small bar where this elderly woman offered me a place to sit . She was super nice and I ended up holding a halfway decent conversation with her, it turns out I was just nervous. Being forced to speak portuguese and make tons of mistakes made me a better speaker.
After 3 hours we were picked up and taken to this gorgeous hotel that was right on the beach where we talked about our experiences and then went to a local restaurant. I would like to note here that during this trip so far Ive only almost eaten meat twice but caught it in time so, so far so good. Everyone gets beer with their meals and it is so weird being able to actually order alcohol without being carded, oh and I actually like beer here..go figure. After the restaurant, we wandered back to the beach and watched some futebol for a little over an hour until we started hearing loud music by our hotel. A bunch of us went to explore and found a car with a huge speaker playing american songs...in portuguese, SO AWESOME btw. We danced the night away with the local kids...yes kids (parents here are not nearly as strict as they are in the US)...it was tons of fun and a great bonding experience.
Sunday: of course no one went to bed until like 1 and we had to be up at 6...not the best decision. After breakfast we grabbed our stuff and set out for the mangroves, which are all around where I am. We had an hour drive from our hotel to the boat that was going to take us to the mangroves. The boat ride was then another hour and a half, however the day was gorgeous and warm so no one minded. The group that was taking us was an ecotourism group that is trying to promote tourism in the mangroves so that people can see how important they are.
The mangroves were beautiful...and muddy, which also happens to be very good for the skin so of course I slathered some on. The mud also meant that my shoes were instantly sucked in and one of the group leaders had to dig them out for me...I spent most of the rest of the time crawling through the mud where I was attacked by miniature crabs (dont worry it is not nearly as bad as it sounds, although a larger crab did pinch my foot super hard...that was not fun.) A few people ate some worms that live in the mangroves...I stayed out of this ritual. After the mangroves we went to the beach to wash off all the mud, the water is SO WARM here it is insane. Soon after we went to a local fishermans shack where we learned about the fishing industry in the area (like all other things, being taken over by large cooporations :( )...and then it started to rain HARD the worst storm I had experienced since being here, we waited until it had abated some and then set off on a mile long walk to the other side of the beach where we were meeting the boats...it started to rain again.
Once we were on the boat and out of the rain it was a little better, but we were still soaking wet and there was mud and dirt everywhere. It continued to rain incredibly hard and soon we were all freezing. By the time we got back to the vans, not many people were happy. Also my change of clothes...SOAKED so I got to sit in a van for 3 hours super wet...it was umm...awesome yeah that is it. We didnt get back to the sito until 9pm and by that time I didñt even want food, just warm clothes and a warm bed. Everything outside was flooded but it was okay because at least we were somewhere (sort of) dry.
Monday: our last day at the sito. We broke up into our portuguese groups and got the materials we would need for the rest of the semester. After, it was packing and chill time. we learned more about our home stay families and got pictures and a letter from them, it was pretty exciting. Oh and this day I woke up sick...obviously. But I promise not that bad.
Tuesday: We left the sito a little after 8 to go the mall and get our pictures taken so that we can register our visas with the federal police later. Then, after exploring the mall for a bit and eating lunch...theres this amazing vegan place not too far from the mall...so good, the only one that exists in the entire city...we went to the SIT office to finally go online and get a health lecture. After the lecture we went to meet our host family. I was SO nervous at first but then I became a lot more comfortable . I have a sister, 2 brothers. a mom, a cousin, and a dad that is only in Belem on the weekends because he works in another city during the week. They are so nice, and live in a small village in the heart of the city (I know that doesnt make much sense but here there arent just streets, but entire small towns that exist within the city.)
Wednesday: My host mom speaks no english whatsoever, my brothers and cousin speak so little it is almost non existant and my sister speaks a little so it was definitely very difficult the first day but wednesday it got a little better. The sister can understand almost everything I say but the mom and brothers and cousin have trouble sometimes. I had portuguese class, where we learned some more verbs in the present tense and then learned the months, and days...for 3 hours, which actually goes by pretty fast. After class I went home for the day where I had a delicious lunch. For never cooking vegetarian food, my host mom knows how to cook it really well.
Today: besides spending a ton of time updating this blog, I have had portuguese class for 3 hours and managed to find my way home on the bus by myself SUCCESS. Hopefully my host sister and I will go shopping for a dress for my birthday tomorrow soon and thats all I have planned so far. My portuguese is getting so much better, I love it I also understand people a lot more so thats good.
Some observations about Brasil:
The cars are always super shiny and new because not many people like to buy used cars here and they clean them all the time.
Everyone is religious here...and when I say everyone I literally mean everyone. The promiscuity of their clothes is pretty much all show, in reality brazilians are very conservative.
There arent many truly nice neighborhoods as we would consider them in the US, there are more nice buildings followed by run down buildings and houses. People dont consider the upkeep of a house or building as important as spending money on new cars or clothes or other things.
Apparently public education sucks here so most kids are put in private schools, which are very expensive.
Breakfast and dinner are super small, people only eat toast and tapioca with coffee and milk for both meals, while lunch is very big. In a way it makes more sense because after breakfast you will be incredibly hungry so you eat a big lunch that will keep you full until dinner. Oh and people dont really snack much here either.
It rains pretty much everyday here. Ive gotten used to it.
Myth: everything is cheap in brasil because it is still considered a developing country. In fact it is pretty much the opposite. There are high tarrifs on imported goods to promote local industry so while brazilian goods are fairly inexpensive, many electronics cost at least 3x as much as they do in the US.
I have never been more glad to be biracial, because everyone is some sort of mix here and thus I can blend in when I need to.
being a vegetarian is not nearly as hard in the city as I thought it would be. Most people understand that I dont eat meat even if they dont practice vegetarianism themselves..Im pretty nervous about my rural homestay though.
Okay I think you guys have been significantly updated...
ate logo
tchau!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
cue Annie theme song.
So I leave for New York City tomorrow, and after spending some quality time with my best friend (and probably not enough sleep) I'm going to catch a cab to JFK airport at the crack of dawn (445am) to make it to the airport with enough time to get through customs and maybe relax a little before I take off.
Materially I'm prepared. I'm finishing up my 24 hour epic playlist with only 7 hours worth of music to go, I have 300 pages of a book I need to read, I'm all packed and I even have my outfit all set out for tomorrow (that never happens)...but emotionally I'm a mess. Not in the sense that I can't stop crying because I haven't cried once about this trip but in the sense that I don't know what to feel. People keep asking me if I'm excited, or if it's hit me yet and I really don't know. Sometimes I'm ecstatic and other times I'm freaking out but mainly I don't believe it.
Since I was accepted into the program I mentally made up a list of all the things that could go wrong between acceptance and actually arriving in Brazil (which is weird because I'm usually such an optimist). This is such an amazing opportunity and I've never done anything quite like it before that I didn't let myself get too excited until I had jumped through all the hurdles. Now that I've gotten through most of them I just mainly feel a mix of everything with no emotion shining stronger than the others. I keep telling people that it will hit me when I'm on the plane but in reality it may not be until I'm forced to speak in broken portuguese to get around town or when I try to order something vegetarian at a restaurant and the waiter doesn't understand the concept. Maybe I'll realize I'm in Brazil when it rains so hard it bends my flimsy umbrella beyond repair or when I'm standing in the middle of the jungle watching as a macaw lands inches away from my hand.
The truth is I've been in limbo, and while I've certainly had some good times back home I've spent a lot of time waiting for my life to begin again. I get anxious easily and staying in one place for too long puts me in a funk. I have a need to explore and get out of my comfort zone no matter how hard it may be in the beginning. I know Brazil will certainly fulfill this need for me and maybe that's partially why I don't believe it's real, it's almost as if it's too good to be true. The universe is throwing me a big bone here and I'm hesitant to take it for fear of something going wrong. Regardless, I leave tomorrow and somewhere inside I know the happiness is struggling to push its way ahead of the pack.
I promise I'm not trying to be a huge downer because I'm not feeling down at all but I recognize how this post could come across that way. I'm sleep deprived, clearly my mind goes strange places when that's the case. On that note...
Boa Noite!
Materially I'm prepared. I'm finishing up my 24 hour epic playlist with only 7 hours worth of music to go, I have 300 pages of a book I need to read, I'm all packed and I even have my outfit all set out for tomorrow (that never happens)...but emotionally I'm a mess. Not in the sense that I can't stop crying because I haven't cried once about this trip but in the sense that I don't know what to feel. People keep asking me if I'm excited, or if it's hit me yet and I really don't know. Sometimes I'm ecstatic and other times I'm freaking out but mainly I don't believe it.
Since I was accepted into the program I mentally made up a list of all the things that could go wrong between acceptance and actually arriving in Brazil (which is weird because I'm usually such an optimist). This is such an amazing opportunity and I've never done anything quite like it before that I didn't let myself get too excited until I had jumped through all the hurdles. Now that I've gotten through most of them I just mainly feel a mix of everything with no emotion shining stronger than the others. I keep telling people that it will hit me when I'm on the plane but in reality it may not be until I'm forced to speak in broken portuguese to get around town or when I try to order something vegetarian at a restaurant and the waiter doesn't understand the concept. Maybe I'll realize I'm in Brazil when it rains so hard it bends my flimsy umbrella beyond repair or when I'm standing in the middle of the jungle watching as a macaw lands inches away from my hand.
The truth is I've been in limbo, and while I've certainly had some good times back home I've spent a lot of time waiting for my life to begin again. I get anxious easily and staying in one place for too long puts me in a funk. I have a need to explore and get out of my comfort zone no matter how hard it may be in the beginning. I know Brazil will certainly fulfill this need for me and maybe that's partially why I don't believe it's real, it's almost as if it's too good to be true. The universe is throwing me a big bone here and I'm hesitant to take it for fear of something going wrong. Regardless, I leave tomorrow and somewhere inside I know the happiness is struggling to push its way ahead of the pack.
I promise I'm not trying to be a huge downer because I'm not feeling down at all but I recognize how this post could come across that way. I'm sleep deprived, clearly my mind goes strange places when that's the case. On that note...
Boa Noite!
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